2010 MALAYSIAN GP

Official Press Releases, Communications and Classification of the 2010 FORMULA 1 PETRONAS MALAYSIAN GRAND PRIX

 

Sebastian Vettel on Sunday won his first race for Red Bull Racing F1 at Sepang

 

Malaysian GP – Race – April 4, 2010

Pos	No	Driver	Team	Points
1	5	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull Racing	25
2	6	Mark Webber	Red Bull Racing	18
3	4	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes GP Petronas	15
4	11	Robert Kubica	Renault F1 Team	12
5	14	Adrian Sutil	Force India F1 Team	10
6	2	Lewis Hamilton	Vodafone McLaren Mercedes	8
7	7	Felipe Massa	Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro	6
8	1	Jenson Button	Vodafone McLaren Mercedes	4
9	17	Jaime Alguersuari	Scuderia Toro Rosso	2
10	10	Nico Hulkenberg	AT&T Williams	1
11	16	Sébastien Buemi	Scuderia Toro Rosso
12	9	Rubens Barrichello	AT&T Williams
13	8	Fernando Alonso	Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro
14	25	Lucas di Grassi	Virgin Racing
15	20	Karun Chandhok	HRT F1 Team
16	21	Bruno Senna	HRT F1 Team
17	18	Jarno Trulli	Lotus Racing
18	19	Heikki Kovalainen	Lotus Racing
19	12	Vitaly Petrov	Renault F1 Team
20	15	Vitantonio Liuzzi	Force India F1 Team
21	3	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes GP Petronas
22	23	Kamui Kobayashi	BMW Sauber F1 Team
23	24	Timo Glock	Virgin Racing
24	22	Pedro De la Rosa	BMW Sauber F1 Team

Malaysian GP – Race – April 4, 2010

BMW Sauber F1

After a promising qualifying for the Malaysian Grand Prix neither driver could take advantage of this in the race, as both retired due to a technical failure. Pedro de la Rosa stopped when on his way to the grid, Kamui Kobayashi had to park the car on lap nine. Both cars had engine failures because of a problem in the pneumatic system.

Weather: dry, overcast, 31-32°C air, 38-44°C track

Kamui Kobayashi: DNF (on lap 9, position 11)
C29.01 / Ferrari 056
“The retirement came as a total surprise to me. After turn one I suddenly had no more power. This is really bad luck. Today I was in a good position to fight for points, although I lost two positions at the start when Rubens Barrichello didn’t move in front of me when the starting lights went out. It is a real shame I retired from today’s race, but now we have to concentrate on the next one in China and do better.”

Pedro de la Rosa: Did not start
C29.03 / Ferrari 056
“Of course it is very disappointing not having competed in this race. This Grand Prix is one you prepare for all year because of the physical demands and you really want it to be driving in it. The failure was unusual, unexpected and unlucky.”

Willy Rampf, Technical Director:
“A very disappointing race after promising starting positions. Pedro was forced to stop on his lap to the grid, and Kamui, who started from ninth, had to give up on lap nine. In both cases the engines failed due to problems with the pneumatic system. We have to analyse everything in order to understand the reason behind it.”

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Force India F1

2010 Malaysian Grand Prix Report

Adrian Sutil (car 14, VJM03/03):
5th

Tonio Liuzzi (car 15, VJM03/01):
DNF (Mechanical – lap 12)

4 April 2010 – The Force India F1 Team’s points haul continued in the Malaysian Grand Prix today as Adrian Sutil raced strongly to fifth place and ten points. Adrian drove a faultless race, keeping the 2008 world champion Lewis Hamilton at bay in the closing stages of the race to secure his best finish since the 2009 Italian Grand Prix and bringing the team’s total points this year to 18.

Unfortunately Tonio Liuzzi retired on lap 12 with a suspected throttle problem. The Italian had made a good start and was enjoying a battle with Nico Hulkenberg but started to lose power on lap 10. He pitted however was obliged to retire when a fix could not be made.

The team will now return to the UK to prepare for the Chinese Grand Prix in two weeks’ time.

Adrian Sutil (car 14)
The race was exciting and fifth place in the end was a great achievement. I was hoping for a good race as we were so close in the first two races but then had a little bit of back luck that stopped us scoring. It was a good overall performance from the team. It was always very close with Lewis [Hamilton] just behind in the closing stages but I knew that if I didn’t make any mistakes I wouldn’t have any problems, so it was just trying to concentrate. I had to push, of course, but it was under control. I think we can now carry this forward to China: we are still a good top 10 competitor and we need to continue like this – Q3 and a few points each race would be great at this stage in the season.

Tonio Liuzzi (car 15)
I had had a good start from tenth and was in seventh place and had a good pace, although I was stuck behind Hulkenberg in the Williams. I was struggling to pass even though I was quicker but we were optimistic for a good race. Unfortunately I had a problem with the throttle after about 12 laps. We didn’t understand exactly what it was but overall we lost drive and that was the end of it. It’s disappointing for me but I’m pleased that Adrian could score a lot of points as that helps us in the constructors’ championship.

Dr Vijay Mallya, chairman and team principal
Three races and three times in the points, I am absolutely delighted. Adrian had a strong race, keeping a cool head under pressure when a charging Lewis Hamilton was right on his tail. Once again we’ve proved the pace of our car and our ability to really mix it in the midfield. It was disappointing not to have two cars in the points, but it is overall very positive that we can race hard and score points entirely on merit.

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HRT F1

Sepang, Malaysia – Sunday, April 04, 2010

Weather: overcast, air temperature: 32° C, track temperature: 44°C

Karun Chandhok, 15th Bruno Senna, 16th Karun Chandhok and Bruno Senna both achieved race finishes for the HRT F1 Team on 15th and 16th position in today’s Petronas Malaysian Grand Prix in a race where seven drivers retired.

Dr. Colin Kolles, Team Principal, commented: “A fantastic day for the team completing our first two-car finish in only our third race, with no pre-season testing. Bruno Senna had a good start while Karun Chandhok had a bad one. But Karun could find a good pace then and both drivers had reliable races. Again we have made a great step forward. We reached our goal with two cars finishing the race. Congratulations to the team who worked again hard to achieve this result. Now we have to work on more developments for the next Grand Prix in China.”

Karun Chandhok commented: “I am fantastically happy to have finished my second race today after our difficult debut in Bahrain. I kept out of trouble and pitted on lap 17. On lap 45, I had a tricky moment, passing Trulli’s Lotus. A great thank to the team who did a fantastic job. To finish was very difficult today but I am happy to have done it.”

Bruno Senna commented: “I had a good start and gained as much as I could. I am really pleased for the team to have finished the race with both cars. It has been another positive weekend for the team taking a good step forward.”

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Lotus Racing F1

MALAYSIA GRAND Prix RACE DAY

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia 4th April 2010

Lotus Racing’s Malaysian Grand Prix saw both cars cross the finish line at the Sepang Circuit, Jarno Trulli in 17th and Heikki Kovalainen unclassified, ten laps down at the flag.

After a visit to the garage from the Malaysian Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, and the Badminton World Number One player Datuk Lee Chong Wei, both cars were poised and ready when the red lights went out. Heikki Kovalainen, who started in 15th place after a very good qualifying session, had a tricky race. Off the grid his Lotus Racing Cosworth T127-01 was caught in a tussle with Lucas Di Grassi which caused a left rear puncture, leading to a quick pit stop on lap 12. 20 laps in he had to pit again with a hydraulics issue but his pitcrew were determined not to give up and he was soon back out on track to complete the race.

Heikki Kovalainen: “It was still a very positive race for us, despite the issues. My start wasn’t fantastic and it meant I dropped immediately to the back. After that I got into a good rhythm, but started to see some issues on the dash. I tried to make a move on Di Grassi, but clipped his front wing when I was going past and damaged my left rear tyre, so had to come in to pit. Even with the problems we had the car was competitive and I was very comfortable. Compared to the other new teams our times are very competitive indeed, so I’m not going to let this race trouble me – we learned a lot and now we’ll move on and look ahead to China.”

Jarno Trulli, in 18th position at the start, was in an early tangle with Timo Glock, but he managed to push through, finishing the race in 17th place. “We made a good start, but then on the second lap I was hit by Glock, which made me spin, and from then on my race was compromised. Despite that I got the car home to the end and that shows our focus on reliability has been worth the effort.”

Mike Gascoyne, Chief Technical Officer: “The beauty of sport is that you have highs and lows, and after the high of yesterday, with Heikki in Q2, it was a bit of a low today. Jarno had some handling problems due to damaged bodywork at the rear, and did a great job to bring the car home. With Heikki, he had some very high temperatures which we managed to fix in the pit, and as soon as he was out again he was very competitive, took the car to the flag, and really showed what the car was capable of. So it was disappointing, but at least we managed to get two cars to the flag. We’ve learned a lot and are looking to move on and be on good form for China.”

