Räikkönen penalised for impeding Rosberg

Kimi Räikkönen will start Sunday's Malaysian GP from 10th place on the grid after he was penalised for impeding another driver

Contending with the rain that meant the cars were kicking up some serious spray behind them, Raikkonen reportedly baulked Nico Rosberg.

The Australian GP winner went on to qualify in seventh place while Rosberg put his Mercedes up to sixth.

However, after qualifying Raikkonen was summoned to the stewards were he was handed a three-place grid penalty for impeding the German.

The Lotus driver will therefore begin round two of the Championship from 10th place on the grid.

Revised Grid
01 Sebastian Vettel
02 Felipe Massa
03 Fernando Alonso
04 Lewis Hamilton
05 Mark Webber
06 Nico Rosberg
07 Jenson Button
08 Adrian Sutil
09 Sergio Perez
10 Kimi Raikkonen
11 Romain Grosjean
12 Nico Hulkenberg
13 Daniel Ricciardo
14 Esteban Gutierrez
15 Paul di Resta
16 Pastor Maldonado
17 Jean-Eric Vergne
18 Valtteri Bottas
19 Jules Bianchi
20 Charles Pic
21 Max Chilton
22 Giedo van der Garde

Source: Planet-F1

Qualifying: Vettel grabs pole at a wet Sepang

Sebastian Vettel was probably happiest when the rain came down in Malaysia as the German secured pole position ahead of Felipe Massa

The German posted a 1:49.674 to beat Ferrari's Massa to pole position. It was Vettel's 38th career pole. Fernando Alonso qualified in third place ahead of Lewis Hamilton, Mark Webber and Nico Rosberg. Australian GP winner Kimi Raikkonen was seventh, joined on the fourth row by Jenson Button.

Qualifying 1
It was standard Malaysia warm as we headed into Q1 with the inevitable chance of a shower or two. The ambient temperature was an unwavering 32C with the track at 41C but no chance of a shower in the first few minutes. Thus we had to wait till there were 17 minutes left on the clock before the Marussias came out on track.

It was the Williams of Valtteri Bottas who set the first sub-1:40 time at 1:38.376 (faster than his team-mate) for P1 followed by Nico Rosberg whose 1:37.239 stood as P1 for a long time in the session.

The Force Indias had chosen to go out on the faster, medium tyre for their first runs, and they were joined by the Lotuses. Adrian Sutil took over P1 with a 1:36.809 and Kimi Raikkonen slotted into P2 for Lotus. Further down the field Nico Hulkenberg was vocal on team radio about being blocked by Sergio Perez, who didn't take his McLaren off line for his old team.

Red Bull, who were rumoured to have stationed ten different rain spotters in a circle around the track, left it very late in the session to leave the garage and with four minutes to go had yet to set a time for either car. At this point the bottom end of the grid looked like:
14. Hulkenberg, 15.Vergne, 16.Ricciardo, 17.Bianchi, 18.Chilton, 19.Pic, 20.Van der Garde, 21.Webber, 22.Vettel.

The Red Bulls duly set a time, but they weren't particularly quick, Mark Webber was P15 and Sebastian Vettel P13 as the tail end of the field put in faster laps. At this stage, the P.17 drop-point was: 15.Webber, 16.Gutierrez, 17.Bottas, 18.Vergne

Bottas, who had been overtaken by team-mate Maldonado couldn't improve, Gutierrez jumped to P11, Webber jumped up to P9 as Vettel's time started to dip towards the drop-zone. Although the World Champion was on a strong lap, Jean-Eric Vergne's Toro Rosso was the only car capable of demoting him and so when JEV could no longer improve, the Red Bull team brought Vettel in to save his tyres.

So, out went: 17.Vergne, 18.Bottas, 19.Bianchi, 20.Pic, 21.Chilton, 22.Van der Garde.

At the end of Q1 Gutierrez had run ten laps and Sutil just three. Marussia would have got both cars ahead of the Caterhams if it hadn't been for a lurid moment at Turn 6 for Max Chilton which dropped him 1.2 seconds behind his team-mate.

