Winners and losers from F1 practice day in Malaysia

From a seemingly underwhelming upgrade debut to a back-on-form race winner, the first day back at Sepang produced plenty of winners and losers.

Here are our picks...

Loser - Mercedes (7th and 8th)

From absolutely dominating all weekend in Baku to being the fourth fastest team after Friday practice in Sepang, this looks on the surface like a sudden fall from grace for Mercedes - especially with the substantial upgrade package it’s brought here, reckoned to be worth at least 0.3 seconds per lap. So what’s going on?

“It all seems everything's working as expected,” said Mercedes deputy team principal Bradley Lord. “The drivers have said they can feel the difference in the high-speed corners, and then the competitive picture here on a circuit with much more medium- and high-speed content I think looks more like a Hungary sort of picture than maybe it did last weekend in Baku.

“We’ve just got fine tuning to do particularly on the single lap. They [the drivers] said the long run felt OK, but on the single lap Kimi was certainly talking about too much understeer, and it's just not quite come together yet for either of them on that lap, there's either a little lock here or running wide there, so hopefully we can tidy all of that up into tomorrow in qualifying.”

Baku winner George Russell reckoned “at the moment Verstappen is looking the quickest in single-lap and McLaren are looking quickest in the long runs”, feeling Mercedes “just don't have the car set-up in the right window” and “that has nothing to do with the upgrades, we have to just do a bit of work overnight to try and improve the tyre degradation”.

Russell’s long run wasn’t all that good, but Antonelli’s was much better, so Mercedes is probably in better shape than it looks - and Russell feels it is - right now, but there’s no question this is looking like a much more difficult circuit than Baku for the car, regardless of the upgrade. - Ben Anderson

Winner: Charles Leclerc (1st)

First place and a three-tenths buffer over his team-mate in the qualifying sims, combined with a more-than-healthy long run, means there's a lot to like about Leclerc's Friday.

Incidentally, this was his second F1 Friday at the track, the first comprising FP1 only in 2017 with Sauber (he was 16th in a wet session, slightly quicker than full-time team-mate Pascal Wehrlein). How time flies.

Leclerc obviously "had to relearn the track all over again" after all these years - but certainly looked in the groove on the timing screens, and is encouraged by the shape of this weekend so far. If it will indeed be deg-dominated, "we normally have a good race car", he pointed out.

Both he and team boss Fred Vasseur, however, are wary of just how big a role anticipating track grip will play in the coming sessions.

"It's a challenge for us - but for everybody, I think," said Vasseur. - Valentin Khorounzhiy

Winner - Aston Martin (15th and 18th)

The medium- and high-speed corners of Sepang seem to be naturally suiting the B-spec Aston Martin much better than the long straight and low-speed content of Baku, and so this was comfortably the team’s best Friday of the season so far in terms of headline pace and result, with Fernando Alonso 15th, nestled between the two Haases and within half a second of the Audis.

Alonso was not in a talkative mood after FP2 - he never is these days and seems to relish in making a point of how worthless he feels his post-session media commitments are by deliberately sabotaging them! - but according to his long-time friend (and team representative) Pedro de la Rosa, it was a “pretty decent day”.

“Coming back to Malaysia there were many unknowns, especially because there's been such a big gap,” he said. “But it was pretty good generally. 

“There's some work to be done still on Lance's car. He was definitely happier on the second session but not happy enough really. 

“And apart from this, everything was as expected. Obviously the track is a bit more slippery than expected. It's very rough tarmac opening up in some corners. But it's the same for everyone.” - BA

Loser: Williams (17th and 20th)

If Baku was a best-case scenario circuit for the upgraded Williams to debut, Sepang might be the worst-case follow-up.

Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz were already braced for a much tougher weekend here, after Sainz’s Q3 heroics and points finish in Baku, but Friday did little to quash those fears. 

Williams was the 10th quickest car on a single lap, four and a half tenths away from the Aston Martin that it was well clear of in Baku. 

