After facing a wet session in the morning, the dry condition at Sepang Circuit saw the Scuderia Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen set the pace in the second practice session classification of the 2017 Petronas Malaysia Grand Prix at Sepang Circuit.
However, the 90-minute session was stopped 10 minutes early after a loose drain cover punctured a tyre on the car of Romain Grosjean of Haas F1 Team, which resulted in the Frenchman crashing into the Turn 13 barriers.
Grosjean escaped unhurt but his car suffered significant damage and the stewards opted not to restart the session.
"I didn't see anything and then suddenly I had a big hit on the right rear. I'm good and fine, that's the main thing," said Grosjen.
Due to the nature of the incident, the session was not restarted and FIA race director Charlie Whiting confirmed that all such covers will be examined and, where necessary, re-welded in place this afternoon.
He put it down to the greater cornering forces being generated by the 2017 F1 cars.
"So we shall re-weld where necessary and then tonight we shall check everything. We have to get it fixed for tomorrow," said Whiting.
Prior to that drama, the Ferrari's driver was comfortably ahead of Red Bull Racing team's Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen.
Vettel clocked the fastest lap time one one minute and 31.261 seconds, while team mate Raikkonen was just 0.604s slower.
"This morning we had a bit of mixed conditions and there was not so much running. This afternoon it was better and the cars seemed to be quite okay right from the beginning of the session. Then we tried something new, but unfortunately we couldn't complete our programme as we had wished to, because of the red flag.
"We'll see what we can do tomorrow. It's only Friday, usually the day when you spend time trying various things on the car. We would have liked to drive a little bit more, but overall it was a decent afternoon. We have a good car and it's up to us to make it work in all conditions," said Vettel.
Meanwhile, the Malaysian Grand Prix defending champion, Ricciardo was in third place with a time of 1:32.099s.
"It was interesting in these conditions but it was actually nice to get these runs in the wet and dry today...This afternoon, we weren't that competitive looking at Ferrari, but it looked like Mercedes struggled aswell.
"If we can focus on ourselves, we can still improve. On the short runs we needed to improve the front grip and on the long runs, we need to improve the rear, so we have just got to find a better compromise with the set-up," said Ricciardo.
The final practice session for the Malaysian Grand Prix starts at 2pm tomorrow and the qualifying session will be held at 5pm. -- Bernama
Bernama
Fri Sep 29 2017
Vettel enters the paddock during the second practice session of the 2017 Petronas Malaysia Grand Prix at Sepang Circuit on Friday. - BERNAMA
Bekas pegawai PTG didakwa tipu status Tanah Rizab Melayu
Rosli Che Mohamed, 64, bagaimanapun mengaku tidak bersalah dan minta dibicarakan selepas pertuduhan dibacakan di hadapan Hakim Datuk Ibrahim Osman.
AWANI Ringkas: Menteri Besar Perlis beri keterangan kepada SPRM
Ikuti rangkuman berita utama yang menjadi tumpuan sepanjang hari di Astro AWANI menerusi AWANI Ringkas.
Lelaki bunuh kekasih terlepas hukuman gantung, ganti jel 30 tahun
Seorang penyelenggara stor yang membunuh teman wanitanya dengan menjerut leher menggunakan kain tudung terselamat daripada tali gantung.
Empat lelaki ditahan bantu siasatan kes gaduh di kuil
Kes disiasat mengikut Seksyen 148 Kanun Keseksaan dan usaha mengesan suspek lain sedang giat dijalankan.
Pencarum perlu upskill dan reskill untuk tingkatkan jumlah wang persaraan - Pakar
Beliau berkongsi pandangan dalam program Niaga AWANI pada Selasa. Antara lain, beliau menasihatkan agar pencarum tingkatkan juga literasi kewangan.
[TERKINI] SPRM sahkan MB Perlis diambil keterangan
Menteri Besar Perlis, Mohd Shukri Ramli hadir memberi keterangan di Ibu Pejabat SPRM di Putrajaya bagi membantu siasatan kes melibatkan anak lelakinya.
Biotoksin masih tinggi, penternak diminta jangan jual kupang - Jabatan Perikanan
Ujian makmal turut mendapati sampel air dan kupang di perairan tersebut dicemari alga spesies 'Alexandrium' yang berbahaya kepada manusia.
Bintang 'Spider-Man' Tom Holland zahir hasrat kahwini aktres Zendaya
Bintang Spider-Man itu dikatakan sudah berbincang dengan Zendaya untuk berkahwin.
Kes lelaki Israel: Kertas siasatan 10 suspek akan dirujuk AGC minggu ini
Datuk Rusdi Mohd Isa berkata, perbincangan akan diadakan bagi membuat keputusan terhadap tindakan lanjut yang akan dikenakan terhadap suspek terlibat.
Raja Charles III kembali jalani tugas awam selepas rawatan kanser
Raja Britain, Raja Charles III kembali menjalankan tugas awam selepas kesan positif rawatan kansernya.
F1: Raikkonen tinggalkan Ferrari, Leclerc jadi pengganti
Pemandu muda dari Monaco, Charles Leclerc bakal menggantikan Kimi Raikkonen di Ferrari musim depan apabila pemandu veteran Formula One dari Finland itu kembali ke Sauber.
Saya tidak berada dalam kawalan - Vettel
Pelumba kelahiran Jerman itu menewaskan Valtteri Bottas untuk meraih kemenangan ke atas Mercedes yang dilihat berjaya memintas Ferrari di perhentian pit.
Hamilton raih petak utama pada GP Malaysia
Pemandu pasukan Mercedes AMG Petronas, Lewis Hamilton meraih petak utama pada Grand Prix (GP) Formula Satu (F1) Malaysia 2017.
F1: Rosberg catat masa pusingan terpantas dalam sesi latihan pertama
Pelumba Jerman itu yang memenangi perlumbaan sebelum ini di Belgium, Itali dan Singapura, mencatatkan satu minit 35.227 saat.
Formula One: Hamilton menang di Hungary, ungguli tempat teratas keseluruhan
Hamilton mengatasi Rosberg pada permulaan perlumbaan dan menguasai 70 pusingan seterusnya di Litar Hungaroring.
Corat-coret F1 Grand Prix Malaysia Petronas
Pasukan Scuderia Ferrari luah simpati tragedi MH370, Vergne dan Kvyat lakukan 36 pusingan keseluruhan serta Raikonnen di tempat kedua, Alonso kelima ketika sesi latihan kedua.
Raikkonen kembali ke Ferrari
Ferrari mengumumkan pelumba F1 kelahiran Findland, Kimmi Raikkonen akan kembali ke pasukan itu untuk saingan musim depan.
GP Malaysia dijangka sengit - Kimi Raikkonen
Perlumbaan sengit dijangka akan berlangsung pada acara saingan Grand Prix Malaysia, Jumaat ini di Litar Antarabangsa Sepang (SIC).
Tiada perubahan dalam persiapan bagi GP M'sia - Raikkonen
Bekas juara Formula One (F1) dunia, Kimi Raikkonen tidak akan mengubah persediaan pada perlumbaan Petronas Grand Prix Malaysia.
Kimi Raikkonen catat masa terpantas sesi ujian
Sesi ujian Formula One musim sejuk menyaksikan pemandu Lotus, Kimi Raikkonen mencatatkan masa terpantas di Jerez, Sepanyol.