Team Principal Tony Fernandes: “It was good to get two finishes; obviously we’re unhappy with the position, but as we’ve always said it’s a major achievement just to finish. And we did – as you could see later Heikki’s car had good pace, so that’s encouraging. We take a lot away from this weekend, and we’ll take everything we have learned with us to China, and from Barcelona, as we’ve always said, we’ll be looking to build on the very solid start to the season. I’m proud of the effort the whole team put in today in tough, hot conditions, and we’re here to fight another day.”

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Mercedes GP Petronas

Nico Rosberg achieved the first podium finish for the MERCEDES GP PETRONAS team at the Sepang International Circuit in Malaysia today, capping a strong weekend at the home Grand Prix of the team’s title partner, PETRONAS.

Starting from second place on the grid, Nico lost a place at the start and was running in third position at the end of the first lap. He made his sole pit stop on lap 22 where superb work from the team enabled Nico to gain over a second on the chasing Robert Kubica. From there, Nico drove a composed race to the chequered flag to secure third position and his third podium finish, 

Michael Schumacher was out of the race when a wheel nut came off one of the rear wheels and forced Michael to retire on lap ten.

Drivers      Car No.   Chassis No.   Race Result / Fastest Lap
Nico Rosberg    4     MGP W01 / 02   P3     1:38.129
Michael Schumacher   3     MGP W01 / 03   DNF

Weather      Hot and humid
Temperatures    Air: 31-32°C     Track: 38-45°C

NICO ROSBERG
“It’s a fantastic result today to achieve our team’s first podium at the home race for our title partner, PETRONAS. I want to thank the whole team for all of their hard work this weekend and over the winter. This result is the start of the reward for our efforts. It’s a great feeling to be back up on the podium again and to have so much support from the Malaysian fans here. My start didn’t go that well today as I had a bit too much wheelspin and once I was in third place, I knew it would be difficult to follow the leading cars. I struggled a little with the options in the first stint which allowed Robert to stay quite close but once we switched to the primes, I felt really comfortable and we could manage the race home to third place. This is a great end to a strong weekend for us. We’re not quite where we want to be yet so we need to push on but I’m confident that we’ll get there soon.”

MICHAEL SCHUMACHER
“It was a shame that I could not finish the race but unfortunately the wheel nut on the left rear wheel was lost. The car suddenly became very unstable in turn six and I could hardly steer and had no drive left. I initially thought it was something to do with the suspension but after I stopped and had a look, it was evident that was a wheel nut missing. It is something very unusual to happen and in testing we never had problems so we have to look it. I would have obviously wanted to finish the race and I think it could have worked out quite reasonably well. But in the end that is motor racing, I remember that very well. It makes no sense to get angry about it, you have to accept it as part of the game and look ahead. At least Nico scored our first podium finish and I am happy for him and the team.”

ROSS BRAWN
“That was an excellent drive from Nico today and a first-class performance to secure his third career podium and the first podium for the MERCEDES GP PETRONAS team. We are delighted to have achieved the first podium for the Silver Arrows here in Malaysia and to be able to share the rewards of our hard work with our title partner PETRONAS at their home Grand Prix. My compliments to Nico for an assured performance today and over the weekend. Michael was in a good position after the start and we were looking forward to having a good race on his side but unfortunately it wasn’t to be. The car lost a wheel nut which is a problem that we haven’t experienced before. The wheel nuts are double-checked on the grid so we will investigate and put in place the necessary solutions.”

NORBERT HAUG
“A great drive from Nico and our first podium after starting from the first row in our third race. The team had a first-class strategy and Nico did not put one foot wrong and secured this first and for us historic podium finish, at the home race of our title partner PETRONAS. Our gap to the two Red Bull-Renaults in front of Nico was still considerable and we all know there is more work to be done in order to catch up. However it looks like we are heading in the right direction and the point standings after three races don’t look too bad. Sorry for Michael who had a great start and was positioned sixth when a wheel nut came loose which stopped his race. We will work hard and concentrated to make sure that our car will be fully reliable in the future and get quicker step by step. After Melbourne, Nico and the team performed again the quickest pit stop which is very rewarding for our guys and sometimes very important to get the right amount of World Championship points. Last but certainly not least congratulations to Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull Racing for their first and well deserved victory in 2010. Seb was the class of the field today.”

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Red Bull F1

RED BULL RACING ONE TWO

“THE SPIRIT AND ENERGY IN OUR TEAM IS AWESOME… ” MARK WEBBER

Car 5 SEBASTIAN VETTEL, Finish Position: WINNER! Start Position: 3rd

“What a day! At the start, I realised that I had a good start past Nico (Rosberg). I was then able to gain on Mark; it’s a long sprint down to Turn one and I had an advantage, so I took the chance into Turn 1 and just made it through! Mark had a better exit out of Turn 2 though Turn 3, but it was very slippery and we both tried to push. We are here to fight, but you should always keep respect and I think we both had respect for each other. If Mark had been in my position I’m sure he would have done the same. After that it was a question of getting away from our competitors. I could see that Mark and I had the same pace – he was a little quicker in the beginning, but I was trying to save my tyres so I could pull away before the stop. The second stint was extremely long and it’s very hot here – I didn’t stop sweating. It’s very physical and at some stages I was hoping for rain just to get a bit of a cool down! Yesterday was extremely difficult with the conditions, but today it stayed dry. We have a magnificent car and the key once again was to pace yourself and watch your tyres. Bridgestone did a good job bringing two compounds here that worked well. It’s a very good result for us after two races where we didn’t finish where we wanted. Thanks to the team – it’s crucial not to panic in that moment and stay relaxed as it’s a long season. Sitting here on Sunday afternoon after finishing in first position is the best result we can get. On top of that, Mark is in second place. It’s a big plus for the team and a lot of points for us, I’m very, very happy.”

Car 6 MARK WEBBER, Finish Position: 2nd, Start Position: 1st

“We know these days with the strategy and the way the races unfold that the first part of the race is crucial. I got a bit of wheel spin at the start and Seb got a tow into the first corner. I didn’t know where Nico was, so I braked late. Both Seb and I were on the limit to make the first corner. I had a little bit better exit coming out of Turn 2 and the fight continued into Turn 4. We had a chat to Christian at the start of the race and he said “Boys, behave yourselves!” and we did. The spirit and the chemistry in our team is awesome and we fight very hard. You saw that today – it was a good fight between Sebastian and I. It could have gone either way, but in the end he did the job at the crucial stage and deserved the victory. A one two finish for us as a team is sensational. The cars ran very well and it was a nice come back for us after a tough few races where we didn’t finish as we wanted to. I’d like to be one spot further up, but it’s a great result for the team. We executed a beautiful weekend, so well done to Red Bull and also to Renault, the engines were great today.”

CHRISTIAN HORNER, Team Principal: “A fantastic team performance. The race ultimately came down to the first 500 metres; both drivers had excellent starts. Sebastian got the inside line into Turn 1, Mark gave him enough space and they fought each other through Turn 2 and into Turn 3. That was the difference between them today, they matched each other tenth for tenth in pace and it was great to see the team achieve a faultless one two finish. It’s been a huge amount of hard work. Obviously we’ve had frustrations in the first two races, but the team has stayed focused. We’ve had tremendous support from the factory this weekend and people gave up their Easter to ensure that our cars had the best opportunity for finishing at arguably one of the toughest races. Both cars behaved impeccably, so it puts us right back in the Championship and gives everyone a lot of confidence.”

FABRICE LOM, Renault, Principal Engineer Track Support: “Woo hoo! What a good result – it’s the one we deserved since the beginning of the season, but due to reliability problems we were not able to make it. Now it’s done, the reliability is there and it’s a one two finish – it’s great. After all the difficult times we are a team and are back in the fight. Our big competitors didn’t score a lot of points so it’s a really good result for us and the engines behaved very well in this heat. We are fully happy today. “ —————

Renault F1 Team

Malaysian Grand Prix, Sunday

Robert Kubica, P4
Fastest lap: 1:38.074
Pitstops: one, lap 21, time in pits: 22.958s, (option / prime)

Robert: “It was another enjoyable race and the car was consistent with good pace all afternoon. The start of the race was really important because I managed to get ahead of Hulkenberg into turn 1, and then I got a good exit out of turn 2, which helped me overtake Sutil. After that I managed to build a good gap to the cars behind me, but we didn’t have the pace to catch Rosberg. Fourth place is a good result and gives us some more important points.”

Vitaly Petrov, Retired lap 34
Fastest lap: 1.40.693
Pitstops: one, lap 14, time in pits: 25.241s, (option / prime)

Vitaly: “The first half of the race was great fun and I enjoyed fighting with the cars around me, especially the battle with Hamilton. Then, in the middle of the race, the car just stopped and I think it was a problem with the gearbox. I’m disappointed to retire, but I now have some more experience and I learnt a lot about managing the tyres, which will help me improve for the next race.”

Eric Boullier, Team Principal
“To finish fourth with Robert is another great result for the team. Obviously we benefited from our good qualifying performance yesterday and Robert made a good start to the race. After that he drove very well and the car showed good pace. Vitaly also made progress at the start, drove aggressively in the opening laps, and had a good fight with Hamilton. It’s a real shame he had to retire because I think he could have scored his first points today.”

