F1 Quals: Malaysia 2015

Allegedly they've heard of sunlight at Sepang.  If you just went by today, however, there's no way that's actually possible, as the session began with low, heavy clouds.  If I saw clouds like that here at Pond Central on a Summer day, I'd be heading for the laundry room as fast as I could go.  But did it actually rain?  Here's the provisional grid for the 2015 Grand Prix of Malaysia:

P	Driver	Team	Q1	Q2	Q3
1	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:39.269	1:41.517	1:49.834
2	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	1:39.814	1:39.632	1:49.908
3	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1:39.374	1:39.377	1:50.299
4	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull Racing	1:40.504	1:41.085	1:51.541
5	Daniil Kvyat	Red Bull Racing	1:40.546	1:41.665	1:51.951
6	Max Verstappen	Toro Rosso	1:40.793	1:41.430	1:51.981
7	Felipe Massa	Williams	1:40.543	1:41.230	1:52.473
8	Romain Grosjean	Lotus	1:40.303	1:41.209	1:52.981
9	Valtteri Bottas	Williams	1:40.249	1:40.650	1:53.179
10	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber	1:40.340	1:41.748	1:53.261
11	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari	1:40.415	1:42.173
12	Pastor Maldonado	Lotus	1:40.361	1:42.198
13	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India	1:40.830	1:43.023
14	Sergio Perez	Force India	1:41.036	1:43.469
15	Carlos Sainz	Toro Rosso	1:39.814	1:43.701
16	Felipe Nasr	Sauber	1:41.308
17	Jenson Button	McLaren	1:41.636
18	Fernando Alonso	McLaren	1:41.746
19	Roberto Merhi	Manor	1:46.677
DNQ	Will Stevens	Manor	No Time

First things first: the 107% time was 1:46:217.  Neither Manor driver brought his vehicle in under that time, so they race at the Steward's permission... which was granted, as both drivers managed to display enough pace during practice to claim they manage it.  Assuming Manor can find and fix the gremlin that infected Will Stevens' car between Practice 3 and Quals, we should have a full grid on Sunday!

And what an interesting grid it is, too.  Of course it rained in Malaysia; it always does.  The teams had enough time for one or two flying laps before the heavens opened up and dumped a substantial portion of the Malacca Strait onto Sepang International Circuit.  Lewis Hamilton was nearly caught by this, as he had problems getting his Mercedes started.  Because most only got one shot, one bad twitch could cost you the session, as Kimi Raikkonen learned.  After the dry laps were in the books, there was no point in going out again.

Q3 was delayed nearly 40 minutes as the Powers That Be waited for the water to stop bucketing down.  This it duly did, but the track was still sodden enough for Intermediate tires (and some thought Full Wets) to be required for the entire session.  In the process, we may have discovered that, at least in the wet, Ferrari can hang with the Mercs.  In the dry, the Silver Arrows still have the clear advantage, though it seems to have been cut somewhat.

We'll see what the race will bring us early Sunday Morning.  No idea when I'll manage the writeup, as I've a couple of other things that need to be dealt with on Sunday.

Posted by: Wonderduck at 10:26 AM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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