Ferrari leads, Mercedes struggles in shortened FP2

Ferrari set the pace as Mercedes struggled in a second practice session for the Malaysian Grand Prix that was shortened by a high-speed crash for Romain Grosjean.

With 22 minutes of the session remaining, a drain cover came loose on the apex curb at Turn 13, with the cover sticking up after being dislodged by Valtteri Bottas and Kimi Raikkonen running over it in quick succession. Grosjean was the next driver on the road and his right-rear tire was ripped off by the protruding cover, pitching him into a high-speed spin that ended with the Haas hitting the tire barrier on the outside of the circuit.

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Grosjean was quickly checked and discharged from the medical center after the incident, while FIA race director Charlie Whiting headed out to inspect the track. With the clock continuing to run down, the FIA confirmed the session would not be restarted while investigations took place and the curb was repaired.

It marked the end of an encouraging session for Sebastian Vettel, with the German leading teammate Raikkonen by 0.6s as Ferrari looked impressive during FP2. Even more encouragingly for Vettel – who is 28 points behind championship leader Lewis Hamilton – was the performance of Red Bull, with Daniel Ricciardo in third and Max Verstappen in fourth the only other cars within a second of Ferrari.

Verstappen was unhappy with the balance of his car and opted to make changes before carrying out a second low-fuel run on used supersoft tires. The teenager – who turns 20 tomorrow – still managed to improve but was then refueling to carry out his long run when the red flag came out and left him with just 11 laps to his name.

Fernando Alonso was a surprise fifth for McLaren, beating Mercedes as both Hamilton and Bottas struggled some 1.4s off the pace. Bottas was first to go off as he ran wide at Turn 11 and damaged the floor of his car on the exit curb before having to recover through the gravel. Hamilton then went off at Turn 8, spinning after hitting the apex curb at Turn 7 and flat-spotting all four tires before also taking a trip through the gravel trap.

While Sergio Perez, Nico Hulkenberg and Esteban Ocon rounded out the top 10 – the final three within two seconds of the fastest time – a number of other drivers suffered off-track excursions during the dry afternoon session at Sepang.

Lance Stroll ran slightly wide at Turn 8 not long before Hamilton's spin, while Carlos Sainz followed Bottas in running wide at Turn 11, catching a snap of oversteer as he complained the handling of his Toro Rosso was "horrible." Sainz ended up slower than new teammate Pierre Gasly, although the pair were only 0.061s apart in 15th and 16th positions.

The other driver to have a notable off-track moment was Marcus Ericsson when the Swede went wide at Turn 9, with the two Sauber drivers once again ending up slowest overall in the dry.