Qualifying 2
A significant item at the beginning of Q2 was the fact that the FIA rain radar went down. This was another failure of the official telemetry system after Australia last week. There would be no cockpit warning lights, or DRS activation or safety Car systems because of the problems for a second GP in succession - something that could be critical in setting in-lap deta times for Safety Car periods.

Paul di Resta was out first on the set of used medium tyres he'd just finished Q1 with. He was en route to setting a reasonable lap (fastest middle sector, but then again everyone else was only on out-laps, so he should be) when the team brought him in. It was his team-mate Adrian Sutil who set the first significant P1 time with a 1:36.834.

Again it was Nico Riosberg at the top of the timesheets in the W04 with a 1:36.190 - Lewis Hamilton slotted into P2, which was then taken by Mark Webber.

Hamilton reported back that there were spots of rain between Turns 5 and 6 and the rain started to increase. Without the FIA radar the teams hadn't seen it coming and so Paul Di Resta and Pastor Maldonado had yet to put in serious laps. In fact Paul Di Resta set a very competitive 25.0 for sector 1 before hitting trouble.

At this point of the session, with most cars anticipating at least one more run, the order was: 1.Rosberg, 2.Webber, 3.Hamilton, 4.Raikkonen, 5.Sutil, 6.Massa, 7.Alonso, 8.Button, 9.Vettel, 10.Perez, 11.Grosjean, 12.Hulkenberg, 13.Ricciardo, 14.Gutirrez, 15.Di Resta, 16.Maldonado

DiResta ran off track at Turns 5/6 as the rain began to increase. Nobody was going to set a faster time and it was pointless going out. So the Q2 times were locked and out went. 11.Grosjean, 12.Hulkenberg, 13.Ricciardo, 14.Gutirrez, 15.Di Resta, 16.Maldonado.

Most frustrated of anyone was Romain Grosjean whose mystery chassis problems and annoyance at team-mate Raikkonen getting all the development parts was plain to see as he got out of the car. Pastor Maldonado was relatively at-ease with failing to get in a competitive lap, pleased to see the car improved and probably most pleased of all to put some distance between himself and his team-mate.

Qualifying 3
The rain had fallen for fifteen minutes and the sun was emerging over part of the circuit as the cars came out for Q3 creating a rainbow. It was intermediate tyres for everybody through the whole session and so the top ten would be allowed to choose their own tyres for the race start (should it be dry) tomorrow.

Despite the period of rain, the temperatures were exactly the same as when the session had started, but this time the DRS was disabled.

Adrian Sutil took some karting (outside) lines around corners as he set provisional pole at 1:58.293, this was beaten by Sergio Perez with a 1:56.640 and then Lewis Hamilton with a 1:54.899. Nico Rosberg jumped to the top with a 1:53.898 as the track dried out and times got progressively faster. Sebastian Vettel proved this with a superb 1:52.576 before diving into the pits for some fresh intermediate tyres. Mark Webber was good for P2.

Webber continued on his single set of intermediates, as did the McLaren drivers, whereas Vettel, Alonso and Massa took on a second set. Webber edged out Vettel with a 1:52.244 lap and then was elbowed out of the way by Lewis Hamilton with a 1:51.699.

All ten drivers were on track and with the track rapidly drying the times were tumbling. Perez took P6, Button moved up into P4, Raikkonen took P4, Rosberg grabbed P3. Alonso then jumped into provisional pole with a 1:50.727 before Sebastian Vettel went a whole second quicker to take his 38th pole with a 1:49.674.

However there was more drama in the final seconds as Felipe Massa crossed the line to take P2, the second race in a row to beat team-mate Fernando Alonso. Hamilton had beaten Rosberg when it counted after lagging for most of the session, Button was in front of Perez, P8 and P10, and Kimi Raikkonen would start another race from P7. The most important thing was that the top 10 could start on exactly the same tyre as the rest of the field, though everyone is expecting rain at some stage tomorrow.

