Here’s my report and views on the qualifying at the Malaysian Grand Prix.
In Q1, both Ferraris went out early with hard tyres, posted good times, and then, overconfidently, decided not to do any laps with the soft tyres. As more and more cars posted faster times than them, they were pushed down the rankings. Raikkonen, fortuantely for him, was 14th, but Felipe Massa, finished 16th – out of qualifying. What a shocker! Dreadful decision by Ferrari and Massa, and why they did it is strange. Surely they knew that they were being pushed down the rankings? Even if they’d gone out with a few minutes to go, on the soft tyres, they could have got above the other cars.
In Q1, the other drivers that went were Nelson Piquet, Giancarlo Fisichella, Adrian Sutil and Sebastien Buemi.
Into Q2, and in this session both McLarens went. Also out was Sebastien Bourdais, Kazuki Nakijima and, in 11th, Nick Heidfeld. He is having a dreadful start to the season, with nothing like the pace he had last season, and I think the KERS system in his car might actually be hindering him, rather than helping him. Certainly Robert Kubica has had an awful lot more pace so far this season; and he isn’t running KERS.
So, the final session of qualifying, Q3. Toyota’s Jarno Trulli posted an excellent time to begin with, and that set the benchmark. However, both Brawn cars overtook his time, Jenson Button in first. On Trulli’s final lap, he got a faster time than Barrichello, but failed to overtake Button. Meanwhile, Sebastien Vettel also overtook Barrichello’s time. So, Jenson Button is on pole, with Jarno Trulli second. Vettel qualified third, but will be demoted 10 places, and Barrichello qualified fourth, but he will be demoted five places, after a gearbox change. This means that Timo Glock is really in third place.
It looks good for my prediction of Button winning – he is a man on song, really enjoying his best form of his life. And Hamilton? Well, if it carries on like this, Button will be then man the british media will focus on.