Alan Permane, Chief Race Engineer
“Robert drove a great race today and was up to fourth on the first lap, which he held until the end of the race. We tried to catch Rosberg, but the Mercedes had pretty similar pace and so we had to settle for fourth. As for Vitaly, he made another good start and drove really well in the opening laps. When we changed him to the prime tyres he struggled for rear grip, but then his race came to an end with the gearbox problem, which we are still investigating.”

Rémi Taffin, Head of Engine Operations
“We had a strong race today and have come away with a good result. We were clearly on the same pace as Nico Rosberg, although he managed to stay ahead of us as the strategy unfolded. The two Red Bulls were on another planet today and underlined the overall performance of the Renault engine which has finished in three of the top four places. Our fourth place today confirms our recent progress, but we must continue working hard. I would also like to say well done to all the mechanics, who have done a brilliant job all weekend in tough working conditions.”
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Scuderia Toro Rosso

2010 MALAYSIAN GRAND PRIX – SUNDAY 04/04/10

FIRST F1 POINTS FOR JAIME

Jaime Alguersuari (STR5-03) Pos. 9th

“I am very happy to have scored points today and I have to say I never expected to do it so early in the season. A big thanks to everyone in the team who have worked so hard to achieve this result. Step by step, I have improved my performance, but this weekend was very tough because I didn’t know the track. I enjoyed this race, especially the fights I had with some of the others: I think I learned a bit about the art of fighting with Michael (Schumacher) last weekend in Melbourne. Towards the end, I was a bit worried about how the tyres would last, as I was on the soft ones, but I had no degradation. It is very satisfying and I feel a lot more confident now going into the upcoming races.”

Sebastien Buemi (STR5-01) Pos. 11th

“This race didn’t go so well for me, because, after quite a good start, my front wing was damaged on the first lap when I made contact with Kobayashi. It meant that from then on, I lacked grip and had a lot of understeer. I ended driving for much of the race with a damaged wing, but once it was changed I was able to put in some very fast lap times, but by then it was too late to do much. A one stop strategy in any case was not on for me, as I did two stints on the Option tyre. In general, these two races in one week have not gone well for me, but we can be optimistic about Shanghai, as the whole package, the car and the team seems to have made a step forward this weekend. And congratulations to Jaime for his first F1 points.”

Franz Tost: “A very good weekend for Red Bull, with three out of four cars in the points. Well done to Red Bull Racing for this well deserved one-two finish. We are very pleased to have scored our first points of the season and well done to Alguersuari for the first two points of his F1 career. Jaime continues to improve each weekend. He got a good start and then drove a fantastic race, not only defending his position but also carrying off some daring overtaking moves. Then for the last third of the race, he controlled the situation, looking after his tyres and the engine to complete an excellent race performance. Buemi made a reasonable start, but unfortunately, he made contact with Kobayashi at Turn 2 on the opening lap, which damaged the nose and front wing end plate. After this, he soon complained of heavy understeer, so we brought forward his first pit stop. Having calculated that a nose change at this time would have lost him too much track position, we did not change it, again bringing him in early at the second stop when we did fit the new nose. After that, his lap times improved and he brought the car home eleventh. We are looking forward to China with optimism, because not only do the drivers continue to improve, but the team also worked very well, so I hope we can pick up some more points in Shanghai.”

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AT&T Williams F1

Nico Hulkenberg today scored the first point of his Formula One career with tenth place in this afternoon’s Malaysian Grand Prix. Despite losing track position at the start and having to pit early for a new steering wheel, Nico proceeded to drive a race which culminated in P10. Rubens Barrichello finished in P12 after an issue at the start left him to fight from the back of the field.

Nico Hulkenberg:
We picked up a point today, maybe because our car was more reliable, but that’s racing. It was a tough race because we just don’t have the pace at the moment. I wish we could do better, but we have some work to do to catch up.

Rubens Barrichello:
I don’t know what happened at the start, I’ll go through that with the team. From there I went to the back of the field. We tried a different strategy to get us back up, but our car was just not competitive. We lost a nice opportunity today.

Sam Michael, Technical Director:
We had a difficult race this afternoon from which we’ve come away with one point. Both drivers struggled with the start; Rubens didn’t get enough drive and Nico had excessive wheel spin. We chose to pit Rubens early and put him on the harder tyre as he was being held up in traffic. Nico also had to pit early as we had an electrical problem on his steering wheel which was preventing us from changing the engine mixture. Our focus remains on improving our pace and starts.

Race Result

Position	Driver	Team	Time	Fastest Lap	Grid Position
1	S Vettel	Red Bull Racing	1:33:48.412	1:37.813 (6th)	3
2	M Webber	Red Bull Racing	+4.849	1:37.054 (1st)	1
3	N Rosberg	Mercedes	+13.504	1:38.129 (8th)	2
10	N Hulkenberg	AT&T Williams	+73.399	1:39.124 (11th)	5
12	R Barrichello	AT&T Williams	+ 1 lap	1:39.428 (12th)	7

 

Track Conditions

Weather	Hot
Track Temp	38 – 45C
Air Temp	31 – 32C

 

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Bridgestone Motorsport

4 April, Sepang, Malaysia

Bridgestone Motorsport’s Malaysia Grand Prix Report

Sebastian Vettel led his Red Bull Racing team-mate Mark Webber across the line to win a scintillating Malaysian Grand Prix with a soft – hard Bridgestone Potenza tyre strategy at a searing hot Sepang.

The rain which visited the circuit for every afternoon in the build-up to the race remained absent, meaning it was tyre strategies using Bridgestone’s two dry tyres which defined performance, with a good mix of timing and order of use of the hard and soft compounds.

Hiroshi Yasukawa – Director of Bridgestone Motorsport, says

“Today we saw a very exiting race and I am proud of the part that Bridgestone played in this with a good allocation of tyres, as confirmed by the race winner, Sebastian Vettel. Congratulations to Red Bull for their one-two today, and to Mercedes for Nico Rosberg’s third place. It is always a pleasure to visit Malaysia and we have many supporters here. Bridgestone Malaysia celebrated its tenth anniversary around the Grand Prix weekend and they raised over 105,000 Ringgets for their nominated charity – the Global Environment Centre.”

Hirohide Hamashima – Bridgestone Director of Motorsport Tyre Development, says

“This was a good and interesting race based around tyre strategies. The hard and soft Bridgestone compounds performed very well, but with distinct characteristics. Those who started with the soft tyre had to stop sooner than those who started with the hard, as the soft had a shorter wear life. The hard allowed drivers to continue pushing, as shown by Mark Webber setting the race’s fastest lap on lap 53 with this tyre. The soft required a more forgiving style to maintain its performance. Drivers were able to use fresh tyres sets in the race, as they did not use these tyres in the wet qualifying yesterday. This meant we saw many fastest race laps as the race progressed, from drivers taking to the track on fresh rubber. Our compounds were able to support a variety of strategies and it was good to see the racing on track between many drivers at different times through the race. Even though the top three drivers used the same strategy, there were strong moves through the field using a hard-soft strategy. So many people predicted rain for this race, but today we did not need wet weather to provide excitement on track.”

Malaysian GP – Qualifying – April 3, 2010

Pos	No	Driver	Team
1	6	Mark Webber	Red Bull Racing
2	4	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes GP Petronas
3	5	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull Racing
4	14	Adrian Sutil	Force India F1 Team
5	10	Nico Hulkenberg	AT&T Williams
6	11	Robert Kubica	Renault F1 Team
7	9	Rubens Barrichello	AT&T Williams
8	3	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes GP Petronas
9	23	Kamui Kobayashi	BMW Sauber F1 Team
10	15	Vitantonio Liuzzi	Force India F1 Team
11	12	Vitaly Petrov	Renault F1 Team
12	22	Pedro De la Rosa	BMW Sauber F1 Team
13	16	Sébastien Buemi	Scuderia Toro Rosso
14	17	Jaime Alguersuari	Scuderia Toro Rosso
15	19	Heikki Kovalainen	Lotus Racing
16	24	Timo Glock	Virgin Racing
17	1	Jenson Button	Vodafone McLaren Mercedes
18	18	Jarno Trulli	Lotus Racing
19	8	Fernando Alonso	Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro
20	2	Lewis Hamilton	Vodafone McLaren Mercedes
21	7	Felipe Massa	Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro
22	20	Karun Chandhok	HRT F1 Team
23	21	Bruno Senna	HRT F1 Team
24	25	Lucas di Grassi	Virgin Racing

Malaysian GP – Qualifying Session – April 3, 2010

  

BMW Sauber F1

Under difficult conditions the team got the timing and the tyre strategy right and achieved its best qualifying result so far this year. Kamui Kobayashi qualified ninth for the Malaysian Grand Prix. This is the first top ten grid position of his F1 career to date, and the first one for the team this year. Pedro de la Rosa, who shone with the second fastest lap in Q1, just missed making it into Q3 when he got stuck in traffic. He qualified 12th.

