Formula One 2011

[Katsuya]

Thats an odd one. I think everyone will hope that they are successful because if Sauber genuinely thought they had been caught out on something they did on purpose what was the point in appealing? I mean, the other thing is that why did nobody notice it in any other scrutineering if there's something up with it?

[Lineker]

Sauber will conduct a detailed investigation at its factory into how its rear wing failed to comply with the technical regulations at the Australian Grand Prix, before it decides whether to keep pressing ahead with its appeal.

The Swiss-based team has submitted its intention to appeal against the disqualifications of Sergio Perez and Kamui Kobayashi from the Melbourne event for a rear wing breach.

The rear wings did not comply with Articles 3.10.1 and 3.10.2 of the F1 Technical Regulations that demands wing parts do not have 'a local concave radius of curvature smaller than 100mm.'

This addition to the F1 regulations was introduced this year to prevent teams from running F-duct type systems. Its compliance is tested by the FIA using a 100mm ball template - which must remain in contact with the wing at all points.

Should the wing be too curved, as the Sauber design used in the race appeared to be, then the ball will have a gap between it and the wing.

Sauber technical director James Key said that he was seeking answers from the team's Hinwil factory as to why the design used in Melbourne had not passed the test.

"We didn't know anything about it until after the race," said Key in Melbourne. "It's possibly an oversight, certainly not intentional, and is nothing to do with F-ducts or anything else that circumvents the regulations. It is also not performance enhancing, as what happens on top of the element is incidental.

"How it has arisen needs to be investigated internally, and that is the process that we now need to go through."

Key added that other design specifications of wings that Sauber had available were all checked after the race and did comply with the rules.

Someone's getting fired!

[Gazz]

Get in there Vitaly! Amazing drive from the beginning, he kept Alonso behind him all race and showed how much he's matured, his stock has just shot up from Abu Dhabi and now today.

KERS wasn't actually on the Red Bull car all weekend, which explains Webber not being able to pass Alonso in the mid part of the race. Still, scary pace from Vettel at the start without KERS so there's something big to cone if they get KERS sorted and in that car.

There's a rumour swirling about that Red Bull actually does have a KERS system, but a smaller, non rechargeable version. The idea being that the system is charged up pre race or qualifying and is able to deliver a one shot boost of power for a flying lap or off the grid at the start, it would explain Vettel's massive gap over the rest of the field in qualifying and him being 2.5s ahead by the end of lap one. Red Bull believe the full KERS system doesn't give a performance bonus as the weight of the capturing and recharging equipment is offset by weight gain and distribution.

[Katsuya]

Get in there Vitaly! Amazing drive from the beginning, he kept Alonso behind him all race and showed how much he's matured, his stock has just shot up from Abu Dhabi and now today.

KERS wasn't actually on the Red Bull car all weekend, which explains Webber not being able to pass Alonso in the mid part of the race. Still, scary pace from Vettel at the start without KERS so there's something big to cone if they get KERS sorted and in that car.

There's a rumour swirling about that Red Bull actually does have a KERS system, but a smaller, non rechargeable version. The idea being that the system is charged up pre race or qualifying and is able to deliver a one shot boost of power for a flying lap or off the grid at the start, it would explain Vettel's massive gap over the rest of the field in qualifying and him being 2.5s ahead by the end of lap one. Red Bull believe the full KERS system doesn't give a performance bonus as the weight of the capturing and recharging equipment is offset by weight gain and distribution.

Christian Horner said they weren't using it all weekend, and the graphic at the start showed that Webber didn't use any KERS...

[Lineker]

McLaren, Renault, and Ferrari (Alonso in particular) have expressed their optimism for the season ahead in terms of catching the Red Bull's. Ross Brawn has blamed Mercedes' poor Australian outing on their poor set-up on the weekend whilst Christian Horner has reiterated the need for Red Bull to get KERS working properly in their car for Malaysia due to the different nature of the circuit (he also confirmed that the 'start only' mini-KERS system was just a myth). Williams are planning to introduce its own version of the Red Bull Racing-type exhaust system for the Chinese Grand Prix; Lotus' Mike Gascoyne believes his team will be able to prove it has made a step forward in form this year at the hotter Sepang; and Sauber expects to have its 2011-style exhaust blown diffuser system ready in time for the Spanish Grand Prix, as it looks to build on the promising pace of its new C30.

The Sauber team has decided not to go ahead with its appeal against the decision to be excluded from the Australian Grand Prix.

Both Sergio Perez and Kamui Kobayashi - seventh and eighth in the race - were disqualified from the Melbourne event for infringements relating to the rear wings of their cars.

A radius on the upper rear wing element on the cars contravened the regulations by a few millimetres.

The team had lodged a statement of intent to appeal, but announced on Tuesday it will accept the decision by the stewards, even though it believes the infringement did not mean any performance advantage.

"It did not bring us any performance advantage, but the fact is that it was a deviation from the regulations. We take note of the stewards' decision," said technical director James Key.

"We have since found that there was an error in the checking process for the relevant dimension on this component. We have already put measures in place to ensure that nothing of this kind occurs again in the future."

Team boss Peter Sauber added: "Both Sergio and Kamui put in a tremendous performance on Sunday. They gained no advantage from the inaccurate rear wing.

"They both fought hard to secure their finishing places and had really earned their points. Notwithstanding the disappointment, we have shown that we have a fast car and two highly talented drivers. It makes me optimistic for this season."

Pirelli has admitted that it even surprised itself by the solid start it made to its return to Formula 1 in the Australian Grand Prix.

After a winter of scaremongering from some quarters that the high degradation of Pirelli's rubber would turn F1 races into a lottery this season, the new 2011 tyres received a unanimous thumbs-up in Melbourne as teams opted for varied strategies throughout the event.

And although Pirelli is well aware that the next race in Malaysia will likely be a much tougher challenge for its tyres, its motorsport director Paul Hembery says he is delighted the doom mongers have been silenced for now.

"After the winter testing, some people were suggesting four or five stops which I always thought was over-exaggerated and misguided," he said.

"I was expecting three stops to be the most common strategy in Australia, and maybe somebody who was doing really well could do two, but what I wasn't envisaging was a one-stop from [sergio] Perez, which was quite extraordinary.

"It shows that we have brought something different to the sport. We have surprised everyone and surprised ourselves.

"There was a big evolution on the track. In the race, on the soft, we expected 15 laps before the first change, so it was very interesting. We need to analyse all the data now to see all the variation between the teams and the drivers but for a first race after eight months to get ready, it is an extraordinary achievement and I am very proud of my team."

Hembery said he had not been particularly worried about how the tyre situation would pan out on Pirelli's first weekend back in F1 - but says even a positive start now does not mean he can relax.

"It has been eight months of quite extraordinary work," he said. "When we started in June last year, we had to build a factory, create a team, design and develop a tyre, create a logistics system and get to Melbourne, or what would have been Bahrain, ready to go.

"We are proud of that achievement. It is clearly only the start of the season, so you don't rest on your laurels, but this is a game where you have to keep working, and keep improving.

"Malaysia will be a huge challenge as well, one that will provide with us with another learning experience. People have been very complimentary, which is nice.

"And that is one of the problems of winter testing; it can often lead you off in the wrong direction. But we believed in our data, and we believed in the work we did based on the results in doing that."

Leading drivers like Fernando Alonso who had spoken out against the tyres earlier in the year were now full of praise for how the Pirellis panned out in the race.

"They were better than expected - or better than we saw in winter testing," he said. "They were a little bit more consistent, so it was a good surprise.

"We were able to do some extra laps and even at the end, the hard tyre was also very competitive. And we saw also some people doing two stops with a long stint on the hard tyre. It was different to winter testing and they were doing good."

Pirelli is considering a tweak to its tyre marking system after difficulties distinguishing the colours over the Australian Grand Prix weekend.

Ahead of the race, Pirelli announced that its tyres would have different coloured lettering this year to distinguish their compound - with the soft (yellow) and hard (silver) being used in Melbourne.

But with teams finding it difficult at times to work out which colour tyres were in use when the cars were in action, Pirelli has promised to re-examine its plan.

"We are looking at the markings, particularly the silver and the white," Pirelli director of motorsport Paul Hembery said when asked by AUTOSPORT about the situation.

"I thought the yellow was very clear. Looking at the images throughout the race on the television screens, I don't think there was any doubt watching the cars with the yellow markings.

"But the silver? Yes. I think we need to work on that because it blurred a bit with the black. But if that is my biggest problem then I will be happy."

Rubens Barrichello was one of several leading figures who thought the colour system needing improving.

