Sunday, March 29. Sepang District, Malaysia. The weather was clear.
Located in the tropics, Sepang was currently in its dry season, but the strong convective weather in the mornings and evenings reliably brought localized rain at regular times. Because of this, the race—originally scheduled for around five o'clock—had been bumped up to three o'clock to avoid a potential downpour.
Without any rain to cool it down, the track surface at the Sepang International Circuit was scorchingly hot. During yesterday's third free practice session, track temperatures had spiked to a blistering 61 degrees Celsius—an extreme peak rarely seen since the inception of Formula 1.
A little past two in the afternoon, the ambient air temperature in the shaded open areas had already hit 33 degrees, and the track surface temperature was just as brutal as the day before.
During the reconnaissance lap, Wu Shi had already noticed that today's tire situation was far from optimistic.
