Championship leader Sebastian Vettel achieved his 17th career pole position in Sepang and denying Lewis Hamilton from the top spot in a thrilling qualifying session.
Hamilton’s first flying lap in Q3 was impressive with a time of one minute, 35.000 seconds. Edging out Vettel by a tenth of a second at that moment.
The McLaren driver went even faster on his second run with one minute, 34.974 seconds but the world champion was able to react to the challenge and produced a fantastic time of one minute, 34.870 seconds to maintain his perfect qualifying record this season. Although Vettel’s margin was only 0.104 seconds compared to Melbourne.
After setting the pace in Friday’s two practice sessions, Mark Webber could only manage third but was only 0.309 seconds adrift to his Red Bull Racing team-mate. As for Jenson Button, who was the quickest in Q2, the McLaren driver will start in fourth position, only 0.021 seconds away from Webber.
That quartet had the pole position fight to themselves, with the rest of the frontrunners a long way off the pace and without enough soft ‘Option’ tyres to do more than one Q3 run.
Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso led this ‘best of the rest’ group in fifth, with his team-mate Felipe Massa down in seventh. This qualifying form is very disappointing for the Scuderia and questions will be asked on why that impressive winter testing form has disappeared over the course of two qualifying events in Australia and here in Malaysia.
The Renaults made it to Q3 despite the difficult start to the weekend, as during practice both Nick Heidfeld and Vitaly Petrov suffered suspension uprights failure. The former recorded the sixth fastest time, putting aside his Melbourne misery while the latter will start in eighth.
Rounding out the top ten is Nico Rosberg for Mercedes ahead of Sauber’s Kamui Kobayashi.
For the second race in a row, Michael Schumacher missed out on a Q3 spot and will start P11 – this time after his Mercedes team-mate Rosberg’s late improvement knocked him out.
Neither Toro Rosso reached Q3 at Sepang, with Sebastian Buemi losing a large part of his sidepod bodywork in Q1, which required a brief red flag period. The Swiss driver was able to recover from this to qualify ahead of his team-mate Jaime Alguersuari in P12.
The Force Indias will start the Malaysian Grand Prix in P14 and P17, with Paul di Resta out-qualifying Adrian Sutil once again. Split in-between is Rubens Barrichello for Williams, while Melbourne hero Sergio Perez was only P16 for Sauber.
Even though Team Lotus didn’t get through to Q2, there is a great sign of encouragement as Heikki Kovalainen and Jarno Trulli got within half a second of the Williams of Pastor Maldonado. Plus beating Virgin Racing by a margin of two seconds.
As for Hispania, both Tonio Liuzzi and Narain Karthikeyan made the 107 per cent qualifying cut very comfortably in Q1 and will take part in Sunday’s race.
Sunday’s Malaysian Grand Prix will be intriguing as the excessive tyre degradation seen in the practice sessions could see three to four pit-stops during 56 laps. In addition, the weather forecast has hinted a chance of rain meaning we could see an exciting race!
Can the Drag Reduction System – which can be used on the main start and finish straight, which is significant longer than in Melbourne – provide a better representation on the new rules to make cars overtake one another? We will find out and more come race day in Sepang.
Qualifying times from Sepang:
1. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1m34.870s
2. Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1m34.974s
3. Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault 1m35.179s
4. Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1m35.200s
5. Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1m35.802s
6. Nick Heidfeld Renault 1m36.124s
7. Felipe Massa Ferrari 1m36.251s
8. Vitaly Petrov Renault 1m36.324s
9. Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1m36.809s
10. Kamui Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 1m36.820s
11. Michael Schumacher Mercedes 1m37.035s
12. Sebastien Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m37.160s
13. Jaime Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m37.347s
14. Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes 1m37.370s
15. Rubens Barrichello Williams-Cosworth 1m37.496s
16. Sergio Perez Sauber-Ferrari 1m37.528s
17. Adrian Sutil Force India-Mercedes 1m37.593s
18. Pastor Maldonado Williams-Cosworth 1m38.276s
19. Heikki Kovalainen Lotus-Renault 1m38.645s
20. Jarno Trulli Lotus-Renault 1m38.791s
21. Timo Glock Virgin-Cosworth 1m40.648s
22. Jerome D’Ambrosio Virgin-Cosworth 1m41.001s
23. Tonio Liuzzi HRT-Cosworth 1m41.549s
24. Narain Karthikeyan HRT-Cosworth 1m42.574s
107 per cent lap time: 1m43.516s
World champion Sebastian Vettel has commented that without the aid of the KERS device in qualifying, the Red Bull wouldn’t be on pole position at Sepang. Autosport.com has the details.
