Lewis Hamilton was faster than his Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg in Friday’s second practice session for the Malaysian Grand Prix.
Hamilton, who will go into Sunday’s race trailing Rosberg by eight points with six races to go, was 0.233sec faster than his rival, with the Ferrari of Sebastian Vettel in third place, four tenths of a second further behind.
Hamilton proved faster than Rosberg on hard tyres and repeated the trick later on when the pair switched to soft rubber. All the drivers had to contend with low grip levels because of the freshly track surface. The track temperature was also intense, reaching 56C at one point.
Earlier, in the first practice run, Rosberg was faster than Hamilton by almost half a second. Hamilton’s time was compromised by a lock-up as he went into turn nine.
Mercedes were again dominant, and they were followed by the Ferraris and then, feeling giddy in fifth, McLaren’s Fernando Alonso, who was followed by the Red Bulls of Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen.
But the session’s most eye-catching moment came when Kevin Magnussen’s Renault caught fire. Magnussen had to jump out of his car as it burst into flames after he had completed his second installation lap.
