The Malaysian Grand Prix was another straightforward one-stopper for almost every driver in the field.
By avoiding the temptation to make a second stop Ocon was able to pick up the final point for tenth. Nico Hulkenberg, who also pitted early, was warned by his team that two-stopping was not a good strategy. Nonetheless he did make a second stop with five laps to go. Romain Grosjean was another driver who made two visits to the pits, and it didn’t work out for him either.
There was some concern over the possibility of rain around the middle of the race which may explain why some teams were reluctant to pit earlier than they did. Once Lewis Hamilton became the first of the front runners to pit and his lap times dropped by well over two seconds, the rest of the front runners soon followed.
2017 Malaysian Grand Prix tyre strategies
The tyre strategies for each driver:
| Stint 1 | Stint 2 | Stint 3 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Max Verstappen | Super soft (27) | Soft (29) | |
| Lewis Hamilton | Super soft (26) | Soft (30) | |
| Daniel Ricciardo | Super soft (29) | Soft (27) | |
| Sebastian Vettel | Soft (27) | Super soft (29) | |
| Valtteri Bottas | Super soft (28) | Soft (28) | |
| Sergio Perez | Super soft (30) | Soft (26) | |
| Stoffel Vandoorne | Super soft (13) | Soft (42) | |
| Lance Stroll | Super soft (12) | Soft (43) | |
| Felipe Massa | Super soft (11) | Soft (44) | |
| Esteban Ocon | Super soft (2) | Soft (53) | |
| Fernando Alonso | Super soft (26) | Soft (29) | |
| Kevin Magnussen | Super soft (10) | Soft (45) | |
| Romain Grosjean | Super soft (11) | Soft (22) | Super soft (22) |
| Pierre Gasly | Super soft (12) | Soft (43) | |
| Jolyon Palmer | Super soft (13) | Soft (42) | |
| Nico Hulkenberg | Super soft (9) | Soft (41) | Super soft (5) |
| Pascal Wehrlein | Soft (37) | Super soft (18) | |
| Marcus Ericsson | Soft (38) | Super soft (16) | |
| Carlos Sainz Jnr | Super soft (29) |
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2017 Malaysian Grand Prix pit stop times
How long each driver’s pit stops took:
| Driver | Team | Pit stop time | Gap | On lap | |
| 1 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 23.489 | 26 | |
| 2 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | 23.652 | 0.163 | 27 |
| 3 | Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | 23.676 | 0.187 | 28 |
| 4 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 23.695 | 0.206 | 27 |
| 5 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas | 23.766 | 0.277 | 10 |
| 6 | Felipe Massa | Williams | 23.791 | 0.302 | 11 |
| 7 | Lance Stroll | Williams | 24.109 | 0.620 | 12 |
| 8 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull | 24.199 | 0.710 | 29 |
| 9 | Sergio Perez | Force India | 24.314 | 0.825 | 30 |
| 10 | Romain Grosjean | Haas | 24.419 | 0.930 | 33 |
| 11 | Esteban Ocon | Force India | 24.456 | 0.967 | 2 |
| 12 | Stoffel Vandoorne | McLaren | 24.580 | 1.091 | 13 |
| 13 | Marcus Ericsson | Sauber | 24.719 | 1.230 | 38 |
| 14 | Nico Hulkenberg | Renault | 24.872 | 1.383 | 9 |
| 15 | Romain Grosjean | Haas | 24.912 | 1.423 | 11 |
| 16 | Pierre Gasly | Toro Rosso | 25.044 | 1.555 | 12 |
| 17 | Pascal Wehrlein | Sauber | 25.060 | 1.571 | 37 |
| 18 | Jolyon Palmer | Renault | 25.558 | 2.069 | 13 |
| 19 | Nico Hulkenberg | Renault | 25.714 | 2.225 | 50 |
| 20 | Fernando Alonso | McLaren | 25.798 | 2.309 | 26 |
2017 Malaysian Grand Prix
- Hamilton queried the FIA over Vettel’s steering wheel in Malaysia
- Vettel: Stroll changed direction without looking
- Ferrari ‘not fully confident’ of fix for fault which stopped both cars in Malaysia
- New video from Stroll’s car reveals Vettel crash view the stewards didn’t see
- 2017 Malaysian Grand Prix team radio transcript
Copersucar
1st October 2017, 16:12
Maybe Seb was asking too much of his supersofts, after being the fastest his last eight laps or so were painful.
F1 in Figures (@f1infigures)
1st October 2017, 18:25
I thought the track surface was quite abrasive, but apparently these tires are so hard that degradation is still quite low. The main reason why the front-runners were pitting late was that they were waiting for each other to pit first. Due to the low tire wear the timing of the pitstop didn’t matter much. The only objective was to stay out of traffic.
By the way, Grosjean had nothing to lose when he made his second stop, so his strategy was understandable. Hülkenberg’s strategy didn’t make sense at all. Either he took fresh tires because he had a slow puncture, or his objective was to set the fastest lap of the race.