Formula 1 Malaysia Grand Prix QUALIFYING REPORT
Following the Singapore Grand Prix, we’re now in Malaysia and things are getting crucial for the World Championship.
In another turn of surprising events – Sebastian Vettel did NOT make it through Qualifying, suffering an issue meaning he will be starting at the back of the grid and despite the lack of pace in the practice sessions yesterday – his rival, Lewis Hamilton will be starting the Malaysian Grand Prix on pole.
In this post you can see a roundup following qualifying with driver and team interviews and photos from around the paddock – enjoy!
Driver and Team Interviews – Malaysia Grand Prix QUALIFYING REPORT
Mercedes
Lewis Hamilton
Lewis Hamilton – 1st
“We had such a difficult day yesterday; it was difficult to know where we stood.”
“I didn’t sleep very well last night, just like all my engineers, because we didn’t know whether we were going to fix the issue or not. But today we arrived and the car was much better.”
“The Q3 laps, particularly the first one, were very well put together. To be honest, I didn’t really know where it came from. So it’s a bit of a surprise to be on pole, but I’m very grateful.”
“It’s always a special thing when you’re able to extract a little bit more out of the car. That’s what I’ve always enjoyed since my dad would say that my first go-kart was fifth hand.”
“I don’t really know what happened to Sebastian. It’s very unfortunate for him, but of course we have to try to maximise on every opportunity that we get.”
“We still have a very tough race ahead of us, so we will keep our heads down.”
“Today, every time I left the garage or came back in I could see the crowd and all those flags opposite my garage – I’m incredibly grateful for that and get a lot of energy from it.”
Valtteri Bottas
Valtteri Bottas – 5th
“It’s been a difficult weekend for us and we’ve been quite far behind at times. Compared to yesterday we made a step forward; today was a lot better, but still not good enough for me.”
“Lewis and I did end up with completely different cars in terms of aero package for the qualifying. It seemed to be working for him but not so much for me.”
“Qualifying wasn’t going too bad until the second session. But in qualy three, everyone else could improve quite a bit but I couldn’t.”
“We need to analyse everything, it is too early to say why I couldn’t improve from Q2 to Q3. I’m feeling very disappointed after the qualifying, but tomorrow is a new day. It is going to be a challenge for us; so far, our long run performance has not been great this weekend. But we will try and give it everything we can.”
Toto Wolff
Toto Wolff – Head of Mercedes-Benz Motorsport
“So far this weekend we have seen a pretty confusing picture of performance, with different cars quick at different times and even big gaps between team-mates.”
“Our struggle has been to get the tyres into the right working window, then things came together this afternoon as the track temperatures cooled.”
“After a tough Friday, the team here at the track and back at base did a good, calm job to analyse the situation and come up with some improvements. And then, when it really counted, Lewis was able to put together a blistering lap to take pole – something we didn’t expect at all going into qualifying.”
“It was really a great job from him. Valtteri found it harder today but it’s clear that tiny differences in set-up or tyre temperatures are making a big difference in lap time, and it didn’t quite come together in Q3.”
“There’s no doubt this session was also a tough moment for Ferrari, with Sebastian unable to take part, but there are no points scored on Saturday.”
“They have had the strongest race pace this weekend and will be a serious threat in the race. We can’t pretend that we have all the answers right now, but we can be pleased with the outcome today and are ready to fight hard in the race.”
Ferrari
Sebastian Vettel
Sebastian Vettel – DNF
“Straight away I understood there was something wrong. Today we had decided to change the engine after P3, then I went out and everything seemed to work, but during the flying lap in turn 5, I suddenly felt like I was losing power.”
“I was lucky to limp back to the garage so that we could have a look. Unfortunately, we couldn’t fix the problem. We tried to find the issue when we took the engine cover off, but we couldn’t find anything wrong. So, we decided to fire it up and see if we could drive again.”
“As soon as the engine was running, we could see the issue was still there. It’s a shame because the car is quick, but tomorrow we should be able to fight back.”
“I don’t have expectations in terms of numbers, but anything can happen and that’s why we race. I want to be sure we can achieve our best. We need to know why we got the issue today and make sure it won’t happen again. This kind of thing can happen in our sport, but the race is tomorrow. We need to be positive.”
Kimi Raikkonen
Kimi Raikkonen – 2nd
“Our car has been handling well all weekend. Today in qualifying we got close, but we would have needed a fractionally faster lap time.”
“I think that the car had it, but you can always lose a little bit here and there. It’s disappointing not to be first, but tomorrow is going to be a long race for both cars and tyres.”
“I have the feeling that we have a good car and a very good chance for the race. If it’s going to be dry we are probably more confident, but our car has been good in both conditions and with all fuel loads. What happened to Seb is disappointing, very unfortunate for him and for the team.”
