page_title: Mercedes AMG F1 W08 EQ Power+
section_title: Asian rounds
hierarchical_section_title: Mercedes AMG F1 W08 EQ Power+ / Season summary / Asian rounds
caption_attribution_description: English: Formula One 2017 Rd.15 Malaysian GP: Max Verstappen (Red Bull) overtaking Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes)
context_page_description: The Mercedes AMG F1 W08 EQ Power+ was a Mercedes-Benz Formula One racing car designed and developed under the direction of Aldo Costa, Paddy Lowe, Geoff Willis, John Owen and Mike Elliott to compete during the 2017 Formula One World Championship. The car was driven by three-time World Drivers' Champion Lewis Hamilton, who remained with the team for a fifth season, and Valtteri Bottas, who joined the team after 2016 World Champion Nico Rosberg's retirement from the sport.
  The chassis was originally named the "Mercedes F1 W08" to represent the eighth Formula One car that Mercedes had constructed since 2010. The "EQ Power+" was added to increase exposure of Mercedes' electric road car models, whilst AMG was included to reflect the relationship between Mercedes-AMG and Mercedes-Benz. The car made its competitive début at the 2017 Australian Grand Prix, the opening round of the 2017 season. After participating in 19 rounds of Grand Prix racing, the car made its final competition appearance at the season finale race – the 2017 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, before retirement.
  The F1 W08 EQ Power+ took twelve wins, fifteen pole positions, nine fastest laps and four 1-2 finishes.
context_section_description: Mercedes struggled during the qualifying of the Singapore Grand Prix. In a worst-case scenario for the team, Vettel grabbed pole position while Hamilton and Bottas only qualified on the third row for P5 and P6, behind both Red Bulls and the second Ferrari of Räikkönen. During the first ever wet-dry night Grand Prix on Sunday, Hamilton benefited from a heavy start crash involving Räikkönen, Verstappen and Vettel which forced all three of them to retire their cars. He took the lead after a few corners and went on to win the race despite having to fight off Ricciardo during three safety car restarts. Bottas initially dropped down to sixth place but managed to regain third position during a phase of pit stops, allowing Mercedes an unlikely double-podium finish.
  Having major setup difficulties after introducing a new upgrade package at the Malaysian Grand Prix, Mercedes found themselves over 1.4 s. off pace to Ferrari on Friday. Mercedes boss Toto Wolff said that the car had a fundamental issue which needed to be found out. On Saturday the team decided to run split programmes, with Bottas running the new aero package and Hamilton reverting to the old one. During qualifying Mercedes benefited from unlucky power unit problems on Vettel's car which made him start last on the grid. Hamilton went on to secure his 70th career pole position, by slamming in a new track lap record of 1m 30.076s. He managed to fend off Räikkönen by less than half a tenth (0.045 s.). Bottas finished fifth fastest, behind both Red Bulls. Mercedes struggled again on Sunday. After staying ahead of the start, Hamilton ceded his lead to a charging Verstappen on lap 4 as he was suffering with a problem with his car's MGU-K system which saw him lose around 160 hp on the straights. He quietly settled for second place and focused on further extending his lead in the driver's championship. Bottas got a great start which moved him up to P3 but he dropped down to fifth position again after being overtaken by Ricciardo and a recovering Vettel who started from the back of the grid.
  During qualifying of the Japanese Grand Prix Mercedes proved to be the dominant force in cool weather conditions. Hamilton flew to his first Suzuka pole and shattered the old circuit record by Michael Schumacher from 2006 by over 1.6 seconds. Bottas qualified second, 3 tenths behind his teammate. However, due to an unscheduled gearbox change he received a five-place grid penalty, thus promoting Vettel to a first row start. On Sunday Hamilton took advantage of another retirement from Vettel and controlled the pace for the majority of the race. During the final laps he came under increasing pressure from Verstappen after having lost heat in his tyres during a late virtual safety car but managed to beat the Red Bull by 1.2 seconds in a thrilling finish. Bottas attacked Ricciardo in the closing stages of the race after running the faster supersofts in his final stint but just missed out on the podium by nine-tenths of a second.
caption: Max Verstappen took over the lead by overtaking Lewis Hamilton at 2017 Malaysian Grand Prix.
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