After an hour‑33‑minute delay, the Malaysian Grand Prix opened with teams locked in a battle over tyre strategy on a still‑wet Sepang circuit.
Wet‑to‑Dry Chaos at Sepang
Ferrari and McLaren sprinted into the start on slick tyres – Ferrari on softs, McLaren on mediums – while the drying track left both cars grappling for grip. The hard‑squeezing pace pushed Lando Norris’s car into a clutch of rain, and in the early lap McLaren switched to intermediates before the standing start to recover pace.
Leclerc’s Switch and Norris’s Reckoning
Charles Leclerc endured a shock-off on lap 8, forcing the Ferrari to pitting and fly to slicks. Norris, who had investigated the intermediate’s performance at the grid, criticised the choice, saying slick tyres “felt convincing” and were the safer bet once the track’s grip became merciless. “It was a risk but it was a risk that made sense at the moment,” he added.
Hamilton’s Resilience on the Softs
Lewis Hamilton clung to his soft set through the early on‑track rain, pairing each lap of late‑race VSCs with short stints on slicks. The seven‑time champion stayed calm under pressure, remarking that the team’s quick decision‑making and operand stops were vital to keep him on the podium, even after a 26‑second gap appeared on the restart.
Tyre strategy remained the seeding factor that determined first‑half positioning, underscoring how a single wrong call can vault or topple a driver’s race in the fast‑moving world of Formula One.
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