James SB: 9 years too long to come back to Sepang. F1 has a habit of losing great tracks like Malaysia and Istanbul. Thankfully we are back and its gonna be a good one! Bring on Turkey next year as well.

Mercedes are running a special livery in honour of title partner Petronas' home race this weekend, which from the front, looks exactly the same as the Aston Martin.

George Russell said on Thursday his "confidence is back and growing again" following his perfect Azerbaijan Grand Prix, and he goes top in Sepang with a time of 1:37.903 on the softs.

But Max Verstappen is also on the red rubber, and the four-time world champion beats Russell's time by 0.383 seconds to lead the timesheets with 23 minutes to go.

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George Russell has a moment at a very dusty Turn Four, just as Isack Hadjar puts his Red Bull top of the timesheets with a 1:38.303 on the soft compound.

Liam Lawson has also climbed the ladder in the Racing Bulls, clocking a 1:39.106 on the soft rubber to sit sixth on the board.

Arvid Lindblad was temporarily off his team-mate Liam Lawson's Christmas card list last weekend when the pair made contact in Baku, with the New Zealander saying "Man, I love being taken out by my team-mate," following the incident. But the British rookie apologised in the media pen after the race and all was forgiven.

Lindblad went on to score six points to add to his championship tally, and on the soft tyre here in Sepang, and with the track slowly evolving, he's reached third spot on the timesheets with a 1:39.197.

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Daniel Leavesley: Great that F1 is back in Malaysia. A really good track that should still be a permanent fixture in the calendar.

1. Max Verstappen (Red Bull) - 1:38.883 (soft)

2. George Russell (Mercedes) +0.049 (medium)

3. Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes) +0.571 (medium)

4. Isack Hadjar (Red Bull) +0.737 (soft)

5. Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) +0.903 (medum)

Charles Leclerc qualified second and finished fourth in Baku last weekend and heads to the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia fifth in the standings, six points behind world champion Lando Norris.

The Ferrari driver is on the medium compound for now and is next to relay information to his pit wall. "Tyre degradation is insane," says the Monegasque driver, who took part in a practice session the last time F1 was here in 2017.

In the very short break between Baku and Baharain (in Malaysia), we were given 2027 driver line-up news, with Haas announcing they would split with Esteban Ocon at the end of the year, and Fernando Alonso confirming he will be staying with Aston Martin for at least another season. Two-time world champion Alonso said his main reason for staying was becausehe "still feels fast".

Meanwhile, Sepang is getting a big thumbs up from the newbies. "This track is very cool," George Russell, who is second on the timesheets, tells his Mercedes pit wall.

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The weather in Malaysia is unpredictable, and thundery showers are forecast across the three days of track running this weekend.

At the moment, today's practice sessions have the highest chance of rain, although it is fine and dry at the moment. Sunday's 53-lap grand prix, which starts at 3pm local time, is looking a bit more settled.

We're yet to see these new generation cars tackle any wet conditions despite entering the latter stages of the campaign. If the weather does take a turn for the worse, it could shake up the order before next week's race in Singapore, which is also the final sprint event of the year.

Lewis Hamilton, who claimed a dominant victory here in 2014 with Mercedes, said on Thursday the tyres are "melting the moment you leave the garage" in Malaysia, while Oscar Piastri, a first-timer at Sepang, said it's like "driving on sand paper". So degradation is high on the agenda this weekend.

There is a mix of soft and medium compounds in the early stages of this first practice session and it's 2017 winner Max Verstappen who is quickest on the red soft with a 1:39.400 from the Mercedes pair of George Russell and Kimi Antonelli.

The Mercedes garage a busy place today as everyone to wrestles to get a look at the team's long-awaited upgrade package - their first major update since May.

Team boss Toto Wolff is hoping the new bodywork and floor will the take the Silver Arrows "another step forward".

Wolff added: "Our focus is on understanding the package quickly, executing the weekend well, and aiming to put ourselves in the fight at the front."

Tyre suppliers Pirelli have confirmed the compound selection for Sepang, with the C2 as the hard, the C3 as the medium and the C4 as the soft. Will the green intermediates and blue full wets get some laps on the board? The two compounds are on standby if the skies turn wet and grey.

In its preview, Pirelli says grip levels should start to improve as the weekend progresses, adding Friday's two practice sessions will be crucial for gathering data, as "no team possesses truly relevant references relating to the current generation of Formula 1 cars".

BBC Sounds

Harry Benjamin, Sam Bird and Andrew Benson are with us all weekend for the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia - that's its official title.

To tune in, click the listen live tab at the top of the page, head over to BBC Sounds and search for Sports Extra if you're heading out to work or ask your smart speaker to "play Sports Extra".

Welcome back, Sepang.

First practice is green.

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Turn One at the Sepang International Circuit hasn't seen any Formula 1 action since 2017, when a young Max Verstappen secured his second career victory at the Malaysian Grand Prix ahead of then Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton and former Red Bull team-mate Daniel Ricciardo.

With hot and sweaty conditions the norm in Malaysia, this weekend's event has been declared the third heat-hazard race of the campaign.

As for the Sepang track, it first appeared on the calendar in October 1999 and its fast, flowing layout soon became a favourite among the drivers. The wide design mixes long straights, big braking zones and high-speed corners, with decent opportunities to overtake.

Of the current grid, 10 drivers have experience of the physically demanding circuit, with Hamilton and Fernando Alonso joining fellow multiple world champion Verstappen as a past winner.

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Isack Hadjar had been forced to sit on the sidelines for the last few weeks while he recovered from a wrist injury. He finally made his return in Baku and scored a third-placed finish to stand alongside team-mate Max Verstappen, who was second, on the podium.

Red Bull stay in fourth spot, but they have inched closer to McLaren in third and are now 43 points away from the constructors' champions.

Leaders Mercedes, meanwhile, are still clear of Ferrari by a healthy margin at the top of the standings, while rookie Arvid Lindblad's points last weekend has moved Racing Bulls 15 points free of Alpine in the battle for fifth place.

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George Russell's third victory of the 2026 campaign - and they all begin with the letter A: Australia, Austria and Azerbaijan - along with team-mate Kimi Antonelli's fifth-placed finish in Baku has closed the gap at the top of the drivers' championship to 66 points with eight (as it stands) races remaining.

Lando Norris failed to score points last weekend when he was taken out of the running through no fault of his own. The world champion stays in fourth, 13 points off third-placed Lewis Hamilton, who was sixth.

Lorraine McKenna
BBC Sport Journalist

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Hello, folks. Formula 1 is in the middle of a triple-header, and the next stop in this trio of races is a return visit to Malaysia for the first time in nine years. The Sepang International Circuit is hosting this year's Bahrain Grand Prix after the event was postponed in April because of the war in the Middle East.

The last race to be held in Malaysia was in 2017, so there are plenty of drivers on the grid who will be new to this track's hot and humid test.

We left off in Azerbaijan a week ago with George Russell back on the top step of the podium with victory in Baku from pole position. The Mercedes driver held off a late charge from the Red Bull of Max Verstappen and is now 66 points behind championship leader Kimi Antonelli, who started 16th and finished fifth, in the title fight.

It was a Grand Slam weekend for Russell last time out, while team-mate Antonelli conceded he was "driving more like my grandma", so he "wasn't the usual Kimi".