Sebastian Vettel believes he would not have been on pole position if his Red Bull team had not run KERS during qualifying at Sepang.
The team had decided not to use the device in Australia in order to avoid problems, but despite that Vettel went on to take a commanding pole and victory.
However, with longer straights in Sepang, Red Bull decided to run KERS today, and Vettel finished on top again, although by just a tenth of a second from McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton.
The world champion admitted it has been much harder than in Melbourne and conceded that without KERS, he and team-mate Mark Webber would not have been in the top three.
“I would say so, definitely it was quite a challenging weekend until qualifying,” said Vettel.
“I was happy with the car but we never got into a rhythm so yesterday was not as smooth as we hoped for and also this morning we knew we had it in the car, the main thing was believing in it.
“We got criticism last time for not running it [KERS] and we came here and solved most of our problems and I think if we would not have it today then we would not be here, both of us, so it is a great achievement, compliments to those guys. We work hand in had so we are pleased.”
Despite just pipping Hamilton to pole following his dominant showing in Australia, Vettel said there was nothing wrong with his car.
The German claimed it had just not been a perfect day.
“It was not a particular problem with the car, nothing broke down. It was not smooth, we did not have the laps we wanted. A little bit of traffic, I did mistakes, so it did not come together as nicely. Now we focus on tomorrow.”
With Sebastian Vettel edging out to take pole position in the final moments of qualifying, McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton was not disappointed to line up second on the grid. Autosport.com has the details.
Lewis Hamilton says McLaren has no reason to be disappointed at narrowly missing out on pole position in Malaysia given how much it has closed the gap on Red Bull since Australia.
Sebastian Vettel pipped Hamilton for the top spot on the Sepang grid at the end of Q3, but whereas the Red Bull had been 0.8 seconds clear of the field in Melbourne, this weekend the margin was just 0.1s.
“I don’t think we can be disappointed,” said Hamilton. “Going into the last race we did a fantastic job to be up there on the Red Bulls.
“I’m proud to be getting some new parts this weekend, we can be happy with it. I would have loved to be on the front row and be on P1, but these guys still have the slight edge.
“We have closed the gap a little bit it seems here. The lap wasn’t perfect so I have to improve on that.”
Although McLaren had looked like a match for Red Bull in practice, Hamilton admitted he had suspected the champion team would pull away in qualifying trim.
“We always expected they might have a little bit in hand, especially going into the last run, they normally tend to pull something out of the bag, and they pull a bit of pace towards the end of Q3,” he said.
“On my lap we lost a little bit of time in one corner so I cannot be too disappointed.”
Team Lotus boss Tony Fernandes admitted he was overjoyed with the performance of his drivers in qualifying for the Malaysian Grand Prix.
Heikki Kovalainen qualified in 19th position, 1.9 seconds off the quickest time in Q1 and less than half a second behind the Williams of Pastor Maldonado.
Team-mate Jarno Trulli was 10th, around a tenth behind the Finn.
Fernandes said he was short for words to describe his joy at being so close to the midfield teams.
“Words cannot express how happy and overjoyed I am right now,” said Fernandes. “To see 18 months of hard work come good with us finishing within a couple of tenths of teams that have been around for a long time, and less than a second away from the midfield pack, that is an amazing achievement.