Weather: Dry in practice, rain during qualifying, 26-32°C air, 23-47°C track

Kamui Kobayashi:
C29.01 / Ferrari 056
Qualifying: 9th / 1.51.767 min (in Q3) / 3rd Practice: 18th / 1:36.404 min (19 laps)
“I am very happy to have made it into Q3 for the first time. Last year in Brazil, also in wet conditions, I was close but then I spun on my last lap in Q2. I learnt this lesson. In dry conditions our performance seemed to be rather difficult, therefore I am even happier with my position. It is not easy to drive in the wet because of aquaplaning, which obviously will get worse if it rains tomorrow because of the heavy cars for the race start. But I am determined to score points tomorrow.”

Pedro de la Rosa:
C29.03 / Ferrari 056
Qualifying: 12th / 1.48.771 min (in Q2) / 3rd Practice: 17th / 1:35.477 min (18 laps)
“It was a quite difficult qualifying because of the changeable conditions. You never knew how much water to expect when braking into a corner. The car was pretty good in the wet, and I could have made it into the top ten if I just had a single clear lap. But even on my fastest lap I had to overtake two cars in the last sector. However, certainly we can look forward to a very exciting race tomorrow!”

Peter Sauber, Team Principal:
“It’s nice to have one car in 12th and the other one in the top ten. The engineers and drivers did a good job today. This result is motivating for the whole team. We are looking forward to a thrilling race.”

Willy Rampf, Technical Director:
“After free practice three we made some changes to the cars. We decided not to run the new rear wing system on Kamui’s car. Due to the constantly changing weather conditions it was an exciting qualifying in which we made the best decisions with regard to strategy and timing. The team was rewarded with a solid result. Kamui’s performance was strong and he managed to make it into the top ten.”

——————

Force India F1

Adrian Sutil (car 14, VJM03/03):
FP3: 11th  1:34.623  (11 laps)
Q1: 8th 1:49.479  (6 laps)
Q2: 3rd 1:47.085  (8 laps)
Q3: 4th 1:50.914  (7 laps)

Tonio Liuzzi (car 15, VJM03/01):
FP3: 14th 1:34.957  (16 laps)
Q1: 10th 1:49.922  (6 laps)
Q2: 8th 1:48.238  (9 laps)
Q3: 10th 1:52.254  (6 laps)

3 April 2010 – The Force India F1 Team’s Adrian Sutil will start tomorrow’s Malaysian Grand Prix from fourth on the grid following a faultless drive and a well-played strategy in qualifying at the Sepang International Circuit. Tonio Liuzzi completed the team’s strongest qualifying performance this season by passing through to Q3 for the first time this year. The Italian will start tenth.

The team and drivers interpreted the ever-changing weather conditions perfectly, with both drivers going out for early runs in Q1 on the intermediate tyres, so when the rain worsened both were easily through to Q2, with Adrian P8 and Tonio P10. As the rain increased a mid-break switch to extreme wets beckoned but when the track dried out both returned for intermediates: again, a canny decision that allowed Adrian to set the third quickest time and Tonio the eighth.

Heavier rain fell in Q3, causing a red flag with seven minutes remaining. On the restart, Adrian and Tonio were the first cars out on extreme wets and were for a time the quickest cars out on track. As the conditions bettered the pair were just edged down the order with Adrian claiming fourth position and Tonio tenth, the team’s best combined starting position since the 2009 Italian Grand Prix.

Adrian Sutil (car 14)
It was a great qualifying again for us. As I expected it rained at 4pm, I said that yesterday I think! It was challenging and the conditions changed a lot over the sessions. Sometimes it was a lot of rain, sometimes half wet, half dry so it was very important to choose the right tyres. I think we did a great job in those conditions and every session we did the optimum. I am so happy to be in this position now. It’s a great achievement and my team really deserved it. They did a fantastic job: being there on the right time on the right tyre was very important. My time in the end was good for P4: a great job all round.

Tonio Liuzzi (car 15)
We can be happy about getting through to Q3 as this was our target for this weekend. It was a good qualifying, Q3 started very wet, very similar to Brazil last year, and then it dried up very quickly at the end. I had a problem on the last lap with a locking front brake and lost the last run but that’s how it is in these conditions: you have to get the right spot at the right time. Tomorrow will be a tough race from where we are. We have a lot of quick cars around us but as we’ve seen today we are strong in all conditions. I’m looking forward to it.

Dr Vijay Mallya, chairman and team principal
Today was a really brilliant team performance, not just from the drivers but from the pit wall and the garage. The interpretation of the data and weather forecast, the implementation in the garage and the calls from the drivers all came together beautifully to give our best qualifying performance this season. It sets us up well for the race, but as we know tomorrow’s result is all that counts. We’ve got to keep this spirit up, keep our heads down and go for the maximum we can. I don’t want to tempt fate with predictions, but I would hope we could convert this into a serious points haul.

—————–

HRT F1

Third Free Practice Session      Karun Chandhok  F110-01 #20 – 1.39.895 16 laps     

                                                Bruno Senna        F110-02 #21 – 1.39.868 19 laps
Qualifying                                             Bruno Senna     1.57.269 (9laps)

                        Karun Chandhok 1.56.299 (9Laps)
 
First wet qualifying for HRT F1
 
Saturday, April 03, 2010 – Having never run its car in full wet track conditions before the start of the season, HRT F1 team today competed in the third qualifying session of its short F1 history. The team’s two drivers will start from 22nd and 23rd on the grid, just behind Alonso, Hamilton and Massa.
 
In the third morning free practice session they added 35 laps to yesterday’s strong day of running. They posted laps in 1.39.868 – 6.3s away from Webber’s pace at the front (1.33.542).
 
Dr. Colin Kolles commented: “Having never run the car in the wet before this weekend, HRT F1 team was taking a gamble with this wet weather for both cars. Without pre-season testing it is a big challenge to go out and drive in really wet conditions like today. Let’s see what the weather brings during the race tomorrow.”
 
Bruno Senna commented: “It’s been a bit of a difficult day. Conditions were very tough and it was our first experience of these conditions. I covered five laps before sliding off on the very wet track and unfortunately the engine stalled. Luckily I could go out of the gravel, going back to the garage and do more laps after it.”
 
Karun Chandhok commented: “I will start tomorrow’s race just behind Trulli, Alonso, Hamilton and Massa. The weather was not looking good in the afternoon before qualifying and I was not sure if it would hold until the qualifying session as well. It didn’t and that gave us our first wet experience driving the car for the first time in heavy rain. I made the best of it.”

Shah Rukh Khan, the leading Bollywood actor superstar watched qualifying from HRT F1 Team garage.

—————-

Lotus Racing F1

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia 3rd April 2010

ANOTHER STEP FORWARD FOR LOTUS RACING
Saturday’s qualifying session saw Lotus Racing’s sunny faces beaming through the rain as another important milestone was achieved, with Heikki Kovalainen going into his first Q2 with the team and finishing 15th (1.52.270) after a clever strategy took advantage of the heavy rain that started falling just before the session began. Jarno Trulli (18th, 1.52.884) narrowly missed out on Q2 but was satisfied he did all he could in tricky conditions.

Heikki Kovalainen (T127-01): “I’m so pleased! I really like these conditions – it’s very hard to judge your speed and you really have to take some risks, and all the time you’re feeling like you might lose the car, but that’s the challenge and I love it! On some parts of the track it was very wet and raining hard, and on others it wasn’t so much. Getting to Q2 really exceeds expectations for me and the whole team – yes of course we’ve been a little bit lucky today for sure, but it means we beat the other new teams, again! Although we were lucky, we played our strategy just right -if you look at the McLarens and Ferraris they didn’t think it was going to rain that much and look what happened. They missed their window at the beginning of the session and we took full advantage of it. Now I can’t wait to race tomorrow!”

Jarno Trulli: “It was disappointing because I was doing very well. Unfortunately on my quickest lap a car spun in front of me, which impeded me through the second and third sector so I couldn’t close my fast lap; and then the rain was getting worse, so there was no chance to improve on lap time. Still – we’ll do our best tomorrow and we’ll see what happens.”

Mike Gascoyne: “Obviously we’re all very very pleased to get a car into Q2 and Heikki did a tremendous job to get us there! I’m disappointed for Jarno as he got traffic on the lap that would have got him in. I think we got all the calls on the tyres right on the pit wall and in Q2 we ran the whole session on intermediates, which was clearly the thing to do. We made a change five minutes before the end, and Heikki got in a good clear lap to get P15. Well done to the whole team, and especially to Tony, for such success at one of our two home races – I know he’s very very proud.”

Team Principal Tony Fernandes was almost lost for words: “I’m speechless! What a day! To get 15th place in our home country, in front of our home crowd is amazing. I’m over the moon and just so excited. We gave the Toro Rossos a run for their money today and Jarno was just unfortunate to get blocked, otherwise he’d have been in Q2 as well. Tomorrow’s another day, and we’ll see what happens, but it’s a good step forward. Today we’ll enjoy it, and we’ll live for the day, and we’ll see what happens tomorrow.”

