FP1 & FP2 - Malaysian GP report: Manor Mercedes

Pascal Wehrlein

Another brand new circuit for you, but you seem to be acclimatising quite well. How are you finding Sepang?

“It was a more positive Friday than in Singapore, so I am happy. The track is great but the car is behaving differently than expected so we are looking into that at the moment. We need to analyse all the data tonight to see what we need to do to get on top of that.”

What are you expecting to be the main challenges through the rest of the weekend?

“We’re struggling with the tyres here, but we’re still working on the set-up trying many different things for the car to get it best suited to this track.”

Esteban Ocon

Esteban, how was your first day’s work at Sepang?

“I’m pretty happy with all the work that has been done by the team between Singapore and here. We’re definitely progressing, which is very positive. We’ve made good steps between FP1 and FP2, so it’s promising for tomorrow.”

What about this track? You like it?

“Yes, it’s a great circuit. Very challenging for the car and driver. The track temperature in particular is pretty interesting! But it’s all good; we made a good start and more to come, I hope.”

A word with Dave Ryan, Racing Director:

“A really difficult couple of sessions for everyone, given the extremely high track temperatures. We did as much running as possible so from our point of view it’s been a pretty positive day’s work and the drivers have risen to the challenge very well. We have a lot of work to do tonight to figure out where we go from here, but so far so good.