“The lap time is reality,” said Mercedes’ Toto Wolff at the end of the team’s worst Friday showing so far this year.
When Valtteri Bottas ended his qualifying simulation run almost a second and a half off Sebastian Vettel’s best time, it looked like a blip. When Lewis Hamilton went out and did the same lap time to within a few hundredths of a second it underlined the surprise development of the day: Mercedes are struggling.
In Monaco, where the W08 wasn’t expected to be as competitive, they were 1.1 seconds off the pace on Friday. Last time out in Singapore where they were again tipped to be on the back foot, they were 0.7 seconds behind.
Surely this was Mercedes ‘sandbagging’? “The stopwatch always tells the truth,” said Wolff. “The lap time today showed that we are not quick enough.”
“The car seems to be unbalanced and that triggers an awful lot of consequences and it was certainly one of the worst Fridays I can remember.”
It’s been a feature of Mercedes’ season that their car handles less well in hot temperatures, something this track has in abundance. But in Singapore when the rain fell and the track cooled Hamilton found his car handled better, yet today they struggled in rain and shine.
Meanwhile Sebastian Vettel has the scent of a chance to take points off Hamilton for the first time since the summer break. He badly needs to convert this opportunity. He looked in superb shape on Friday, leaving Kimi Raikkonen six-tenths of a second behind.
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If Sepang’s rain returns, however, watch out for the Red Bulls. “We were both looking pretty good in the wetter conditions,” said Daniel Ricciardo, “and on the intermediates we were at the pace and significantly quicker than everyone else, which we’ll take.”
“This afternoon we weren’t that competitive looking at Ferrari, but it looked like Mercedes struggled as well,” he added. Can the world champions solve their latest set-up mystery with their fickle machine? Their performance in final practice will be fascinating to watch.
Longest stint comparison – second practice
This chart shows all the drivers’ lap times (in seconds) during their longest unbroken stint. Very slow laps omitted. Scroll to zoom, drag to pan, right-click to reset:
Drivers’ best practice times by tyre type
| Driver | Team | Best super-soft time | Super-soft gap | Best soft time | Soft gap | Best medium time | Medium gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1’32.677 | 1.416 | 1’33.228 | 0.772 | None | |
| Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | 1’32.720 | 1.459 | 1’33.247 | 0.791 | None | |
| Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull | 1’32.099 | 0.838 | 1’32.953 | 0.497 | None | |
| Max Verstappen | Red Bull | 1’32.109 | 0.848 | 1’32.739 | 0.283 | None | |
| Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 1’31.261 | 1’32.456 | None | |||
| Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | 1’31.865 | 0.604 | 1’32.836 | 0.38 | None | |
| Sergio Perez | Force India | 1’32.862 | 1.601 | 1’33.952 | 1.496 | None | |
| Esteban Ocon | Force India | 1’33.096 | 1.835 | 1’33.746 | 1.29 | None | |
| Felipe Massa | Williams | 1’33.394 | 2.133 | None | None | ||
| Lance Stroll | Williams | 1’33.818 | 2.557 | None | None | ||
| Fernando Alonso | McLaren | 1’32.564 | 1.303 | None | None | ||
| Stoffel Vandoorne | McLaren | 1’33.673 | 2.412 | None | 1’44.857 | 7.693 | |
| Carlos Sainz Jnr | Toro Rosso | 1’34.104 | 2.843 | 1’34.117 | 1.661 | 1’37.164 | |
| Pierre Gasly | Toro Rosso | 1’34.043 | 2.782 | 1’35.727 | 3.271 | 2’36.873 | 59.709 |
| Romain Grosjean | Haas | 1’34.130 | 2.869 | 1’34.118 | 1.662 | None | |
| Kevin Magnussen | Haas | 1’34.343 | 3.082 | 1’34.441 | 1.985 | None | |
| Nico Hulkenberg | Renault | 1’33.060 | 1.799 | 1’34.527 | 2.071 | None | |
| Jolyon Palmer | Renault | 1’33.381 | 2.12 | 1’34.693 | 2.237 | None | |
| Marcus Ericsson | Sauber | 1’35.697 | 4.436 | 1’35.980 | 3.524 | None | |
| Pascal Wehrlein | Sauber | 1’35.246 | 3.985 | 1’35.587 | 3.131 | None |
2017 Malaysian Grand Prix
- Hamilton queried the FIA over Vettel’s steering wheel in Malaysia
- Vettel: Stroll changed direction without looking
- Ferrari ‘not fully confident’ of fix for fault which stopped both cars in Malaysia
- New video from Stroll’s car reveals Vettel crash view the stewards didn’t see
- 2017 Malaysian Grand Prix team radio transcript
NoName (@noname)
29th September 2017, 15:52
This is all fake. This is all the keep it exiting for as long as possible, i knew this would happen after the Singapore crash and here you have it. So called fake difficult day.
Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
29th September 2017, 20:54
I agree. Useless friday, to me the highlight of both practices was when Karun on c4 interviewed Ricciardo. Ricciardo is such a tease. He “thanked” Hamilton for having dnf last season’s Malaysian GP, that cracked me up, it’s trendy apparently to thank an opponent for being unlucky, really these mind games are silly. Di Resta was fine but half of sky’s practice coverage was about bad press, the clash, Arrivabene, blaming kimi for Grosjean’s crash, jesus.
Baron
29th September 2017, 22:22
@noname
So true. I just laughed when Toto came out and said he expected a fundamental issue inside the cars…
Louis
29th September 2017, 18:37
Mercedes is sandbagging, it is clear.
Bonbonjai
29th September 2017, 20:37
How? Do tell us. I watched both practice sessions and it was not clear to me.
Jason Blankenship
29th September 2017, 23:25
Yup, another boring, Mercedes runaway is imminent.
Edd
29th September 2017, 19:12
“The stopwatch always tells the truth,” said Wolff.
Yeah the stopwatch does, team managers, not so often.
So they are slower than Mclaren Honda? Yeah, right…
anon
29th September 2017, 19:24
Edd, so what do you make of the other 15 drivers that were also behind Alonso?
Gabriel (@rethla)
29th September 2017, 20:25
The other 15 drivers that where doing practice runs and setting up the car? Im pretty sure all those cars including Alonso will go quicker tomorrow.
frood19 (@frood19)
29th September 2017, 19:43
the margin is surprising but the result is not that surprising to me. ferrari were very competitive at spa and this is a similar track but with less emphasis on top speed and with hotter track temps. red bull are decent. furthermore they lost the whole of the first session so if they’ve gone the wrong way on setup it will be hugely exposed in this one session.
Rai 1
29th September 2017, 20:02
Hamilton on pole on Saturday 👍🏾
Bonbonjai
29th September 2017, 20:44
I know this might be a bit of a surprise to some people. It called practice for a reason. So having dismantled your car after the last race, you reassemble it again at another rack, with different characteristics, and tweak the setup until you get the optimum setup. Sometimes, it throws up issues you have not seen before.
Bonbonjai
29th September 2017, 20:46
Possibly. As of 1st & 2nd practice, that is all we can say. Will see after 3rd practice tomorrow.
Fresillo
29th September 2017, 20:25
Hamilton was clearly penalised by his diet… sorry but I couldn’t resist😂
Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
29th September 2017, 20:55
You have to “thank” Hamilton for that.
budchekov (@budchekov)
30th September 2017, 1:12
So no more injecting methane into the turbo ?
budchekov (@budchekov)
30th September 2017, 1:19
Actually Ithink I have that the wrong way round, Brussels sprouts and Onion Bhaji could give him an edge..
Fresillo
30th September 2017, 5:01
I have finally got it! I think he used to have fryups every raceday, that changed as he will be allowed to burn only 1.2L of oil x 100 km, hence the diet change.
Fresillo
29th September 2017, 21:19
To clarify my post: Iit wasn’t a reference to Lewis, his diet choice is his own business .It was a reference to an article about the fact that his diet could have penalised him. I have found it quite hilarious.
Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
29th September 2017, 23:37
To clarify my post I was also referencing an hilarious and preposterous article of lewis. Thank opponents as in adding insult to injury.