"The colours of the tyres, they don't differentiate what is going on. Pirelli need to do something for the spectators.

"If you have a frozen image you can see on the picture what it is. But, on a running car, you can't see what tyres someone is running. So imagine what it is like in the grandstand. It would be nice to do something different."

Meanwhile, Pedro de la Rosa has been allowed by McLaren to take part in Pirelli's key private test in Turkey that is scheduled to take place this weekend.

Formula 1's leading figures think it is too early to judge the success of this season's new rules, after the moveable wing, the return of KERS and Pirelli's rubber offered glimpses of potential in the Australian Grand Prix.

Although the Melbourne event was not one of the most spectacular races ever, there was plenty of overtaking throughout the field - and even dominant winner Sebastian Vettel had to get past McLaren rival Jenson Button on track to secure his win.

The new moveable wing did help produce a few passing moves on the start-finish straight, and there were varied strategies through the field that ensured the 2011 season did at least start much better than last year.

F1 teams did not expect the moveable wing to show much of its potential in Melbourne because the start-finish straight is so short, but they believe a clearer idea of how it works will emerge in Malaysia and China.

Ferrari team principal Stefano Domenicali said: "We need to wait and see. The rear wing effect was not really so obvious – but maybe that was because the length [of the straight] was not so much, or that you could use the KERS to protect in a certain condition if you have it. We need to wait and see.

"Then also we need to understand better the situation on our side, with tyre usage, because that will affect the future strategy, the future management of the race, that is for sure."

Red Bull Racing boss Christian Horner said: "We didn't run KERS, so I can't tell you about that one, but I think the tyres have worked as they have added an extra element of strategy to the race.

"The [moveable] wing here did not really contribute too much, but it is one of the shortest straights on the calendar so it is too early to pass judgement on the wing at the moment."

Ferrari's Felipe Massa, who had to defend from Jenson Button's use of the moveable wing as well as use it against Sebastien Buemi, said he was not sure how effective it had been.

"There was the chance that we were supposed to have – and if you haven't got the chance then it would have been a bit like last year," he said. "With no wing and no KERS it would have been the car like last year.

"I think the change on the wing was to improve the overtaking and in my opinion it was better than some races in the past. The KERS is something we used already, and the tyres are something a little bit different which we need to understand how to work completely."

[LUKIE]

Lineker. My one stop guy for F1 news

I loved the new tires. As they said, it meant for varying strategies. So instead of one stop races, it was 3 stops for some, 2 for others, and hell, one for Perez. Made for some exciting racing.

[Lineker]

Lineker. My one stop guy for F1 news

I loved the new tires. As they said, it meant for varying strategies. So instead of one stop races, it was 3 stops for some, 2 for others, and hell, one for Perez. Made for some exciting racing.

Talking about tyres, Peter Sauber and James Key have spoken the universal mind of everyone by showering Sergio Perez with praise after his magnificent drive in his maiden race.

Sauber team boss Peter Sauber has hailed Sergio Perez's performance in the Australian Grand Prix as "outstanding".

The Mexican rookie put on a superb showing in Melbourne on his way to seventh place, although he and team-mate Kamui Kobayashi were latter disqualified for a technical infringement.

Perez was the only driver who managed to complete the race on a one-stop strategy, and Sauber conceded he was impressed by his performance.

"Yes, I am surprised," said Sauber. "My first impression was okay because we followed him the last season in GP2 and he did a good job and also during the pre-season tests we were happy with him but in the race he was outstanding.

"Thirty-five laps with used soft tyres, that is incredible."

Sauber admitted the team did not consider stopping just once before the race, as it didn't believe it was a possibility.

"It was never a decision - it was absolutely clear to do a second or third stop and we looked for a window but then the times were so good and after 40 laps we spoke about maybe it is possible and the race engineer spoke with Sergio and he said yes maybe it is possible to drive to the end."

Technical director James Key also praised Perez after his maiden grand prix.

"Outstanding for a rookie driver in first race. We felt he was quick anyway but I think to be faced to do 38 laps on a soft tyre which no one believed possible was an outstanding."

[Lineker]

Red Bull team boss Christian Horner says his squad is now feeling more optimistic about its chances of being able to run KERS in the Malaysian Grand Prix, though it will hold off on a final decision until after Friday practice at Sepang.

The team removed KERS from its cars during practice in Melbourne due to reliability fears - but it made little difference to Red Bull's performance as Sebastian Vettel took a dominant pole and won the race.

Horner said the Melbourne decision had been very much precautionary, and that work done by the team since that race had raised his hopes of being able to use KERS in Malaysia.

"It was a very close call during the Australian Grand Prix weekend as to whether we leave it on the car or take it off," Horner told BBC Radio 5 Live.

"In the end we made a collective decision that there was a risk involved and therefore we decided not to run the system because the benefits at a type of circuit like Melbourne - other than at the start - were fairly limited. Obviously those benefits at other circuits become more apparent.

"We ran the system on Friday [in Australia], it ran without any real issue, and it was purely based on a lack of mileage on the system that our confidence was relatively low.

"I think now, armed with that mileage, and having inspected all the components, our confidence has grown - and hopefully if it runs well on Friday in Malaysia it will make its race debut during the Malaysia weekend."

While acknowledging that KERS would be very useful at Sepang - which features several very long straights - Horner insisted that Red Bull would not take any chances with reliability.

"It didn't hurt us too much [to run without KERS] at the last race, but it is, you have to remember, a free extra 80 horsepower, so over a lap it's effectively free lap time of anything between 0.3-0.4s," he said.

"Obviously the motivation and desire is to have it onto the car as quickly as possible, but we won't compromise the performance of the car or the potential reliability of the car if we feel that the system isn't race-sturdy yet."

[Lineker]

Pirelli says this weekend's Malaysian Grand Prix is likely to see teams choosing between three and four pitstops, as it admits that higher temperatures will result in more dramatic degradation than was seen in Melbourne.

Winter predictions of four or even five tyre stops per race did not come true in Melbourne, where only a few driver pitted three times, most stuck to two stops, and Sauber's Sergio Perez surprisingly completed the distance with just a single tyre change.

But Pirelli's motorsport boss Paul Hembery says tyre wear is set to be a bigger factor at Sepang.

"We were absolutely thrilled by our grand prix debut in Australia, but we're aware that Malaysia should be a very different proposition, with higher temperatures and increased degradation," he said.

"We said all along that we would be seeing two to three pitstops in Australia, but in Malaysia I think that figure is likely to increase to three to four."

Pirelli will also again take advantage of its dispensation to test additional tyres during Friday practice, and will give each driver two extra sets of a revised hard compound.

"We never believe in standing still at Pirelli, which is why the teams will have two extra sets of slick tyres available to them during Friday's free practice sessions for evaluation purposes," Hembery said.

"With testing not allowed during the season, this gives us a valuable opportunity to gather more data and feedback, while it also gives the teams an interesting taste of what could be coming in the future."

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner believes that Silverstone's new pit facilities, being built in time for this year's British Grand Prix, will ensure that the venue is now a match for any that Formula 1 races at around the world.

The new £27m 'Wing' pit facility, which is situated between Club and Abbey corners, will form part of the new startline area at the 3.67-mile circuit and is set to be completed and furnished in time for its official launch on May 17.

And Horner, who took a tour of the three-storey 16,500 square-metre building today, says that the new pit and paddock complex - which is 30 per cent larger than its predecessor - can give Silverstone the status it requires to silence its critics for good.

"I think it's fantastic," said Horner. "It puts Silverstone right with the best circuits in the world.

"It's quite staggering the scale of what has been built here in a very short space of time, but it gives the circuit a whole new feel and dimension to it and from a facility point of view obviously Silverstone has come in for criticism compared to some of its rivals, certainly in the emerging markets, and I think this investment in the Wing is phenomenal.

"It's great for British motorsport and makes Silverstone the world class facility it deserves to be."

According to Horner, the new building - work on which began in earnest early last year – fully complements changes to the circuit layout which were introduced in time for the GT1 World Championship and MotoGP events in 2010 and also used for F1's British GP.

"Circuit-wise, in terms of the track there has never been a problem here, it's one of the last remaining serious challenges on the grand prix calendar," said Horner. "Silverstone, Spa and Suzuka are the types of circuits that the drivers revel in and love competing at.

"With the facilities that have now been put in place, it makes the infrastructure of the circuit also comparable with any circuit on the grand prix calendar."

