Like usual, Sepang throws in the best of both worlds onto the 5.543km circuit. The day will start with a scorching heat wave all the way to the noon, where torrential thunderstorms will then take over. Even so, the rain does not seem to be able to stop Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel as he takes the pole position during the soaking wet qualifying session for the 15th Malaysian Grand Prix.
Beating Ferrari’s Felipe Massa who had earlier on outpaced teammate Fernando Alonso, Vettel was nearly a second quicker than the Ferrari driver. Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg managed to secure fourth and sixth, while Red Bull’s Mark Webber sits in the middle.
“I am very happy with to be on pole. The team did the right thing. We had no idea if there was more rain to come or not. Some parts of the car were still wet; some parts of the car were still dry. It was tricky”, said Vettel.
The show however did not end without a drama. Lotus’ Kimi Raikkonen at first managed to secure a seventh, followed by McLaren’s Jenson Button. But as he was then found impeding Rosberg, Raikkonen was slapped with a three-place grid penalty, dropping him down all the way to tenth place, sitting behind Force India’s Adrian Sutil and McLaren’s Sergio Perez.
With the weather forecast showing thunderstorms to hit Sepang during the race, we might be seeing a similar pattern of last year’s F1 Grand Prix. But who will actually come on top; that is the question that we will patiently wait for the answer.
Top 10 qualifiers:
1. Sebastian Vettel (Ger), Red Bull – 1min 49.674secs
2. Felipe Massa (Bra), Ferrari – 1:50.587
3. Fernando Alonso (Spa), Ferrari – 1:50.727
4. Lewis Hamilton (GB), Mercedes – 1:51.699
5. Mark Webber (Aus), Red Bull – 1:52.244
6. Nico Rosberg (Ger), Mercedes – 1:52.519
7. Kimi Raikkonen (Fin), Lotus – 1:52.970
8. Jenson Button (GB), McLaren – 1:53.175
9. Adrian Sutil (Ger), Force India – 1:53.439
10. Sergio Perez (Mex), McLaren – 1:54.136
