The Malaysian Grand Prix is a round of the Formula One World Championship. It has been held at the Sepang International Circuit since 1999, although FIA-sanctioned racing in Malaysia has existed since the 1960s.

Malaysian Grand Prix, Round 15 of the 2017 Formula 1 season

Circuit Name: Sepang International Circuit

Race Laps: 56

Circuit Length: 5.543 km (3.444 mi)

Race Length: 310.408 km (192.878 mi)

Number of corners: 15 (10 Right, 5 Left)

Circuit Direction: Clockwise

Pole Position 2016: Lewis Hamilton - Mercedes 1:32.850

Race Track Record: 1:34.223 (MON, 2004)

Ultimate Track Record: 1:32.582 (ALO, Q1, 2005)

Distance from pole to T1 apex: 683.6 m

Pole position side: Right

Pit lane length under speed limit control: 421.2 m

Drive-through time at 80 km/h: 18.954 s

Lap time at full throttle: 61%

Lap distance at full throttle: 73%

Gear changes per lap: 84

Braking events (>2G): 7

Heavy braking events (<0.4s @ >4G): 4

Fuel consumption: Medium

Maximum lateral G-Force: 4.8 G (T6)

Maximum speed: 315.9 km/h

Track evolution (FP1 – Qualifying): High

DRS zones: T14-15, T15-1

Key overtaking opportunities: T1, T15

Sepang International Circuit

Pirelli used compounds

Tyres that must be available (one of them to be used) at some point in the race:

One set of P Zero White Medium

One set of P Zero Yellow soft

Tyres assigned for Q3 in qualifying:                     

One set of P Zero Red Super-Soft

Teams/Drivers compounds choice

Driver	Medium	Soft	Super-Soft
Lewis Hamilton	1	5	7
Valtteri Bottas	2	4	7
Daniel Ricciardo	1	4	8
Max Verstappen	1	3	9
Sebastian Vettel	1	3	9
Kimi Raikkonen	1	3	9
Sergio Perez	1	4	8
Esteban Ocon	1	4	8
Lance Stroll	1	2	10
Felipe Massa	1	2	10
Stoffel Vandoorne	1	2	10
Fernando Alonso	1	2	10
Daniil Kvyat	1	4	8
Carlos Sainz	1	4	8
Romain Grosjean	1	5	7
Kevin Magnussen	2	4	7
Nico Hulkenberg	1	3	9
Jolyon Palmer	1	3	9
Marcus Ericsson	2	4	7
Pascal Wehrlein	1	5	7

 

THE CIRCUIT FROM A TYRE POINT OF VIEW:

• The resurfacing also reduced the high level of asphalt roughness Sepang was noted for, helping make a softer tyre choice possible.
• With the new asphalt now being a year old, the ageing process may have given it different characteristics to last year.
• The new asphalt also means that the camber and lines of some corners are now faster than in the past.
• Malaysia’s tropical weather makes use of the wet weather tyres quite likely.
• When it’s dry, track temperatures are high, leading to thermal degradation. At 59 degrees, last year was the highest track temperature seen all season.
• Two stops won last year, but tactics were also influenced by virtual safety cars.

MARIO ISOLA - HEAD OF CAR RACING

“The Malaysian Grand Prix we saw last year was somewhat different to previous seasons, thanks to its return to an autumn slot and the comprehensive resurfacing work that took place in 2016. This also had the result of improving drainage: an important aspect at a circuit where it can rain so heavily and frequently. However, the characteristics of new asphalt can change from one year to the next, so it will be interesting to see what the effect of this is. This year we are bringing the softest selection of tyres ever seen in Malaysia, which we expect to result in even faster lap times, with the supersoft used there for the first time. Consequently, all previous strategy calculations will have to be adjusted, making the work done in free practice particularly important”.