Times
1. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1:49.674
2. Felipe Massa Ferrari 1:50.587 +0.913
3. Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1:50.727 +1.053
4. Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:51.699 +2.025
5. Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault 1:52.244 +2.570
6. Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1:52.519 +2.845
7. Kimi Raikkonen Lotus-Renault 1:52.970 +3.296
8. Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1:53.175 +3.501
9. Adrian Sutil Force India-Mercedes 1:53.439 +3.765
10. Sergio Perez McLaren-Mercedes 1:54.136 +4.462
11. Romain Grosjean Lotus-Renault 1:37.636 +1.446
12. Nico Hulkenberg Sauber-Ferrari 1:38.125 +1.935
13. Daniel Ricciardo Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:38.822 +2.632
14. Esteban Gutierrez Sauber-Ferrari 1:39.221 +3.031
15. Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes 1:44.509 +8.319
16. Pastor Maldonado Williams-Renault no time
17. Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:38.157 +1.348
18. Valtteri Bottas Williams-Renault 1:38.207 +1.398
19. Jules Bianchi Marussia-Cosworth 1:38.434 +1.625
20. Charles Pic Caterham-Renault 1:39.314 +2.505
21. Max Chilton Marussia-Cosworth 1:39.672 +2.863
22. Giedo van der Garde Caterham-Renault 1:39.932s +3.123

Source: Planet-F1

Topfit Kimi ready for Sepang sauna

Kimi Raikkonen, the winner of 20 Grands Prix, is in the best shape of his life. Just have a look at him and his muscles, he’s really fit. Compared to team mate Romain Grosjean, the Frenchman looks thiny and boyish.

After winning in Australia Raikkonen headed to a gym in Kuala Lumpur. The planned game of badmington against Sebastian Vettel was postponed, while the German were busy elsewhere.

Turun Sanomat met Raikkonen in a good mood, but like every Thursday, approaching every question very critically in this one-to-one interview. While the driving starts on Friday, the Finnish star of Lotus is not that keen to speculate beforehand how it will go.

It will a anniversary of the first ever Grand Prix victory of Raikkonen on Saturday. It’s exactly ten years ago Raikkonen joined the winner’s club.

– Where do you dig all these dates, Kimi comments, while I reminded him about this anniversary.

Do you still remember it well?

– Of course, for sure, I remember all my races, but it doesn’t change anything to what ever will happen this weekend.

You have won twice with Lotus – are there any similarities between Abu Dhabi and Australia?

– No win has any kind of simililarities to some others. Only the position is the same, that’s all. In every race everything, however, happens a little bit differently.

But but TOP3 was in the same order both times?

– Eventhough every single driver would finish the race exactly in the same order, it would not mean, that the races have been similiar – not at least from the driver’s point of view.

Raikkonen is well-known as an athlete, who recordfast is able to leave even the worst disappointment behind. Does the good feeling after winning in Australia disappear as fast from your mind?

– For sure, the feeling is better while you win compared to get a bad result. But it doesn’t change any way how long you feel it – especially now, while a new race is following so soon.

Does Australia then feel as old as a memory like your first victory ten years ago?

– Don’t ask that kind things. Thet feel like questions from a shrink...

Well, let’s change the subject:

You have been working with Adrian Newey at McLaren, with Aldo Costa at Ferrari and now with James Allison at Lotus. Does Allison differ from the two as a technical director?

– For sure, they all have been different kind of people, but the way I have been working with them all, does not differ terribly much. None of them has become more close to me. They all are very good people - without that, they would not be able to build such a good cars.

Allison seems to do well with a smaller budjet, as well?

– I’m certain, all of them would be good. It’s not up to the budjet.

According to team sources Raikkonen has asked to leave his car alone after Australia. Not to touch it, while he wants to carry on like it was in Albert Park.

– But we don’t set-up the car between the races, any way, while it would not help at all. Something small we do for every circuit, but we didn’t touch the car last year, either between these two races. Only on Friday we drive it and then we know, do we have to change something.