Asked if F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone – who has been highly critical of Silverstone's facilities in the past - would approve of the new complex, Horner replied: "It takes a lot to impress Bernie, but I think he would be very pleased with we've seen here.

"He has obviously given the circuit a bit of flack over the last few years, which if that has helped trigger this investment has been worthwhile.

"The facility that Silverstone will now enjoy is comparable with any in the world and it will be a great pleasure to come here. I think it will have a new feel to it, albeit with the track being the same, but seeing what we've seen today with the pit infrastructure and the facilities for the drivers, the media, for the stewards and so on it's going to be fantastic to come here in July and see it all up and running."

Silverstone is already planning ways to augment its new pit and paddock complex to make the circuit the 'best in the world' and give it wider appeal as an entertainment destination.

The track's managing director Richard Phillips said that with last year's circuit revamp and the new-for-2011 pits between Club and Abbey having made a major difference to the circuit for drivers and teams, attention would now turn to significant new features for spectators.

"Well Silverstone wants to be the number one destination in the world, that's our ambition, and that's a blend of a number of different things really," he told AUTOSPORT.

"We have some buildings in place now, we have invested in the track which is a good circuit. It's a flowing speedy track. We are ticking some of the boxes. But working forward we have got to improve more of the spectator facilities and have better viewing.

"But you have also got to improve the overall experience, so for example, what do you do between the races? Create three days of full-on entertainment and so on.

"It's very much down to working with the heritage and visitor centres and those sort of things. We are starting Silverstone radio this month which will be web-streamed all over the world and will cover the events here and talk about motorsport in general. So we are building up the whole thing really."

He said it was essential that Silverstone appealed to more casual motorsport fans.

"You have got to have things for people to do and you have also got to appeal to a wider demographic than perhaps we have in the past, so if some of the family is interested in motorsport, then providing the rest a passport to be able to go and do something that they enjoy instead," said Phillips.

"It's on a big scale as well so you are not going to achieve it overnight but that is the aspiration moving forwards."

Silverstone managing director Richard Phillips says the area around the old Bridge and Priory corners will become a motor racing equivalent of Wimbledon's 'Henman Hill' when the track's redevelopment is complete.

With this section now bypassed by the grand prix circuit's new loop, the gravel traps have been removed and the area turned into a section for fans.

"The gravel traps around Bridge, Priory and the inside of Brooklands have all been removed to allow the public into these areas so that there is a massive piece of ground that has been taken in there," said Phillips.

"It will be like the motor racing version of Henman Hill. There will be a big screen there as well and much better access to the PAs."

Phillips said improving the experience for fans with general admission tickets was as important as upgrading the pits and paddock.

"We are a circuit that has to value its customers otherwise we can't pay our way and if we don't look after the general public then we would have failed and we won't survive as a circuit," he told AUTOSPORT.

"We made a lot of improvements last year, will do a lot more this year and you can expect that to continue. We have got 27 large screens going in. Some of those aren't trackside either, they will be going in behind the grandstands. So at Priory we have a screen where they can sit and watch the action and there will be a stage behind that as well, and that will be a general admission area."

He added that there would be several other changes to grandstand layouts.

"The ones on the old pitstraight have been made smaller. Three of the of the Copse grandstands are remaining, while two have disappeared. Luffield A is being moved, Hangar Straight's one is being moved as well," Phillips said.

"The rest of Becketts is being roofed this year and that's one of the best grandstands we have got at the circuit now. There is a new 5,000-seat grandstand going in in front of the Wing, also new grandstands going in at Abbey - all covered and all the way around Club covered grandstands as well."

lol, Donington. British GP is going to be awesome. Anyone going this year?

Talking of lol...

Hispania team boss Colin Kolles says there should be no repeat of the team's Australian Grand Prix difficulties at Sepang this weekend.

Tonio Liuzzi and Narain Karthikeyan's new F111s were still being completed in the pits and managed very few practice laps before failing to qualify for the Melbourne race.

But Kolles is confident that with better preparation, Malaysia will run far more smoothly and the 107 per cent qualification margin will be achieved.

"The expectations for Malaysia are to get back to normality," he said.

"We know that the car has potential and we hope that we will be able to get all updates on the cars. The 107 per cent should not be an issue under normal circumstances."

Liuzzi agreed with Kolles that Australia would be quickly forgotten and Sepang should see better form.

"I am really confident and motivated for this race," he said.

"I'm sure things will be a lot different from Australia because we are better prepared and conscious of what we need to do."

Russian GP update:

Russian's grand prix circuit is set to be completed in time for the country's first F1 race in 2014, organisers said on Tuesday.

"It's well on track," Dmitry Chernyshenko, president of the Sochi organising committee, is quoted as saying by Reuters.

"It was decided that the IOC will review the final feasibility study at the forthcoming executive project review in May and they will see the real construction design document to realise the overlapping with the Olympic infrastructure.

"It's a great project in terms of creating the additional legacy and to fulfil the Olympic Park with the post-Games activities."

He also denied the construction of the circuit will hamper preparations for its own Olympic games that year.

The International Olympic Committee said earlier this year that if there was any danger of the F1 event impacting on his Games then it could lead to the postponement of the grand prix.

"This (F1) is a great attraction to speed up and attract the potential owners of the commercial property that will be built," said Chernyshenko.

"We are going to build about 20,000 rooms for the Games, some will be apartments. They should be on sale with some clear reason why people should buy them. Such regular events like Formula 1...will attract the commercial buyer.

"There are pure endorsement and mutual benefits for both Olympic Games and Formula 1 project. It (the race) will not impact on the timeframe of the preparation for the Games."

[Lineker]

HRT's hopes of making it through qualifying for the Malaysian Grand Prix have been boosted with the team ready to run its 2011 front wing for the first at Sepang.

The outfit had been forced to revert to its 2010-specification wing in Australia, with its latest version having not passed the mandatory FIA crash tests in time.

However, the team has now completed those tests and it is shipping the wing to Sepang - with Vitantonio Liuzzi believing it will be worth up to seven tenths of a second per lap.

"We are motivated and positive because we should have the front wing," explained Liuzzi in the Sepang paddock on Thursday.

"Everything has been okayed from today, so we should receive it [the wing] before the beginning of the session tomorrow. We have a lot of new parts arriving and we are positive we will be in a much better shape than in Australia.

"We cannot say we will be inside for the race, but I am sure we will be really close to Virgin and will close the gap. Here in Malaysia it is the worst track for 107%, but I am pretty sure that if we will not get in, the other teams will struggle, because our pace will improve a lot and we will reduce a lot the gap to our competitors."

Although HRT failed to get within the 107 per cent time in Australia after facing a race against time to get the cars ready for qualifying, Liuzzi thinks the team has not shown anywhere near its full potential yet.

"Our laptime issue was just lack of kilometres because in seven laps we achieved a good lap time for a car that we had never driven. It's a completely different car to last year because the rear end is completely different.

"We had issues because we couldn't use the front wing that was supposed to be developed for the car for the rest of the aerodynamics, plus there were some other issues.

"So everyone was surprised what we achieved in such a short time with the lap time. It was a shame that we had the stupid problem in the morning on the Saturday because it was just an issue with a button that switched off the car. So already with FP3 we would have been in a much stronger position for qualifying."

Formula 1's moveable rear wing will become a more effective tool in Malaysia than it proved to be at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix.

That is the view of Mark Webber, who believes the characteristics of the Sepang circuit are perfectly suited for making the 'Drag Reduction System' (DRS) more effective.

The FIA confirmed on Thursday that the DRS detection zone, where drivers must be within one second of the rival ahead of them to get the wing activated, will be situated 207 metres before the final corner at Sepang.

The DRS activation zone, where drivers can use the rear wing for a straight-line speed boost, will start just five metres after the final corner and run for the entire length of the start-finish straight.

Webber said that he had expected more from the wing in Australia, but is in no doubt how much better it will be in Malaysia.

"I got pretty close to Fernando [Alonso] a few times [in Australia] and only once with Lewis on lap three," he said. "Fernando was someone I expected to put more pressure on.

"But it was a characteristic of the corner onto the start-finish - it was too quick. And the entry to Turn 1, even if you got close, it was easy for the guy to manipulate the line for you, and give you a different trajectory into the corner.

"Here will be a completely different story – if you are within the zone on the Apex of Turn 15.

"If it doesn't work here I don't know where it will work. You have a slow corner to open the lap, a slow corner at the braking point, and Heathrow airport in between as well in terms of options, so it should work."

Pirelli has added a gold stripe to the side of the soft tyres used at this weekend's Malaysian Grand Prix to try and help make it easier for fans to see which compounds drivers are using.

