Key events
After Russell’s win in Azerbaijan, Giles Richards looks at the prospect of a reignited title race with Mercedes teammate Antonelli in his preview of this weekend …
The prospect of a comeback from Russell, applying pressure to his 20-year-old teammate who is in only his second season in F1, might put Mercedes too under pressure in managing them. A process of which they are all too aware, as the last time F1 was in Malaysia it was the first year after the Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg relationship at Mercedes had come apart with rancour. Nonetheless the team insist they will continue to allow their current drivers to race one another.
Kimi Antontelli was fastest in third practice, posting a time of 1:36.302. That was followed by the Red Bull pair of Max Verstappen (+0.278) and Isack Hadjar (+0.558). George Russell was six-tenths back and was followed by the Ferrari and McLaren pairs.
It is a marked improvement from Mercedes after yesterday’s second session, when Russell and Antonelli were 7th and 8th. This is the first time both have driven at Sepang.
“It’s probably been one of our toughest Fridays of the season so far,” said the Mercedes deputy team principal Bradley Lord. “The competitive picture looks a lot more like it did, say, in somewhere like Hungary than maybe last weekend in Baku.”
It is warm at Sepang – around 32C this afternoon with high humidity, with track temperatures heading north of 50C and up towards 60C. Unlike next weekend’s Singapore GP, qualifying and the race in Malaysia will take place during the day. Track temperatures will have more of an impact on tyres tomorrow.
I’d be scrambling for the shade of a palm tree on those trackside banks of grass.
Preamble
Hello and welcome to live coverage of qualifying for the Bahrain Grand Prix. The race was postponed from its original date in April because of war in the Middle East. The fact that conflict is still ongoing means F1 returns to Malaysia this weekend for the first time since 2017. Temperatures at the Sepang circuit near Kuala Lumpur are high – the meeting has been declared a heat-hazard race – and the stakes are high too. Will Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli extend his 66-point lead at the top of the standings or can his teammate George Russell follow up on his victory in Baku last weekend?
Isack Hadjar, Arvid Lindblad and Franco Colapinto will have grid-place penalties for tomorrow’s race after bringing in more ICE (Internal Combustion Engines) than is allowed over the course of the season. In Colapinto’s case, he already had a five-place penalty after his crash into Pierre Gasly and a very miffed Lando Norris at the Azerbaijan GP. Norris called for a one-race ban for Colapinto and said some drivers “shouldn’t be there” in F1 but has since apologised for his comments.
Q1 in Malaysia gets under way at 9am BST, 4pm local time, 6pm AEST. Let’s roll.
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