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Form guide: Mercedes under pressure in the heat

Friday practice at Sepang hints that things might be a lot closer this weekend than they were in Australia two weeks ago. By GARY ANDERSON and EDD STRAW

Could it really be that in just two weeks the massive advantage Mercedes had during the Australian Grand Prix weekend has been so rapidly eroded?

Friday practice at Sepang certainly suggested that the gap has closed, even if intuitively the 0.061s that covered pacesetter Nico Rosberg's Mercedes, Kimi Raikkonen's Ferrari and Sebastian Vettel's Red Bull-Renault at the end of the day seems too good to be true.

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