Verstappen tops first practice at Sepang as Mercedes learns its big upgrade

Max Verstappen was fastest in the first practice session at Sepang, the first time Formula 1 cars have run on the Malaysian circuit since 2017. The Red Bull driver set a 1:37.520 in a dry and very hot session and finished 0.383 seconds clear of George Russell.

Isack Hadjar made it two Red Bulls in the top three, 0.783 seconds off his team-mate. Charles Leclerc was fourth for Ferrari, ahead of championship leader Kimi Antonelli in fifth, a little over a second behind Verstappen.

Green instead of silver, and a big new package

Mercedes arrived with two things to show. The W17 runs a one-off livery for this weekend, with far more Petronas green and black than the usual silver, because the Malaysian energy company is the team’s title partner and Sepang is its home race. Petronas was title sponsor of every Malaysian Grand Prix between 1999 and 2017.

Under the paint sits the bigger story. “We are bringing an update package this weekend, and that is an important step for us,” team principal Toto Wolff said before the weekend. According to PlanetF1 the package has seven parts, including a new floor, new rear suspension and revised bodywork, and both Russell and Antonelli ran it from the start of FP1.

What Mercedes does not have yet is its engine upgrade. The ADUO step for its power unit had at one point been expected during the flyaway races, Malaysia included, but according to The Race it is now planned around the triple-header that starts in Austin on 23 to 25 October. How that mechanism works is explained in our ADUO explainer.

Russell 0.383 back, Antonelli more than a second

On one lap, Russell was the only driver within half a second of Verstappen. Antonelli’s fifth place, 1.060 seconds down, is a reminder that this was a first hour with new parts, and a first hour with a new package is for measuring, not for chasing the timesheet.

The long runs pointed the same way. On race-pace runs later in the session, Mercedes looked clearly slower than both Red Bull and Ferrari. In track temperatures well above 50 degrees, tyre wear was the theme of the hour. Why heat eats tyres is explained in our tyre degradation explainer.

This is what we expected in our Sepang prediction: a large package has to be understood before it works, and that takes track time. The question is whether the parts deliver on track what Mercedes measured in the wind tunnel.

Hadjar third, with a penalty waiting

Hadjar’s third place comes with a catch. He takes a five-place grid penalty this weekend for new power unit components. “I should be taking a five-place penalty,” he said, as quoted by GPblog. Racing Bulls rookie Arvid Lindblad, ninth in FP1, starts from the back after the team fitted several new power unit parts, and Franco Colapinto takes five places for the collision in Baku that he could not serve as a time penalty.

Pierre Gasly was a strong seventh for Alpine, at the circuit where he made his Formula 1 debut in 2017. Liam Lawson was eighth and Nico Hülkenberg completed the top ten for Audi.

McLaren eleventh and twelfth

Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris finished 11th and 12th, more than 1.7 seconds off Verstappen. That is not unusual for McLaren in first practice, where the team often runs its own programme and leaves the fast laps for later. Both cars, like Hadjar’s Red Bull, ran wide at turn 14 on a dusty track.

Further back, Haas was 15th and 16th with Esteban Ocon ahead of Oliver Bearman, and Cadillac closed the order with Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Pérez.

First practice classification

Source: Formula1.com, Practice 1 classification. Gap to the fastest time.

Our first impression

Red Bull looks like the team to beat on the first day at Sepang, and not only on one lap. Verstappen was quick straight away and the car looked kind to its tyres in the heat, which matters more here than almost anywhere else on the calendar.

Mercedes is harder to read. Russell’s lap was good, but the gap on the long runs is the number that worries us more. And if the rain arrives in second practice, as the forecast suggests, Mercedes loses the dry laps it needs to bring the new package to life. Laps in the rain tell the engineers very little about how the new parts behave on a dry track.

Will the Mercedes upgrade come alive before Sunday, or is this Verstappen’s weekend at Sepang? Tell us in the comments.

Rain in the forecast for FP2

The Formula1.com forecast gives a 50 percent chance of rain on Friday, and Sepang is known for its afternoon thunderstorms. A wet FP2 would leave every team short of dry running before FP3 and qualifying on Saturday. Read everything about the circuit in our Sepang guide, check the F1 standings and follow the weekend on our live blog.