2017 Malaysia Grand Prix - Sepang, 29 September-01 October

[Schuttelberg]

Ferrari looking good.

Mercedes looking like a distant 3rd force, Hamilton and Bottas on different rear wings same pace.

If it remains wet, Merc in Lewis hands will roast the field. The harder those compounds, the better the Mercedes and Lewis.

[Morteza]

Session stopped after a drain cover at turn 13 ripped Grojean's tyre off and sent him into the barriers.

https://streamable.com/isvbt

Thank you so much for the link. That's a scary thing to happen

[Fulcrum]

Fernando Alonso was faster than the Mercedes, both of them, in that session. I'm fairly confident that points to some or all of the following:

- The Mercedes not being hooked up.
- The Mercedes engines being turned down.
- Running heavier fuel loads.
- Making mistakes on their hot laps.

If Mercedes qualify outside the top 4, I will be highly surprised. If Hamilton qualifies outside the front row, I'd be slightly surprised. It would make for a good race though, so I wouldn't mind if this transpired to be the case.

[Dipesh1995]

[media]https://mobile.twitter.com/RenaultSport ... 80/photo/1[/media]

[Sevach]

Fernando Alonso was faster than the Mercedes, both of them, in that session. I'm fairly confident that points to some or all of the following:

- The Mercedes not being hooked up.
- The Mercedes engines being turned down.
- Running heavier fuel loads.
- Making mistakes on their hot laps.

If Mercedes qualify outside the top 4, I will be highly surprised. If Hamilton qualifies outside the front row, I'd be slightly surprised. It would make for a good race though, so I wouldn't mind if this transpired to be the case.

It's certainly not hooked up... i saw it, handful.

[LookBackTime]

Fernando Alonso was faster than the Mercedes, both of them, in that session. I'm fairly confident that points to some or all of the following:

- The Mercedes not being hooked up.
- The Mercedes engines being turned down.
- Running heavier fuel loads.
- Making mistakes on their hot laps.

If Mercedes qualify outside the top 4, I will be highly surprised. If Hamilton qualifies outside the front row, I'd be slightly surprised. It would make for a good race though, so I wouldn't mind if this transpired to be the case.

It's certainly not hooked up... i saw it, handful.

and certainly "not blessed"

[LookBackTime]

[media]https://twitter.com/SkySportsF1/status/ ... 3123170304[/media]

[Juzh]

At 80 horses up (8.4%), they'd end up having a top speed 0.05% faster (0.2km/h), not 1-10.

That's just absurd mate, and we know from practical examples it's not the case. I don't care if the math is right or wrong, simply because reality says otherwise. Back in the days of simple KERS, a boost of 6.7 seconds of 80 bhp was easily enough of an extra 8-10 kph in top speed, and that was seen lots of times when people were dumping whole kers at top speeds to defend.

[Juzh]

FP2

[Abarth]

At 80 horses up (8.4%), they'd end up having a top speed 0.05% faster (0.2km/h), not 1-10.

That's just absurd mate,[...]

Indeed. Totally wrong. There is a cubic relationship between V and P.

Lets assume 860 and 940 HP.
And a max speed of 309 kph for the 860 HP car.
The same car would reach about 318 kph when powered with 940 HP.

Btw, exactly the speed difference between Alonso and Hamilton. However, we do not know whether and how much the drag of Merc and McL differs, which has a big influence anyway.

[zac510]

I didn't see Gasly in the first session but nice start by him to keep it clean and be on Sainz's pace straight away.

[f1316]

Did we get the confirmation on PU parts and are Ferrari running a new CE?

Just wondering if part of this advantage is wanting to bed it in/test it out, so they may be opening up the quali modes to ensure everything's functioning properly.

[matt_b]

Did we get the confirmation on PU parts and are Ferrari running a new CE?

Just wondering if part of this advantage is wanting to bed it in/test it out, so they may be opening up the quali modes to ensure everything's functioning properly.

Seb got a new and 4th ES and that's it on the engine front.

[atanatizante]

Seems to me that when is wet (e.g. Monza qualy and Singapore race) Merc car works better (or in other words has its tyre sweet spot) when track temp is low ...

Here he have had a wet track in FP1 but with high track temps meaning their setup in wet conditions are for running the tyres harder - knowing that wet tyres has a harder compound - leading to overheat them hence poor rear grip and car ending with that oversteering we could saw in that dry FP2 session ... or maybe they setup the car with Sunday race in mind?

[Sevach]

Did we get the confirmation on PU parts and are Ferrari running a new CE?

Just wondering if part of this advantage is wanting to bed it in/test it out, so they may be opening up the quali modes to ensure everything's functioning properly.

So far nothing new, but it has been Ferrari's MO this season to bring engine updates only on saturday.

Here's Toto about todays session.
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/merc ... as-959014/

Tommorow we'll see how much is reality how much it's drama.