Vettel makes it a second consecutive pole at Sepang!

Reigning World Champion, championship leader and winner of the Australian GP two weeks ago, Sebastian Vettel has scored pole position at today’s qualifying session in Malaysia. The German who also clinched pole position a fortnight ago snatched the top spot from Lewis Hamilton at the dying seconds of the session.

Mark Webber who was the man to beat on Friday’s free practice sessions will start tomorrow’s race in third, ahead of Jenson Button. Fernando Alonso from Ferrari only managed fifth, showing that there is a lot more to come from the Scuderia. Nick Heidfeld bounced back from a dismal qualifying in Australia with his sixth place. The Lotus Renault driver will start the race ahead of Felipe Massa while team mate Vitaly Petrov made eight. Mercedes GP Petronas’ Nico Rosberg was ninth fastest followed by Kamui Kobayashi from Sauber.

Michael Schumacher who showed good performance during practice had to settle with 11th, after failing to get into Q3. Further down the grid, the arrangement is very familiar. Team Lotus is ahead of both Virgin and Hispania drivers. Heikki Kovalainen managed 19th ahead of team mate Jarno Trulli. Heikki’s time of 1.38.791 is about four seconds off Vettel’s time.

He was about 0.4 seconds behind Pastor Maldonado’s (Williams) lap time which gave him 18th place, hence the gap isn’t huge compared to the nearest rivals who are more established. Hispania’s Vitantonio Liuzzi and Narain Karthikeyen also managed to qualify within 107% of Vettel’s pole time by about a second and will race tomorrow. The session was trouble-free except for a brief red flag with twelve minutes to go in Q1. Sebastien Buemi’s Toro Rosso lost its left engine cover and it was left on the track momentarily. Rain also failed to fall despite predictions. Rain is also expected to fall tomorrow but if I were you, I wouldn’t be so sure.

Check out the full qualifying results here.

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Harvinder Sidhu

Harvinder Singh Sidhu thinks there's nothing better than Formula 1, not even sliced bread. Having written about cars since 2006, he plunged head first into the industry out of a passion for all things four-wheeled and everything in between. The F1 enthusiast has been following the sport since 1999 and has been keeping up with it since. In between races he keeps himself busy as the host of the Driven motoring show and as our version of the Joker.

 

Comments

  • bourne on Apr 09, 2011 at 6:03 pm

    keep it up LRGP! best malaysian team so far

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  • tokmoh on Apr 09, 2011 at 6:12 pm

    Phew. That was really close!! Well done Vettel!!

    And Heidfeld did a great job too, finally on a level expected of Lotus-Renault :)

    Tony’s Lotus… hmmm…

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  • Nik Amirul on Apr 09, 2011 at 6:39 pm

    Forza TL!

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  • DNA male Y on Apr 09, 2011 at 6:41 pm

    seem lotus renault became ferrari contender this circuit..

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  • LRGP Fan on Apr 09, 2011 at 7:15 pm

    Good Luck and all the best Lotus-Renault for tomorrow rest

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  • looks like schumi still cannot outdo britney. i thought this year’s car was developed to suit his driving style. age maybe?

    and looks like the team with the ‘deep running malaysian blood’ has yet to challenge the 2nd tier boys. humble pie?

    i think kubica would have qualified higher if he is around. wonder how he is recovering..

    but at least both the ‘lotus-associated’
    cars look really cool. the black n gold wins my vote for the best looking one; followed by the green n yellow….

    and the red buil looks like it has a big round can of drink up its *rse to make it go

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  • what are Tony’s Lotus doing..?
    is it the car? or driver? or both?

    both car almost 4 sec (3 sec++) from vettel..

    to lotus-renault.. you guys rocks!!

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    • VoidDance on Apr 10, 2011 at 1:32 am

      Meh… Ingatkan takde orang nak bash. Ada juga rupanya.

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      • don’t really want to bash..

        but he really have a big mouth.. talk about lot of crap..
        prove it on the race track la… the we TALK

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  • evolva on Apr 10, 2011 at 10:38 am

    Great works Team Lotus despite what all the bashers here talking garbage here, i support ur view of having a formula 1 car/team in just 18 months of R&D development manage to clocked in just 0.4secs off the more established team in qualifying.To make it more fasinating, this amazing lap time was done without KERS which is something very crucial for a track like Sepang where there’s two very long straight. Some people just don’t understand that those established team like williams or force india(which was another team name back then, can’t really remember) have been around like ages and yet they’re not champions or having a superb qualifying lap times but seems noone here bother to bash them…..

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    • tokmoh on Apr 10, 2011 at 11:27 am

      I think the people would bash and laugh at them should they come out with statements such as “This year, we are definitely going to beat RBR by 3.++ sec a lap at every race!” hohoho :P

      They don’t get overly cocky. Even Vettel seems grounded enough to understand the Macca are very close rivals, probably Ferrari too. I will still support him nevertheless hohoho. Go Vettel!! :D

      Many teams said Sepang will give a clearer picture of the pecking order. Well, as I see it, Tony Lotus’ pace looks pretty much the same as last year’s. Good luck for the race.

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    • bourne on Apr 10, 2011 at 1:02 pm

      people dont bash TL because it dont do well. we do understand it is a new team. but we hate the way TF cocky talk and over confident on challenging middle team. even force india, toro rosso, and other middle team not act cocky as TF..

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  • trav_da_man on Apr 10, 2011 at 11:07 am

    I was quite okay with TL’s qualifying pace which is nearing the mid field times by 1 sec or so and the nearest competitiors Virgin are 2 secs slower.

    But Tony ‘s mouth is getting amusing day by day. Figure this when interviewed by media after qualifying:
    ?”Words cannot express how happy and overjoyed I am right now,”

    WTH???? Group Lotus’s Renault got into Q1 and secured 2 top 10 spots while TL has been byebye in Q3……i have no idea what Tony is thinking, overdose of positivity when reality bites!

    TL needs a good aero package in order to beat the mid field teams.

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    • seriusSAM on Apr 10, 2011 at 12:03 pm

      you must remember that team lotus target is midfield not front runner

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    • najibest on Apr 10, 2011 at 1:54 pm

      have to love the team effort…but hates TF mouth…

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