The Official 2016 Malaysian Grand Prix Thread **Spoilers**

[rsbmw]

Sepang International Circuit, Friday 30 September - Sunday 02 October 2016

Contents

Overview

Session Timings

Race Info

Live Timing

FIA Info

Weather

Tyres

Tyre selection per driver

2015 Grand Prix

Qualifying

Race

Overview

F1 is back in Malaysia for the 16th race of the season. Following his third win in a row, Nico Rosberg carries an 8 point championship lead over Lewis Hamilton. Ricciardo is sitting comfortably in third place in the drivers championship after a run of podium finishes. Raikkonen is closing the gap to Vettel in recent weeks, with now only 5 points separating them.

Meanwhile in the constructor's championship, Red Bull will be looking to extend their 15 point cushion over Ferrari. Force India and Williams will continue the battle for fourth place, only one point between them, with McLaren looking to maintain their small gap back to Toro Rosso.

Malaysia can throw up some interesting challenges with extreme heat and chance of rain, this will hopefully make for an interesting race. Vettel won here last year from 2nd on the grid and will no doubt be looking to replicate that success.

Session Timings

All sessions are live on both Sky F1 and Channel 4

Session	Day	Sky F1	Channel 4	Session Start	Local Time
Practice 1	Fri	0245	0255	0300	1000
Practice 2	Fri	0645	0655	0700	1400
Practice 3	Sat	0645	0655	0700	1400
Qualifying	Sat	0900	0900	1000	1700
Race	Sun	0630	0700	0800	1500

Race Info

Live Timing

Live timing for all sessions will appear here;

http://www.formula1.com/content/fom-website/en/f1-...

FIA Info

Info such as lap times, PU use, technical reports, stewards decisions etc for the weekend will appear here;

http://www.fia.com/events/fia-formula-one-world-ch...

Weather

http://www.myweather2.com/Motor-Racing/Malaysia/Se...

Session	Comment	Air Temp (°C)	Cloud Cover	Rainfall (mm)
Practice 1	Sunny Skies	34	24%	0.0
Practice 2	Partly Cloudy Skies	36	32%	0.0
Practice 3	Partly Cloudy Skies	37	29%	0.1
Qualifying	Sunny Skies	37	20%	0.1
Race	Patchy Rain Possible	36	32%	0.5

Tyres

Tyre compounds available for the weekend are soft, medium and hard.

Under 2016 rules, drivers must have two sets of hards available for the Sepang race, and must use at least one of them.

Each driver will also have to save one set of softs for the Q3 qualifying session. This set will be given back to Pirelli after Q3 for those who qualify in the top 10, but the remaining drivers will keep it for the race.

The teams are free to choose the 10 remaining sets per driver permitted from the three available compounds, making up 13 sets in total for the weekend. The tyre choices requested by the teams:

Tyre selection per driver

More info from Pirelli

2015 Grand Prix

Qualifying

Pos.	No.	DRIVER	TEAM	Q1	Q2	Q3	Laps
1	44	LEWIS HAMILTON	MERCEDES	1:39.269	1:41.517	1:49.834	13
2	5	SEBASTIAN VETTEL	FERRARI	1:39.814	1:39.632	1:49.908	13
3	6	NICO ROSBERG	MERCEDES	1:39.374	1:39.377	1:50.299	13
4	3	DANIEL RICCIARDO	RED BULL RACING	1:40.504	1:41.085	1:51.541	16
5	26	DANIIL KVYAT	RED BULL RACING	1:40.546	1:41.665	1:51.951	16
6	33	MAX VERSTAPPEN	TORO ROSSO	1:40.793	1:41.430	1:51.981	16
7	19	FELIPE MASSA	WILLIAMS	1:40.543	1:41.230	1:52.473	17
8	8	ROMAIN GROSJEAN	LOTUS	1:40.303	1:41.209	1:52.981	18
9	77	VALTTERI BOTTAS	WILLIAMS	1:40.249	1:40.650	1:53.179	14
10	9	MARCUS ERICSSON	SAUBER	1:40.340	1:41.748	1:53.261	18
11	7	KIMI RÄIKKÖNEN	FERRARI	1:40.415	1:42.173		7
12	13	PASTOR MALDONADO	LOTUS	1:40.361	1:42.198		11
13	27	NICO HULKENBERG	FORCE INDIA	1:40.830	1:43.023		9
14	11	SERGIO PEREZ	FORCE INDIA	1:41.036	1:43.469		11
15	55	CARLOS SAINZ	TORO ROSSO	1:39.814	1:43.701		9
16	12	FELIPE NASR	SAUBER	1:41.308			7
17	22	JENSON BUTTON	MCLAREN	1:41.636			8
18	14	FERNANDO ALONSO	MCLAREN	1:41.746			8
NC	98	ROBERTO MERHI	MANOR	1:46.677			7

