2013 Formula 1 Malaysian GP: Sebastian Vettel takes pole at Sepang

Red Bull keeps proving that they have the best car in qualifying; in the race, it’s a completely different story. In the Malaysian Grand Prix, which was held on Spanish morning time, Sebastian Vettel took pole with almost a second’s advantage over the second-placed qualifier, Felipe Massa.

The Brazilian driver pushed his teammate, Fernando Alonso, off the front row. The Spaniard was at times in first place, but both the German and the Brazilian robbed him of that pleasure. Lewis Hamilton, Mark Webber, Nico Rosberg, Kimi Räikkönen, Jenson Button, Adrian Sutil and Sergio Pérez rounded out the top 10.

Rain makes an appearance

Zeus wanted to make an appearance in Malaysia and sent a small storm over the Sepang circuit. In the final minutes of Q2, a brief downpour caught several drivers off guard: Romain Grosjean and Nico Hülkenberg, for example, found that they had left it too late to set a good lap, so they failed to make the cut.

We’ll have to see tomorrow what happens with all this tyre business. If it ends up raining, the intermediates and the extreme wets should hold up relatively easily. On the other hand, if the race is dry and the temperature is too high, the compounds Pirelli has brought could fade much faster than they did in Melbourne… We’ll keep you posted.

Team strategies?

It’s curious that millions of rumours are already circulating about team strategies: whether Webber won’t hold up Vettel, whether Massa will let Alonso through… Come on, we’re only at the second race of the season! The best thing we can do is, without a doubt, enjoy tomorrow’s race, which promises to be spectacular.

Via | Rectademeta