Malaysian GP 2011 - Sepang

[Tamburello]

So what happened to Rosberg and Kobayashi in Q3? Everyone improved by about 3 tenths over Q2 times except these two, who lost about that much.

But boy, that's tight pack immediately behind the front two teams. There's hardly anything between the Ferrari, Renault, Mercedes and Sauber cars in raw pace, IMO.

But apart from Ferrari, the flop of the season so far has to be Williams. Barely a second ahead of Lotus on a track that gained some grip by that time must be worrying for them...

[myurr]

I think they ran out of fresh tyres.

[myurr]

Anyone seen Hamilton's DRS activated on his last qualy lap?

I have seen him coming into and exiting of the last corner and at no point did I see the rear flap move...

He was definitely using it on his penultimate lap so I would imagine he was using it on his final fastest lap as well. He was able to activate it very early on the exit of some of those corners, definitely before the car was straight. They have good downforce on that car.

[andrew]

Good to see HRT in but what the hell are Merc playing at?! Do they realise they have the most successful F1 driver in one of thier cars? Just pitiful.

[Giblet]

I am pleased to report that he has been chucked out the pub (banned).

Source?...

Funny I had no idea and I am incapable of performing such an act anyways.

It played out exactly today as I expected, although I did expect Ferrari to be back in it today as Australia has always thrown up odd results at times.

Glad that Webber was back in it as well. We know Vettel would win if it was only about single lap performances and time trials.

This is an exciting set up for the race. Vettel will be hard pressed to drive off in the distance on pure pace, and I might get what I was hoping for all last year. A chance for Seb to show us he is not just a quick lapper, but a great racer. He has yet to show us he is a good racer, and has shown too many times to make mistakes around other cars.

Button was also looking very good. His sector times and laps were close to Lewis.

Looking good folks

[volarchico]

Anyone seen Hamilton's DRS activated on his last qualy lap?

I have seen him coming into and exiting of the last corner and at no point did I see the rear flap move...

Compared to some other cars, the MP4-26 DRS is hard to see activate (at least on my crappy non-HD 384x288 online feed) because of the relative size of the main plane and the flap. The flap is so large, it doesn't seem to have much motion.

For the race, I worry about Hamilton getting stuck behind Vettel and getting desperate because he does not have the patience to drive closely behind someone. If he's far enough back that he can't attempt a pass he's a consistent and fast driver. Stick him behind someone and give him a small glimmer of hope of a pass and things can get crazy quickly. Or, we could see the first time where DRS puts the race leader at a disadvantage! Or, we could get rain and the whole race gets turned upside down and an HRT takes the podium. I'd love a dry race and a battle-royale between RBR and McLaren! [-o<

[chepoi]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=okfGwrsF ... r_embedded[/youtube]

[myurr]

Good to see HRT in but what the hell are Merc playing at?! Do they realise they have the most successful F1 driver in one of thier cars? Just pitiful.

Errr that most successful driver was 6 tenths off his team mates pace... He used to be a great driver, but I haven't seen him looking comfortable in that car since his return. Maybe he'll do better in the race as the rears start to go away and the cars become more oversteery.

[andrew]

I shouldn't laugh but I did. Kind of his own fault really.

Not as bad as Taki Inoue being knocked down by a course car in Hungary 1995.

[myurr]

While a dry race would be great because we will get a better idea of the pecking order and how important or not qualifying pace is, a wet race would be pretty exciting as well. In the wet I think McLaren may have the measure of Red Bull as they're allegedly running more downforce and their car looks so stable and predictable.

So I guess I'm going to be pretty happy either way

[Tamburello]

While a dry race would be great because we will get a better idea of the pecking order and how important or not qualifying pace is, a wet race would be pretty exciting as well. In the wet I think McLaren may have the measure of Red Bull as they're allegedly running more downforce and their car looks so stable and predictable.

So I guess I'm going to be pretty happy either way

I'm not so sure. I think McLaren are making better use of their KERS system so the gap could be larger to Red Bull if that's out of the equation.

[volarchico]

And we haven't really seen anyone's true pace in the wet (just one test, which we all know means nothing)! Someone mentioned that the W02 might be set up for the wet so it hurt their qualifying (pure speculation I'm pretty sure). But the wet will definitely mix things up.

[beelsebob]

While a dry race would be great because we will get a better idea of the pecking order and how important or not qualifying pace is, a wet race would be pretty exciting as well. In the wet I think McLaren may have the measure of Red Bull as they're allegedly running more downforce and their car looks so stable and predictable.

So I guess I'm going to be pretty happy either way

I'm not so sure. I think McLaren are making better use of their KERS system so the gap could be larger to Red Bull if that's out of the equation.

Pretty sure at this point the McLaren has more downforce – they were roughly equal to the RBRs in sector 1, marginally faster in 3, and about a tenth faster in sector 2 (except vettel's pole lap). Give that sector 2 has all the high downforce turns in bar 12, that's a pretty clear indication of where they're strong.

[raymondu999]

I beg to differ. 12 isn't really a high downforce turns nowadays methinks. It's quite easy flat. Maybe not with the DRS on, but otherwise

[Tamburello]

While a dry race would be great because we will get a better idea of the pecking order and how important or not qualifying pace is, a wet race would be pretty exciting as well. In the wet I think McLaren may have the measure of Red Bull as they're allegedly running more downforce and their car looks so stable and predictable.

So I guess I'm going to be pretty happy either way

I'm not so sure. I think McLaren are making better use of their KERS system so the gap could be larger to Red Bull if that's out of the equation.

Pretty sure at this point the McLaren has more downforce – they were roughly equal to the RBRs in sector 1, marginally faster in 3, and about a tenth faster in sector 2 (except vettel's pole lap). Give that sector 2 has all the high downforce turns in bar 12, that's a pretty clear indication of where they're strong.

I don't get it, if they were quicker in all sectors, why are they behind?