After only 10 minutes of dry running in FP2 the 12-year-old lap record was broken in Sepang, with Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel eventually setting the fastest time of the day (1m31.261s) on the P Zero Red supersoft, nominated together with the soft and medium this weekend. This was 1.6 seconds faster than last year’s pole position, and 3.7 seconds faster than last year’s best FP2 time.

The FP1 session was interrupted by rain, which limited the running to just one hour, when mostly intermediate tyres were used apart from some installation laps on full wets. During the afternoon, FP2 started with an ambient temperature of 30 degrees centigrade and track temperature of 37 degrees centigrade, steadily climbing throughout the session.

MARIO ISOLA - HEAD OF CAR RACING
“Despite the lack of grip from a ‘green’ circuit following the rain this morning, it took only a few minutes for the all-time track record to be broken in FP2 – and not even on the softest compound tyres that we have brought this weekend. With the lack of running this morning and the red flag in the afternoon, teams were not able to properly assess degradation rates. However, for the first time this year, FP3 takes place tomorrow at a time similar to the race, so this will be an important opportunity to collect valuable data in order to extrapolate an effective strategy.”

FREE PRACTICE 1 – TOP 3 TIMES
DRIVER 		TIME 	  COMPOUND 
Verstappen 	1m48.962s INTERMEDIATE USED
Ricciardo	1m49.719s INTERMEDIATE NEW
Alonso 		1m50.597s INTERMEDIATE USED

FREE PRACTICE 2 – TOP 3 TIMES
DRIVER 		TIME 	  COMPOUND
Vettel 		1m31.261s SUPERSOFT NEW
Raikkonen	1m31.865s SUPERSOFT NEW
Ricciardo 	1m32.099s SUPERSOFT NEW

FP1 - BEST TIME BY COMPOUND
COMPOUND 	DRIVER 	   TIME
INTERMEDIATE	Verstappen 1m48.962s
WET 		- 	   -

FP2 - BEST TIME BY COMPOUND
COMPOUND 	DRIVER 	   TIME
MEDIUM 		Sainz 	   1m37.164s
SOFT		Vettel	   1m32.456s
SUPERSOFT 	Vettel 	   1m31.261s

MOST LAPS BY COMPOUND SO FAR
COMPOUND 	DRIVER 	   LAPS
MEDIUM 		Sainz 	   4
SOFT		Ericsson   23
SUPERSOFT 	Palmer 	   17
INTERMEDIATE	Gasly	   13
WET 		14 drivers 1

TYRE STATISTICS OF THE DAY
			MEDIUM  SOFT  SUPER  INTER  WET
Kms driven* 		49 	881   1280   942    77
Sets used overall**	3  	16    24     20     14

* The above number gives the total amount of kilometres
driven in FP1 and FP2 today, all drivers combined.
** Per compound, all drivers combined.