Malaysian Grand Prix 2011 – Qualifying Report

Sebastian Vettel will once again begin tomorrow's Malaysian Grand Prix from pole position, but he didn't take the top spot by such a convincing margin as he did two weeks ago. He only beat McLaren's Lewis Hamilton, once again his closest adversary, by a margin of just over a tenth of a second. With the pair's respective teammates Mark Webber and Jenson Button lining up next, both within four tenths of a second of Vettel's pole time, everything would appear in place for a classic Red Bull vs. McLaren confrontation.

Q1

Hamilton was the first of the pole contenders to post a time of a 1'37.4, while the sister McLaren of Button could only get within half a second of his teammate. Mark Webber's first effort left him almost an entire second behind Hamilton's benchmark, though the Aussie's teammate Vettel came within two-thousandths of a second of usurping Hamilton before the Toro Rosso of Sebastien Buemi shed a large chunk of its left-hand sidepod onto the circuit, prompting a red flag. After the debris was cleared, Ferrari, admittedly off the pace, took the decision to send its drivers out on soft tyres, allowing Felipe Massa to put up a 1'36.7 which transpired to be the fastest time of the session despite both McLarens following suit with soft tyres. Red Bull meanwhile opted not to use up a set of softs, leaving Webber in a somewhat precarious fifteenth position by session's end. However, it was the usual suspects who found themselves eliminated – Lotus, Virgin and Hispania all went no further, though the latter looked rather more convincing than last time with both of their men qualifying comfortably within 107% of Massa. The only other man to fall was Pastor Maldonado, with both of the Williams cars looking on the back foot.

Eliminated – Pastor Maldonado (Williams), Heikki Kovalainen (Lotus), Jarno Trulli (Lotus), Timo Glock (Virgin), Jerome D'Ambrosio (Virgin), Vitantonio Liuzzi (Hispania), Narain Karthikeyan (Hispania)

Q2

Reverting to hard tyres, Hamilton was again out early in the session to record a 1'37.3, a time then beaten by over a second by Webber who made use of the advantage of the soft tyres. Vettel managed to take a further tenth off of his teammate, but Button surprised everybody by slashing four tenths off the championship leader's time to assume first. He would remain there for the remainder of the session, with even Hamilton only coming within three tenths of his teammate when he went out on his soft tyres. Both Ferraris and Renaults made the cut, as did Nico Rosberg's Mercedes, but Michael Schumacher for the second time in as many races will begin the race eleventh position, unable to quite do enough to deny Kamui Kobayashi and his Sauber a place in Q3. Neither the Toro Rossos nor the Force Indias were fast enough, all four drivers getting eliminated along with the Williams of Rubens Barrichello and the second Sauber of Sergio Perez.

Eliminated – Michael Schumacher (Mercedes), Sebastien Buemi (Toro Rosso), Jaime Alguersauri (Toro Rosso), Paul Di Resta (Force India), Rubens Barrichello (Williams), Sergio Perez (Sauber), Adrian Sutil (Force India)

Q3

With only the pole-contending McLarens and Red Bulls posting two times, they were the only cars to go out in the first part of the session. Hamilton set the standard with a 1'35.0, a time that none of his three rivals could initially match, though they were all within three tenths. After a lengthy pause, the other six cars all left the pits to record their only times, with the leading quartet emerging to decide pole position with a second effort each. Webber and Button both failed to improve on third and fourth positions, so it was thus left to Vettel to challenge Hamilton, who improved on his time by another tenth, to maintain provisional pole. The young German was however able to scrape together one final tenth to overcome the Brit and take his seventeenth career pole. Further back, Fernando Alonso assumed the mantle of 'best of the rest' in fifth for Ferrari, ahead of Renault's Nick Heidfeld who put the disaster of two weeks ago behind him with sixth. Massa and Vitaly Petrov line up behind their respective teammates ahead of Rosberg and Kobayashi.

Top 10 – Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull), Lewis Hamilton (McLaren), Mark Webber (Red Bull), Jenson Button (McLaren), Fernando Alonso (Ferrari), Nick Heidfeld (Renault), Felipe Massa (Ferrari), Vitaly Petrov (Renault), Nico Rosberg (Mercedes), Kamui Kobayashi (Sauber)

My Prediction

As is always the case at Malaysia, there is a distinct possibility of a wet race tomorrow. If that is indeed the case, so runs my prediction:

1. Hamilton, 2. Vettel, 3. Button, 4. Alonso, 5. Heidfeld, 6. Kobayashi, 7. Schumacher, 8. Rosberg, 9. Buemi, 10. Alguersauri

Hamilton, as he has proved on numerous occasions, is a master of wet conditions, and Button is no slouch either, particularly when it comes to the business of shrewd strategy calls. The rain usually brings several high-profile casualties – I've picked Webber, Massa and Petrov as the likely candidates to end their races in the wall or the gravel trap. Kobayashi and Schumacher will be able to use the rain to make considerable gains, whilst Heidfeld will prove his dependability by keeping his car pointing in the right direction for a solid result.

So, all the ingredients look to be in place for a classic confrontation in Malaysia tomorrow. Don't forget to catch up on all the action right here – there promises to be plenty of it.