“It is made even more satisfying after what has been a pretty hard winter test program, taking on the issues we have been working through and, honestly, not a great start to the season – but this is a great feeling. Both Heikki and Jarno know there’s more to come from the car, and we feel good about the race this weekend.
“The aim is to keep our reliability and bring two cars home. I am really proud of the team, particularly after such a hard winter, so I take my hat off to every single one of them for keeping up the progress and helping us reach where we are today.”
The team’s technical director Mike Gascoyne said it had been an excellent day for Lotus, but admitted he was disappointed to not make it into Q2.
“A very very good day for the team, however we are left feeling a little disappointed because we felt we had a real chance of getting into Q2,” he said.
“We had no problems on the cars at all today which meant we were able to show the true level of performance that we had seen in winter testing, and ultimately we were very close to Q2 on merit. The drivers did a great job and the whole team has worked very hard to turn everything around from yesterday, and from Melbourne.
“In Heikki’s last run he made a couple of small mistakes and we could have been even closer, but, looking at the positives, we are all looking forward to the race tomorrow.”
Source: Autosport.com
Considering the close margin between the Red Bulls and McLarens in qualifying at Sepang, Jenson Button has said he was pleasantly surprised by the speed. Autosport.com has the story.
Jenson Button admitted that McLaren being so close to Red Bull’s pace in Malaysian Grand Prix qualifying was a pleasant surprise.
The Briton said he had expected his team would be “six tenths or five tenths off” at Sepang, but Lewis Hamilton came within 0.1 seconds of beating Sebastian Vettel to pole, and Button was within 0.3s of the top spot in fourth place.
“It looks like it’s going to be a fun scrap tomorrow,” said Button. “We’re a lot closer to the Red Bulls than I think people expected, and it looks like there’s a big gap behind us.
“The first race was already good, but here to be pretty much as quick as the Red Bulls in qualifying is a little bit of a surprise – a good surprise.”
Button had been quickest in Q2, but said his set-up worked less well in Q3.
“I just wish Q2 was Q3, but it isn’t,” he said. “In Q3 I had a bit more oversteer, but that’s the direction I chose. The balance was good but in the last sector I just hurt the tyres a bit too much.”
It was a disappointing qualifying performance from Ferrari and Fernando Alonso has said that the team must improve if the Scuderia wants to fight for race victories this season. Autosport.com has the details.
Fernando Alonso says he is aware that Ferrari “must” improve quickly if it is to fight for victory soon.
The Spaniard finished in a distant fourth position in the season-opening race in Australia, and was nearly a second off the pace again in today’s qualifying in Sepang.
Alonso admitted there was no hiding from the fact that Ferrari’s car is simply not quick enough at the moment.
“The tyres are the same for everybody so I don’t think the tyres are a problem,” said Alonso. “The car is not quick enough.
“These days aerodynamics are 90 per cent of the performance of the car so I think that’s one area that we need to analyse better and normally every improvement you put in the car, again, 90 per cent of the time is an aerodynamic update. So that’s something where they maybe did a better job than us at the moment.
“Unfortunately we weren’t quick enough in Australia, not quick enough here to fight for pole, China is in five days’ time so I expect a difficult race as well. We’ll see. At the moment that’s what we have and we need to score as many points as possible.”
The two-time champion said, however, that he was staying very calm about the situation, as the championship will be very long once more.
“I’m very optimistic for the championship chances. I think this is a long championship with many races and anything can happen. Last year we struggled in some races, like in Turkey when I was out of Q3, and then one week later I was fighting for pole position in Monaco. We have to be really concentrated.
“There is no secret we need to improve. We must improve in the next coming races because we are not quick enough at the moment. But also we have to remain very calm, very focused because the championship is very long.”
Alonso, fifth today, admitted he was not expecting to qualify so high up and reckons he will be on the podium in the race.
“We were expecting maybe more problems, and a worse qualifying position,” he said. “To be fifth, starting from the clean side, with the race in front of us.. I think if we finish the race we will be on the podium.”
Toro Rosso technical chief Giorgio Ascanelli says the team does not yet know why Sebastien Buemi’s sidepod partially fell off in Sepang qualifying, but is satisfied it was a one-off problem.
