Sebastian Vettel bounced back from a disappointing Singapore Grand Prix, topping the times in the second free practice session ahead of the Malaysian race.
In dryer conditions than this morning’s FP1, Vettel was fastest early in the session on the soft compound of tyres. His first lap on the super-soft tyres couldn’t quite match Daniel Ricciardo’s lap time, but he went faster than the Red Bull on his next flying lap to finish the session quickest with a 1m31.261s lap.
Kimi Raikkonen, six tenths of a second slower than his team-mate, pushed Ricciardo down to third. Max Verstappen finished fourth.
Mercedes was left scratching its head as a series of problems plagued its session. Both drivers ran wide through the gravel in the first half an hour, confining them to the pits as the mechanics checked over the cars. When they eventually returned to the track, neither could compete with Ferrari and Red Bull.
Lewis Hamilton, the fastest of the two Mercedes, was running fifth fastest before the McLaren of Fernando Alonso pushed up down the order.
Both Hamilton and team-mate Valtteri Bottas had been complaining about grip earlier in the session, but that didn’t entirely explain their poor performances. The team changed the back of Hamilton’s car before the long runs.
The long runs were cut short by an off from Romain Grosjean.
Ahead of Grosjean on track, Bottas and Raikkonen both ran over and kicked up a drain in the kerb on the racing line. Grosjean followed them over the kerb, which severely damaged his right rear tyre and sent him speeding through the gravel and into the barrier with about 20 minutes left on the clock. The session was red flagged and not restarted.
It was a difficult session for both Haas drivers, who had been struggling with understeer on their qualifying runs. They ended the session 17th and 18th, with Grosjean ahead of team-mate Kevin Magnussen.
Behind the Mercedes of Bottas, Sergio Perez took eighth fastest, with Nico Hulkenberg and Esteban Ocon rounding out the top 10.
Jolyon Palmer finished 11th, ahead of Felipe Massa, Stoffel Vandoorne, and Lance Stroll.
F1 newcomer Pierre Gasly was half a tenth of a second quicker than Carlos Sainz, the Toro Rosso duo taking 15th and 16th.
Pascal Wehrlein and Marcus Ericsson rounded out the times.