“The guys did an excellent job to change all the parts getting the car back in one piece and ready to go, but then unfortunately he had to stop.”
“Tomorrow is another day, he will have good speed and I’m sure that he can recover well.”
Red Bull Racing – Malaysia Grand Prix QUALIFYING REPORT
Max Verstappen
Max Verstappen – 3rd (Happy Birthday)
“Third in Qualifying is a pretty good birthday present today.”
“The whole weekend I was not fully happy with the car and in the last practice session I didn’t have the perfect balance, but in Qualifying we managed to pull it together and the car was pretty good.”
“To be four or five tenths off pole position on this track and knowing they can turn up their engines in Qualifying means we are doing a good job.”
“I think on the long runs we are a bit more competitive so I’m definitely looking forward to tomorrow. So far on Saturdays I’ve been a happy guy and on Sundays that has changed.”
“Let’s hope it is different tomorrow and I’m sure we can have a good race. I’m also hoping for no sandwiches!”
Daniel Ricciardo
Daniel Ricciardo – 4th
“I did all I could today and I think we both got the most out of the car. We’re half a second from Lewis around here so I think we can be pretty happy with that.”
“It gives us a chance in the race tomorrow even if it’s dry. I would have loved to be on third today, but that half a tenth was actually Max’s birthday gift from me and I wanted to start on fourth really, because that’s where I started last year and I won.”
“This is obviously all planned in my mind. I did a bit of a lift of the throttle just before the finish line, so yeah it’s of course all calculated (laughing)”
“I think Seb is probably going to do a rain dance tonight so I might join him, hold hands and light some candles”
“But honestly, some rain would be interesting for the race, so we can dance tonight, as long as we don’t dance tomorrow.”
“If he gets near me then, we haven’t had a good enough race.”
Christian Horner – Team Principal
“A very positive Qualifying for us today. To have locked out the second row and to be within half a second of pole at this circuit represents a job very well done.”
“With Max and Daniel in P3 and P4 respectively on tomorrow’s grid, and on the evidence of the weekend so far, we would hope to be competitive and able to have a say in how the race plays out.”
“The conditions are predicted to be very different to today with some rain around, certainly for the start of the race, so it could be an interesting start and with Sebastian starting from the back, it is all set up for a compelling final grand prix around Sepang.”
McLaren – Malaysia Grand Prix QUALIFYING REPORT
Fernando Alonso
Fernando Alonso – 10th
“I’m satisfied with this result, and with how the weekend has gone in general, but it’s going to be tough to maintain our qualifying position tomorrow.”
“We know that our race pace is not as strong as our qualifying pace, so we’ll probably struggle a little bit more if conditions remain dry.”
“”However, maybe some rain will affect the race – some mixed conditions would improve things for us.”
“I think performance was there for us this weekend, and getting both cars in Q3 on this circuit is a very good sign. The new parts we brought here worked well yesterday but maybe didn’t work as well today, so we will have a close look to that.”
“It’s a very close field: it’s going to be tough to maintain our position tomorrow, but we’ll do our best, as always.”
Stoffel Vandoorne
Stoffel Vandoorne – 7th
“We weren’t really expecting to be so high up the grid. We’d hoped to get into Q3, but fighting for seventh was a pleasant surprise.”
“In fact, my whole qualifying session went really well. I didn’t make any mistakes and pulled every sector on every lap.”
“To qualify seventh on a circuit like this is probably about as good as it gets for us, so I’m very happy with my performance.”
“We generally tend to be better over a single lap than across a race stint, so I think tomorrow will be tougher for us, but at least we’re in a position to race. And nobody really has any race preparation runs under their belts (due to yesterday’s FP2 red flag), so hopefully we can go into the race a little bit more prepared than the others and benefit from that.”
“Hopefully we can make a race of it tomorrow.”
Sauber – Malaysia Grand Prix QUALIFYING REPORT
Marcus Ericsson
Marcus Ericsson – 19th
“It has not been an easy day for us. Realistically, we knew that we could not expect much more in qualifying. We did manage to come a bit closer to our direct competition today which is positive.”
“However, we still have a long way to go to make further progress.”
“We are now analysing the data so that we can make another step in the right direction.”
Pascal Wehrlein
Pascal Wehrlein – 18th
“It was a decent qualifying – better than expected.”
“It is positive that we were able to reduce the gap to our direct competition compared to the practice sessions.”
“Now we look forward to the race and will see what’s possible tomorrow.”
QUALIFYING PRESS CONFERENCE
Here is the Malaysian Grand Prix Qualifying Press Conference with tomorrow’s top-3 drivers, Lewis Hamilton, Kimi Raikkonen and Max Verstappen.