SEPANG MINIMUM STARTING PRESSURES (SLICKS)

 

EOS CAMBER LIMIT

Malaysian Grand Prix Winners 1999 – 2016

Year	Driver	Constructor	Location
2016	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull-TAG Heuer	Sepang
2015	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari
2014	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes
2013	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull-Renault
2012	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari
2011	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull-Renault
2010	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull-Renault
2009	Jenson Button	Brawn-Mercedes
2008	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari
2007	Fernando Alonso	McLaren-Mercedes
2006	Giancarlo Fisichella	Renault
2005	Fernando Alonso	Renault
2004	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari
2003	Kimi Räikkönen	McLaren-Mercedes
2002	ralf Schumacher	Williams-BMW
2001	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari
2000	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari
1999	Eddie Irvine	Ferrari

 

 

Multiple Winners (Drivers)

Wins	Driver	Years
4	Sebastian Vettel	2010, 2011, 2013, 2015
3	Michael Schumacher	2000, 2001, 2004
	Fernando Alonso	2005, 2007, 2012
2	Kimi Räikkönen	2003, 2008

 

Multiple Winners (Constructors)

Wins	Constructor	Years Won
7	Ferrari	1999, 2000, 2001, 2004, 2008, 2012, 2015
4	Red Bull	2010, 2011, 2013, 2016
2	McLaren	2003, 2007
	Renault	2005, 2006

 

 

Numbers and Facts

Most wins (driver) 4 - Sebastian Vettel 2010, 2011, 2013 and 2015

Most wins (constructor) 7 - Ferrari 1999 – 2000 – 2001 – 2004 – 2008 – 2012 – 2015

Wins from pole position 9 - Most recent 2014 – Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes

Lowest grid for past winner 8 - Fernando Alonso 2012

Most recent 1-2 finish 2016 Red Bull Racing (Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen)

Most emphatic win (here) 39.699 - 2002 Ralf Schumacher-Juan-Pablo Montoya

Closest winning margin 0.732 - 2000 Michael Schumacher-David Coulthard

Rain-affected races 3, 2001 – 2009 – 2012

Safety Car-affected races 6, 2000 – 2001 – 2009 – 2012 – 2015 – 2016

Red Flag (and result declared) races 1, 2009

Most Podium (driver) 5, Michael Schumacher (recent 2004), Alonso (recent 2012), Vettel (recent 2015), Hamilton (recent 2015)

Most Podium (constructor) 13, Ferrari 1999 – 2000 – 2001 – 2002 – 2003 – 2004 – 2007 – 2008 – 2012 – 2015

Most pole positions (driver) 5, Michael Schumacher 1999-2000-2001-2002-2004

Most pole positions (constructor) 7, Ferrari 1999-2000-2001-2002-2004-2007-2008

What Happened last race here?

Daniel Ricciardo won the race, with teammate Max Verstappen finishing second to secure Red Bull Racing's first one–two finish since the introduction of hybrid engines in 2014. Nico Rosberg completed the podium, extending his championship lead to twenty-three points following the retirement of Lewis Hamilton.

2016 Race Classification

Pos	Driver	Constructor	Time/Retired	Grid
1	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull Racing-TAG Heuer	1:37:12.776	4
2	Max Verstappen	Red Bull Racing-TAG Heuer	+2.443	3
3	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	+25.5161	2
4	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	+28.785	6
5	Valtteri Bottas	Williams-Mercedes	+1:01.582	11
6	Sergio Pérez	Force India-Mercedes	+1:03.794	7
7	Fernando Alonso	McLaren-Honda	+1:05.205	22
8	Nico Hülkenberg	Force India-Mercedes	+1:14.062	8
9	Jenson Button	McLaren-Honda	+1:21.816	9
10	Jolyon Palmer	Renault	+1:35.466	19
11	Carlos Sainz Jr.	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	+1:38.878	16
12	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber-Ferrari	+1 Lap	17
13	Felipe Massa	Williams-Mercedes	+1 Lap	10
14	Daniil Kvyat	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	+1 Lap	15
15	Pascal Wehrlein	MRT-Mercedes	+1 Lap	21
16	Esteban Ocon	MRT-Mercedes	+1 Lap	20
Ret	Felipe Nasr	Sauber-Ferrari	Brakes	18
Ret	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	Engine	1
Ret	Esteban Gutiérrez	Haas-Ferrari	Wheel	13
Ret	Kevin Magnussen	Renault	Power loss	14
Ret	Romain Grosjean	Haas-Ferrari	Brakes	12
Ret	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	Collision	5

 

 

Did you know?

