With three other Grands Prix in the Far East – China, Japan and Singapore – the administration no longer feel the event represents a sensible financial investment.
However, there is still one race remaining with Sebastian Vettel hoping to score a record fifth win in the race.
The Ferrari driver record the fastest time on Friday afternoon and may only have his team-mate Kimi Raikkonen and the Red Bulls to worry about after Mercedes struggled in the wet and the dry to compete with the front runners.
But can Lewis Hamilton turn his engine up and deny Vettel pole and the chance to reduce the Brit’s 28-point lead at the front of the F1 World Drivers’ Championship? Express Sport will bring you the latest action from Sepang.
Malaysian Grand Prix 2017 qualifying LIVE – latest updates from Sepang
Malaysia Grand Prix 2017 Q1 results
OUT in Q1: Vettel, Ericsson, Wehrlein, Magnussen, Grosjean.
Malaysia Grand Prix 2017 Q2 results
OUT in Q2: Massa, Palmer, Stroll, Sainz, Gasly.
Malaysia Grand Prix 2017 Q3 results
To Follow
10:50am: Raikkonen is on fire in Sepang and is showing no signs of slowing down going into Q3 and records the second fastest lap – but it’s Valtterri Bottas who leads the way.
Meanwhile, it was a brilliant effort by Massa in Q2 but the Brazilian missed out in 11th by two hundredths of a second!
The top 10 are on track for Q3 now – can Hamilton take advantage of Vettel’s misfortunes and qualify on pole?
10:27am: Vettel will start LAST in tomorrow’s Grand Prix after failing to complete a single lap in qualifying.
Vettel suffered engine problems in the final stages of FP3 and Ferrari were unable to fix them before qualifying.
Ferrari mechanics were shown frantically doing all they could to find a quick fix as the clock ticked down but turbo problems proved too costly.
9:45am: What happened in FP3 this morning?
Kimi Raikkonen set the fastest time in the final practice session of the Malaysian Grand Prix as Ferrari recorded a one-two finish.
A battle between Sebastien Vettel and the Finn saw the Ferraris dominate on the track ahead of today’s qualifying.
But it’s Raikkonen who’ll go into qualifying with the fastest lap after recording a time of 1:31.880 with Vettell coming home in 1:32.042.
Daniel Ricciardo set the third fastest time of FP3, while Championship leader Lewis Hamilton had to settle for fifth.
Hamilton made a mistake at the final corner on his qualifying simulation, running deep into the hairpin and failing to improve on his earlier time.
8.50am: So this is an early start, European fans! We (and as we are in London, I’m included) had grown rather used to the time zones that let us get out of bed at a reasonable time. But now, we have flown away again and I am back to coming into the office at weird times.
Fortunately, this is rather reasonable for a Saturday morning and we are (sort of) wide awake and ready for Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton to do battle once again.
The Ferrari is favourite after a strong showing in the dry on Friday and Saturday as Mercedes struggled with some ‘gremlins’ in the car which caused the tyres to overheat. The Brackley bosses can only hope they have solved some of those problems in FP3 this morning although their lap times were still some way off their rivals.