Seb off to a flyer
German clocks fastest time in practice, Raikkonen right behind
Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel cranked up the pressure on championship leader Lewis Hamilton by smashing the Sepang lap record before a dislodged drain cover brought an early halt to the second practice session of the Petronas Malaysia Formula 1 Grand Prix. Vettel clocked 1:31.261 around the 5.543km circuit in the second practice session to smash the old mark of 1:32.50 set by Spaniard Fernando Alonso in a Renault back in 2005.
FERRARI’S Sebastian Vettel cranked up the pressure on championship leader Lewis Hamilton by smashing the Sepang lap record before a dislodged drain cover brought an early halt to the second practice session of the Petronas Malaysia Formula 1 Grand Prix.
The German four-time world champion clocked 1:31.261 around the 5.543km circuit in the second practice session to smash the old mark of 1:32.50 set by Spaniard Fernando Alonso in a Renault back in 2005.
Kimi Raikkonen of Finland completed a Ferrari one-two by clocking 1:31.865.
The Red Bulls duo of Daniel Ricciardo ( 1: 32.099) and Max Verstappen (1:32.109) were third and fourth.
It was a frustrating day for Mercedes, with Hamilton only sixth fastest in 1:32.677 and Valtteri Bottas of Finland just behind in 1:32.720.
Hamilton was on his 10th lap of the afternoon when he took too much speed at turn eight, resulting in a sideway excursion into the gravel and a wrecked set of soft tyres.
Hamilton, who leads the championship race by 28 points ahead of Vettel, managed to avoid beaching the car and was able to limp back to the pit where his mechanics removed the nose and changed the set-up.
When he came out again, with 40 minutes of the session remaining, his car appeared to be handling erratically and his first timed lap was a full 1.4 seconds behind Vettel.
The German was happy to start well on a track where he has claimed a record four wins. Vettel won three times here with Red Bull in 2010, 2011 and 2013 and once with Ferrari in 2015.
“There are still some things we must improve on, but other than that it was okay,” said Vettel.
“I don’t know what people did this morning but they looked pretty fast in mixed conditions with intermediate tyres.
“There wasn’t an awful lot of running. Overall I think it’s been a decent day. The afternoon turned out to be a little bit better.
“But it’s only Friday, so things can change. We’ll see what tomorrow (today) brings.”
Last year’s winner Ricciardo was also surprised by Ferrari’s early pace.
“Ferrari looked a bit stronger than we thought. I thought Mercedes would lead the pack and we would be a bit closer to the Ferraris.
“It was nice to get wet and dry running today. Both of us were looking pretty good in the wet this morning,” said the Australian.
The session ended 20 minutes early when Frenchman Romain Grosjean hit a loose drain cover at Turn 9, ripping his rear tyre apart and throwing his Haas car into the barriers.
The Frenchman was lucky to walk away but, with no time to repair that part of the track, the session was red flagged and called off 10 minutes early.
The first 30 minutes of the morning’s first practice was also called off due to heavy rain.