—————-

Mercedes GP Petronas

Nico Rosberg achieved his best ever grid placing today in a rain-soaked and eventful qualifying session for the 2010 PETRONAS Malaysian Grand Prix at the Sepang International Circuit as he put his MGP W01 on the front row of the grid in second position. Team-mate Michael Schumacher qualified in eighth place after the rain-interrupted Q3.

With rain arriving prior to the start of qualifying, Nico and Michael waited in the garage for the opening minutes of Q1. They completed one run on intermediate tyres and headed straight back into the pits for wets as the rain intensified, leaving their best laps quick enough to go through in 16th and 14th positions respectively. With a lessening of the rain, intermediates were the right choice for Q2 where Nico and Michael finished in 5th and 10th places to progress.

Q3 began in heavy rain which quickly brought out the red flag. Once the action had resumed, Nico and Michael completed three flying laps on wet tyres, setting their quickest times on the first lap before the tyres began to degrade. Nico had a great lap for second place, bringing the first front row grid slot for the MERCEDES GP PETRONAS team, with Michael finishing in eighth position.

Drivers      Car No. Chassis No.    Free Practice Qualifying 1   Qualifying 2   Qualifying 3
Nico Rosberg    4   MGP W01 / 02   P6   P16     1:52.560   P5     1:47.417   P2     1:50.673
Michael Schumacher   3   MGP W01 / 03   P5   P14     1:52.239   P10    1:48.400   P8     1:51.717

Weather      Wet
Temperatures    Air: 26-30°C   Track: 23-32°C

NICO ROSBERG
“I’m really pleased with my first front row start and it’s great for me, the whole team and PETRONAS to have such a good qualifying result in Sepang for one of our home races. It was very difficult out there today and hard to keep it on the road at times. My run in Q3 was definitely my best of the day and I put in a good time on the first quick lap. By the second lap, the tyres started to degrade so it just wasn’t possible to go any quicker from there. As soon as we went out, I thought intermediates were the way to go and maybe I should have come in but in the end it worked out well for us. I’m confident that we can have a strong race from here tomorrow, if it is wet or dry, and I’m looking forward to it.”

MICHAEL SCHUMACHER
“I am obviously a little disappointed with my result today as it was evident from the earlier qualifying sessions that we looked pretty good and I clearly could have achieved more. On my last run in Q3, I wanted to secure a lap time and then go for the second lap but after I finished my first quick lap, the tyres were already gone so I could not go for it anymore. Though it is good to know the limits of the wet tyres for tomorrow, now I have to concentrate fully on the race. Congratulations to Nico today for scoring our first front row qualifying result.”

ROSS BRAWN
“An excellent performance from Nico today to achieve his first front row grid start in what were very challenging conditions for all of the drivers. In these situations, it is important to keep a cool and calm head and I’m very pleased with how the team worked together to ensure that we competed in all three sessions. It was a bit close on occasion but we reacted well and the drivers did the most important job of keeping the car on the track. In Q3, Nico had a great first lap to achieve his time for second position, however the wet tyres degraded very quickly and Michael suffered particularly on his second quick lap and was not able to improve. It’s very pleasing to have achieved our best grid position of the season here in Sepang for PETRONAS’s home race.”

NORBERT HAUG
“Today was a qualifying session where anything was possible and we saw some surprising results like three World Champions starting the race from 17th, 19th and 20th positions. Michael did the best job amongst the Champions finishing in eighth place whilst Nico was superb in posting the fastest time of the drivers on wet tyres in Q3 and finishing the session in second position on the front row. Michael decided to do a ‘safe’ lap and wanted to push hard on the lap afterwards but the wet tyres unfortunately only lasted one lap at their peak. I am particularly pleased that five German drivers finished this thrilling and challenging qualifying session in the top eight. All of them have, in one form or another, been supported by Mercedes-Benz during their junior careers, be it in karting like Nico and sportcars like Michael, or in the Formula 3 Euro Series. Well done to all of them! It gives everybody in our team great pleasure to start from the front row for the PETRONAS Malaysian Grand Prix and our target is to achieve a similar result tomorrow.”

—————

Red Bull F1

 

Car 6 MARK WEBBER, Position: POLE POSITION

“It was tricky today. When you look at the amount of standing water there was in places during Q1 and Q2, trying to get everything right and a clear lap was difficult, especially as there is a fair difference in pace between some of the cars. My Q2 lap on intermediate tyres was a bit of a three point turn round Pedro (de la Rosa) and that was my quickest, so you knew you had to keep pushing; the conditions were changing so quickly. A few big names went out in the first session, which was a surprise, but it just goes to show how sensitive everything is to timing. The pole goes to Ciaron, my engineer, as he made the call for inters in Q3. I said ‘have a look at the track, what do you think?’ and he said ‘yeah let’s go for it’. It was tricky in places, in the last corner there was a bit of aquaplaning, but I kept it on the black stuff and got the job done.”

Car 5 SEBASTIAN VETTEL, Position: 3rd

“Good job to Mark today. It was very tricky at the start of Q3, there was a lot of water and it was the right thing to call the red flag – it was just impossible. I think there was too much water – the cars are quite low, so you end up swimming more than driving. In Q3 I think we did the right thing putting on extremes. The water disappeared quicker than the majority of people thought and Mark was on the better tyre in the end, but I think third is a good result for the team. It was a tricky session – it was important to get into the next round and then qualify as high up as we could, which we did. It’s a shame as I had some moments on my fastest lap – I was close to Nico (Rosberg), only about one tenth off I think, but if you look back there wasn’t that much margin. I think we can be very pleased with third today and everything is possible tomorrow.”

CHRISTIAN HORNER: “A very tricky qualifying, as there was a lot of opportunity to get it wrong rather than right, but both drivers kept cool heads, along with their engineers and car crews. In the end there was quite a lot of risk associated with splitting the strategy for the last run in Q3, but it was the right thing to do. The option of the intermediate tyre had a one lap window that Mark fully exploited and first and third is a great job from both drivers.”

(Renault) FABRICE LOM: “What a great pole position. It was a very difficult session in the wet – Mark made a good call on tyres and along with his good skill, he claimed pole. He erased the issue from yesterday when his engine blew, so we’re happy he could recover and get pole. Sebastian is third, which is a good team result. Now we concentrate on the race tomorrow.”

Practice 3 Mark Webber: P1, Best Time: 1:33.542, Laps: 17, Chassis 4

Sebastian Vettel: P3, Best Time: 1:33.587, Laps: 17, Chassis 3

—————

Renault F1 Team

FREE PRACTICE 3

Robert Kubica, R30-03, P10, 1:34.549, 17 laps

Vitaly Petrov, R30-02, P16, 1:35.076, 17 laps

QUALIFYING

Robert Kubica, R30-03, P6, 1:51.051

Robert: ”Today’s weather made for quite a challenging qualifying session, but the car felt good in the wet and I made it easily through Q1 and Q2. For the final part of qualifying we thought the rain would get heavier so I pushed really hard on my first timed lap in Q3, which destroyed the tyres and made it difficult to improve as the track continued to dry. However, sixth place is a good place to start and I’m looking forward to the race tomorrow. I think the weather could play a big role, and if it’s like today the race could become a lottery.”

Vitaly Petrov, R30-02, P11, 1:48.760

Vitaly: “It was difficult to predict the weather today, so we decided to go out as early as possible, which was the right decision because the rain kept getting heavier in Q1. In Q2 the car felt good on the intermediates and I pushed hard throughout the session, but I just missed out on Q3, which is a shame. Still, 11th is a good place to start and if we get more rain tomorrow, anything could happen. I will be aiming to finish the race and hopefully score some points.”

Eric Boullier, Team Principal
“With the changeable weather today it was a difficult session to call with lots of possible strategies going through our minds. Overall the team made the right decisions with the tyres for both cars and the drivers did a great job. For the race tomorrow the forecast suggests we can expect some more rain so it’s good to be starting towards the front of the grid. This is our best qualifying performance as a team this year and I think we have a good opportunity to get both cars in the points tomorrow.”

Alan Permane, Chief Race Engineer
“Today’s session was great fun from the pit wall and I’m pleased that we got the tyre choice right for both Robert and Vitaly in the first two sessions. Robert made it easily through to Q3, but Vitaly just missed out, which is a shame because he has been quick today. With quite a mixed up grid for tomorrow, we should be in for an interesting race and I think we are well placed to score some good points. The weather could play its part again, but as we have seen today our car works well in the wet and the dry, and the team has reacted well to the conditions. We’re probably a bit more competitive in the wet, but I don’t mind if it’s wet or dry.”

—————

Scuderia Toro Rosso

(rain (rn) n. ..is liquid precipitation as opposed to other types of precipitation such as snow, sleet or hail. It may have an effect on F1 qualifying sessions held in Malaysia. On Earth, it is the condensation of atmospheric water vapour into drops of water heavy enough to fall, often making it to the surface.