The Italian tyre manufacturer has elected to mark each of the four compounds it is using in 2011 with different coloured lettering on the sidewalls.

However, following complaints in Australia that it was difficult to pick out the silver and yellow colours used for the hard and soft tyres, tweaks have been made for this weekend as an interim solution.

Pirelli's director of motorsport Paul Hembery said that a more permanent change to the tyres will be made from the start of the European season.

"We have had obviously a number of comments that people could not recognise the tyres, and the stripe is not an ideal solution," he explained.

"For Turkey, we will have a much stronger branding on the sidewall. We won't have the stripe; we will connect up the Pirelli and P-Zero wording with more bands of colour.

"It will mean that as it rotates, the black won't dominate. It will look like a turning circle of yellow - and be predominantly yellow in colour.

"We will do the same branding for all of the different compounds. From the testing we have done so far, it seems to work very well."

Michael Schumacher believes the Malaysian Grand Prix will be a lottery if rain hits the Sepang circuit as expected.

With the race starting at 4pm local time, heavy rain is expected to make an appearance again on Sunday, having already made for a chaotic event last year.

Schumacher reckons the situation will be made easier because the race is likely to start behind the safety car, but he still reckons it will be a very tricky event anyone could win.

"These days the 'lottery' is a little easier for the fact the race could start in these conditions," Schumacher told reporters in Sepang.

"Right now I would think you would have to start behind the safety car and in doing that, you are given the tyres you have to choose.

"Come the race and there are normal conditions, then you have to make decisions, and that is a little bit more of a lottery. It's difficult in terms of preparation because I had no rain running over the winter.

"I had a little in Barcelona, but it was so wet I couldn't run, so it's going to be an interesting experience for me if it happens the first time this weekend. I don't know the tyre variation between the intermediate and the heavy wet tyre, and for most of the people that will be the case.

"So it will be a nice lottery. Let's see who wins it."

The German said drivers had no choice but to accept the late start, even if it meant the chances of rain were higher then.

"According to Bernie he would have it any time in these conditions to make it more exciting - not that we have a lack of excitement. It is what it is - yeah, exactly," said Schumacher as as thunder boomed overhead at Sepang.

We don't hear that when we drive - so you get on with it. It is not done purposely to suit the weather, but as long as it is safe, then I don't mind. As I say, it is what it is."

Red Bull Racing team principal Christian Horner thinks it's time rival McLaren gets a grip on 'simple mathematics' and stops complaining about front wing flexing of the RB7, amid renewed controversy about bending bodywork in Formula 1.

Although accusations that Red Bull Racing's front wing is flexing at high loads to help improve downforce have been around since the middle of last year, the FIA has never found anything wrong with the designs of Red Bull's cars either last year or this.

But that has not stopped fresh intrigue about what the nose of the Red Bull Racing car is doing at high speed - and McLaren's Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton both raised questions about what the reigning world champions are up to in Malaysia.

Button said in the official FIA press conference in Malaysia on Thursday: "I know a few people that I have spoken to say it flexes more than what they expect is correct, but I haven't really spent much time looking at it."

Horner, who has repeatedly insisted that his team's car has always complied with the regulations, appeared frustrated on Thursday however when it was mentioned that McLaren's drivers have again cast doubt on the team's front wing design.

Grabbing a notebook from a table of reporters to help display why it appears from photographs that the front wing of the RB7 appears closer to the ground than other cars, Horner said: "Right, shall I explain it in very basic words how it works...

"McLaren have developed a car that has a very low rear ride height, and therefore a low front wing for them doesn't work. We run quite a high rake angle in our car, so inevitably when the rear of the car is higher, the front of the car is going to be lower to the ground.

"It is obvious science, and therefore our wing complies fully with the regulations. It will look lower to the ground because the rake in our car is higher. It is simple mathematics."

Horner said that it was not up to McLaren to decide whether or not Red Bull Racing was running a legal design - as that was a matter only for the FIA.

"We take it is a compliment to be honest as you," he said about the return of talk about his team's car design.

"I think our front wing has been tested more than any other in the pit lane and it complies with the regulations, and that is what we have to do. We don't have to pass a McLaren test, we have to pass an FIA one - and it complies fully with that.

"They [McLaren] have developed a car that is effectively a different philosophy to ours and so the benefit that we see from the front wing is different to the one that they would see from the front wing. That is the basis behind it fundamentally."

World champion Sebastian Vettel was also unmoved by the fresh talk about the front wing design - as he thought the issue had been laid to rest in 2010.

"To be honest, I didn't read a lot about that [the wing] in the last one and a half weeks, but when I heard that, I first checked the date and whether we were talking about 2010 or 2011," he explained, before cheekily making a reference to suggestions last year that Red Bull Racing had even been running an illegal ride-height control mechanism.

"I was a bit confused because I thought we had left that one behind, so I'm just looking forward to the ride height lever for qualifying! What do you want me to say? I haven't got much to say, to be honest. We run the car as we run the car, we had a good weekend in Melbourne and we focus on what's going on."

Thursday's press conference:

DRIVERS - Sebastien BUEMI (Toro Rosso), Jenson BUTTON (McLaren), Felipe MASSA (Ferrari), Nico ROSBERG (Mercedes), Jarno TRULLI (Lotus)

PRESS CONFERENCE

Q. Let's start with a little question to Jenson and Felipe. Just talk about the battle that kept us so entertained in Australia. Jenson, your version perhaps.

Jenson BUTTON: Looking back on it now, I would say it was a pretty fun battle to be involved with. Frustrating for me as I couldn't find a way past. I think Felipe did a very good job of blocking and I couldn't find a way past. So, it was frustrating but when you look at it now, it looks like a good race, I would say. But even with the DRS it is still very tricky to overtake at a place like Melbourne with such short straights. If you cover the inside line it is very difficult to overtake.

Q. Felipe, your thoughts?

Felipe MASSA: What Jenson said is what I think as well. I was able to fight very hard, to keep him behind but it was not easy. I think in some places where he was very quick on the straights I was able to use very well the KERS, not to allow him to pass me completely on the straight and to keep on the inside line. Not just the main straight, but also in other corners. Then he passed me on the wrong side, so he was penalised. I expect him, to be honest, to give back the position. Two corners after Fernando (Alonso) passed me and it was a little bit more difficult for him to give back the position. I think it was a nice fight.

Q. Jenson, you are a former pole winner here and also a winner. You have spoken about this circuit and how it has improved with age. Perhaps you would like to expand on that.

JB: I always enjoy coming here. This is one of those circuits that really makes me smile when I land into Malaysia, as it is a very flowing circuit. I have had some pretty good races here in the past, not just the one that I won but also other races where I haven't been on the podium but have had great races with people around here. It is one of those circuits where you can really have a good tussle as corners flow into each other. I think with the DRS system it is going to make overtaking a lot easier than it was in Melbourne. Maybe it will be a little too easy, as I think being within a second before the last corner, even without DRS, you can have a good chance of overtaking. I don't know, we'll see. But it is a fun place to race and the weather can really play a big part here, especially with the four o'clock start, it is pretty much on the dot when it starts raining, so it makes it tricky for every team in the pit-lane and every driver to really understand the conditions and to make the right call.

Q. You have said this is the toughest race physically. How do you prepare for that?

JB: It is very hot here. However much training you do, or what have you, you still can't get away from the humidity here. It is tough. Looking at a few of the guys this morning, the journalists, they seem to be feeling it as well. I have done a bit of training over the last weekend. I was in Hawaii for the week which was nice, getting used to the humidity and pushing myself in the hot conditions which was good.

Q. Nico. it is also your favourite circuit this one? What makes it a favourite for you?

Nico ROSBERG: It is definitely a track I really enjoy. Just the characteristics really. There is a bit of everything here and also I have some great memories. I led my first race here, finished third last year in a Mercedes so it is always nice to come back here.

Q. Really, for Mercedes, the season starts here after the disaster of Australia?

NR: Yeah, for sure, Australia was not a good start for us. But there were a few issues in Australia, especially reliability, which we didn't get right throughout the weekend so that really hurt us. Also set-up wise, and that is mechanical, aerodynamic, everything, we just did not seem to find the right path on that, so a lot of effort has gone into making things better. We are a really strong team so we will get there.

Q. There is huge interest for Petronas and they usually make you do a few things. One or two local events. What have you been up to?

NR: Yeah, we did two days for Petronas during the week. One was an oil refinery visit which was a look into a completely different world. Quite interesting. Had some time with some schoolkids, too, and did some different games which was quite fun. Other than that, just an event in Kuala Lumpur yesterday. Obviously, because of Petronas it is also a very important race for the team and we want to do very well.

