Kimi Raikkonen leads the world championship after round one but will the Ice Man thaw in sweaty Sepang this weekend? He’s used to Finnish saunas, so he will probably stay cool.

The Australian Grand Prix winner reckons Lotus will be even stronger in Malaysia, with the team bringing some upgrades they hope will keep them ahead of Ferrari and Red Bull.

‘We have some developments coming which is good news, and the hot temperature should normally help us do an even better job,’ said team principal Eric Boullier.

The Lotus looked fairly ordinary in Melbourne’s rain-delayed qualifying but came into its own in the race when it was dry. Malaysia’s circuit is more representative of the fast, flowing tracks the championship will visit this year, albeit with more humidity and a high chance of torrential rain.

Sebastian Vettel hopes his Red Bull will be more in tune than in Australia, where he was lightning quick in qualifying but suffered from tyre degradation in the race.

‘Australia is like a street circuit, Sepang is a race circuit with more high-speed corners, more load in general,’ Vettel said. ‘We’ll try to keep the tyres a bit better and go further.’