Friday practice for Formula 1's one-off return to Malaysia, following a nine-year hiatus, was always going to throw a few curveballs the paddock's way.
But while Malaysia's daily monsoons missed the track, instead it was the Sepang circuit itself that proved tough to tame. Thursday's track walks had already indicated that the "sandpaper" tarmac, as Oscar Piastri described it, would lead to high tyre degradation.
