When I mentioned monsoon conditions yesterday in the pre-weekend post, and we certainly got more than our fair share of precipitation this afternoon. The tropical downpours unleashed great fury upon the Malaysian circuit virtually at the command of the BBC - just as Suzy mentioned the idea of rainfall the skies opened up and drowned the track. What we can determine from this is that although Sky have been trying to take over the coverage with their big budgets and shiny graphics, the BBC have employed one of Charles Xavier's students to control the weather. If only we could harness that power to introduce some rainfall whenever the on track action becomes a little tiresome - not too much though given how over-cautious the powers that be are when it comes to suspending and action at the merest puddle.
Thankfully after 50 minutes of sitting around watching rivers flow across the track and manhole covers uprooted by the force of the water we did get some on track action. It did happen to tear us away from the nice sounding engine note of the big, brutal Mercedes SLS safety car running sighting laps which in the height of the storm was powersliding down through turn three. We were also taken away from one of Coulthard's rain delay bird watching sessions - picking up on some of the camera director's more artistic shots. Did this interestingly timed storm rearrange the distribution of power within the field - well almost.
Qualifying
Once the rain had finally cleared the track started to dry quickly because of the huge ambient temperature of the tropics, it would be an opportune time to allow qualifying to start - but apparently not. We had to wait a even longer before it was time for intermediate tyres, which is always a complaint of the past few years, excessive caution. I know safety is a major consideration, but seriously why allow the wet tyres if the track conditions they are specifically designed for are banned... Anyhow we eventually got going and it was the Mercedes team who sat at the end of the pit-lane first and anchored themselves to the top of the timings and were not to be challenged. Ferrari and Red Bull were duelling to be best of the rest Alonso and Ricciardo shared ownership of third place well over a second behind the top two silver cars.
At the bottom end of the field fighting to avoid relegation there was one Lotus less than we expected struggling to make it into Q2, because Romain Grosjean was up in the middle of the pack in the damp conditions. His immediate rivals were starting to lose their chance to escape relegation because the rainfall had started to intensify on track, reducing grip and compromising lap times. McLaren were the only team to make progress, as Jenson and Kevin secured their place in Q2. But as the session was coming to a close the red flag was brought out after Marcus Ericsson bounced his car off the barrier after sliding off the painted lines in turn three. As there was only 35 seconds left on the clock, Q3 was not restarted.
Q2
And thus we moved swiftly and damply onto Q2 and for once the drivers were allowed to use the full wet tyres without being forced to hide in the garage and wait - and as Raikkonen found out - the intermediates were not up to the job. But just as the session began we were back under red-flag conditions, another accident, monolithic super-storm, global armageddon? Nope - a tiny piece of wing endplate was sitting on the very edge of the track (either that or Kvyat used the power of the death stare)... The damage was a result of Daniil Kvyat colliding with the front wheel of Alonso's Ferrari - it turns out that the front of the Ferrari isn't as robust as the rear suspension. However the pointless red flag allowed enough time for the team to put on a new control arm, but the steering would be a little out for the remainder of the session.
On the restart it was Bottas who tried the intermediates and had no grip, sliding out of control and struggling to keep the car on the track - while everyone else stuck to the full wet tyres. Surprise, surprise as the two Mercedes' lead the times again, this time Ricciardo intervened once more - putting the Red Bull into second place, soon to replaced by Vettel in the other blue car. Continuous rain made it difficult for many drivers to improve - both McLarens sneaked through into the top ten despite Magnussen sliding through the gravel in the final corner. This rain made life difficult for Williams, because in the wet their relative pace is slower than their dry performance. It is suggested that this phenomena is a result of the car having poorer downforce, but the superior Mercedes engine makes up for it in the dry, a similar story with Force India as Perez has struggled to qualify in the damp in Australia as well as this weekend. In the end the final spot in Q1 fell to Jean Eric Vergne after he just edged out Kvyat - I sense there will be a more than liberal use of the death stare back in the Toro Rosso paddock...
