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| Lewis Hamilton equals Jim Clark's British record of poles |
Whisper it quietly but the Malaysian Grand
Prix (apparently renamed the Malaysia Grand Prix in 2011 – go figure) is one of
my favourites of The Unfashionable Races on the F1 calendar. Not a fan of
Hermann Tilke-bot circuits as a general rule but those clever race schedule bods
(or Bernie?!) like to hold this race during the tail end of something called
the Northeast Monsoon. So whatever inherent dullness there is in the Sepang
International Circuit is helpfully mitigated by tropical storms and apocalyptic
weather conditions. And also lets be honest the fact that Malaysia is usually
race no.2 of the season means we’re still a bit like mad-fer-it freshers ready
to binge on anything F1.
Interestingly (at least I thought so)
although the Malaysian Grand Prix has been in the F1 diary since 1999, only 4
different drivers have ever won there. Michael Schumacher (3 times), Alonso (3
times), Vettel (3 times) and Kimi (twice). So Lewis Hamilton for the win
tomorrow then.
The drivers are sporting tributes on their
cars and helmets to the 238 crew and passengers on the missing flight MH370
which tragically disappeared on 8 March. A lovely gesture.
So without any further ado lets gets stuck
into Q1. But oh we can’t because
surprise surprise it is absolutely chucking it down. We are talking biblical
rain, floods, the works. Qualifying keeps being delayed every 15 minutes for
another 15 minutes which is handy as the 3 year old (in a shock event) had a
lie-in until 7.15am and consequently we’re all running behind in Power Towers.
Eventually, we had lift off for Q1.
Predictions please of who will crash first? Actually it took quite a long time
for a big smash although when it came it was a likely suspect. Right near the
end Marcus Ericsson lost control of his Caterham,
ploughed into a barrier and spun back onto the track. Very very narrowly
missing another car. Changes of overalls all round.
OUT: Ericsson and Kobayashi (Caterham x2), Max
Chilton and Jules Bianchi (Marussia x2), plus Adrian Sutil (Sauber) and Pastor
Maldonado (Lotus). No real
shocks there then.
Before Q2 officially began, we had a
traffic jam of cars in the pitlane all chomping at the bit to get out on the
track. The Ferrari cars had opted for intermediates (have they seen the state
of the track?!) with the others mostly going for wet tyres.
And within 2 minutes we had a collision
out on track. Daniil Kvyat and Alonso had a coming together and it looks like
Alonso’s suspension might be buggered with a broken front wishbone. The Finger
of Suspicion was initially pointed at poor old Kvyat but honestly where was he
supposed to go? Alonso had gone so wide that it was entirely reasonable for
Kyvat to take the inside line. Everyone should just take a chill pill and chalk
it off to a racing incident in poor visibility conditions.
Kevin Magnussen veered off into the gravel
although managed to keep his car going and take it straight into the pits. Despite
all the monsoon conditions and countless spins and crashes, whatdya know the
top four spots with 2 minutes to go was 1. Mercedes 2. Mercedes 3. Red Bull 4.
Red Bull. Yawn.
Bottas had it all to do languishing down
in 16th place and his team-mate, Massa wasn’t faring much better in a
lowly 13th place. And despite last ditch attempts, we had confirmation
that Williams will line up on the grid in 13th and 15th
place. Not where Williams would have wanted to be AT ALL. How incredibly
disappointing. Who made the call for Bottas to stay on intermediates so long. A
very costly mistake.
Kvyat managed to climb into 10th
and then almost immediately was bumped down by Vergne. The final flying laps in
Q2 turned out to be really anything but. Everyone pretty stayed as they were. All
the plaudits in Q2 must go to the Ferrari mechanics who managed to repair
Alonso’s seemingly terminal car and send him back out to set the 6th
fastest time in the session.
OUT: 11) Kvyat 12) Gutierrez 13)
Massa 14) Perez 15) Bottas 16) Grosjean.
Q3 –The Moment of Truth was here. In other
words time to watch cars doing laps for 12 minutes before a Mercedes and Red
Bull front two rows lock-out. Stifles another yawn.
All the drivers were on wets except for
Kimi Raikkonen who was on intermediates. It looks pretty freaking wet to me. All
depends on the short-range weather forecast. If more rain is expected then Kimi
could conceivably steal a march. But then we had Jenson Button coming into the
pits for inters. Very interesting, Mr Bond.
And the first flying laps started to come
in thick and fast: Hamilton, Vettel, Alonso, Rosberg, Ricciardo, Kimi,
Hulkenberg, Vergne making up the top 8 with 6 minutes to go. Mercedes urged
their drivers to keep pushing, as well they might with Sebastian Vettel
ominously lying in wait in provisional second place.
Not a good move from the Ferrari mechanics
to tell Kimi to keep pushing. His tyres were totally fried (as were Jenson’s)
so clearly wets were the way to go. Apparently its raining even more now so
will we even see anyone improve on their time? Bah.
Hulkenberg went 7th fastest and
I am struggling to immediately call to mind his Force India team-mate (okay its
Perez) who isn’t taking part in Q3. I might have to dedicate a whole blog to
the Hulk one day because he NEVER EVER gets the recognition he deserves. Who
has he offended in F1?! I am at a loss to understand why he hasn’t been given a
top top drive in F1. And Ferrari mechanics of Fernando Alonso take a bow – from
broken suspension to your man running 3rd in Q3. That is stunning!
Everyone has crossed the line before the
0.00 EXCEPT Vettel who now has missed the cut-off for a final flying lap. The
husband is convinced that Rosberg deliberately came steaming past Vettel and
then slowed to hold Vettel up for those crucial few hundredths of a second. I
couldn’t possibly comment but if there is a nano-gram of truth in it then
Christian will be speed-dialling Charlie Whiting before the drivers’ weigh-in
has finished. And in other news that I spotted (admittedly in the Sidebar of
Shame) earlier – Christian Horner and Geri Halliwell. Ewwwwww. Not like she
hasn’t been stalking the F1 paddock for years to pounce on some poor sucker. We
will now be subjected to her pouty musings in countless races now. *Shudder*
Hamilton’s pole challengers fade away one
by one and it was all down to Rosberg now to mix things up but he can only take
3rd. So plus c'est la même chose. There was to be no grandstand
finish to qualifying and all in all a bit of a damp squib. Literally.
The grid will line up tomorrow as follows:
1) Hamilton 2) Vettel 3)
Rosberg 4) Alonso 5) Ricciardo 6) Raikkonen 7) Hulkenberg 8) Magnussen 9)
Vergne 10) Button
11) Kvyat 12)
Gutierrez 13) Massa 14) Perez 15) Bottas 16) Grosjean
17) Maldonado 18) Sutil 19)
Bianchi 20) Kobayashi 21) Chilton 22) Ericsson
So Lewis Hamilton takes his 33rd
career pole. He has now equalled the British record set by Jim Clark for poles.
A very impressive achievement though a quick word in the shell-like of the Sky
TV producers – if you’re going to bleat on endlessly about it then please
pretty please kindly do a feature on Jim Clark. Of all the drivers that Mr Eau
Rouge Snr (not the husband
!) saw race – and it’s a stellar list – he
was apparently the stand out most naturally gifted driver of them all.
Tomorrow the weather forecast for Sepang
is very hot and very wet. And (even more thrillingly) none other than Benedict
Cumberbatch is in town for the Malaysian Grand Prix. So happy Mother’s Day to
me (and all you lovely mothers out there!).
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