Gutsy Webber conquers Sepang qualy havoc

Apr.3 (YF1) Mark Webber kept his cool, made the right tyre choice and went out in an eight minute delayed Q3 session to put his Red Bull RB6 on pole position for the Malaysian Grand Prix. It was a nail biting finale, with conditions as bad as they were all day, which brought out the best from the Australian.

With several of the “big guns” tripping up the earlier on in the session (more about that later) Q3 had an unfamiliar look to it. As usual the two Red Bull’s were in the zone with Webber and Sebastian Vettel, both Force India’s were in there for the first time with Adrian Sutil and Vitantonio Liuzzi, as were the two Williams’ of Rubens Barrichello and Nico Hulkenberg, the Mercedes GP pair of Michael Schumacher and Nico Rosberg, a Renault and a Sauber of Robert Kubica and Kamui Kobayashi respectively.

When the ten cars peeled out of the pitlane at the start of Q3, the Sepang track was virtually a dam with monsoon rain at torrential levels. Vettel said over the radio that the conditions were “ridiculous” and the officials agreed by announcing “indefinite delay” to the session.

The cars all peeled back in to their garages. Exactly 16 minutes later they were out again with eight minutes remaining on the clock.

Sutil, as has become his custom in wet conditions, was setting with his early laps along with Kubica until Webber went top of the screens with a time set on his penultimate lap. The intermediates he was on instilled confidence and he followed that up with a cracker, a whopping 1.3 seconds faster than the next best who was Rosberg.

Vettel ended up third quickest ahead of Sutil, Hulkenberg, Kubica, Barrichello, Schumacher, Kobayashi and Liuzzi.

Thus Webber will start the Malaysian Grand Prix in pole position with Rosberg alongside him. Notably old team mates Barrichello and Schumacher will line up on the fourth row of the grid.

Red Bull boss gave full credit to Webber for his inspired tyre choice, “In fairness it was something Mark wanted to have a crack at intermediate tyres. There was a lot of risk involved but as a team we were happy to split the cars. It was right on the bubble, and he got the lap in. He did a great job.”

But the dramatic story of qualifying for the Malaysian Grand Prix started from the moment the Q1 session got underway. The skies, which had been threatening all morning, finally opened up over Sepang as the cars were released from the pitlane.

From the outset the track was drenched and appeared to get worse as the session progressed. Thus those who got out early were to benefit. The big boys, keeping their powder dry by waiting for the rain to pass, shot themselves in the foot.

First Jenson Button (McLaren), although in the safety zone as far as his lap time was concerned, aquaplaned off and embedded his MP4-25 in the gravel requiring a crane to lift him out. His qualifying was over, “We read it wrong basically. We thought that first rain storm was it and there was nothing else coming so we waited, and it was obviously the wrong thing to do.”

Next our attention turned to Lewis Hamilton, Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa who were anchored at the wrong end of the timing screens. Alonso and Massa spun on their final attempts to get into Q2, while Hamilton tried hard but the track was far slower. The trio were out in Q1, big blunder by the two most experienced teams in Formula 1.

Alonso realized the team had erred and said, “For sure we need to avoid these type of mistakes. We really thought the rain had finished so we waited in the garage but it got heavier. We were in the wrong place at the wrong time. But the race is tomorrow – we saw last week in Melbourne that we can get results from the back of the grid so we will just have to make sure we do that.”

As did Massa, “We were waiting for the rain to stop before we went back out, but it just got heavier. It was a mistake and the wrong call.”

Pretty much the same sentiment from Hamilton, “It was treacherous out there. We were sliding around and aquaplaning everywhere. Of course with hindsight we would have gone out earlier, but hindsight is a wonderful thing…”

Also out were Jarno Trulli (Lotus), Lucas di Grassi (Virgin Racing) and the two Hispania racing rookies Karun Chandhok and Bruno Senna.

Heikki Kovalainen (Lotus) and Timo Glock (Virgin racing) clearly relishing conditions that levelled the playing field a little, were both into Q2 for the first time in their respective team’s history.

Robert Kubica (Renault) was top of the timing screens when the Q1 stint ended, ahead of Pedro de la Rosa (Sauber), Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull), Vitaly Petrov (Renault) and Kamui Kobayashi (Sauber).

The track grip varied rapidly, for example: by the end of Q2 the track was half a dozen seconds faster than midway in Q3 and within a few minutes got slower by two seconds.

Although Button was quick enough to be part of Q2 he did not turn a lap as his car was stranded and as a result he will start the race from 17^th on the grid.

In the drop zone after Q2 were Petrov, De la Rosa, the Toro Rosso duo of Sebastien Buemi and Jaime Alguersuari, Glock and Kovalainen. The latter fastest of the newcomers again.

At the top it of the timing sheets it was Vettel from Kubica, followed by Sutil and Nico Hulkenberg. Then came Q3….

Qualifying – 3 April 2010