Is this the best car you have started the season with?

– I cannot tell. It’s pretty tricky to compare, while every year is a little bit different. Now we have different tyres. And you have to remember, everything is not depening on how good is the car. You can get a bad result with a good car and you can get a good result with not that good car, if something surprising happens.

What is going to decide the championship this year - and, please, don’t answer whoever has the most points?

– What else would then decide it? It’s not up to the mercy given by the others to win it. It is, like it is, who has most points after race 19, will be the champion. It’s like it is in every other sports, too!

Turun Sanomat, Kuala Lumpur

HEIKKI KULTA

Courtesy: Nicole

Practice Two: Kimi quickest before the rain

Kimi Räikkönen set the pace ahead of Sebastian Vettel before the rain came down in Friday's second practice for the Malaysian GP

With rain threatening, the drivers were quickly into the action with Jean-Eric Verge setting the first P1 time. Two minutes later, though, he was down in seventh place and two seconds off the pace such was the franetic nature of the early minutes in FP2.

Fernando Alonso had a turn in the P1 slot before losing out to Kimi Raikkonen, who posted a 1:37.042. Behind them was Sebastian Vettel, Felipe Massa and Mark Webber.

Meanwhile, Sauber rookie Esteban Gutierrez headed back into the pits after an extinguisher discharged in his car. It was reportedly caused by an exhaust issue.

Just 20 minutes in to the session - with reports of rain ten minutes down the line - the drivers begun to switch to the quicker medium tyres.

Massa hit the front with a 1:36.661 while Alonso climbed to second, 0.324s behind his team-mate. Jenson Button improved from 20th on the hards to eighth on the mediums. The two Red Bulls also made the swap with Vettel hitting the front with a 1:36.588, which was 0.073s up on Massa. Mark Webber improved to fourth.

After that it was the two Lotus drivers, the two Force India drivers, the two McLarens and the two Saubers. The two-by-two, though, changed when Raikkonen hit the front, overhauling Vettel by 0.019s. The Mercs also entered the mix as, having been focused on race set-up, they put in some quicker laps with Nico Rosberg taking seventh and Lewis Hamilton ninth.

The rain, which had thrown down a drop or two, begun to fall a bit heavier in some parts of the circuit with 40 minutes to go. However, the asphalt was so hot it had little impact at first.

Nico Hulkenberg was the first to get caught out when it came down harder and found himself on the grass down the road leading into the pits. Thankfully he got his car pointing the right way and did not collect Vettel as his fellow German made his way back into his dry garage.

After a brief lull the drivers strapped on the intermediate tyres and headed back out. With the track dry in some parts and very wet in others, drivers slipped and slid with Esteban Gutierrez getting the first off. He was followed by Sergio Perez as the drivers were lapping about 20s slower than their previous bests.

Although the track dried out as the clock counted down and the drivers returned to the slick tyres, it was never dry enough to launch an assault of Raikkonen's P1 time. He finished the session 0.019s up on Vettel.

Times:
1 Kimi Raikkonen Lotus 1:36.569
2 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull 1:36.588 +0.019
3 Felipe Massa Ferrari 1:36.661 +0.092
4 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1:36.985 +0.416
5 Mark Webber Red Bull 1:37.026 +0.457
6 Romain Grosjean Lotus 1:37.206 +0.637
7 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1:37.448 +0.879
8 Paul di Resta Force India 1:37.571 +1.002
9 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:37.574 +1.005
10 Adrian Sutil Force India 1:37.788 +1.219
11 Sergio Perez McLaren 1:37.838 +1.269
12 Jenson Button McLaren 1:37.865 +1.296
13 Nico Hulkenberg Sauber 1:38.068 +1.499
14 Esteban Gutierrez Sauber 1:38.645 +2.076
15 Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso 1:38.738 +2.169
16 Pastor Maldonado Williams 1:38.801 +2.232
17 Daniel Ricciardo Toro Rosso 1:38.904 +2.335
18 Jules Bianchi Marussia 1:39.508 +2.939
19 Valtteri Bottas Williams 1:39.660 +3.091
20 Charles Pic Caterham 1:40.757 +4.188
21 Giedo van der Garde Caterham 1:40.768 +4.199
22 Max Chilton Marussia 1:41.438 +4.869

