The 13-year-old Malaysian Grand Prix lap record was broken at the final running of the race by Sebastian Vettel.
After establishing the new record on lap 41 Vettel’s pace was contained when he arrived on the tail of the Red Bull. By the end of the race several other drivers in clearer air. These included Lewis Hamilton, who was 0.372s sower, but put the Ferrari’s pace advantage around Sepang at more like eight tenths of a second in race trim.
That was only the case as far as Hamilton was concerned. Valtteri Bottas struggled tremendously, his best time eight-tenths of a second slower than Hamilton’s. Unlike his team mate, Bottas was running the team’s newer aerodynamic package.
2017 Malaysian Grand Prix lap times
All the lap times by the drivers (in seconds, very slow laps excluded). Scroll to zoom, drag to pan and toggle drivers using the control below:
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2017 Malaysian Grand Prix fastest laps
Each driver’s fastest lap:
| Rank | Driver | Car | Fastest lap | Gap | On lap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 1’34.080 | 41 | |
| 2 | Nico Hulkenberg | Renault | 1’34.266 | 0.186 | 52 |
| 3 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1’34.452 | 0.372 | 48 |
| 4 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull-TAG Heuer | 1’34.467 | 0.387 | 50 |
| 5 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull-TAG Heuer | 1’34.770 | 0.690 | 55 |
| 6 | Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | 1’35.284 | 1.204 | 44 |
| 7 | Sergio Perez | Force India-Mercedes | 1’35.591 | 1.511 | 32 |
| 8 | Romain Grosjean | Haas-Ferrari | 1’35.796 | 1.716 | 49 |
| 9 | Stoffel Vandoorne | McLaren-Honda | 1’35.931 | 1.851 | 49 |
| 10 | Pascal Wehrlein | Sauber-Ferrari | 1’36.395 | 2.315 | 53 |
| 11 | Fernando Alonso | McLaren-Honda | 1’36.501 | 2.421 | 55 |
| 12 | Lance Stroll | Williams-Mercedes | 1’36.627 | 2.547 | 46 |
| 13 | Marcus Ericsson | Sauber-Ferrari | 1’36.630 | 2.550 | 54 |
| 14 | Felipe Massa | Williams-Mercedes | 1’36.944 | 2.864 | 44 |
| 15 | Esteban Ocon | Force India-Mercedes | 1’37.075 | 2.995 | 36 |
| 16 | Pierre Gasly | Toro Rosso-Renault | 1’37.170 | 3.090 | 45 |
| 17 | Jolyon Palmer | Renault | 1’37.186 | 3.106 | 45 |
| 18 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas-Ferrari | 1’37.192 | 3.112 | 46 |
| 19 | Carlos Sainz Jnr | Toro Rosso-Renault | 1’38.123 | 4.043 | 27 |
| 20 | Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari |
Jere (@jerejj)
1st October 2017, 17:36
I wasn’t expecting the previous lap record to get beaten as it’s from 2004 unlike the Red Bull Ring and Spa ones that are from 2003 and 2009 respectively. This is the first time that an official lap record from overall the fastest season of the V10/refuelling era has been beaten in race conditions, i.e., when it really matters.
Shaun Robinson (@)
2nd October 2017, 14:56
Really underlines the missed opportunity from Ferrari. Comparable pace on softs (to others on SS) and then approx 0.8s faster than anyone else when on SS (and others on Soft).
MG1982 (@mg1982)
3rd October 2017, 6:54
Yeah, but the Softs were strong too. Look at the FL: HAM, VER and RIC set their FL on Softs, while VET on SS was just ~0.4sec faster. 0.4sec it’s simply not enough to make the difference he needed. He couldn’t even overtake RIC.