09/04/2011
NEWS STORY
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Mat Coch writes
Under a sky which threatened rain but ultimately failed to appear, Sebastian Vettel stormed his way to pole position for tomorrow's Malaysian Grand Prix. It wasn't all plain sailing for the championship leader however, having to fend off the advances of an impressively quick McLaren duo and a resurgent teammate before snatching top spot at the very end of the session.
Having enjoyed the least track time of all teams Hispania's Tonio Liuzzi opened proceedings. After a weekend to forget in Australia the Spanish outfit was looking simply to qualify, Liuzzi's opening lap of 1:43.128 somewhere near being competitive even if a long way from startling. Timo Glock lapped some two seconds faster in the Virgin just moments later highlighting the fact that Hispania still has a lot of work ahead of it if they're to challenge even the penultimate row of the grid.
Lewis Hamilton was the first of the front runners to set a time, his 1:37.466 faster than teammate Button by 0.2s though only two thousandths faster than Vettel. In the other Red Bull Mark Webber struggled, his time of 1:38.334 had many scratching their heads with concern that the Australian may be a high profile victim of the first phase of qualifying. While Webber improved his time as the session drew on it failed to improve his position as he languished in fifteenth when the chequered flag fell.
That was long after the drama created by Sebastian Buemi however. Having just set his first flying lap, a 1:38.144 which saw him leap to fourth on the timing screens, the Toro Rosso driver was on another hot lap when a piece of bodywork parted company with the car. It brought out the red flags with twelve minutes left on the clock while marshals cleared the debris from the circuit. Buemi eventually returned to the track having driven back to the pits to have new bodywork fitted, setting a time fast enough to make it through to the second phase.
Once the session had been restarted the Lotus pair took full advantage of a relatively vacant circuit, Kovalainen setting a 1:38.645 to move in to seventh place with teammate Jarno Trulli just over 0.4s slower. The pair ultimately plummeted through the field however as the session became more serious in the closing stages, ending up nineteenth and twentieth respectively.
A 1:36.744 was good enough for provisional pole for Felipe Massa, though he was set on soft tyres suggesting the Italian marque is now less confident than its pre-season form suggested.
The star of the Australian Grand Prix, Renault's Vitaly Petrov, was the last man to set a lap time. With scarcely more than three minutes remaining the Russian soaked up the pressure, setting the fourth fastest time on his only flying lap. Nick Heidfeld too had just a single timed lap, his 1:37.244 just a hundredth slower than the time set by his teammate.
In the closing stages both Michael Schumacher and Nico Rosberg loitered on the brink of the cut off, late laps from the Mercedes pair moving them clear and instead pushing Pastor Maldonado in to the dreaded eighteenth spot. The Venezuelan's disappointment was confirmed when the flag fell, despite a last lap effort to dislodge his teammate from seventeenth. Barrichello was only 0.1s faster on a 1:38.163, both Williams clearly struggling around the Malaysian circuit.
This disappointment for Maldonado could only have been in matched by the relief at Hispania, with both drivers qualifying for the team's first Grand Prix of the season. Narain Karthikeyan set a time almost a second faster than the 107% cut off of 1:43.516, while his Italian teammate was the better part of a second faster with a 1:41.549.
Eliminated after the first phase were Maldonado, Kovalainen, Trulli, Glock, Jerome D'Ambrosio, Liuzzi and Karthikeyan. But while Hispania were pleased, with good reason, Red Bull was bemused, Mark Webber's 1:37.924 a long way from the Massa's pace-setting time and worryingly close to Maldonado's.
When the second session got underway Buemi was the first out on circuit, triggering the pit lane in to action. No less than ten drivers took to the track, including Webber who was no doubt desperate to improve on his opening time. Indeed, he immediately confirmed the Red Bull pace, allaying fears that there was a problem with his car, setting a 1:36.080. Not to be out done however was his world champion teammate, Vettel being the first man to set a time inside the 1:35 barrier on his only timed lap of the second phase.
Once the 1:35 mark was broken Jenson Button took no time in storming through, knocking 0.4s off the German's time at the top of the charts, the Englishman clearly happier with the balance of his car after struggling through practice on Friday.
