Mercedes brought seven upgrades to Sepang. Ferrari, McLaren, and Red Bull brought one each. Mercedes finished seventh and eighth in FP2.
Verstappen topped FP1 by 0.383 from Russell, with Hadjar third. Then Leclerc topped FP2 on 1:37.528, with Hadjar second by 0.099 and Norris third by 0.137. Verstappen fourth, Hamilton fifth, Piastri sixth, Russell seventh, and Antonelli eighth.
Mercedes basically went backwards. They were second and fifth in FP1, but then dropped to seventh and eighth in FP2. Shovlin admitted it: “We were running the latest update package on both cars today but rather than seeing the step in lap time that we had hoped for, we have been chasing a tricky balance.”
In fairness, neither Mercedes got a clean soft lap in FP2. Russell aborted his in the final sector and Antonelli’s was deleted for track limits. Russell reckons FP1 was the more honest read.
Russell said himself that it isn’t the upgrade, it’s the tires: “I’m feeling the downforce in some of the corners, but with this amount of tyre overheating and tyre degradation that kind of trumps everything.” He has asked for setup changes overnight, not new parts, and qualifying’s tomorrow.
There was a ninety percent chance of rain all day, threatening clouds, and then nothing. No rain at all. The track temperature hit 134°F, or 57°C, in FP1. Apart from Bortoleto stopping out on track late in FP2 and bringing out a virtual safety car, the day ran clean. The upside is that everybody got their long runs in: the data nobody had is now data everybody has.
Who actually had a good day? Hadjar third, then second at a circuit he has never raced before. And McLaren who were eleventh and twelfth in FP1 placed third and sixth in FP2. Russell flagged them himself: “Verstappen looked very fast and the race pace of McLaren looked very quick, but never say never.”
Mercedes brought seven new parts and found a tire problem. Only one of those came in a crate.