Verstappen felt dizzy immediately at the end of Friday's opening practice session after stepping out of the car, as drivers faced sweltering temperatures at Sepang.

The Dutchman was quickly revived and suffered no lingering after-effects, as the team reckoned the incident had been triggered by him simply getting out of his car too quickly in the heat.

Speaking about the incident himself to Dutch TV, Verstappen said: "After FP1 I think I stepped out of the car a bit too quick.

"Things became a bit hazy before my eyes, so I had to sit down for a moment. But FP2 was no problem at all.”

Verstappen and teammate Daniel Ricciardo showed impressive long-run pace on Friday but know that they will need to improve their single lap pace if they want to have any hope of taking the fight to Mercedes and Ferrari

"If we can find a bit more in the short run, then we can be happy," said Verstappen. "I felt there was quite some lap time in the soft.

"But I was most happy in the long run, it felt like I could do what I wanted with the car. I could throw it into the corner like I wanted to and still the pace was there."

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