As in the first phase, Renault elected to leave its drivers in the pits, seemingly confident of getting through with a just a single flying lap. Quick in all practice sessions throughout the weekend the team battled with suspension problems after a bad batch of wishbones affected both drivers in the build up to qualifying. Along with Force India's Paul di Resta and Adrian Sutil they were the only drivers who hadn't set a lap with just four minutes remaining. It was a canny move by Renault, saving a set of soft rubber for its drivers in the final phase of qualifying confident in the knowledge both Petrov and Heidfeld were capable of making the grade. The pair duly delivered a 1:36.642 and 1:36.811 respectively which saw them progress to the final phase in eighth and tenth, Heidfeld 0.2s clear of the drop.
Seemingly acknowledging it didn't have a chance of making it to Q3, Force India also allowed both drivers just a single timed lap. Adrian Sutil was capable of only seventeenth on a 1:37.593 while teammate Paul Di Resta was 0.2s faster in fourteenth, the Scot having completed eleven laps during the first phase of qualifying.
With no time left on the clock Kamui Kobayashi moved up with a 1:36.691 in the Sauber while Rosberg moved up to relegate teammate Schumacher to the spectator's section for the final phase. The former world champion was unable to respond, he and the Toro Rosso duo of Buemi and Alguersuari failed to make the grade, followed by Di Resta, Barrichello, Sergio Perez and Sutil.
Fascinatingly it was McLaren at the top of the timing sheets, rather than the Red Bull armada that many had expected, the Woking pair headed by Button who was more that 0.3s faster than Vettel with Hamilton second.
McLaren started proceedings when the final session got underway, Hamilton leading out his teammate closely followed by the Red Bull duo of Webber and Vettel, the other six drivers choosing to remain in their garages.
Hamilton's first lap was the fastest of the weekend, a 1:35.000, 0.3s better than Button who followed him across the line a few seconds later. Indeed it was better than Webber and Vettel also as McLaren looked to carry on the result of the second phase of qualifying.
After single laps from both Red Bull and McLaren drivers the track fell silent until, with just three minutes of the session remaining, Fernando Alonso rolled on track for his only qualifying effort. The Spaniard was followed by all nine drivers as the track played host to the motor sport equivalent of a western shoot out, a one lap qualifying show down with just seconds left on the clock.
Alonso, his Ferrari struggling for pace, set a time of 1:35.802, which would transpire to be almost a second off the time set by Vettel, with insult added to injury for the Maranello squad when teammate Massa was half a second slower still.
Vitaly Petrov managed eighth behind Massa, his 1:36.324 more than 1.4s off the pace of Vettel who eventually snatched pole, and 0.2s slower than Nick Heidfeld in the sister car in sixth. Sauber's Kamui Kobayashi brought up the bottom end of the top ten, having been largely anonymous throughout the qualifying session, much like teammate Sergio Perez who was eliminated at the end of the second phase. Rosberg was only marginally quicker than the Japanese driver, a 1:36.809 as opposed to 1:36.820, though the pair were easily the slowest during the final phase.
At the other end of the top ten Sebastian Vettel claimed pole, deposing Lewis Hamilton with a lap 0.1s faster than the McLaren in the dying moments of the session. With Mark Webber third it placed Hamilton in the middle of a Red Bull sandwich, and on the dirty side of the grid come Sunday. Button, who finished the session fourth, will also suffer from starting on the dirty side on race day.
The top four were in a class of their own, split by just over 0.3s. In the hands of Fernando Alonso the Ferrari could get to within a second of the fastest time, however it looks a case of damage limitation for the Spaniard during tomorrow's race, his rivals more likely to be Renault or Mercedes than Red Bull or McLaren.
With McLaren more competitive it seems a straight fight at the front between the four fastest cars. The victor will be he who makes the best strategy calls, not necessarily who set the fastest qualifying time, with four stops predicted if it's dry. Incidentally the forecast is for lighting, thunder and showers.
For a full blow by blow report, click here
To check out our Sepang Qualifying gallery, click here.