Q. Sebastien, you have been up to some fairly interesting things as well. Tell us about being in a supermarket yesterday?

Sebastien BUEMI: It was an event organised by an orphanage charity and Red Bull together so it was quite funny. We did a race. We had to fill up the trolley with some kids and it was pretty funny so I enjoyed it.

Q. Sorry, you filled the trolleys with some kids?

SB: No, we were together with some kids and we had to fill the trolleys with all we wanted, especially what the kids wanted and they could keep it.

Q. And you won, you beat your team-mate?

SB: I went straight to the place that the kids love. We just took as much as we could and the trolley was really full.

Q. Looking back at Australia. First Q3 since 2009 and points in your first race. What are your feelings after that?

SB: I am really happy. I think we did the maximum in the qualifying. I don't think we could have done better. Then in the race, three points, with the disqualification of the Saubers we got another three points which is always welcome. I think it was a perfect start for us. Now we need to continue to push. As we see the midfield is pretty tight, so we will see what we can achieve here but the objective will be to be back in the points, definitely.

Q. The other thing is that you are losing tomorrow morning as Daniel Ricardo is doing the Friday morning session. How do you feel about that? Is that a big loss not doing that session?

SB: To be honest I don't think it is a big loss. If you look at the first practice on every circuit it is pretty green and it takes a long time to get up to speed. You lose maybe 10-12 laps, so I don't expect any big loss. I think I will be right back up to speed in the second session.

Q. Jarno, great local interest in the team and you have been training by cycling in the hills somewhere. Tell us about that?

JT: Yeah, I did enjoy a little bit the Malaysia countryside. It was interesting. It was the first time I had a chance to discover Malaysia by cycling with a local professional cycling team. It was very nice. We went to the Fraser Hills first and then somewhere else, I can't remember, up to 1,600 metres so it was really, really nice. There were rubber plantations around so It was a good view and good training so good preparation for this weekend which is very important for us as it is our home grand prix.

Q. Was this on road or off road?

JT: Normal road. Actually pretty nice, even though we were in the countryside. It was really good. I enjoyed the cycling but I also enjoyed the surrounding.

Q. What are the realistic hopes for Team Lotus this weekend?

JT: I think we need to get the best out of the car, which we didn't in Australia, and be part of the midfield, as I believe the wintertime testing showed our good pace but actually we struggled quite a lot in Australia. We had several troubles with radiator, power steering, so we didn't get the best out of the car, which we want to do here. We have got some fixes, several updates on the car, so we hope to get right into the tight midfield battle and let's see then. It is very important first of all that we fix the problems and we show that we are really close to the others.

Q. In your 'cockpit' column in La Republica, you expressed your disappointment with Pirelli tyres. Could you explain exactly where that came from.

JT: I think that came from a completely wrong translation. I actually said that Pirelli did a very good job for Australia. We didn't expect to have problem with the tyre warming up, but actually we didn't have degradation. I think one driver did a one-stop strategy, which, during the winter testing, was completely out of mind. For the Australian Grand Prix the tyres behaved completely different and extremely well for the experience we had during the winter testing. The only thing that I pointed out is that some people struggled for tyre warm-up, which was the case for several drivers. This showed that we still have a lot to learn, from a drivers and teams point of view, of the Pirelli tyres but as well Pirelli is trying to adjust themselves and trying to give us the best possible option for condition, weather, circuit...becomes inaudible.

Q. Felipe, two pole positions here but actually your best results have usually come from when you've started at the back of the grid.

FM: Yeah. It's a track I enjoy so I've twice started on pole here and it's true that in the race the results have not been great compared to qualifying. Last year was the opposite. I was almost last in qualifying, on the grid, because it was raining. We went out at the wrong time so we qualified in Q1, but I drove a very good race and finished seventh, so I hope this time qualifying and race together will be a little bit better. We concentrate on doing a good job.

Q. You've expressed some worries about the effects of DRS here. How do you think that and KERS is going to affect the race here?

FM: No, it was also that people said maybe the FIA was thinking of using (allowing DRS on) both straights, and my opinion is that both straights are very close together, so it wasn't very fair, that you can use the DRS in two places which are very close. In my opinion, in this direction it would have been very easy to overtake, and what happened in Australia, which was a good fight, as well, when we were even able to fight using the KERS in different places - I don't see the same picture if we use it on these two straights, so that was my only opinion, but I think we're just going to use it on the main straight, so it's different to what people were saying.

Q. That decision has been made has it?

FM: Yes.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q. (Ottavio Daviddi – Tuttosport) Felipe, did you understand, you, your team and engineer, your main problem in Australia?

FM: Well, we understand many things. For sure, we didn't have the pace we expected in Australia and last week and this week we've been analysing the direction which we should start here. My hope is that we're going to have a different car, a more competitive car, in qualifying, where we saw a big difference compared to Red Bull and in the race as well. It's also true that I was a little bit too aggressive on the set-up and my degradation was a little bit higher than I expected, so that is also another point to think about for this track where we see very high temperatures as well, so we need to change the direction on set-up a little bit, just for the tyres as well.

Q. (Paolo Ianieri – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Felipe, coming back to what you said about the DRS and the KERS, considering the long straights here, are you going to use the KERS in a different way than if there was no DRS?

FM: For sure, in qualifying you always try to use the KERS in the places where you gain the most time. In the race, it's a little bit different, because if you are fighting with somebody else you try to use the KERS in places where it's easier to lose position. So you are always changing the places where you use the KERS, even looking how close another car is to you, and if you are behind, you try to use KERS in places where you have more chances to overtake, so for sure in the race you change many times.

Q. (Sarah Holt – BBC Sport) Hallo. Jenson, what are your expectations this weekend in terms of where McLaren might fall in the pecking order? Is it likely to be a bit different to what we saw in Australia? What are you thinking?

JB: It's very difficult to say. We don't know what other people have been doing over the last two weeks; what they are bringing to this race. But already in Australia, I think we should be happy with the performance that we had, compared to what we had in testing – we're going to keep saying it! And it was the first step really with the package that we had. We have some upgrades here to sort of fine tune the package that we have, which will give us more lap time and hopefully better consistency – but whether it's enough to challenge the Red Bulls, I don't know. There's a lot more that will come into play here, I think, in terms of the tyres. I think it will be a very different race to what we saw in Melbourne.

Q. (Julien Febreau –L'Equipe) For all of you: what is your opinion about the Red Bull front wing and are you working on a system which can comply with the FIA controls and which can work close to the ground at high speed?

JB: Wow. I don't know the full details of the issues. I know a few people that I have spoken to say it flexes more than what they expect is correct but I haven't really spent much time looking at it so I don't know.

NR: I have nothing interesting to say, unfortunately.

SB: Not much to say. I think we need to leave it down to the technical guys. Obviously, if it makes it faster everybody is going to try to reproduce it.

JT: No, nothing to say.

FM: No.

Q. (Andrea Cremonesi – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Felipe, during the winter testing you were very confident with the Pirelli tyres. After the first Grand Prix, do you have the same level of confidence?

FM: Yes, sure, confident that we can have a better weekend. The first race was not great for us, we didn't have the result we expected but I don't think it was just due to the tyres. I think we expected better speed but anyway, I'm confident that we can get everything together here.

Q. (Fulvio Solms - Corriere dello Sport) Question for Felipe firstly, then Jenson and Nico: Red Bull is going to user KERS for the first time really here. Are you terrified, are you simply afraid of it, are they going to kill the championship?

FM: I think that's a little bit early to kill the championship, no? Anyway, it's always difficult to speak about a different car. For sure, in our car, if you don't use KERS, you lose a little bit of lap time, so maybe it's the same for Red Bull, so maybe they will improve even more, but it's very difficult really to express how much they will improve or not because you don't have a clear picture of the Red Bull car. But anyway, in my opinion, if you use KERS, it can be better.

JB: We lose more than a little bit of time if we don't use the KERS. I think we have a very good system – well, both of us have a very good system (looking at NR) – and I don't know what Red Bull's system is like. Everybody has a different system in Formula One, a different KERS hybrid system so maybe it gives them a lot of time, maybe it doesn't, I don't know. I don't know what the benefits are for them. And then there's always reliability, isn't there, with a new system? I'm sure that's one of the reasons why they didn't use it in Melbourne and if they use it here, it's obviously a very new system so there's always reliability issues, so I'm sure they're weighing up whether it's worth it or not.

