Malaysian GP Practice and Qualifying discussion

[alvaro3d]

Altough Friday practice usually don't say much of the teams performance this year with the baning of testing probably they will say much more.

Ferrari looked strong on FP2 but a fire inside Kimi cockpit rise questions for the reliability of the Ferrari.

Brawn GP wasn't on the top of the table but they are adjusting the car for this track maybe SP1 (Saturday Practice 1 not Service Pack 1 ) deliver better results

Williams looked fast and this time Nico was around the top sooner than in Melbourne.

Anyway I go for Vettel maybe Red Bull send him light on Q3 so he can start from 10th place, short stint, soft tires to get rid of the softs fast before they start to look like Hamilton intermediates on China 07.

[Cynon]

Get it over with and give Sebastien Bourdais Reject of the Race unless some greater force of lunacy strikes, because there's no way someone of his pedigree should be thoroughly lashed by Sebastien Buemi on pace alone.

[Ide]

I still think Brawn are hiding their true pace - we'll see come tomorrow though. It's nice to get the speculation over and actually see who is fast at each circuit and who isn't, practice times are something I don't usually read into very much.

[CarlosFerreira]

Just saw the replay of both pre-qualis, here's a few notes:
- Red Bull and Williams looked good: fast, poised. Even canary-in-the-mine Nakajima was consistent and reasonably fast.
- Kimi twice had problems with KERS. Still beat Felipe
- Both Toyotas very twitchy. Glock was all over the place. What's that all about?
- Sutil 1.2 seconds off fastest time. Wow.
- Alonso did few laps, was slow and made a couple of mistakes. Ear infection still affecting him?
- Not impressed by Brawn pace. Sandbagging or actually a tad slow? Barrichello to get 10 positions penalty for gearbox change.
- BMWs slow and twitchy. Consistently last...
- Buemi going well.

I'm betting on Vettel for pole.

[TomWazzleshaw]

BMW look like they are doing what they did in Melbourne. Might become very interesting later on the weekend.
Brawn would probably put Barrichello on a heavyish fuel load should he make it to Q3 remembering that the Brawn cars were heavier than most of the other cars in the top 10 at Melbourne and still managed to get the front row. This could be Brawn's downfall for this season starting to rear it's ugly head. Oh and it's only a 5 gird position drop for gearbox changes.
I don't think there is too much to read into Ferrari's new found pace except that they seem to like higher track temps. Remember that they were quite high up at FP1 at Melbourne but nowhere in FP2

[CarlosFerreira]

Right on the gearbox penalty, serves me right for not reading the news until the bottom.
As for BMW, they looked consistently slow and nowhere, the whole time. There was even talk that Nick could eventually decide on not using KERS altogether. I kinda hope you're right there.

[TomWazzleshaw]

In the end practice might become irrelevent anyway as rain is expected on both Saturday and Sunday
http://www.weathercity.com/my/kuala_lumpur/

[thehemogoblin]

In the end practice might become irrelevent anyway as rain is expected on both Saturday and Sunday
http://www.weathercity.com/my/kuala_lumpur/

Alright, I've been meaning to ask this for a while:

Jamie and Enoch,

Do you celebrate rain races, as they give drivers a chance to get out of rejectdom, or do you mourn them because they give you less people to potentially write about?

[TomWazzleshaw]

3rd practice has been completed but all it tells us is that it's gonna be one heck of a race on Sunday.

[TomWazzleshaw]

Live qualifying and Massa has been eliminated in Q1
Apparently Ferrari elected to keep Massa and Raikkonen in the pits for the last few minutes of Q1... and it didn't pay off

[Cynon]

Someone tell me how Bourdais made it through Q1, and Massa got eliminated... Buemi I can sort of understand since he ran off the track.

Scuderia Toro Rosso is doing their job as being the Minardi/SOOPA AGURI of the field right now, Bourdais is 1.1 seconds off the fastest time in Q2...

...and Jense just ran a 1:33...

...and both McLarens out at Q2!

[TomWazzleshaw]

Jenson on pole for 2nd week in a row.
Lewis fans eat your heart out

[Captain Hammer]

Ferrari aparently assumed Massa was safe, but I noticed Buemi fell from thirteenth to nineteenth in under a minute, and Massa was caught in the same surge.

[TomWazzleshaw]

Ferrari assumed wrong. So they can get Reject of the Qualifying Session (ROTQS)
Oh and Trulli did a great job in Qualifying. He's showing us all why he was and still is the qualifying king.

[Nuppiz]

Indeed, not the usual grid we saw last year

[CarlosFerreira]

Just caught up with the quali highlights. A bit surprised by Ferrari's mistake, and noticing Kimi has KERS turned off, at least in Q3. More of those problems?
Jenson pulled a flyer and Jarno almost matched it. Rubens, curiously, seems to be struggling a bit.
Still, as the GP proceeds, the "diffuser crew" got the jump on everyone. Only running-on-fumes Vettel could mix it with them, and Webber is the first non-diffuser, non-Nakajima car on the grid, confirming the RB cars seem the best of the rest. Next? You guessed it: Kubica. A pattern's emerging, where Robert's BMW is actually almost as rapid as the best-of-the-rest, Red Bull.
IF, and that's a big if, Rubens manages not to ruin their races, expect the 2 RBs and Kubica to have an interesting tussle, with Vettel on a different strategy to spice things up. Ready for another 3-laps-to-go rumble? I am!

[UberOwnage]

Its always very refreshing to see cars other than a Ferrari or a Mclaren in the first two rows.

I sure was surprised and amazed to see 'Nando going tenth despite of that ear infection. His sense of balance will surely be off, and there is excruciating pain to boot!I had one before and I wasn't able to sleep due to the pain.

The BMW sure likes without the KERS, Kubica again faster than Heidfeld.

But after the end of Q1, all of the cars were just 1.5 seconds of each other. If Force India manage to find a aero breakthrough worth half a second, they'll be flying!

[Captain Hammer]

I thinkwe already have a candidate for Reject of the Race: Ferrari! They got complacent with Massa an assume he'd be safe, but he fell out fo Q1 in one very swift move.

[alvaro3d]

Well this qualification tells me one thing:

Button no KERS
Vettel no KERS
Trulli no KERS

SO.... WHO KERS ABOUT KERS? IS USELESS

[CarlosFerreira]

Well this qualification tells me one thing:

Button no KERS
Vettel no KERS
Trulli no KERS

SO.... WHO KERS ABOUT KERS? IS USELESS

All the guys with the funny diffusers are up front except for Nakajima who's just a tad slower than you'd wish. The difference is Vettel, running low on fuel due to penalty. Watch out for spurious correlations, Alvaro.

[TomWazzleshaw]

http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/2009/4/9142.html
Button running heavier than anyone else in the top 5
I think it's game over already unless Kubica can produce a magic start from 6th
Interesting to see that Alonso, Heidfeld, Hamilton, Kovalienen and Massa are running heavy while Vettel knowing he was to start well down in the field running light.
Predictions anyone?

[Captain Hammer]

Well this qualification tells me one thing:

Button no KERS
Vettel no KERS
Trulli no KERS

SO.... WHO KERS ABOUT KERS? IS USELESS

No, it's not. The reason why it hasn't been so great is because of the weather.

Also, Vettel is down in thirteenth because of his penalty.

http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/2009/4/9142.html
Button running heavier than anyone else in the top 5

He did the same thing at Melbourne.

[CarlosFerreira]

Just like Melbourne, Jenson has a very heavy car at the start and still pulls Pole Position. Interestingly, the Toyota seems mighty close - or is that Trulli's qualifying ability?