Mercedes Show Weakest Race Pace Among Front-Runners in Malaysia

Mercedes introduced a major upgrade package for the W17 at the start of the Bahrain Grand Prix weekend, which is taking place at Malaysia's Sepang circuit due to geopolitical circumstances in the Middle East.

Despite the updates, George Russell and Andrea Kimi Antonelli were left dissatisfied with the handling of their cars during Friday practice near Kuala Lumpur. Both drivers struggled with Pirelli tyre degradation, a problem clearly highlighted by their race simulations.

On the long runs, the Silver Arrows were effectively the slowest of the front-running teams, trailing Red Bull—the most consistent performers on high fuel—by an average of 0.18 seconds per lap. Ferrari sat second, just 0.04s adrift, with McLaren a further hundredth behind the Prancing Horse, leaving Mercedes fourth in the pecking order.

Over a single lap, the picture looked far brighter for Mercedes, despite Russell and Antonelli finishing only seventh and eighth on the Friday timesheets. Both drivers made errors on their soft-tyre flying laps, masking their true potential; underlying data indicated they held a 0.03-second advantage over Red Bull. However, Max Verstappen did not attempt a qualifying simulation in FP2, opting instead to focus entirely on race pace. The battle for pole position later today is expected to be exceptionally tight, with the top four teams separated by barely a tenth of a second.

Behind the front-runners, Alpine and Racing Bulls are tipped to lead the midfield pack ahead of Audi, Haas, and Williams. Aston Martin displayed encouraging single-lap pace to head Haas and Williams, but the Silverstone squad slipped back in race simulations. Cadillac remained the slowest of all, trailing the field across both short and long runs.