Giorgio Ascanelli: “Malaysian rain is like English tea: it comes around five and it’s the same temperature. Seriously though, we got our tactics right in going out immediately in Q1. But in Q2, if we had more confidence in the forecast, we should have gone out earlier on Intermediates, but we thought it was too risky. We called Sebastien in at the right minute, but he did not come in and we missed the best slot. Jaime was very lucky not to run out of fuel in Q1 as he stayed out for one lap too long and in Q2, I would say he is pretty much where we would have expected. Therefore, something of a missed opportunity today.”

Sebastien Buemi:

“I’m angry because I did not make the most of Q2. But there’s nothing I can do about it and so we will have to tackle the race from where we are. I started Q2 on full wets because we felt the conditions demanded it, but I stayed on track too long and then, after I came in and switched to the Intermediates, it was too late because the rain had started to get stronger again.”

Jaime Alguersuari:

“When you look at what happened to some of the quicker guys, I would say this qualifying result is reasonably okay for me. However, maybe if I had come in earlier in Q2 to switch from full wets to intermediates, then maybe I could have had a chance of seeing Q3. If the conditions are similar to this tomorrow and I believe that is the forecast, then you never know what could happen, although personally I would prefer a dry race.”

Sebastien Buemi(STR5-01)	FP3:	Best lap 1.34.673, pos. 12th, 19 laps
	Qualifying:	Best lap 1.49.207, pos. 13th , 15 laps
Jaime Alguersuari(STR5-03)	FP3:	Best lap 1.35.026, pos. 15th, 16 laps
	Qualifying:	Best lap 1.49.464, pos. 14th, 16 laps

 

—————-

AT&T Williams F1

Rain once again played its part on the track today as this afternoon’s qualifying session for the Malaysian Grand Prix was dominated by showers to the point where Q3 was red flagged after just three minutes. The team used the weather to its advantage, however, with the pitwall making some decisive strategy calls which ultimately converted both drivers’ strong performance in the wet into P5 for Nico Hulkenberg and P7 for Rubens Barrichello.

Nico Hulkenberg:
Finally we had a bit of a breakthrough today. It was very tight out there and my lap wasn’t perfect so I could have done a little better, but I’m happy where I am and I’m happy for the team as well. The car has proved to be good in wet conditions and I like driving in the wet, so I’m looking forward to the race. A lot will depend on what the weather will do tomorrow though.

Rubens Barrichello:
There are two ways to look at qualifying. The positive is that we are happy as a team, but I don’t think we would have achieved P5 and P7 in a dry session. In hindsight, I should have chosen intermediates for my last run, which would have given me a better lap time. I’m still pleased as we are better prepared for tomorrow.

Sam Michael, Technical Director:
That was a great qualifying result for the team. Both drivers drove well in the conditions and it was encouraging to watch. Furthermore, the engineers made good calls with the windows that they chose to send the cars out in. We’ll now look to converting our position to a good race result tomorrow.

Qualifying Result

Position	Driver	Team	Q1	Q2	Q3
1	M Webber	Red Bull Racing	–	–	1:49.327
2	N Rosberg	Mercedes	–	–	1:50.673
3	S Vettel	Red Bull Racing	–	–	1:50.789
5	N Hulkenberg	AT&T Williams	1:49.664 (9th)	1:47.346 (4th)	1:51.001
7	R Barrichello	AT&T Williams	1:50.301 (11th)	1:48.371 (9th)	1:51.511

 

Track Conditions

Weather	Rain
Track Temp	23 – 32C
Air Temp	26 – 30C

 

—————-

Bridgestone Motorsport

Bridgestone Motorsport’s Saturday Update

Mark Webber (Red Bull Racing) used Bridgestone’s Intermediate tyre to blast to pole position by a massive 1.3 seconds at a treacherous and wet Sepang circuit for the Malaysian Grand Prix. Webber set a time of 1min 49.327secs for his second-ever pole and first of 2010. He will start tomorrow’s race alongside Mercedes GP Petronas F1 Team driver Nico Rosberg, who used Bridgestone’s Wet tyre to go second fastest. Webber was also fastest in the earlier practice session, using the soft compound for a 1min 33.542secs in dry conditions.

Q&A with Hirohide Hamashima – Bridgestone Director of Motorsport Tyre Development

What was significant about today’s running?

“The weather and timing of when to go out on track were both very important today in qualifying, and this is best illustrated by the grid we will see for tomorrow’s race. The weather was very variable and it was difficult to make the correct decision for when to go out on track and which tyre to use. Mark Webber made a very good call for his pole position. Both the Intermediate and wet tyre worked well in the conditions today and the cross-over between the two was around where we expected. If we have weather like this tomorrow, being on the correct tyre for the conditions will make all the difference.”

What are the tyre strategy considerations for tomorrow’s race?

“As qualifying was held in wet conditions all drivers are free to choose which tyre they will use to start the race. We have gained good data of both dry tyres and the soft is quicker and will work best when the cars are lighter. This means we would expect many to start on the hard tyre if the race starts in dry conditions. If it is wet at the start, then it is very difficult to say, as it depends how wet the track becomes, and if there is any standing water. No matter what the conditions I think we will have a very exciting race with the grid line-up on this challenging Sepang circuit.” 

 

 

Malaysian GP – Practice Session – April 2, 2010

 

BMW Sauber F1

It was a trouble free start to the Malaysian Grand Prix weekend for Kamui Kobayashi and Pedro de la Rosa. Besides the usual set-up work and race preparation, the team found time to test the new rear wing system again in both free practice sessions.

Weather: Sunny and dry, 27-32°C air, 30-50°C track

Kamui Kobayashi:
C29.01 / Ferrari 056
1st Practice: 12th / 1:36.503 min (28 laps) / 2nd Practice: 11th / 1:36.018 min (38 laps)
“The car seems to be better than last week in Melbourne, but obviously we need to keep working hard to find a better pace. For me it is good that I know the track here so well, that makes it easy. While driving the heat isn’t an issue, but if you sit in the car in the garage waiting for the next outing you almost get grilled. In the afternoon session the asphalt was really, really hot when it reached 50 degrees, and this certainly is hard on the tyres. But perhaps it is a useful experience as the qualifying and the race are also in the afternoon.”

Pedro de la Rosa:
C29.03 / Ferrari 056
1st Practice: 16th / 1:36.899 min (24 laps) / 2nd Practice: 13th / 1:36.325 min (33 laps)
“It was a really positive Friday as we were able to do a lot of testing and tried different things including our new rear wing system. Balance wise, I am happier with the car now than I was in Australia and I enjoy the high speed corners of the Sepang circuit quite a lot. However, we need to find some more pace.”

Willy Rampf, Technical Director:
“We used both sessions to test different configurations of our new rear wing. We will analyse the data here at the track and in the factory in Hinwil to decide on the next steps. In preparation for the race we did long runs with the option tyres to get an understanding of their behaviour when we have a heavy car and a very high track temperature. Overall it was a productive day without any technical problems. We were able to complete our planned programme.”

——————

Force India F1

Adrian Sutil (car 14, VJM03/03):
FP1: 7th 1:35.955  (20 laps)
FP2: 10th 1:35.957  (32 laps)

Tonio Liuzzi (car 15, VJM03/01):
FP1: Did not participate
FP2: 12th 1:36.221  (34 laps)

Paul di Resta (car 15, VJM03/01)
FP1: 15th 1:36.891  (25 laps)
FP2: Did not participate

2 April 2010 – Hot and humid Sepang was the venue for the opening day of practice for the Malaysian Grand Prix this weekend. Teams and drivers sizzled in the searing heat during the two 90 minute sessions, the curtain raiser to the third event of the 2010 FIA Formula One World Championship. Adrian Sutil and Paul di Resta were back in action for Force India in FP1, with regular race driver Tonio Liuzzi returning for FP2 as test and reserve driver Paul got more time in the VJM03 as part of his scheduled programme.

The trio ploughed through the standard Friday workload of tyre and set-up evaluation and – in Paul’s case – circuit familiarisation. Adrian was a promising seventh quickest while Paul was 15th in FP1. Tonio returned for the second session, setting the 12th quickest time while Adrian posted the 10th best lap.

Adrian Sutil (car 14)
Today was very much following our normal Friday programme. I had to be a little bit patient as the track was dusty at the beginning of the morning so it was just driving and learning the circuit again. In the afternoon we then went to do a little set-up work. It was difficult with the hot track temperatures we experience here as the tyres overheated very quickly and it was challenging to get it under control. We have a few things to look at set-up wise but we should be fine for tomorrow. We are in the top 10 still, just behind the top four teams. I think it will be an interesting day, probably with some rain thrown in as well!

Tonio Liuzzi (car 15)
Today was a good opening day of practice for the team. I missed the morning session but we did the most important job of understanding the tyres and following our programme targets. We are quite happy, and although the car suffered a little understeer in the high speed corners, it is responding well and we understand the behaviour of the tyres over the longer runs. It looks like qualifying here will be interesting as the rain started at 4pm but we can deal with the conditions I am sure.

