I had high hopes for today´s qualifying. Kimi at the wheel of his E21 was the fastest man on track in yesterday´s FP2 so Kimi seemed to be flying at Sepang. Kimi has had a very strong start to this season and I was sure that the Iceman was going to be right there on the very front to fight for pole today! My another favourite Sebastian was only some thousandths of a second behind Kimi yesterday so I was prepared to see a staggering fight for pole in the sunny and humid conditions at Sepang.
When the qualifying started the conditions were dry. Q1 was full of surprises. First of all, Adrian Sutil in his Force India was topping the standings after the first session! Who could have expected that to happen? Another disappointing surprise was the fact that Bottas in his Williams wasn´t able to make it through in to Q2 whilst his Venezuelan team-mate Maldonado was 14th fastest. It´s never a good thing to get beaten by your team-mate no matter how difficult the car is to drive. Just hoping to see better drive from Valtteri in tomorrow´s race! I was also worried about Sebastian´s pace. The German was quite on the edge in Q2 because he was only 15th fastest in the first session.
The light rain started in the middle of Q2. Conditions were tricky as one part of the track was damp and the other part still dry. And conditions like this always tend to cause surprises. This time, too. Sebastian seemed to be struggling with his pace also in the second session and he was only 9th fastest when the rain hit the track. That certainly helped Sebastian as none of the drivers were able to improve their times in damp conditions. One of the top drivers suffering from the conditions was Kimi´s team-mate Grosjean who was unable to make his way through to the final session. The Frenchman has been facing difficulties the whole weekend and hasn´t been able to find the right set-up to his E21.
The fight for pole turned extremely interesting as the track was partly damp and partly dry and the drivers went out on intermediates. Lap times got better and faster lap by lap. At the end of Q3 it was Sebastian at the wheel of his Hungry Heidi who managed to set the fastest lap time! And this time it wasn´t question of fractions of a second but Seb was 9 tenths faster than Massa who snatched P2 today! Alonso in P3 got beaten by his Brasilian team-mate again! Hamilton in Mercedes qualified 4th, Webber 5th and Rosberg 6th. Kimi´s performance was a slight disappointment as the Iceman wasn´t able to qualify higher than P7. I can´t help wondering what has happened to Kimi´s E21 after yesterday. I mean Kimi had the perfect pace yesterday but already in the FP3 this morning the pace had suddenly and mysteriously disappeared somewhere... But Kimi has had such a strong start to this season so I´m confident that the team will find the pace by tomorrow´s race! Kimi has every opportunity to make a handful of wonders tomorrow ;) I have a strong feeling that the Iceman is now better and more competitive than ever before! It´s not only about the perfect car as his team-mate hasn´t been able to make the E21 fly. There´s something about Kimi...! I´ll be surprised if the "Man of few words" doesn´t stand on the podium at the end of the day!
What could be expected from tomorrow´s race...? There´re definitely two key factors that play a crucial role: tyres and weather! Will Lotus be able to make one pit-stop less than their rivals like they did in Australia? The conditions are different to Australia as the temperatures are much higher in Malaysia. And will there be three, four or even more pit-stops? I can´t wait to see. I have to say that I´m a bit worried about Red Bull´s tyre degradation. I´m expecting it to be higher than Ferrari´s. I wouldn´t be surprised to see Ferrari being able to match Lotus´ pit-stop strategy. Sebastian on the other hand has been complaining loudly about the tyres so they still have work to do in terms of the tyres! And then there´s weather: will it be hot and sunny or will there be rain in the race? In Malaysia you never know for sure.
I´m eagerly looking forward to the race. Always hoping the very best for Kimi and Sebastian :)
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