DRIVERS

✪ Since Lewis Hamilton has been at Mercedes he has taken pole 43 times already, nearly 50% of all races he’s started for the team (43/ 89 = 48.3%).

✪ All but 1 of Hamilton’s 7 wins this season have come from a pole position start. He won last time out from a P5 grid start

✪ Hamilton’s win to starts percentage is now almost identical to that of Michael Schumacher’s (29.70% compared to 29.74%)

✪ Hamilton has won 29.7% of all GP he’s started (60 wins from 202 starts) and is in the top 10 drivers races to win ratio of all-time. Here’s how he compares:- 1. Fangio 47.0%, 2. Ascari 40.6%, 3. Clark 34.7%, 4. M. Schumacher 29.7%, 5. Hamilton 29.7%, 6. Ja. Stewart 27.2%, 7. Prost 25.6%, 8. A. Senna 25.5%, 9. Moss 24.2% 10. Vettel 24.0% (46/192)

✪ Hamilton is the only driver to have finished in the points in all races so far this season. Hamilton and Esteban Ocon are the only drivers to have finished all races in 2017

✪ Sebastian Vettel has not won back-to-back Grand Prix since he won the 2013 Brazilian Grand Prix. That race ended a 9-race run of victories that started in Belgium, (BEL, ITA, SIN, KOR, JAP, IND, ABU, USA, BRA)

✪ Vettel’s next pole will be his 50th in F1

✪ Vettel needs to lead ‘only’ 59 more race laps to equal Ayrton Senna’s career total of 2,987. The all-time most F1 race laps led is 5,111 by Michael Schumacher

✪ Daniel Ricciardo in Singapore scored the 25th podium of his F1 career and beat the 24 achieved by his compatriot, 1980 F1 World Champion Alan Jones

✪ Kimi Raikkonen’s next win if ever it comes will be the 21st of his F1 career and will also be the most by a Finnish driver in F1. Currently he shares the record of 20 wins by a Finn with Mika Hakkinen. Another career stat he shares is 37 F1 front row appearances with Fernando Alonso

✪ Raikkonen’s next front row will be the 39th of his F1 career and will equal Mika Hakkinen’s record for the most front row grid positions by a Finnish driver in F1

✪ Max Verstappen will celebrate his 20th birthday on Saturday 30th September, qualifying day

✪ Verstappen has retired from as many races this season as he has finished 7. So to has Alonso (6) and Antonio Giovinazzi (1)

✪ Sergio Perez needs just 1 more podium to become the Mexican driver with the most F1 podiums (currently = with Pedro Rodriguez on 7)

✪ Felipe Massa’s next F1 podium should it come will be the 42nd of his F1 career and would equal the F1 career totals of both Damon Hill and Mark Webber

✪ Should he not qualfy on pole, Saturday will be Fernando Alonso’s 100th F1 qualifying session since he took a pole position (Germany 2012)

CONSTRUCTOR’S

✪ Mercedes in Malaysia will be aiming to lockout the front row for the 50th time. The all-time record is 62 and is jointly held by McLaren and Williams.