NR: Well, for us, we don't even really know at the moment where we are compared to other teams, so we're going to concentrate on getting the best out of what we have and then we can start to think about where other teams are and what they're doing.

Q. (Alex Popov – RTR) Felipe, there's a lot of talk about hot and humid conditions. I know Jenson and Nico do a lot of triathlons to train, Jarno does a lot of biking, but you're a Paulista, no, from Sao Paulo? It helps?

FM: Yeah. For sure Sao Paulo is not really, really very, very hot compared to other places in Brazil. For sure, it's more humid in the north of Brazil, like Manaós, for example, is like here, but in Sao Paulo, even during the race weekend, sometimes it's even cold. But anyway, it's a hot country so I prefer the hot conditions compared to cold conditions because I prefer hot places. But anyway, I need to train, you need to train very hard for this race because it's very humid, so you lose a lot of liquid during the race and you need to train, so I was training.

Q. (Sarah Holt – BBC Sport) Jenson, I want you to clarify again why you think it's going to be a different race to what it was in Melbourne? Do you feel it's because we're entering so many more 'knowns' here in terms of now we're at a proper race track and the tyres?

JB: How dare you say that about Melbourne!? It's a lot hotter. It's a very tough circuit for the cars, for the drivers but especially for the four things that are touching the road, the tyres. I think we are going to see a very different race, mostly because of the tyres in the hot temperatures. I think there will possibly be more degradation. I think we're all surprised at how consistent the tyres were at the first race. I don't think that was the initial idea with the Pirelli tyres, to be so consistent. We saw a one stop from [sergio] Pérez, which was obviously the highlight of the race for a lot of people and how he was able to be so consistent, but I don't think it's going to be the same here. I think it will be very different, it's a lot more demanding and a lot tougher on the tyres. It brings another element into it which is good, I think.

These damn grand prix's need to stop being so early in the morning . Quali coverage is at 8 on Saturday and of course tomorrow practice will be on the red button.

First post updated.

[Lineker]

Mark Webber bounced back from his disappointing Australian Grand Prix to dominate an eventful opening practice session for the Malaysian Grand Prix on Friday morning.

Just as he did in Melbourne, the Australian set the pace in P1, but unlike there, he was never challenged for supremacy during the first 90 minutes in Sepang, his Red Bull some 1.665s faster than Lewis Hamilton managed in the McLaren. And as if to make a point, Webber's best, a 1m37.651s, came with less than ten minutes to remaining. He followed it up with another lap within two tenths of his best, both more than a second faster than anyone else managed.

Michael Schumacher moved up to third fastest in the final minutes of the session for Mercedes ahead of an impressive Nico Hulkenberg in his one and only session of the weekend for Force India.

Pastor Maldonado was a strong fifth fastest for Williams, setting his best time quite late into an extraordinary 19-lap run on his primary Pirellis.

Felipe Massa, having spent much of the 90 minutes driving in and out of the pits without setting a time, as he and Ferrari team-mate Fernando Alonso concentrated on aerodynamic evaluation tests, finally moved up to sixth.

Renault looked strong initially, with Nick Heidfeld setting the early pace, before what looked like a dramatic front-right brake failure saw his wheel remain locked on. The German had only completed six laps at the time, and his time of 1m40.525s was still good enough for seventh.

But the team's problems continued and later Vitaly Petrov, one of the stars of Australia, suffered a catastrophic problem under braking for Turn 9 relating to his left-front wheel - sending him flying into the gravel. It's unclear whether the two issues were related.

The Russian, who ended the session last, was not the only one to have a high-speed scare as Virgin rookie Jerome d'Ambrosio suffered a front-left suspension failure under braking for the final corner, the system exploding in a similar style to that of Sebastian Buemi's STR at China last year.

Tyre wear was also more of an issue than it had been in Australia, with significant marbling offline. Turn 8 in particular caught a few drivers out as Hamilton, Fernando Alonso - who ended the session ninth behind Rubens Barrichello, and Sergio Perez all ran wide there.

Nico Rosberg meanwhile rounded out the top ten.

What of Australia's dominant winner and the world champion Sebastian Vettel? He was 17th, behind Jarno Trulli's Lotus, after an usually quiet session. Using the Red Bull KERS, he remained under the radar for nearly the entire 90 minutes but looked like he was just about to turn up the wick when d'Ambrosio's Virgin careered into the gravel - effectively ending the session.

FP1


Pos  Driver         Team                   Time              Laps

 1.  Webber         Red Bull-Renault       1m37.651s            22

 2.  Hamilton       McLaren-Mercedes       1m39.316s  + 1.665   16

 3.  Schumacher     Mercedes               1m39.791s  + 2.140   29

 4.  Hulkenberg     Force India-Mercedes   1m40.377s  + 2.726   23

 5.  Maldonado      Williams-Cosworth      1m40.443s  + 2.792   31

 6.  Massa          Ferrari                1m40.453s  + 2.802   22

 7.  Heidfeld       Renault                1m40.525s  + 2.874    6

 8.  Barrichello    Williams-Cosworth      1m40.581s  + 2.930   21

 9.  Alonso         Ferrari                1m40.601s  + 2.950   23

10.  Rosberg        Mercedes               1m40.646s  + 2.995   29

11.  Sutil          Force India-Mercedes   1m40.734s  + 3.083   21

12.  Ricciardo      Toro Rosso-Ferrari     1m40.748s  + 3.097   23

13.  Alguersuari    Toro Rosso-Ferrari     1m40.770s  + 3.119   24

14.  Kobayashi      Sauber-Ferrari         1m40.872s  + 3.221   27

15.  Button         McLaren-Mercedes       1m40.927s  + 3.276   16

16.  Trulli         Lotus-Renault          1m41.620s  + 3.969   21

17.  Vettel         Red Bull-Renault       1m41.627s  + 3.976   18

18.  Perez          Sauber-Ferrari         1m41.642s  + 3.991   24

19.  Glock          Virgin-Cosworth        1m42.154s  + 4.503   18

20.  D-Ambrosio     Virgin-Cosworth        1m42.540s  + 4.889   20

21.  Valsecchi      Lotus-Renault          1m44.054s  + 6.403   18

22.  Liuzzi         HRT-Cosworth           1m45.228s  + 7.577   20

23.  Karthikeyan    HRT-Cosworth           1m46.267s  + 8.616   10

24.  Petrov         Renault                1m47.932s  + 10.281   4


All Timing Unofficial[/code]




Mark Webber remained fastest in the second free practice session for the Malaysian Grand Prix as Red Bull continued to look the class of the field in Sepang, but this time the team was run closer by Jenson Button's McLaren.



The top four drivers were covered by less than 0.250s, as Webber's 1m36.876s - on Pirelli's Option - proved to be the quickest lap of the day, set just after halfway through the 90 minutes and in response to Sebastian Vettel's 1m37.090s.



The two Red Bulls were split, however, with Button and Lewis Hamilton going second and third fastest.



Michael Schumacher survived a scary grassy moment down at Turn 6 to go fifth fastest for Mercedes ahead of Felipe Massa's Ferrari.



Nico Rosberg was seventh ahead of Nick Heidfeld, who recovered some of this morning's lost time to go eighth fastest with Fernando Alonso and Jaime Alguersuari completing the top ten.



The session was fairly uneventful, with the exception of a crash for Pastor Maldonado, who got his right tyres on the grass on the pit entry and dumped his Williams in the barrier. It was a shame for the Venezuelan, who looked fast for much of the day.



He did however end up just faster than team-mate Ruben Barrichello, as the pair occupied 11th and 12th.



The last 30 minutes did highlight some interesting tyre degradation rates as the teams switched to high fuel and soft tyres. Some eight seconds slower than the ultimate pace, most ran in the mid-1m44s bracket. But Webber fired an ominous warning shot with his final 1m43s lap late on in race trim.



Vitantonio Liuzzi caused the only other notable yellow flag when ran wide over some kerbing which appeared to switch off his HRT's Cosworth engine.



Despite this the Italian managed to outpace Heikki Kovalainen's Lotus to go 22nd, the Finn having spent most of the second session in the pits.