The incident caused a brief red flag when the rear section of the Toro Rosso’s left-side bodywork flew off during Q1.
But it was swiftly replaced and Buemi went on to qualify 12th, one place ahead of team-mate Jaime Alguersuari.
“At the moment, I have no idea if the part was not properly fixed or an insert cracked,” Ascanelli said.
“However, there was no question about the integrity of the components, which is why we refitted another sidepod and sent him out again.”
Ascanelli added that the team was content with how qualifying turned out, despite not managing to repeat Buemi’s Melbourne Q3 result.
“I am happy to be ahead of Force India and I feel Sebastien did a good job this afternoon and is where he should be, which means he can have a strong race tomorrow,” he said.
“Up until this afternoon, I feel we did not get the best out of the car’s set-up, but we turned the car around for the afternoon. As for Jaime, he too drove well.
“To sum it up, we did not do the best job in free practice, but we did in qualifying.”
Source: Autosport.com
Force India’s driver Paul di Resta continue to impress in his debut season in Formula One. The Scot out-qualified his team-mate Adrian Sutil, by a margin of three grid positions! Autosport.com has the story.
Paul di Resta says he exceeded his own expectations with his performance in qualifying for the Malaysian Grand Prix.
The Force India driver, in his second grand prix, qualified in 14th position – the same as in Australia – three places ahead of team-mate Adrian Sutil.
Di Resta admitted he was excited about his and the team’s progress.
“It was a very good job done by the team and equally, I think it was a very good lap by myself,” said di Resta. “We got more than I think we thought we were going to get out of it and I think that we have certainly closed the gap.
“But tomorrow is going to be a long race, in tricky weather conditions, but I am certainly getting more excited now about our progress with regard to improving our performance in the future.”
Sutil was not as happy, the German saying he was surprised not to be able to improve during his Q2 runs.
“The first qualifying session was not too bad I think and I felt quite positive,” he said. “But we did not improve too much in the second session, which I was a little surprised about and we had a problem with a mis-shift.
“But I know the team is working hard to try and solve these issues before the race tomorrow.”
Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher said they both encountered problems with Mercedes’ DRS wing during Malaysian Grand Prix, as they struggled to ninth and 11th on the grid.
The team had looked strong in practice, but both drivers had the wing issue at crucial moments – hampering Schumacher’s final Q2 lap and Rosberg’s Q3 effort.
“We had some issues with the rear wing activation today and unfortunately that’s what compromised my last run in Q2,” said Schumacher. “The car became difficult to drive, which is a real shame as it had been working very well during the earlier runs.
“The performance was much better with the wing, so of course we had to use it, and I would still say that we have made a step forward thanks to the hard work from our guys.”
Rosberg said it was frustrating that Mercedes was not able to show its potential again.
“The team have made some good progress here and I had a decent balance up to Q2 today,” he said. “Unfortunately I lost that feeling in Q3, which combined with the rear wing issue, meant we weren’t able to get the performance out of the car which is frustrating.
“The car is better than we have been able to show so far this season but we don’t know exactly why we are not getting more performance at the moment.”
Team boss Ross Brawn agreed that Mercedes had not been good at achieving its maximum performance in 2011 so far.
“We’re still struggling with the consistency of the car and are not giving Nico and Michael the best chance to show what they could achieve,” said Brawn.
“There are times when the car is working well and the pace is evident, however there are too many occasions where things are not functioning properly.
“We’re quite clearly not where we want to be but will continue to work hard to achieve a more competitive position.”
Source: Autosport.com
After a difficult Australian Grand Prix in which neither Hispania were able to qualifying in the opening race of the new season, due to the 107 per cent rule, Tonio Liuzzi was left thrilled after an improve performance in Sepang. Autosport.com has the details.
Tonio Liuzzi was delighted with his Hispania team’s performance in qualifying for the Malaysian Grand Prix.
