It started with absolute bullshit, and almost ended with absolute bullshit, but Sepang is such a phenomenal track that it just about delivered the best race of the season anyway in-between that.

Max was of course flawless all weekend, but I think either Hamilton or Alonso were more deserving of DOTD, personally. Both had insane pace today, but Alonso dragging that AM to 8th and holding off Norris at the end on pure pace was just an unbelievable feat. He was also really fast on slick tires in the wet start. Father Time may be undefeated, but damn it if Fernando isn’t going to take it to the full 12 rounds.

Otherwise it’s another farce for the new engine regs. You’ve heard of GP3 engines before, but these are GPT engines. Last regs we couldn’t race in the wet because of spray; these regs we can’t race in the wet because it confuses the onboard AIs. Absolute nonsense, and I say that as someone who is largely more tolerant of hybrids than some. I don’t care about how many percent of the total power is electric, but deployment simply must be completely under the driver’s control. No more of this “I hope the AI gives me good deployment this lap” garbage.

But still. Even with all that said. Sepang fucking delivers. What a track. I hope the idiots that designed Madring are inundated with email tomorrow simply containing pictures of this trackmap. This is how you design a circuit that is both technical, provides multiple overtaking opportunities, and has wide corners offering multiple racing lines. Much like Bahrain and COTA, Sepang shows that Hermann Tilke is overhated. I get the criticisms and not all of his tracks are hits. But he can do good work.

I really hope the large crowd turnout this race encourages Malaysia to consider bringing Sepang back to F1 permanently.