The heat's turned up at Sepang for Friday's Free Practice 3, and we're not just talking about the track temperature hitting over 60 degrees Celsius. Charles Leclerc topped the FP2 session for Ferrari, but Max Verstappen's fastest time from FP1 still sits just eight thousandths of a second quicker when you look at the overall pace across the morning's running. It's shaping up to be a proper battle this weekend.

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Mercedes rolled out their biggest upgrade package since May, and George Russell and championship leader Kimi Antonelli have been putting in serious work fine-tuning the setup throughout practice. But honestly, the new bits don't seem to be delivering quite what the team hoped for. Still, Mercedes isn't out of the fight by any stretch, and you've got to think they'll be hunting for that bit extra before qualifying kicks off later today.

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The conditions at the Malaysian circuit are absolutely brutal for everyone. Drivers are dealing with extreme heat that's testing both man and machine, making every lap count. With qualifying still to come and the race just hours away, teams are racing against time to nail their setups. The pecking order's still pretty jumbled heading into the afternoon, which means there's everything still to play for when it matters most.

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