Malaysian Grand Prix 2011: Red Bull team give their reaction to a great start to the weekend in Sepang:

Car 1 Sebastian Vettel

“It was a challenging weekend until qualifying today. I was happy with the car, but we never really got into a rhythm. Yesterday wasn’t as smooth as we hoped for, but we knew the car had speed, so the main thing was to keep believing in it. In qualifying everything worked out straight away. It was very close in the end with the McLaren guys, so I’m happy to get pole. Big compliments to the guys in the team - especially those working on KERS, they did a lot of work since Australia. If we wouldn’t have had it today, we wouldn’t be sitting here now, neither me nor Mark, so compliments to the guys – it’s a good reward. It’s very hot in the garage for the boys during this race, the air is pretty humid, so at least tonight they will get some good sleep ahead of tomorrow.” 
Qualifying
Position: Pole, Q3 Time: 1:34.870
Third practice session
Position: 5, Best Time: 1:37.175

Car 2 Mark Webber

“I knew it would be very tight; everyone was on a single pace after the first flying lap on the option tyre in Q3. It was pretty straight forward for us; you have to just drive as quick as you can when it’s like that. We can’t control how tight it is, to get a few tenths more, you have to just do your best. It was a better performance from me today compared to Melbourne and I’m looking forward to tomorrow. I’m starting on the clean side of the grid and it should be an interesting race – I think there will be a lot of pit stops.”
Qualifying
Position: 3rd, Q3 Time: 1:35.179
Third practice session
Position: 2, Best Time: 1:36.630

Christian Horner, Team Principal

“It was a great team performance today. To get first and third on the grid after a fascinating qualifying session, which was really tight with the McLarens today, is a great start to the weekend. On the final run and under huge pressure, Sebastian delivered just enough to get pole. Mark also improved his time and for the team to take P1 and P3, sets us up well for tomorrow.”

Cyril Dumont (Renault)

“It was a tough qualifying session, tougher than in Australia I would say. We had to do some set-up work engine-wise in order to improve the car from yesterday, so we’re happy it was working well today. We have a one and three again for the start of tomorrow’s race, like last year – although then the drivers were the other way round. Hopefully we’ll get the same race result too – with a one and two finish.”
 

Malaysian Grand Prix 2011: Leading Position, Sebastian Vessel is the fastest, Leading position after qualifying

Beating Hamilton into second place by a mere 0.104 seconds means the top five on the grid tomorrow are the same five which started the Australian Grand Prix and in exactly the same order with Mark in P3, then Button and Alonso.

We used our Kers system on both cars this weekend and, as Sebastian said, it turned out to be a necessity. He said: “Big compliments to the guys in the team – especially those working with Kers, they did a lot of work since Australia. If we wouldn’t have had it today, neither me nor Mark would be sitting here now, so compliments to the guys.”
Webber himself saw an improvement since we left Albert Park.

He said: “It was a better performance from me today compared to Melbourne and I’m looking forward to tomorrow. I’m starting on the clean side of the grid and it should be an interesting race – there will be a lot of pit stops.”

Today was a closer battle with Hamilton and Button McLaren, as our team principal explained: “To get first and third on the grid after a fascinating qualifying session, which was really tight with the McLarens today, is a great start to the weekend,” said Christian. “On the final run and under huge pressure, Sebastian delivered just enough to get pole. Mark also improved his time and for the team to take P1 and P3, sets us up well for tomorrow.”

Both Renaults again looked strong, but for the second time this season, Michael Schumacher failed to make the cut for Q3, while his team-mate did. Neither of the drivers in Scuderia Toro Rosso made it through to final ten, Sébastien Buemi having the more dramatic outing in the second period when a piece of sidepod bodywork flew off the side of his STR6 causing the session to be briefly red-flagged.

The good news at the bottom of the screen was that HRT made the 107% cut-off point and so both Tonio Liuzzi and Narain Karthikeyan will start a grand prix tomorrow for the first time in 2011.

So… the rain held off (for the second day running) and we’ve yet to get the Pirelli wets out of their warmers. But who knows how things will fare tomorrow. We’re forecast thunder and showers.