Q3
In this final session the track was at it's wettest with the rain remaining fairly constant, but that didn't stop Mercedes taking a provisional pole position on the very first lap, nearly two seconds faster than the baseline time set by Kimi Raikkonen. It would have been another 1-2 but Vettel and Alonso intervened and placed themselves into second and third place respectively. The entire of the top ten were naturally running on the full wet tyres with the exception of Jenson Button, who was gambling on the rain to stop and the track to dry by running on the intermediate tyres. Unfortunately the for him, the rain continued and conditions subtly declined. As a result the final part of the session turned out be a little anti-climactic as no-one was able to improve on the laps they set at the very beginning. That is except Rosberg, but we've come to understand that the conventional rules no longer apply to the performance of the Mercedes powered cars - specifically the factory team. In the end Hamilton claimed his second pole position of the season ahead of Sebastian Vettel, because Red Bull are clearly off the pace. With Rosberg taking third place away from Alonso's car.
The Bonus Points Championship Points Winners
It has been another challenging qualifying session in inclement conditions, even though the initial delay was a mite excessive in waiting for intermediate tyre conditions, and therefore there were plenty of opportunities for some bonus points. And here are the winners from Malaysian GP qualifying.
- 10pts - Fernando Alonso - Dragging the car into fourth place with compromised steering following the accident with Kvyat.
- 8pts - Romain Grosjean - For dragging the ruined Lotus into Q2 and for the most part of that session ahead of other cars
- 6pts - Esteban Gutierrez - Considerably faster than his more experienced team-mate in a relatively weak Sauber at the moment
- 5pts - Bernd Maylander - Because those safety car laps sounded awesome and more sliding about
- 4pts - Lewis Hamilton - Pole position generally deserves some points - even if it is a little easy in the Mercedes
- 3pts - Pastor Maldonado - Actually managed to out-qualify some cars this time around
- 2pts - Valtteri Bottas/Jules Bianchi - They can have two points each for the coolest powerslides of the day
- 1pt - Suzy Perry - For being able to command the weather, can't buy that power can you Sky
The Penalty Points Championship
There were two post session investigations in the stewards office, the first being between Bottas and Ricciardo for blocking in Q2 - this resulted in a grid drop for Valtteri and two penalty points in the FIA's scoring system. This seems more than a little excessive, I think Bottas was on a flying lap and therefore shouldn't have to jump out of the way for the Red Bull - but the stewards are never known for their logic and consistency. The second case was Daniil's accident with Fernando - but I imagine strategic use of the death stare prevented the Russian getting any form of penalty, in reality it was a racing incident... only in qualifying. So where does this leave penalty points...
- 2pts - The Stewards - Get two points, one for leaving it so long to start the session, and a second for slapping penalties galore on Bottas for what seemed like a none event on the track
- 1pt - Daniel Ricciardo - For royally kicking off with Bottas for no apparent reason, the Red Bull is quick enough for it not to be a problem - just because you're in a big team doesn't give you special priorities... or at least is shouldn't
- 1pt - Dietrich Mateschitz - For threatening to withdraw just because Red Bull are no longer a dominant force, and not having the utopian sport he wants...
Looking to tomorrow
There are no more rain showers predicted for tomorrow morning, and therefore we should have a much drier race - and therefore Ferrari don't need to restock the ice cream cabinet for another Raikkonen lunch break. But saying that, the initial weather reports suggested that today was going to be dry... look at how well that one played out. Strangely today's monsoon hasn't given us a completely random grid with cars out of position. The top runners are at the front and the bottom two teams are anchored to the bottom two rows, which on a track which isn't known for huge amounts of excitement doesn't bode well for an entertaining race on the Sunday morning. However, the landscape of F1 is very different now, many of those cars may not make it to the end because humidity and intense heat challenge the cooling systems and general reliability on these new cars.
But if it is action you're looking for I suspect that Bottas will be interesting to watch coming back from another grid penalty, and the walls this time are more difficult to hit. Both Williams will be stronger if it does remain dry and so will the McLarens coming from the bottom end of the top ten. I sense 2014 will be a season of surprises and Malaysia tomorrow will be the next instalment in that journey. But remember the BTCC looks to be just as engaging tomorrow and the day ends with the Indycar GP of St Petersberg (in Florida not Russia). Just what Mother's day needs lots and lots of motorsport....
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