[code]FP2


Pos  Driver               Team                     Time               Laps

 1.  Mark Webber          Red Bull-Renault         1m36.876s            24

 2.  Jenson Button        McLaren-Mercedes         1m36.881s  + 0.005   30

 3.  Lewis Hamilton       McLaren-Mercedes         1m37.010s  + 0.134   23

 4.  Sebastian Vettel     Red Bull-Renault         1m37.090s  + 0.214   30

 5.  Michael Schumacher   Mercedes                 1m38.088s  + 1.212   26

 6.  Felipe Massa         Ferrari                  1m38.089s  + 1.213   31

 7.  Nico Rosberg         Mercedes                 1m38.565s  + 1.689   25

 8.  Nick Heidfeld        Renault                  1m38.570s  + 1.694   16

 9.  Fernando Alonso      Ferrari                  1m38.583s  + 1.707   27

10.  Jaime Alguersuari    Toro Rosso-Ferrari       1m38.846s  + 1.970   31

11.  Pastor Maldonado     Williams-Cosworth        1m38.968s  + 2.092   25

12.  Rubens Barrichello   Williams-Cosworth        1m39.187s  + 2.311   30

13.  Vitaly Petrov        Renault                  1m39.267s  + 2.391   17

14.  Kamui Kobayashi      Sauber-Ferrari           1m39.398s  + 2.522   29

15.  Sergio Perez         Sauber-Ferrari           1m39.603s  + 2.727   34

16.  Paul di Resta        Force India-Mercedes     1m39.625s  + 2.749   31

17.  Adrian Sutil         Force India-Mercedes     1m39.809s  + 2.933   28

18.  Sebastien Buemi      Toro Rosso-Ferrari       1m40.115s  + 3.239   31

19.  Timo Glock           Virgin-Cosworth          1m40.866s  + 3.990   24

20.  Jarno Trulli         Lotus-Renault            1m41.890s  + 5.014   19

21.  Narain Karthikeyan   HRT-Cosworth             1m43.197s  + 6.321   15

22.  Tonio Liuzzi         HRT-Cosworth             1m43.991s  + 7.115   14

23.  Heikki Kovalainen    Lotus-Renault            1m44.886s  + 8.010    4


All Timing Unofficial

Changes to be made at Yas Marina:

Abu Dhabi Grand Prix chiefs have revealed that track changes will be made to the Yas Marina circuit for this November's Formula 1 race in the wake of criticisms about a lack of overtaking at last year's event.

With drivers and team chiefs critical after the 2010 race that the track layout had failed to produce much excitement - despite being designed to promote overtaking - officials have agreed to make modifications.

The exact nature of what those changes will be made have not been made public yet, but they are likely to be concentrated on the sequence of corners at the beginning and end of the long back main straights, plus the area between Turns 11 and 14.

Speaking to AUTOSPORT magazine, Yas Marina's CEO Richard Cregan said: "We are always looking at ways of improving the facility and the show. And you can never stop working on safety.

"There are plans in place and they will be carried through before the grand prix. This shows that we are serious about the business we are in."

Cregan said that with Abu Dhabi seeking to add MotoGP to its roster, it made sense to make the most of any modifications that would be needed for motorbikes.

"We thought that if we were modifying the circuit to make it suitable for bikes, then we'd better ask ourselves what we could do to enhance the show for cars at the same time," he said.

Renault were set to hold back on running its cars in second free practice for the Malaysian Grand Prix until it gets to the bottom of what caused the incidents its drivers suffered in the morning session.

Vitaly Petrov spun into the gravel trap at Turn 9 after a failure on the front left-hand side corner of his car, shortly after Nick Heidfeld had returned to the pits when the front right wheel of his car had jammed.

Although it appeared at first that the two incidents were brake related, subsequent investigations by the team are pointing more towards an issue with the suspension uprights.

The team has not yet fully answered what was the cause of the failures though, and a team spokesman confirmed that the outfit would not run in the second session until it had a definite answer.

The spokesman added that as soon as Renault had an answer to the problems then it would implement a solution to prevent a repeat and get both its cars back out on track.

Renault's troubled session in Malaysia came on the back of an encouraging start to the season, with Petrov taking his maiden podium finish in the Australian Grand Prix.

Renault has blamed a material batch for the failures suffered by its drivers during practice for the Malaysian Grand Prix.

Russian Vitaly Petrov spun into the gravel trap in the morning following a failure to the front left-hand side corner of his car.

Team-mate Nick Heidfeld had returned to the pits when the front right wheel of his car had jammed earlier on.

The team decided not to run until it had investigated the issue.

Renault said the problem related to a material batch not used before today.

"We quickly established that the two failed items had come from the same material batch and that nothing from this batch had run prior to today," said technical director James Allison.

"It took a little longer to rule out other potential causes but once we were confident that the failures were related to a material problem we released the cars for the second half of afternoon practice where they ran without problem."

Formula 1 tyre supplier Pirelli may be bracing itself for a multi-stop Malaysian Grand Prix, but it has admitted that it is actually worried its rubber could be too conservative.

With the season-opener in Australia having been judged a widespread success for Pirelli, as fears of tyre chaos proved unfounded, the Italian company expects a more challenging time this weekend thanks to the warmer temperature and higher speeds at Sepang.

However, with Sergio Perez having successfully delivered a one-stop race in Melbourne, Pirelli's director of motorsport Paul Hembery believes that improved tyres currently being tested may actually not be aggressive enough.

"One of our worries is that the new range we are working on may well be too conservative," admitted Hembery. "While it was quite fun seeing Perez do a one-stop in Australia, when you actually think about it, you know that the people who are trying to do a two-stop are now trying to work out how he did a one-stop.

"Then, before we know it, we are suddenly back to a one-stop in F1. F1 people are so good at making developments and understanding how to maximise the performance - so we do need to watch that, otherwise we will be back to square one.

"Despite all the hoo-ha about five stops in a soft race, like Melbourne, I am sure if we went to Melbourne again then most of them will be working out how to do a one-stop."

Hembery believes that Perez's amazing one-stop performance in Australia owed much to the Mexican's smooth driving style - and the way he had been able to start on new tyres rather than rubber that had been used aggressively in qualifying.

"Driving style was certainly an element of that, definitely," he said when asked about the lessons of Perez's performance. "The tyres were still alright, as we looked at them when they came off.

"The degradation level, it is linear with wear rates. So, like a road car, you don't want to be doing donuts. It is trying to preserve that, not getting down too aggressively on corner exit, not locking up under braking, that is the style.

"We have also seen that if you don't go maximum attack for the first few laps, that has a very good effect on durability and the time you can use the tyres for. I think that is something that a few drivers know now."

Mercedes drivers 'sure' of a good weekend:

The Mercedes drivers believe the team is in much better shape in Malaysia than it was in Australia and should recapture the form it showed late in winter testing.

Mercedes had shot to the top of the order in the final pre-season sessions, but then had a disappointing Australian Grand Prix.

At Sepang today both cars were in the top 10 in both sessions, with Michael Schumacher third in the morning.

"We definitely made a step, more to what we had in Barcelona [testing]," said Schumacher. "There's a bit more to come for tomorrow so we are reasonably happy."

Asked if the car felt as good as it had in the last test again, Schumacher replied: "We were much closer to that. We are not completely there, but we are getting there."

His team-mate Nico Rosberg agreed that it had been a very encouraging day for Mercedes, but also concurred with Schumacher's feeling that the team could not be content yet.

Asked by AUTOSPORT if the car was easier to drive than in Melbourne, he replied: "Generally, it has been a positive day today. We made progress in several places compared to Australia, so that's good.

"It's a step forward and when you take everything into consideration, we are definitely closer to where we need to be.

"But it must be said that we haven't solved everything yet, we still have a few issues which need to be solved and we'll see how soon we can get it done."

But Alonso not so optimistic:

Fernando Alonso is expecting a difficult Malaysian Grand Prix weekend for Ferrari after a slow start to the weekend in Friday practice.

The Spaniard, who was fourth in the season-opening Australian Grand Prix, finished the afternoon session in ninth position, over 1.7 seconds off the pace set by Mark Webber's Red Bull.

Alonso's team-mate Felipe Massa was 1.2 seconds off Webber's best.

The two-time champion conceded that, even if it's only Friday, things are not looking great for the Italian squad.

"We'll see tomorrow where we are, but we weren't too fast today and we are not expecting miracles for tomorrow," Alonso told Spanish reporters.

"We know it will be a difficult qualifying, a difficult weekend and we will try our best to be as close as possible to the leaders so in the race, with the start, the tyre wear, the strategy, the possibility of rain, we can take any opportunity to be on the podium, which is still the target every weekend."

He added: "I'm aware that we are lacking speed. Even if it's only Friday the feeling is that they are pretty quick, especially Red Bull, so fighting for pole is difficult.

"But we'll try to do our best and also look at the weather. We'll see what the track conditions are and we'll try to take every opportunity that arises."