Race

Pos.	Driver	Nat.	Team	Time	Grid	Points
1	SEBASTIAN VETTEL	GER	FERRARI	1:41:05.793	2	25
2	LEWIS HAMILTON	GBR	MERCEDES	+8.569s	1	18
3	NICO ROSBERG	GER	MERCEDES	+12.310s	3	15
4	KIMI RÄIKKÖNEN	FIN	FERRARI	+53.822s	11	12
5	VALTTERI BOTTAS	FIN	WILLIAMS	+70.409s	9	10
6	FELIPE MASSA	BRA	WILLIAMS	+73.586s	7	8
7	MAX VERSTAPPEN	NED	TORO ROSSO	+97.762s	6	6
8	CARLOS SAINZ	ESP	TORO ROSSO	+1 lap	15	4
9	DANIIL KVYAT	RUS	RED BULL RACING	+1 lap	5	2
10	DANIEL RICCIARDO	AUS	RED BULL RACING	+1 lap	4	1
11	ROMAIN GROSJEAN	FRA	LOTUS	+1 lap	8	0
12	FELIPE NASR	BRA	SAUBER	+1 lap	16	0
13	SERGIO PEREZ	MEX	FORCE INDIA	+1 lap	14	0
14	NICO HULKENBERG	GER	FORCE INDIA	+1 lap	13	0
15	ROBERTO MERHI	ESP	MANOR	+3 laps	19	0
NC	PASTOR MALDONADO	VEN	LOTUS	DNF	12	0
NC	JENSON BUTTON	GBR	MCLAREN	DNF	17	0
NC	FERNANDO ALONSO	ESP	MCLAREN	DNF	18	0
NC	MARCUS ERICSSON	SWE	SAUBER	DNF	10	0

Fastest Race Lap: 1:42.062 (L43, N. Rosberg; Mercedes)

Edited by rsbmw on Tuesday 20th September 12:57

Edited by rsbmw on Tuesday 27th September 08:38

Edited by rsbmw on Tuesday 27th September 10:35

[stevesingo]

Great OP. Upped the ante somewhat.

[FreiWild]

Why do they have to use the hard compound? I thought they could use any combination of compounds, given they use at least two different ones.

[rsbmw]

Couldn't tell you the why's and wherefore's, other than it seems they have only mandated one compound this race, rather than two.

[rsbmw]

Taking a look at previous compound announcements, it seems they mandate two sets of tyres that must be available for the race, of which one must be used. In this case both nominated sets are hard, rather than two different compounds.

Not sure I see the point myself, just limits strategy options. Probably pushes it towards a one stop race as well, since you would expect the hard to last a while.

[Markytop]

I'm going to be in KL for a few days prior to the race weekend - I fly out on the Thursday evening - does anyone know of, or where I can find out about, any F1 events happening within the city prior to the race weekend? There are usually some local publicity events in the days up to a Grand Prix weekend and was thinking may be worth seeing if close by.

I would have thought that Mercedes may have something planned given the Petronas links?

[anonymous-user]

there is very little that goes on in KL the week before the race, Petronas will have a autograph session lunch time in KLCC, last year people where waiting from 5am.
If you fancy a beer pm me I live in the center of Kl.

[Dr Z]

Good one, OP.

The track was resurfaced quite a bit since 2015, so learning the tyre behaviour will be important. Looks the like weather forecast for the practice is not ideal for this. Looking at the track temps forecast, if ambient in the mid 30 C, track temp is around mid to high 40 C. Not quite as hot as 2015 when the track temps were in the mid to high 50 C. This was when Ferrari came into its own, so I'd expect a more natural running order for the coming race weekend. Hopefully the teams won't have warm up problems with the Hard tyre as it is a compulsory tyre for this GP.