“We're extremely balance limited [so] I think everyone's struggling out there, there's no one who has a good balance but, especially for us,” Albon said.

“Medium and high speed [corners] feel maybe better than I expected and low speed [corners] feel worse. 

“Tried to make some changes for FP2 to make the low speed better, we did, but then we lost the medium-high speed balance. So [we’re] winning and losing.” 

Chief trackside engineer Paul Williams said the team knew Sepang would “stretch our package”, but it is important to help “really understand where those weaknesses are so we don't carry into next year's car”. - JS 

Winner: McLaren (3rd and 6th)

McLaren was big-time nowhere in the opening session, caught out by "lower grip than we expected", according to McLaren racing director Randy Singh.

But the correction was substantial in the afternoon, catching the eye of Russell, who pointed the finger at the MCL40 as the race pace standout.

What he has presumably seen to make him say it is a trio of 1m44.7-8s laps by Lando Norris on softs at the end of the stint, a pace that didn't appear to be available to either Mercedes or Ferrari - with the caveat that nobody has yet optimised their stint approaches or set-ups or anything of the sort.

Oscar Piastri is there or thereabouts, too - but the specific challenge of this weekend seems suited to bring out the best of Norris in particular as it stands. - VK

Winner: Red Bull (2nd and 4th)

Top in FP1 (Max Verstappen), second in FP2 (Isack Hadjar) and some strong long-run pace, the early signs are that Red Bull's Mercedes' challenging pace in Baku could be followed up here in Sepang.

While George Russell didn't do a medium long run and Verstappen didn't do a soft long run, we can only really compare Verstappen and Antonelli. Over five laps (the length of Antonelli's medium run) Verstappen's average was three and a half tenths quicker.

That's without knowing run plans and fuel loads, but it's encouraging.

Perhaps even more encouraging was Verstappen's willingness to indulge in some positivity on an F1 Friday!

"It's a long time ago, so there are no guarantees, but at least we had a positive start to the weekend," he said. - Jack Benyon

Loser: Sergio Perez (21st)

Only Franco Colapinto, facing a 15-place grid penalty and on a very different programme, was slower than Sergio Perez’s Cadillac on Friday at Sepang. 

“We tried something very radical on our side to try to calm down the degradation, but we basically went south with it and we just need to bring it back and try to get a better compromise,” was Perez’s summary post-FP2. 

Team-mate Valtteri Bottas looked back on form after his nightmare race in Baku, over seven tenths clear of Perez.

Cadillac’s chief racing officer Marc Hynes said it was “Good to see Valtteri back to form and with Checo we tried some development direction that wasn't maybe the way to go”. - Josh Suttill 

Winner: Racing Bulls (9th and 11th)

Racing Bulls led the midfield last time out in the race at Baku, but that was in part thanks to Franco Colapinto screwing up Alpine's best race car of the year so far by taking both him and his team-mate out, the result of which both opened two spots in the top 10 but also compacted the field under the safety car.

Before Baku, you have to go back to Hungary for a race where Racing Bulls was out ahead. That does include a period with a substitute driver in for Liam Lawson, but still, it hasn't been the strongest period on pace.

It looks much more sprightly so far in Malaysia, with Lawson ahead of Gasly in FP2.

Gasly still looks very strong and Colapinto was subjected to set-up experiments that anchored him on the leaderboard. But strong signs, and no third consecutive crash for Arvid Lindblad in FP2s... - JB

Winner: Sepang 

Friday’s practice sessions might not have delivered the forecast rain, but they did deliver plenty of signs that we’re in for a thrilling first race back at Sepang in nine years.

After a string of low-degradation, one-stop races, Sepang looks almost certain to buck that trend, with drivers reporting extreme tyre degradation on Friday. 

That should produce plenty of strategic variation on Sunday, and it looks tricky to nail a single lap here with multiple drivers - like Mercedes pair Russell and Antonelli - making mistakes on their qualifying simulations in FP2. 

It might only be a one-off return, but Sepang is already showcasing why news of its unexpected comeback went down so well. - JS