FP1 & FP2 - Malaysian GP report: Mercedes

Temperature soar, lap times plummet in Sepang

— Nico topped the morning session with Lewis P2
— Lewis then set the fastest time of the day in the afternoon session, Nico the second fastest
— Both drivers ran the Medium and Soft compound tyre in the morning session, the Hard, Medium and Soft in the afternoon session

Lewis Hamilton

That was a good day today. No issues to report and we got through our run plans in both sessions. There’s a lot of data to analyse tonight to make sure we have a good understanding of the tyres and of our position relative to the others. Overall a good building block for tomorrow and the rest of the weekend. A big shout-out to the fans out here today. I saw them waving across in the stands at the end of FP2 and they’ve all got banners and caps showing their support, which is great to see.

Nico Rosberg

The new track surface is really enjoyable to drive. Challenging, but with good grip. It’s tough to get the setup right with such an unknown element as new tarmac, but we’re on the right track. Turn 15 is interesting, as you can now try several different lines if you’re attacking the guy in front, so that will be good for overtaking. Looking at the race, even the soft tyre held on pretty well out there, so we don’t expect any big surprises. Strategy-wise we have to run the hard compound, of course, but otherwise it’s pretty straightforward. I’m looking forward now to qualifying.

Paddy Lowe, Executive Director (Technical)

Very hot conditions here today. We’ve been doing our normal race preparation. The strategy is completely open for Sunday between the soft, medium and hard tyres, so we evaluated all three compounds across both cars on high fuel and low fuel. Both drivers were reasonably happy with the balance of the car. No issues save a bit of gravel clearing on Nico’s car after his minor excursion this morning. A lot of data to analyse tonight to see where we are competitively and decide what’s the best way to run the race. Now we look forward to qualifying tomorrow.