Source: Planet-F1

Practice One: Webber sets the pace

Mark Webber led the way at a hot and humid Sepang circuit on Friday morning, edging Australian GP winner Kimi Raikkonen by 0.068s

It was a slow start to the session as the teams all waited for another to blink. Eventually - after 30 minutes - Max Chilton ventured out and clocked a 1:42.513. McLaren joined the Marussia driver out on track with Sergio Perez going quickest while Romain Grosjean took second ahead of Jenson Button. However, halfway through FP1 they were the only four drivers on the timesheets.

Shortly after more headed out with Lewis Hamilton taking over at the front after posting a 1:38.113. The Mercedes driver had a brief exchange with Grosjean for the top spot before his team-mate Nico Rosberg entered the fray.

Rosberg's reign, though, was also short-lived as Mark Webber climbed to the top of the timesheets while his team-mate Sebastian Vettel made it a Red Bull 1-2 ahead of a Mercedes 3-4.

With the Red Bulls looking secure in first and second the battle was on for third with Fernando Alonso taking the fifth to the Mercedes drivers as he climbed to fourth place ahead Adrian Sutil, Felipe Massa and Paul di Resta. Hamilton was down in eighth with 30 minutes remaining in the session.

Esteban Gutierrez brought out the first yellow flags of the session as he came up behind the slower Ferrari of Massa and balked as he braked. The Mexican rookie touched the grass and found himself backwards on the run-off area. Moments later Adrian Sutil was seem lapping with a broken front right wing courtesy of a trip over the grass.

A mixture of strategies emerged in the final 30 minutes as Kimi Raikkonen opted for used tyres, which put him up to second place, while Hamilton switched to race set-up and putting in a few 1:44s before being told by his Merc engineer that he needs to get that down to a 1:42.

The final ten minutes of FP1 saw some serious tyre issues for some of the drivers with anyone from reigning Champ Vettel complaining about "vibrations" to newcomer Giedo van der Garde pointing his out to his Caterham team. The old tyres meant that the drivers were not able to improve their times and Webber finished quickest of all, 0.068s up on Raikkonen.

Times:
1 Mark Webber Red Bull 1:36.935 15 laps
2 Kimi Raikkonen Lotus 1:37.003 +0.068 15 laps
3 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull 1:37.104 +0.169 21 laps
4 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1:37.319 +0.384 13 laps
5 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1:37.588 +0.653 19 laps
6 Adrian Sutil Force India 1:37.769 +0.834 17 laps
7 Felipe Massa Ferrari 1:37.771 +0.836 15 laps
8 Paul di Resta Force India 1:37.773 +0.838 15 laps
9 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:37.840 +0.905 18 laps
10 Romain Grosjean Lotus 1:37.915 +0.980 17 laps
11 Jenson Button McLaren 1:38.173 +1.238 16 laps
12 Pastor Maldonado Williams 1:38.673 +1.738 16 laps
13 Sergio Perez McLaren 1:38.830 +1.895 17 laps
14 Nico Hulkenberg Sauber 1:39.054 +2.119 17 laps
15 Esteban Gutierrez Sauber 1:39.204 +2.269 16 laps
16 Valtteri Bottas Williams 1:39.208 +2.273 19 laps
17 Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso 1:39.284 +2.349 17 laps
18 Daniel Ricciardo Toro Rosso 1:39.567 +2.632 16 laps
19 Giedo van der Garde Caterham 1:40.728 +3.793 17 laps
20 Jules Bianchi Marussia 1:40.996 +4.061 14 laps
21 Charles Pic Caterham 1:41.163 +4.228 18 laps
22 Max Chilton Marussia 1:41.513 +4.578 14 laps

Source: Planet-F1