Qualifying Reaction (Grid Interview)
Q – Lewis – What a great result for you, you must be very happy? That looked like a pretty decent lap…?
Hamilton – “Firstly, look at this crowd. I know this is our last grand pix here but this is the best crowd I’ve ever seen. Thank you so much for all the support.”
“We had no idea how it was going to go today and I’m sorry for whatever happened to Sebastian – obviously he wad very quick through practice but somehow we turned it around.”
“The engineers did such a great job yesterday and the car felt great for both Valtteri and I so it’s a real surprise to be up here with these guys and I’m very grateful.”
Q – Kimi, come an join us! What a try that was! Happy with that? I’m sure you wanted just a little bit more. I would have thought you would have done one of the old karting moves, maybe you should do that next time.
Raikkonen – “Yeah, it’s OK but obviously when you get that close, it’s disappointing. I made the most out of it and yes, there is always places that you can improve but you are never going to get it 100% perfect anywhere.”
“You always find some things which you can improve but I must say, the car has been behaving nicely all weekend and it’s been a pleasure so far.”
Q – Here’s a man we’re going to get on – the birthday boy! You got on very closely with in the last race, hopefully that’s not going to be the case here. Max, are you happy with that result? You seemed to get the best from the car.
Verstappen – “Yeah, I think it’s good for us in qualifying to be in this position, it’s always good to drive on this track and the crowd here is amazing so it’s my birthday and to be third here is perfect.”
Hamilton – “I thought you were 19?”
Verstappen – “Twenty now.”
Hamilton – “20 now? Does he look much younger than me?”
(Laughing)
Q – You’re going after the perfect start – Kimi, Max tomorrow you’re going to want to get in front, who is the man doing that?
Verstappen – “I don’t want to be sandwiched, that’s the only thing.”
Raikkonen – “I don’t want to be hit.”
(Laughing)
PRESS CONFERENCE
Q – Lewis, fifth Malaysian Pole Position in four years in a row here and now you become the first man in Formula One history to get 70 pole positions. What a turnaround from yesterday and even from this morning – tell us about it.
Lewis Hamilton – “We had such a difficult day yesterday, I didn’t sleep very well and just like all the engineers – we didn’t know whether the issue could be fixed or not.”
“Today, we arrived and the car was much better but I still think it looked like the Ferrari’s were a little bit ahead.”
“We had some big calls going into qualifying and then those laps – particularly the last one, was very well put together – a very nice lap.”
“I don’t really know where that came from to be honest and so I’m a little surprised at myself and like I said – I’m very grateful.”
“These guys have been driving exceptionally well all weekend and it’s always a special thing to be able to extract a little bit more out of the car – that’s what I’ve always enjoyed and since my dad would say – my first go-kart was fifth hand or something and he’s say it like it was a four-poster best, not that my car was a four-poster bed but I was always hoping that I could get a little bit more out of it.”
“Obviously, Sebastian would have been up here with us – head been driving well all weekend and very, very quickly – it’s just unfortunate for him but we focus on our job and trying to maximise every opportunity that we get.”
Q – Kimi, it equals your best performance here in Sepang – 0.0045 of a second off pole position and a lot of weight on your shoulders obviously in qualifying from the Ferrari team with Vettel in trouble. You were on target it seemed, until that final corner – tell us about it.
Kimi Raikkonen – “Well, I don’t know. Obviously I only know how it was and I think overall, the whole weekend has been pretty straightforward.”
“The car is handling well and I think we were quite happy all day. I don’t think there is every going to be an absolutely perfect lap – it’s a bit painful when you are that close and don’t get it, that’s for sure but it wasn’t for us today.”
“Obviously a shame for the team, with See’s issue, whatever – not having him in the qualifying, that’s just how it goes sometimes and tomorrow it is a long race but I think we should have a very good car tomorrow – I have a good feeling about it.”
Q – Max! Happy 20th birthday – going well do far?
Max Verstappen – “Thank you very much!”
“If it rains tomorrow, then I think we will have a good opportunity and I think in the dry today, I’m very happy with being here in 3rd.”
“Actually, the whole weekend has been up and down in terms of happiness with the car but we managed to do good in qualifying again. Really happy with that of course.”
“I think we could have been a little bit closer – definitely we couldn’t have beaten them today but for us to be here in third, we’ll see what happens tomorrow.”
“From my side, I want to have a good Sunday – finally because it seems every time on Saturday things go well and on Sunday, I haven’t scored a lot of points.”
There’s lots more to come tomorrow with the Malaysian Grand Prix so make sure you check back to keep up to date with all that’s happening LIVE as it happens!
xx
Photos – Kym Illman