|
With track
temperatures of 44 degrees centigrade, the 24 Formula One drivers and
Pirelli’s PZero tyres faced a tough qualifying session in Malaysia: round
two of the Formula One World Championship as well as one of the hottest and
most humid races of the year.
Following a thrilling duel between Red Bull and McLaren, which went down to
the final seconds, Australian Grand Prix winner Sebastian Vettel claimed
pole with a time of 1m34.870s, a tenth of a second ahead of the McLaren of
Lewis Hamilton. Vettel’s time, set using Pirelli’s soft-compound tyres, was
the fastest pole lap seen at the Sepang circuit since 2006, where the pole
time was 1m33.840s.
Conditions stayed dry for qualifying, with most of the drivers starting the
session on hard tyres. Towards the end of Q1, the two Ferrari drivers
switched to Pirelli’s soft tyres to claim the top two times. All of the top
six finishers in Q1 apart from the two McLarens used the soft tyres, while
Red Bull also stuck with the hard tyres throughout Q1.
With the soft tyres proving to be more than a second a lap faster than the
hard tyres, the soft tyre set the pace in Q2. The two McLarens of Jenson
Button and Lewis Hamilton were first and second fastest at the end of Q2.
Red Bull and McLaren were straight out for the final 10-minute Q3 session,
with both teams using the soft tyres. They were the only four cars to go out
until the final three minutes of the session, with the remaining six drivers
giving themselves just one shot at pole position on the soft tyres.
Pirelli’s Motorsport Director Paul Hembery commented: “Malaysia is certainly
one of the most demanding qualifying sessions of the year. The conditions
stayed dry, so we were able to see the pure performance of our tyres without
any outside factors. Whether or not that will be the case tomorrow remains
to be seen, although it’s hard to imagine a weekend in Malaysia with no rain
at all! We’ve heard that there’s a 90% chance of rain tomorrow, but I’m
English so that probably means there’s going to be bright sunshine… We’ve
seen a performance gap of about 1.2 seconds per lap between the soft and the
hard tyre and that obviously had a big effect on the strategies used during
qualifying, which made for a thrilling session right up to the very final
seconds. If today is anything to judge by, I think we’re in for a very
exciting race tomorrow, where once more the strategy will be crucial.” |