Paul di Resta
I’m feeling a lot more comfortable and I think that was why I was able to get up to speed relatively quickly. It ran more smoothly today and even though I didn’t have any prior experience of the circuit I got into a relatively comfortable zone quite soon. The programme was exactly the same as if Tonio had been in the car, running through baselines and then understanding the tyres. Here the tyres don’t last very long with the heat and we missed the peak with them and didn’t quite set the optimum time, but I think ultimately you can’t pay too much attention to that as it’s not always going to be relative to what we are doing and where we are. It’s just getting myself in the environment, getting the track time and learning the circuits.

Dominic Harlow, chief race engineer
We didn’t encounter any major problems today as we established the relative performance and degradation characteristics of the two tyres available for this race. The high track and air temperatures are, as usual here, dominating the behaviour of the car. Today’s sessions have been at the normal times of day, but as we head into the weekend they become later again, and that will be a factor in the decisions we make overnight. We’ve more work to do, but are looking forward to the challenges of the weekend ahead.

—————–

HRT F1

1000 – 1130 FORMULA ONE PRACTICE SESSION 1 Karun Chandhok  F110-01 #20  24 laps 1.41.966
                                                                                        Bruno Senna        F110-02 #21  27 laps 1.41.832
1400 – 1530 FORMULA ONE PRACTICE SESSION 2 Karun Chandhok  F110-01 #20  27 laps   1.41.084
                                                                                        Bruno Senna        F110-02 #21  32laps  1.41.481

HRT F1 Team completes 110 laps in both practice sessions
Friday, April 02, 2010 –Sepang International Circuit, Karun Chandhok in chassis F110-01 #20 completed 24 laps in the morning session, for a best lap time of 1.41.966 while Bruno Senna in chassis F110-02 #21 completed 27 laps with a best time of 1.41.832.
In the second ninety minutes afternoon free practice session, in preparation of the longest race – in terms of distance – of the 2010 season  (192.879 miles/310.408 km) and its 56 laps, the heat was suffocating on the Malaysian track despite a shower between the two sessions, but in the end, the track remained dry. The two cars managed to work smoothly over the two sessions which is very positive ahead of a difficult race week-end.
Today, the HRT F1 Team continued its development program at only the third Grand Prix of its short history with no pre-season testing for Karun Chandhok nor Bruno Senna.  Both cars have respectively covered 110 laps today.
 
Dr. Colin Kolles: “Both sessions were productive and ran as smooth as possible for both Karun and Bruno who could cover all the planned testing program while driving most laps ever in their practice history. Technically everything worked well and this is very positive for the team to be running through a normal driving program with a crew that worked very hard to make all of this happen. Now, we need to go beyond and improve drivability of the car.”

Karun Chandhok: “The practice sessions were useful for us as we did some long runs. It is positive that we did that many laps today, which was our objective for this weekend.”

Bruno Senna: “We were ready straight away when the first session started and that was a good feeling. We managed all programs, we had no mechanical problem. It is good to have the first 100 percent reliable day and I’m happy about that. I’m looking forward to Practice 3 tomorrow ahead of a good qualifying. “

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Lotus Racing F1

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia 2nd April 2010

Friday began with Mike Gascoyne’s birthday being celebrated in the garage before the action on track began in what is fast becoming Lotus Racing’s signature style, with Fairuz Fauzy in chassis T127-01 first out on track trying out a shark fin engine cover in the morning session.

Whilst replacing Heikki Kovalainen for the session he completed 19 laps with a best time of 1.40.721 in a good run in the morning heat. Jarno Trulli completed 21 laps and finished ahead of the other new teams on 1.39.460.

Before Fairuz saw the green light Tony lent into the cockpit to tell Fairuz how proud both he and the whole country was of this landmark moment. After the session was completed Tony said “It’s just unbelievable! I woke up at 6am today as I couldn’t sleep I was so excited. I’m just really pleased to see Fairuz out there with Jarno and the rest of the household names that make up the grid.

“It’s great that F1™ gives the chance for developing teams and developing countries to come to the fore and grab this sort of opportunity. It shows that the combination of British and Malaysian skills can dare to dream of competing on a global level, and can do so in an innovative, fresh way. Fairuz is a lad who has climbed the motorsport ladder – from his local roots at the kart circuit his Father built in Kuala Lumpur, to being on track in F1™ in a car built in the UK and competing all around the world. For me that’s a very clear sign of how well our Anglo-Malaysian collaboration is working, and long may that continue.”

Fairuz himself said “I feel very good, very motivated and this is really a special day for me as it’s our home run. It’s great to be back again. The last time I was in Barcelona, which is a long time ago! I’ve always said that I’ll be ready and fit, but it’s still great that I was on the pace immediately. I’m happy and I hope we can do well this weekend – the car feels great, and I think it’s faster than it was in Melbourne. It’s going to be an exciting weekend – in Malaysia, anything can happen! If it rains and we can get an advantage out of it, then that’s good.

Jarno Trulli: “It started off as a difficult day but I managed to do some good setup work and it was a positive two sessions. It seems we are competitive when compared to the other new teams but as we are ultimately aiming to fight with the top teams we are looking to get ourselves into a position where we can work on detailed setups, and that will start from Barcelona. I am pleased that today’s sessions, when compared to the previous two races, both went faultlessly and I’m very glad about that. I like the heat – I like racing in the heat as it tests fitness and I’ve always performed well here, so I’m looking forward to tomorrow and the race on Sunday.”

Heikki Kovalainen: “I’m really pleased with the car – obviously I didn’t get much time to practice today, but it felt good and I’m feeling very confident with it. I’m looking forward to the race ahead – I think we’re in really good shape. We tried a different set up with my car, and it took a few laps to get into it, but really I was very pleased and happy and looking forward to getting in the car again tomorrow. Weather wise, it is very hot and humid, and it’s difficult conditions here, but I’m feeling good and am very fit for the race.”

Mike Gascoyne: “All round a very successful day. It was good to have Fairuz in the car this morning and he was able to complete his entire program. Heikki took over the car in the afternoon and was also able to finish his planned program – evaluating the tyres and the race pace of the car. We had no mechanical issues on either car and in general I’m very pleased with the progress we’re making, so well done to the whole team.”

Rounding off the day in Malaysia was Tony Fernandes who said “Great day – we did everything we wanted to do and I’m extremely pleased. We’re getting better and better so let’s hope we continue this tomorrow in qualifying. We are being realistic though – points aren’t in my mind. I just want to finish the race, get both cars home and keep our feet on the ground. Of course I’m still dreaming – I put Colin Chapman’s cap on the pit wall to remind everyone of what we’re aspiring to, but we’ll get there in the right way, and the dream continues.”

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Mercedes GP Petronas

The opening two practice sessions for the 2010 PETRONAS Malaysian Grand Prix got underway today at the Sepang International Circuit, located just outside the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur.

The MERCEDES GP PETRONAS pairing of Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher ran consistently in the top six throughout the day, ending the morning session in second and fourth places respectively, and the afternoon session with Nico again in second place and Michael in fifth position.

The focus for the team’s running today was to evaluate the Bridgestone Potenza tyre compounds available for Sunday’s race, the soft option tyre and the hard prime tyre, alongside setting up the MGP W01 cars for the specific demands of the fast and challenging Sepang circuit.

STATS

Drivers      Car No. Chassis No.     Free Practice 1     Free Practice 2
Nico Rosberg    4   MGP W01 / 02    19 laps   1:35.106 P2   30 laps   1:34.443   P3
Michael Schumacher   3   MGP W01 / 03    14 laps   1:35.225 P4   30 laps   1:34.674   P5

Weather      Hot and humid
Temperatures    Air: 27-33°C    Track: 40-52°C

NICO ROSBERG
“Our programme went according to plan today and we made progress over the two practice sessions. The tyre work which we completed was particularly useful so we have a lot to go through this evening to see if we can continue to improve the car prior to qualifying. It’s always tough here in Malaysia with the heat and humidity but Sepang is one of my favourite circuits to drive.”

MICHAEL SCHUMACHER
“I am quite happy overall with our work today and the practice sessions went very much as we expected. We did have a an issue with the brakes this morning so I did not start running right away but once we were out on track, I felt we had good pace. However we have to be realistic about our performance here and we might still be lacking a little compared to the front runners. The good thing is that you can play with the lines a bit to find time as the track here is quite wide. But in the end, as usual, we will have to wait and see how qualifying and the weather evolve.”

ROSS BRAWN
“It has been a busy Friday for the team here in Malaysia for the start of our first ‘home’ race. The two dry sessions have enabled us to complete the majority of the planned programme for Nico and Michael, although the track conditions did change this afternoon following the rain shower. The priority today was to evaluate the prime and option tyres. Whilst all of the teams were running different tyre programmes, which makes it difficult to predict our relative pace, we are reasonably satisfied with what we achieved and are looking forward to the challenge of the weekend.”

