Max Verstappen led Red Bull to the head of the field in opening Formula 1 prac♏tice for the Malaysian Grand Prix on Friday, making the most of wet conditions at Sepang to lead home teammate Daniel Ricciardo.

A storm around 20 minutes before the planned start of ൲the session prompted FIA race director Charlie Whiting to put running on hold until conditions improved, with the cars eventually getting out after 30 minutes sat in the pits.

Conditions gradually improved throughout the session, allowing the drivers to finish on interꦐmediate tyres and tot up a decent number of laps, with Verstappen 🐈leading the way.

A fastest time of 1:48.962 saw Verstappen finish seven-tenths of a second clear of Ricciardo in the sister Red Bull RB13, with the pair eager to try and repeat the one-two finish scored in last year൩'s race.

Fernando Alonso capitalised on the damp conditions to take an excell🧜ent third place for McLaren 1.6 se♒conds down on Verstappen, with the Ferrari pair of Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel following in fourth and fifth place respectively.

Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas took P6 and P7 ahead of Williams' Lance Stroll, ཧwhile Pierre Gasly enjoyed a solid first grand prix weekend session to finish ninth-fastest.

Standing in for Nico Hulkenberg in FP1, Renault re🐼serve driver Sergey Sirotkin comp🅺leted the top 10, albeit not without a spin at Turn 2 in the wet conditions.

Formula 2 racers Sean G꧂elael and Charles Leclerc both enjoyed run-outs with Toro Rosso and Sauber respectively, finishing 14th and 16th, while Antonio Giovinazzi was 19th-fastest fo⭕r Haas, having featured as part of his practice programme with the American team.