Malaysian GP 2012 - Sepang International Circuit

[NathanOlder]

http://www.irishtimes.com/sports/other/ ... 37830.html

Irish website.

"Hamilton leads another Williams one-two"

[marcush.]

RedBull are struggling and I really don´t see them in contention .they are under pressure and that´s not what they are used to .
Vettel used the hard rubber hoping a odd strategy is opening opportunities...but then this all works only for a dry race ..that´s too much of a gamble methinks.
On the other hand maybe a short shower can release him from being forced to use the unloved medium rubber.

Again:surprise surpise most teams struggle with understanding of the tyres even more than they did last year...so the suspension adaptions to pirelli rubber seem not to work? Usually you learn most by making mistakes but this seems to be an exception ..the more mistakes the more they all seem to get lost....

[cbbcisace]

Pedro was on course to do a low 1'42 and even a high 1'41 but aborted his lap.

The less I say about Narain the better

[Lorenzo_Bandini]

Webber is very slow in straight line but the fastest in S3...

I think we need to stop to watch at straight line speed, it's mean nothing. Remember Monza 2011..

At Melbourne, Alonso was one of the slowest in straight line, but Maldonado who was much faster didn't manage to pass him.

I think Schumacher will pass both Mclaren at the start, he is on the right side, he always make good start, and i think he will be able to take Hamilton tow and pass both Mclaren.

[NathanOlder]

I think in Australia the fast run onto the start finish straight always makes it hard to pass. With the 2 massive straights seperated by a hairpin, it will be good for the faster cars.

But like you said, Webber was fastest in the last sector. No sure how that happened with the speed differences ?!?

[ParanoiD]

Difficult for Hamilton. He had to close room for both Schumi and Button.Both are fast drivers,but..

He will choose to close Button because he is on the same car which have the same potential.

OR

He will choose to close Schumi because of what happened in Monza

We will see tmr!

[WhiteBlue]

I think Schumacher will pass both Mclaren at the start, he is on the right side, he always make good start, and i think he will be able to take Hamilton tow and pass both Mclaren.

That is a very bold prediction. I can see one McLaren but two would a heck of a start by Schumacher. But you can bet that such an advantage would soon be lost as the Mercedes will quickly run off the pace due to the higher wear rate of the tyres. I reckon that by lap 2 or 3 the McLarens will be ahead again unless there is a collision.

[djos]

Webber faster than Seb for the second qually in a row*, just goes to show Seb isnt the Messiah, he's just a very naughty boy!


*dont bother pointing out the tire diff to me in Q3, I did watch it - my comment is based on the 1sec advantage in Q2 which clearly precipitated Sebs strategy change for Q3.

[djos]

The start will be very interesting. You have both Red Bulls behind Schumacher who will quickly start to hold them back on degrading tyres. There is potential that MSC and Webber could tangle. They are both very hard racers and could decide not to lift for the other man. I think that Vettel will try something clever through a corner where he will use superior traction to pass Schumacher. Vettel will have a tough job to catch the McLarens. They will probably have the opportunity to run away unless one of them gets taken at the start by Schumacher.

Frankly I dont see Webber being very close to Michael at all by turn one, If Michael keeps up his launch form I expect him to be tangling with Lewis for first place at turn one and Webber will be chasing Button (assuming he doesn't have clutch problems again).

[FrukostScones]

...guzhkltuz

[bhall]

(This place is going to become a zoo if this season features a resurgent Michael Schumacher.)

[chepoi]

hey........ just wait for tomorrow race....

[marcush.]

is it sure Mercedes will suffer on both cars with excessive wear degradation? We have yet to see if Melbourne was a one off issue due to rosberg not finding a setup that helps the rears .
As I rmemeber Mercedes had exactly the same issues last year but overcame the rearwear worries after Monaco.I assume the fixes are well understood and it will be straight forward for them if the problem is related.
Michael clearly said they ONLY worked for race setup -contrary to melbourne - and he is surprised he still was that quick in Qualy.

[dice782]

Pedro was on course to do a low 1'42 and even a high 1'41 but aborted his lap.

The less I say about Narain the better

It may be too early to comment on performance but I am starting to sense some deja vu from last year!

How come Massa always/ most times qualify behind Alonso . How come Narain always manages to qualify behind his team mate?? Narain should up his game and make sure his sponsors pay on time because if it were not for funding HRT would drop him like a rock. What worries me is that the F112 turns out to have performance but we spent most of the year not exploiting it. I dont like to be harsh to any driver but sometimes we have to ask such questions

[raymondu999]

my comment is based on the 1sec advantage in Q2 which clearly precipitated Sebs strategy change for Q3.

Q2 is hardly a good benchmark IMO. We don't know whether they were pushing full bore, etc. Don't forget that by the end of Q2 Mark had done a lot more laps than Seb. If memory serves - Mark had some 15 laps done while Seb had 8. (Mark had to save himself from a Q1 exit with a full engine mode blast on the primes)

Dont forget guys, Vettel said his car was faster on the harder tyres

Not quite. What he said was his setup couldn't maximise the soft tyres. He went on to specifically mention that a soft tyre run would have yielded a quicker time - but only by 2 to 2.5 tenths.

Anyway. Videos!!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6WSDD6-JmU[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQRbkG7Iun0[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AADAtiD_UQ0[/youtube]