NORBERT HAUG
“This is going to be a very challenging race with extreme stress on the drivers, cars and tyres, and particularly all of the team members who have to work in real sauna conditions. The heat and humidity is almost guaranteed and rises in the afternoon. It’s difficult to estimate where we are today but generally we are not where we need to be just yet.”

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Red Bull F1

The first test session of the Malaysian Grand Prix has been completed with Mark Webber the quicker of our two drivers over the session.

Mark’s best time of the early afternoon session in Sepang was 1:35.479 after completing 22 laps, with Sebastian Vettel completing 19 laps and securing a best time of 1:36.043.

Fastest of the session was McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton, with a time of 1:34.921.
It’s now a quick turnaround before second practice begins again at 2pm local time.

The second test session of the Malaysian Grand Prix has been completed with Sebastian Vettel the quicker of our two drivers over the session.

Seb’s best time of the second session in Sepang was 1:34.441 after completing 28 laps. A loss of power meant Mark Webber could only complete 13 laps, securing a best time of 1:38.786.

McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton again topped the timesheets with a time of 1:34.175.

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Renault F1 Team

Robert Kubica, R30-03
Free Practice 1: P5, 1:35.402, 22 laps
Free Practice 2: P6, 1:35.148, 34 laps

Robert Kubica:
“It was a usual Friday as we worked on trying to get a feel for the different characteristics of the track. We did a couple of runs this morning to understand and improve the balance of the car, and in the afternoon we mainly concentrated on tyre evaluation and comparison. I had no issues during both sessions so overall it has been a straightforward Friday.”

Vitaly Petrov, R30-02
Free Practice 1: P14, 1:36.712, 9 laps
Free Practice 2: P9, 1:35.872, 20 laps

Vitaly Petrov:
“The overall balance of the car was good today and it certainly feels like we have made an improvement compared with Melbourne. Unfortunately I had a problem with the fuel pump this morning and a water leak this afternoon, which cost me some track time. We still have a lot of work to do overnight and tomorrow morning so that I can get the most from the car and qualify well for the race. For today and Saturday, I am wearing a black armband to show my respect for the people who were killed or wounded at Lubyanka and Park Kultury stations in Russia this week. My thoughts are with everybody affected by this tragedy.”

Technical Debrief with Alan Permane, Chief Race Engineer:

Track conditions and evolution: The track was lacking a little bit of grip at the start of P1, but it improved through the session. It was much hotter in P2, but the circuit had more grip.

Tyre performance: We’ve done a good comparison of the prime and option tyres with Robert on both long and short runs so we have a good understanding of their performance for the race.

Chassis balance: Both drivers were quite happy with the cars straight away and we’ve worked on the set-up throughout the day. We’ve got a few issues with braking stability, which we still need to work on, and Vitaly has a bit too much understeer, but the overall balance is not too bad.

Any issues in the session: Unfortunately Vitaly had a fuel leak this morning, which cost him some running time, but the mechanics did a good job to get the car ready for the start of P2. At the end of P2 Vitaly had a water leak. We’re sorry these problems cost him time out on track.

Target for the weekend: As with the previous races we’d like to get Robert well into Q3 tomorrow. Although Vitaly has lost some track time, he’s had good pace today so hopefully we can get him into Q2 and close to Q3.

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Scuderia Toro Rosso

Sebastien Buemi (STR5-01)
“I am happy with the way today went. In the morning we concentrated on finding out how our car behaved on this track and then in the afternoon, we completed a lot of laps, including a very long stint, to assess tyre behaviour. On the long run, I did 30 laps, which is over half a race distance and although the conditions are very tough in terms of the high temperature and humidity, I was fine in the cockpit. I am looking forward to tomorrow, because I think we have established a good base line from which to make progress in the last free practice, before tackling qualifying.”

First Practice Session – Best lap 1.36.100, pos. 10th, 20 laps

Second Practice Session – Best lap 1.35.660, pos. 8th, 39 laps

Jaime Alguersuari (STR5-03)

“This is another new track for me, apart from a session on the simulator. Driving it for real is a different matter and I found it was quite a difficult track to learn, at the same time as understanding the behaviour of the two types of tyre. This afternoon’s long run went well. I lost a little bit of time this morning with an electrical problem, but we have improved over the day and there is still more to come from me and from the car.”

First Practice Session – Best lap 1.36.645, pos. 13th, 18 laps

Second Practice Session – Best lap 1.36.325, pos. 14th, 39 laps

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AT&T Williams F1

Objectives P1
Validation of new aero components
Practice starts

Objectives P2
Mechanical set-up work
Tyre evaluations

Sam Michael, Technical Director
We spent today’s practice sessions working on starts and evaluating a revised diffuser and front brake duct. The tyres appear to be quite stable again, something we’ve come to expect from Bridgestone. Tonight we’ll be focussing on extracting more speed out of the FW32 for qualifying. We had a mechanical problem on Nico’s car in the afternoon session, but the mechanics were able to fix it quickly.

Rubens Barrichello
Runs P1: Run 1: New Prime (1 lap, install), Run 2: Used Prime (7 laps, baseline), Run 3: Used Prime (5 laps, mechanical set-up), Run 4: Used Prime (4 laps, mechanical set-up)
Runs P2: Run 1: New Option (4 laps, tyre evaluations), Run 2: Used Option (11 laps, set-up), Run 3: New Prime (5 laps, tyre evaluations), Run 4: Used Prime (6 laps, set-up)
That was a tough day for us. We carried out lots of interrogations on the car, but we feel that we aren’t as quick as we should be so we have a lot of work to do tonight to find out why that is.

Nico Hulkenberg
Runs P1: Run 1: New Prime (1 lap, install), Run 2: Used Prime (8 laps, baseline), Run 3: Used Prime 5 laps, aero set-up), Run 4: Used Prime (12 laps, mechanical set-up)
Runs P2: Run 1: New Prime (4 laps, tyre evaluations), Run 2: Used Prime (5 laps, set-up), Run 3: Used Prime (3 laps, set-up), Run 4: New Option (7 laps, tyre evaluations)
It was a pretty difficult day, certainly not ideal. We had some technical issues on my car but I’m not quite sure what they are yet. We need to get our heads together to find some time for qualifying.

Practice Results Top Three Drivers

Position	Driver & Lap Time (Session 1)	Driver & Lap Time (Session 2)
1	L Hamilton 1:34.921	L Hamilton 1:34.175
2	N Rosberg 1:35.106	S Vettel 1:34.441
3	J Button 1:35.207	N Rosberg 1:23.443

AT&T Williams Classification

Driver	Chassis & Engine	1st Session Laptime	2nd Session Laptime
R Barrichello	FW32-01 / CA122	1:38.278 (18th) 18 laps	1:36.813 (16th) 26 laps
N Hulkenberg	FW32-03 / CA120	1:37.802 (17th) 27 laps	1:37.415 (17th) 19 laps

Practice Conditions

	Session 1	Session 2
Weather	Hot and humid	Hot and humid
Track Temp	31 – 41C	40 – 52C
Air Temp	27 – 31C	31 – 33C

 

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Bridgestone Motorsport

Bridgestone Motorsport’s Friday Update

Bridgestone’s soft tyre helped Vodafone McLaren Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton set the pace with a 1min 34.175secs lap time as the Malaysian Grand Prix got underway in hot and humid conditions at Sepang.

Hamilton set his time in the afternoon practice session, leaving him fastest from Red Bull racing driver Sebastian Vettel, who used the same tyre for his fastest lap. Hamilton was also fastest in the morning practice session, using the hard compound Bridgestone Potenza to set a time of 1min 34.921secs.

Q&A with Hirohide Hamashima – Bridgestone Director of Motorsport Tyre Development

What was significant about today’s running?

“Today was interesting as we saw some very fast lap times and there were many laps from drivers so there is a lot of data to analyse. It was also interesting as we had a heavy rain shower shortly after the second session, which reinforces the variability of the weather here in Malaysia. The track conditions seem good here today for the first day of running. Drivers were pushing hard, as shown by the lap times, and we did see understeer progressing to oversteer as a general trend. Graining was experienced on both front and rear tyres so there are many factors of tyre management to be considered.”

How do you expect this allocation to work over the weekend?

“The hot temperatures should mean that there is a clear difference in durability between the two compounds, however the best lap times should be quite close because the heat assists the warm-up of the higher temperature range hard tyre. This will make strategy considerations interesting, and we could see some variety in the tyre used by the Q3 runners tomorrow. The weather, of course, cannot be underestimated, and the soft tyre is a good option if the track is dry, but it looks like rain is not far off. We saw the performance of the intermediate tyre in Melbourne, however the rain here is frequently very severe so the wet tyre could be used. As we saw last year, there can even be too much rain for the race to run, so we will all be looking closely at the skies.”

 

Courtesy: HRT F1, Lotus Racing, AT&T Williams F1, Renault F1, Red Bull F1, Mercedes GP Petronas, BMW Sauber F1 Team, Force India F1, Scuderia Toro Rosso, Bridgestone Motorsport © RIF