If a dry race, a team that can get good pace out of the Hard tyre is likely to do well, although historically teams don't seem to like this tyre all that much so tend to relegate to one stint. Since the hardest tyre is compulsory, a 2-stop will be the norm but there's no big difference between a 2-stopper and 3-stopper, so interesting strategy variations will be on display.

[suffolk009]

Seems some Finnish media is reporting that Stroll is confirmed next to Bottas next year. One of them is reported to be paying $35m for the seat.

[rsbmw]

Just updated weather and added some more Pirelli info to OP.

Rain looking less likely now, which is a shame I think. Still maybe a little bit around for the race, but probably not enough to cause any problems.

[Flooble]

Great post OP. Interestingly high track temperature - I can see that burning up the tyres?

[Dr Z]

Some info from the McLaren preview:

Distance to Turn One	600m/0.373 miles
Longest straight	920m/0.572 miles, on the approach to Turn 15
Top speed	330km/h/205mph, on the approach to Turn 15
Pitlane length	420m/0.261 miles, estimated time loss 24s
Full throttle	65 per cent, with the longest period of full throttle being 12s
Key corner	Turn 14, a tightening, understeer-inducing right-hander that loads up the outside tyres. It’s important to get the car into the apex and get the power down early because the longest straight on the lap follows, along which there is the second DRS zone
Fastest corner	260km/h (162mph), Turn Five
Slowest corner	70km/h (43mph), Turn Two
Major changes for 2016	The circuit has been re-surfaced since last year and more than half of the corners have new kerbs and improved drainage. The camber at Turn Nine has been altered, and, most significantly, Turn 15 has been re-profiled to make it slower, in an effort to encourage overtaking
Fuel consumption	1.79 per lap, which is average
ERS demands	Low. There are several slow corners, out of which electrical power has an impact on acceleration, but there are eight significant braking events around the lap where energy can be recovered
Brake wear	Medium. Only 15 per cent of the lap is spent braking
Gear changes	57 per lap/3,192 per race

Pirelli say that the track is less bumpy and smoother in terms of surface roughness than previously, and this will impact on the overall tyre degradation levels. Still they reckon a 3-stopper is expected.

[HustleRussell]

Dr Z said:

Pirelli say that the track is less bumpy and smoother in terms of surface roughness than previously, and this will impact on the overall tyre degradation levels. Still they reckon a 3-stopper is expected.

with soft, medium and hard tyres available and the new track surface I wouldn't be at all surprised if most teams were erring towards a two stop by the end of FP3.

[Flooble]

Most of the drivers do not seem keen on the hard though - with only two sets available that would mean using one set for all the practice and one in the race. Manageable, but perhaps not ideal. I guess they are expecting it to be a slower tyre and plan on using it for the last stint only, when the race will be largely just processing around so setup won't be that important.

[rsbmw]

30 place grid penalty for Alonso, due to testing a new engine this weekend

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/37503760

[Gary C]

rsbmw said:

30 place grid penalty for Alonso, due to testing a new engine this weekend

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/37503760

Hope it's an improvement.

Always wondered why honda/mclaren haven't said stuff the penalties and just gone for outright development every race.

[patmahe]

Gary C said:

rsbmw said:

30 place grid penalty for Alonso, due to testing a new engine this weekend

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/37503760

Hope it's an improvement.

Always wondered why honda/mclaren haven't said stuff the penalties and just gone for outright development every race.

That's a really good question, perhaps it could fall under bringing the sport into disrepute? Also I guess the token system which I've never fully understood seems to stifle that as each upgrade costs so there are limits on how much you can upgrade across a season. But if they flouted the rules for a year and took all the penalties that go with that it is possible they could make a leap for the following season.

All that said, it would never be tolerated by those governing the sport or competitors, I'd say that's the main reason.

[smack]

A French BBQ is the special of the day....

[threespires]

What a mess. Poor mechanics..

[rsbmw]

Haven't seen any of practice, but had a look at BBC live feed, this looked interesting;

"You've got a five second penalty, which we will serve on the pit stop," Nico Rosberg is told.

Mercedes practicing penalties, I wonder who Nico is planning to run off the track this week