✪ Mercedes as a constructor has set 1 more race fastest laps in F1 World Championship GP (54) than Red Bull

✪ Ferrari has still not scored consecutive pole positions since Fernando Alonso took pole for the Scuderia at the 2012 British and German Grand Prix and has still not scored a consecutive front row lock-out since Michael Schumacher and Felipe Massa lock-out the front row for the 2006 US and French Grand Prix

✪ Ferrari last season was the only team to score championship points at all 21 events

✪ Red Bull has achieved a podium result for at least one of their drivers in 109 different F1 Grand Prix

✪ The current Williams team traces its origins back to 1977. The team began by running a March for Belgian Patrick Neve who sadly died earlier is year and later in 1978, became a constructor running a single FW06 car for Alan Jones. In 1979 the team expanded to 2 cars with Clay Regazzoni joining Jones. Regazzoni won Williams’s first Grand Prix, at Silversone in 1979 while Jones claimed Williams’s first driver’s and first constructor’s titles in 1980. Frank Williams had made his first forays into F1 in 1969, running a Brabh m for Piers Courage. Campaigns with De Tomaso, private March’s, with his own cars and Heskeths latterly in conjunction with Canadian-Austrian entrepreneur Walter Wolf followed but it wasn’t until Williams teamed up with Head in 1977 and started all over again that Williams’s F1 fortunes really took off

✪ McLaren has not led a F1 race lap since Jenson Button led lap 14 of the Hungarian GP in 2014. The team has started 61 GP since

✪ Pirelli won their 175th F1 World Championship Grand Prix in Singapore to equal Bridgestone’s F1 career total. Only Goodyear has won more (368)

MALAYSIAN GRAND PRIX

✪ Lewis Hamilton is chasing a fourth successive Malaysian Grand Prix pole. If he can do it, it will equal Michael Schumacher’s record of 4 Malaysian Grand Prix pole positions in a row set between 1999 and 2002 inclusive. It would also be Hamilton’s fifth pole here in the past 6 years

✪ Sebastian Vettel has won 4 Malaysian Grand Prix to date, 1 more than anybody else (Michael Schumacher and Fernando Alonso each with 3 wins here)

✪ Vettel won here in 2011. Two years later he won again. Here in 2015 he scored his first win for Ferrari. Two years on he badly needs to continue the sequence

✪ Daniel Ricciardo will be looking to become only the third driver to score back-to-back Malaysian Grand Prix wins. To date the only drivers to have won here in consecutive seasons are Michael Schumacher (2000 and 2001) and Sebastian Vettel (2010 and 2011)

✪ Four drivers currently share the record for the most Malaysian Grand Prix podium positions (5). The four are Michael Schumacher, Fernando Alonso, Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton. Next best of drivers still active is Kimi Raikkonen who has 2 Malaysian Grand Prix podiums to his name to date

Driver’s Championship standing

Pos	Driver	Points
1	Lewis Hamilton	263
2	Sebastian Vettel	235
3	Valtteri Bottas	212
4	Daniel Ricciardo	162
5	Kimi Raikkonen	138
6	Max Verstappen	68
7	Sergio Perez	68
8	Esteban Ocon	56
9	Carlos Sainz	48
10	Nico Hulkenberg	34
11	Felipe Massa	31
13	Lance Stroll	28
12	Romain Grosjean	26
14	Kevin Magnussen	11
15	Fernando Alonso	10
16	Jolyon Palmer	8
17	Stoffel Vandoorne	7
18	Pascal Wehrlein	5
19	Daniil Kvyat	4
20	Marcus Ericsson	0
21	Antonio Giovinazzi	0

 

Constructor’s Championship standing

Pos	Team	Points
1	Mercedes	435
2	Ferrari	373
3	Red Bull Racing-Tag Heuer	212
4	Force India-Mercedes	113
5	Williams-Mercedes	55
6	Toro Rosso-Renault	40
7	Haas-Ferrari	35
8	Renault	34
9	Mclaren-Honda	11
10	Sauber-Ferrari	5

 

Driver’s penalty points:

Driver	Penalty points
Daniil Kvyat	10
Sebastian Vettel	7
Kevin Magnussen	7
Jolyon Palmer	6
Carlos Sainz	5
Stoffel Vandoorne	5
Felipe Massa	5
Nico Hulkenberg	4
Sergio Perez	3
Romain Grosjean	3
Max Verstappen	3
Kimi Raikkonen	3
Esteban Ocon	2
Pascal Wehrlein	2
Jenson Button	2