The Italian and team-mate Narain Karthikeyan, who failed to qualify for the opening race of the season, will be able to race tomorrow after running inside the 107 per cent time.
Liuzzi will start from 23rd position, and he says this is just the beginning of the team’s progress.
“It’s great for everyone that we were well under 107 per cent,” said Liuzzi. “We proved that in Australia the problem wasn’t a matter of pace but a matter of time out on the track, we had half a day of testing compared to the three months other teams did.
“You can’t just gain mileage out of nothing. Now we have to work hard in the following months, in the next races to try and close the gap. This is just the first step for Hispania Racing, we’ve done a great job and we’ve improved the car a lot from Australia to now.
“I’m proud of the work done by everybody, starting with when they got the car on the ground in Australia and now having got it in good condition here in Sepang.
“We had a few minor issues both yesterday and today but that is normal when you’re working with such little time. I think we can still improve, I did a good lap and this is the result: we will be on the grid tomorrow.”
Team-mate Karthikeyan will start from the bottom of the grid after finishing a second behind Liuzzi, although the Indian said it was mission accomplished for him.
“We made it through qualifying which was our aim for today,” he said. “The car is virtually brand new so it’s good to get some more mileage done, the more time we can get out on the track the better.
“I flat-spotted my second set of tyres on turn one so it was hard to set a good time with them after that but everybody worked extremely hard and we’re delighted to be in the race.
“We marked Sepang on the calendar beforehand as one of the toughest circuits to get under the 107% time so it’s a great satisfaction to have done it.
“Now I hope to finish tomorrow’s race and get a lot more laps under my belt with the new car. They’re forecasting rain for tomorrow so you never know what will happen out there.”
This was a disappointing qualifying performance for Williams with Rubens Barrichello could only P15 in Malaysia. The Brazilian commented about the car’s lack of pace. Autosport.com has the details.
Rubens Barrichello lamented his Williams team’s lack of pace in qualifying for the Malaysian Grand Prix after a disappointing showing.
“We don’t seem to have the pace we need in qualifying,” said Barrichello after finishing in a distant 15th position.
“We were stronger in Melbourne and so we need to analyse why and see where we are in the race.
“All things considered, my lap was OK, in fact it was probably one of my best laps around Malaysia but it wasn’t good enough to counteract the performance of the car today. Whether we get rain or a steady run in a dry race we’ll be going for points.”
Team-mate Pastor Maldonado admitted he was surprised to not be able to make it into Q2, the Venezuelan finishing as 18th fastest.
“That was a difficult session and we definitely didn’t expect to be out in Q1. The car wasn’t feeling as good as it was this morning. I had a bit of traffic as well so I didn’t get a clean lap.
“We have a lot of tyres now for tomorrow and the car goes better on long runs than it does in qualifying. With a good strategy who knows what will happen. There’s no reason why we can’t get into the points.”
Renault’s Nick Heidfeld and Vitaly Petrov were delighted to make Q3 in Malaysia despite the suspension failures that cost them a huge amount of track time in Friday practice.
A faulty batch of material led to breakages on both cars yesterday morning, and then saw the team sit out much of the rest of the day while the cause was identified and the parts replaced.
But once on track, the Renaults have been competitive, and today Heidfeld qualified sixth and Petrov eighth.
“I’m very satisfied as I think it’s the maximum we could have achieved, especially looking back at Friday where we didn’t do many laps at all and didn’t have a lot of time to set up the car,” said Heidfeld.
The German was particularly pleased with his Q3 effort.
“It got faster and faster in qualifying today, but I have to say in Q1 I took it easy then I pushed a bit over the limit in Q2 and lost some time there, but in Q3 I found the golden middle and it was a good lap,” he said. “Of course, I was a lot happier with the traffic here than I was in Australia.”
Petrov said he had been more satisfied with the car than he expected given how behind Renault should have been after Friday.
“To get in the top 10 today is a good result considering the track time we lost yesterday,” he said. “We worked hard on improving the set-up in final practice and in the end I had quite a good feeling with the car.”
Source: Autosport.com