Malaysian Grand Prix - FP2 - Webber said " "We look okay, but it's still early days in a race weekend,"

Mark Webber is not getting carried away with his headline times during Friday practice for the Malaysian Grand Prix.

He topped both sessions, the first one by over 1.5 seconds and the second by just 0.005 seconds. His closest competitor was a McLaren on both occasions and while he was happy with the extra laps the team completed on Pirelli's 'super-hard' development compound.

"We look okay, but it's still early days in a race weekend," Webber said. "We got some dry running in and the car performed well. It was reliable, which is always a nice bonus. We got to check all the tyres - including the new tyre that Pirelli brought here. It's very hot. We need to look at the information we got today, but so far so good for us."

Sebastian Vettel indicated that the only concern could be tyre degradation in the intense heat expected on race day. But he does not think Red Bull is any worse off than its rivals.

"We completed quite a lot of laps this morning because of the extra tyres - and this afternoon we did more or less what was planned," he said. "We didn't have any big problems, but we got a lot of mileage and took a lot of things onboard. Obviously tyre wear is different here to Melbourne. I think it's the same for everyone, at least, it is for us. We'll see where we are tomorrow."

The team ran KERS during the practice sessions but will make a final decision on its use this weekend tonight.

Mark Webber enjoyed a huge advantage over the field by the end of opening practice at the Malaysian Grand Prix.

Mark Webber again topped the first free practice timesheet of a grand prix weekend, repeating his achievement from Australia as the F1 field moved on to the heat and humidity of Sepang.

The Red Bull driver, who was unable to set the pace thereafter in Melbourne, will have been encouraged by his form, particularly after suggestions that his RB7 had been far from healthy by the end of round one. He clocked a 1min 37.651s late in the dry 90-minute session to further distance himself from the pack, eventually winding up 1.6secs clear of second-placed Lewis Hamilton.

While McLaren will again have been happy to fill the role of main opposition to RBR, Hamilton and the Woking team will no doubt be concerned about the margin of Webber's advantage, even if the second Red Bull of Melbourne winnerSebastian Vettel languished back in 17th position.

Hamilton, too, enjoyed a comfortable cushion back to third place, having lapped half a second faster than Michel Schumacher, who moved into the top three late in the session. The spot had been held by Williams rookie Pastor Maldonado as the session entered its final 20 minutes, but the Venezuelan also found himself demoted by Force India reserve Nico Hulkenberg, who vaulted up the order into fourth.

The younger German headed a tightly-grouped midfield, with everyone down to 15th-placed Jenson Button within a second of the VJM04, and the next three runners - Jarno Trulli, Vettel and Sergio Perez - only a matter of tenths outside. Button had held a top ten slot, but reported a lack of grip from his McLaren, and slid down the order as the team took time out to investigate the problem.

Behind Maldonado, Felipe Massa, Nick Heidfeld, Rubens Barrichello, Fernando Alonso and Nico Rosberg completed the top ten, with Adrian Sutil, Daniel Ricciardo, Jaime Alguersuari and Kamui Kobayashi slotting in ahead of Button.Williams would have been encouraged to get both its cars into the leading group, while Ricciardo will no doubt enjoy being ahead of his Toro Rosso team-mate for the second race weekend in succession.

Heidfeld, despite his seventh spot, may not be quite as content, however, after discovering that Lotus Renault team-mate Vitaly Petrov was forced out of the session by an apparent wheel failure after just four laps. Heidfeld had already been confined to the pits after a brake problem jammed his front right and the Russian, who was later spotted with ice on a hand injury, suggested that brakes may have been the cause of his incident.

Petrov was not the only victim of such an incident either, as Marussia Virgin's Jerome d'Ambrosio spun out late in the session after his right front suspension appeared to fail. The Belgian at least avoided the ignominy of being listed behind the two HRTs which, despite completing 30 laps between them - 20 of which were logged by Tonio Liuzzi - were more than a second off the next best runner, 21st-placed Lotus reserve Davide Valsecchi.