Vettel fastest as Grosjean crashes at Sepang

Sebastian Vettel ended Friday’s running fastest ahead of Sunday’s Malaysian Formula 1 Grand Prix despite enduring two interrupted practice sessions.

Opening practice was initially ‘indefinitely’ delayed as heavy rain battered the circuit, before a crash from Romain Grosjean drew the red flag towards the end of Practice 2.

Grosjean’s crash was caused by a piece of the drain cover at the penultimate corner, which had been lifted by Kimi Raikkonen and Valtteri Bottas just moments earlier.

The Haas driver ran over the exposed grate, pulling the right rear tyre from the rim pitching him into the barriers.

To that point, Vettel had set the fastest time with a 1:31.261s lap, more than half a second faster than Raikkonen.

The two Red Bull’s were next best, Daniel Ricciardo narrowly faster than Max Verstappen who had topped the morning’s rain-shortened session.

Mercedes endured a torrid start to the weekend, with excursions for both Bottas and Lewis Hamilton interrupting their sessions.

Bottas ran wide at Turn 10, damaging the floor on his Mercedes as he bounced through the gravel, while Hamilton had a half spin at Turn 8 which saw him ruin a set of tyres.

With opening practice all but washed out, the team is now heavily compromised heading into final practice tomorrow as it looks to fine-tune its setup for qualifying and Sunday’s race.

The damage to the circuit caused by the Grosjean incident saw the red flag shown with 15-minutes remaining and not restarted as repairs were affected.

It left Vettel on top from Raikkonen with Alonso fifth best, the McLaren driver having been third fastest in opening practice.

Hamilton could do no better than sixth, one place ahead of his team-mate while the top ten was completed by Sergio Perez, Nico Hulkenberg and Esteban Ocon.

Result: Formula 1 Malaysian Grand Prix Practice 2

Position	Driver	Car	Time	Gap	Laps
1	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	1m31.261s		23
2	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari	1m31.865s	0.604s	19
3	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull/Renault	1m32.099s	0.838s	19
4	Max Verstappen	Red Bull/Renault	1m32.109s	0.848s	11
5	Fernando Alonso	McLaren/Honda	1m32.564s	1.303s	14
6	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1m32.677s	1.416s	15
7	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes	1m32.720s	1.459s	21
8	Sergio Perez	Force India/Mercedes	1m32.862s	1.601s	20
9	Nico Hulkenberg	Renault	1m33.060s	1.799s	24
10	Esteban Ocon	Force India/Mercedes	1m33.096s	1.835s	24
11	Jolyon Palmer	Renault	1m33.381s	2.12s	26
12	Felipe Massa	Williams/Mercedes	1m33.394s	2.133s	20
13	Stoffel Vandoorne	McLaren/Honda	1m33.673s	2.412s	15
14	Lance Stroll	Williams/Mercedes	1m33.818s	2.557s	16
15	Pierre Gasly	Toro Rosso/Renault	1m34.043s	2.782s	22
16	Carlos Sainz Jr.	Toro Rosso/Renault	1m34.104s	2.843s	19
17	Romain Grosjean	Haas/Ferrari	1m34.118s	2.857s	18
18	Kevin Magnussen	Haas/Ferrari	1m34.343s	3.082s	17
19	Pascal Wehrlein	Sauber/Ferrari	1m35.246s	3.985s	29
20	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber/Ferrari	1m35.697s	4.436s	27

Result: Formula 1 Malaysian Grand Prix Practice 1

Position	Driver	Car	Time	Gap	Laps
1	Max Verstappen	Red Bull/Renault	1m48.962s		11
2	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull/Renault	1m49.719s	0.757s	12
3	Fernando Alonso	McLaren/Honda	1m50.597s	1.635s	6
4	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari	1m50.734s	1.772s	12
5	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	1m51.009s	2.047s	12
6	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1m51.518s	2.556s	8
7	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes	1m52.007s	3.045s	10
8	Lance Stroll	Williams/Mercedes	1m52.295s	3.333s	9
9	Pierre Gasly	Toro Rosso/Renault	1m52.380s	3.418s	14
10	Sergey Sirotkin	Renault	1m53.521s	4.559s	10
11	Jolyon Palmer	Renault	1m53.625s	4.663s	10
12	Stoffel Vandoorne	McLaren/Honda	1m53.771s	4.809s	10
13	Esteban Ocon	Force India/Mercedes	1m53.896s	4.934s	6
14	Sean Gelael	Toro Rosso/Renault	1m54.610s	5.648s	13
15	Sergio Perez	Force India/Mercedes	1m54.669s	5.707s	4
16	Charles Leclerc	Sauber/Ferrari	1m55.280s	6.318s	10
17	Pascal Wehrlein	Sauber/Ferrari	1m55.652s	6.690s	10
18	Romain Grosjean	Haas/Ferrari	1m56.211s	7.249s	8
19	Antonio Giovinazzi	Haas/Ferrari	1m56.339s	7.377s	6
20	Felipe Massa	Williams/Mercedes			3