The Ferrari driver, however, believes qualifying strongly will be less important this time out, as the weather and the tyre wear are going to be play important roles in the race.

"I think it will be a race where qualifying is going to have a much lesser importance that in other circuits," he said.

"First because of the tyre wear and the amount of pitstops we'll have to do, and second because of the possibility of rain on Sunday."

Red Bull Racing will decide later today if it runs its KERS during the Malaysian Grand Prix weekend.

The team decided against using it during the Australian Grand Prix, as it believed the reliability risks were not worth it considering the advantage it offered in Melbourne.

However, the nature of the Sepang circuit makes the device much more crucial and Red Bull had admitted it was a "must" for the weekend.

Team boss Christian Horner said after practice that the units had worked without problems, and that a decision on whether to use it all weekend would be taken before tomorrow's qualifying.

"In Australia we ran the system on the Friday, we felt there was a potential reliability risk and the benefit of KERS in Oz was arguably less than other venues," said Horner on Friday.

"We decided not to take that risk and removed the system from both cars on Friday evening with a view to running system

"The system has run well and reliably here, so a decision will be made later this evening."

Mark Webber remained calm about Red Bull's form despite topping both practice sessions at Sepang today.

The Australian was a full 1.6 seconds quicker than the rest of the field in first practice in Malaysia, although McLaren's Jenson Button was within 0.005s of his afternoon pace.

"We look okay," said Webber. "Obviously it was still early days in the weekend, we have got good dry running in, the car is reliable which is always a nice bonus so we got to try out all the tyres - including Pirelli's new tyre - so not too bad."

He preferred not to read too much into either his large morning margin or the afternoon's closer times.

"Not much in it," said Webber. "We are pretty close, give or take who got traffic or who didn't, how KERS worked, so it is all pretty good. So far so good and I am towards the front somewhere."

His team-mate Sebastian Vettel was also quietly content.

"A usual Friday I would say," he said. "We more or less did what was planned and didn't have any big problems. A lot of laps and a lot we took on board.

"Tyre wear is very different to Melbourne, the tyres don't last as long, but I think that's the same for everyone."

He agreed with Webber that it was impossible to judge whether McLaren had closed in.

"It looked very close this afternoon, so we'll have to see tomorrow," Vettel said. "It's always difficult to know what they did with fuel loads. But we didn't run full tanks all day."

McLaren's Lewis Hamilton believes Red Bull can go at least half a second quicker than it was during today's practice for the Malaysian Grand Prix.

Red Bull's Mark Webber topped the times in both the morning and the afternoon sessions, with Jenson Button just 0.005 seconds behind and Hamilton 0.134 seconds off the Australian's best.

But Hamilton, who finished in second place in the season-opening race in Australia, believes Red Bull was still not showing its real pace.

"I think it's a lot of rubbish, really," said Hamilton when asked about comments from Red Bull indicating McLaren was closer in Sepang.

"I'm sure they have another half a second at least to pull out tomorrow. I hope that's the case, that we are closer than we were in the last race, but we'll wait and see tomorrow."

Hamilton was still pleased with his day, although he conceded there was still time to be found.

"I think it's been interesting. Whether it has been good.. We seem to be reasonably close, but I'm sure the Red Bulls will pull something out tomorrow in qualifying. Nonetheless, we found some good things in the set-up of the car.

"Jenson was quite happy in P2. We still have time to find but it's been a productive day, so I can't really complain."

Button was also happy with his day's work, but he admitted he was unsure about how close McLaren was to Red Bull.

"I don't know. We don't know how much fuel they are running, as always. It's a normal Friday comment, I know, but it's the way it always is.

"We just do our own thing and for me the balance improved a lot today, and that's the important thing. The good thing is we found that we made positive steps."

Now that's a frightening prospect!

Malaysian Grand Prix qualifying and the race are set to be turned into strategic thrillers thanks to the high degradation of tyres witnessed at Sepang so far, reckons Pirelli.

With the hot temperatures and abrasive track surface leading to high-wear rates, the indications after opening practice in Malaysia are that teams are going to need to be at their tactical best in both qualifying and the race if they are to achieve success.

With early predictions suggesting the soft tyre is only likely to last for around eight laps if they are qualified on and then raced, it means at least a three-stop race for those opting for the one-second advantage that the option tyre could bring in Q3.

However, if track evolution can be stretched up to 20 laps for the hard tyre, then there is the possibility that those starting on hard may be able to get away with doing one less stop - which could hand them a good advantage in the race.

Speaking to AUTOSPORT after analysing the Friday data, Hembery said that the tyre situation was on course to produce major excitement.

"I think on average we are going to see three stops, and I would be surprised if it is four," he explained. "This is only Friday and we've got full running tomorrow and in the race, so things can change.

"In Melbourne, we saw quite a rapid evolution of the track, although I am not sure if that was representative. But, at the moment, you are looking at 12-14 laps on the hard tyre – with some evolution to arrive at 18 laps. That brings you pretty close to a three-stop strategy. You will probably also get some people who will try and two-stop.

"This circuit is tough. With a 50-degrees asphalt temperature, aggressive wear, it means that the degradation is more than what we saw in Melbourne for sure. But equally it is pretty close to what we were trying to create.

"If you are an engineer working for a team you probably don't want that, as the balance of your car is changing through the race and through the stint, where there are fuel loads changing as well. But from our point of view, it is pretty much in line with expectations."

Hembery reckons that the one second time difference between the soft and the hard tyre, allied to the degradation situation, was enough to leave open the possibility of outfits sacrificing grid position for the more durable tyre.

"The gap between the compounds is one second, up to 1.2 seconds – which is good actually," explained Hembery. "That will lead to the qualifying question – and there is definitely a choice to be made now.

"Maybe Red Bull might have a different strategy because they can think in a different way [as their car is so quick], but I think everyone else would have to qualify on the soft.

"Most people tried the soft in the afternoon session and were doing a chrono lap. Some were then trying to back off and go again, which seemed to work for a few drivers.

"At the moment you are looking for eight laps. I don't know when they would use the soft, either right at the start or right at the end, but it would be a three-stop strategy with that level of wear if you started with it."

Hembery said he was also not unduly concerned about the high level of marbles that were seen on the track during Friday's running – and he said the situation was different to that witnessed in pre-season testing.

"They are slightly different," he said. "We had strips in winter testing, big strips. These are actually smaller pieces that actually get picked up on the tyres. We haven't been able to tell if they actually wear off.

"Some of the cars picked it up on the in-lap, but it would have been more interesting if they had done that and carried on going around, then we could see what the wear off rate is.

"That is something that we are going to have to look at tomorrow, but it is a big wide circuit. There should be plenty of opportunity to overtake and there should not be an issue with the marbles.

"But we will go out tonight, wander around and see the marbles. It hasn't been highlighted to us in a great way. There is high wear, so there is bound to be material coming off the tyre.

"It has to go somewhere; they cannot all go down on the racing line so there will always be a high level of material coming off the tyres. It is just if that material then causes an issue regarding the racing."

Also, former Virgin driver Lucas di Grassi will carry out Pirelli's next development test at Barcelona, as the searche for a replacement for Pedro de la Rosa goes on.

Mercedes GP team principal Ross Brawn believes Red Bull Racing's rivals may need to adopt its high rear ride-height concept if it is found to be a big contributor to its front-wing advantage.

Amid ongoing controversy about the way that Red Bull Racing's front wing runs much lower to the ground than other cars, the reigning world champion has defended its approach by claiming that its situation is helped by it simply choosing to run with more rake than rivals.

Brawn believes that, with the FIA having found no problem with the visible flexing of the RB7's front wing with tougher deflection tests, it was now up to teams to decide if they wished to pursue Red Bull Racing's approach to car design.

"There's a regulation which says that the bodywork should be rigid," explained Brawn at Sepang. "We all know that's impossible because everything moves. It's a question of degrees, so the FIA has a series of tests to measure the degree to which bodywork moves and, as long as you pass those tests, then your car is to all intents and purposes legal.

"Those tests can change, in fact they changed over the winter because, as they do in a lot of areas, the FIA try and improve those tests. There's a new test this year. Red Bull obviously pass it so that's all there is to say about it.

"They've got a philosophy of their car and approach, and teams have got to decide if that's the reason - or one of the reasons - for their level of performance. If it is, then you need to consider going that route yourself, or make sure it's not an excuse for the fact they're winning everything at the moment.

"It's a philosophy. It ties in a lot with the whole car concept. It's fair to say that probably, over the winter, a lot of teams assumed with the new test that the situation was going to change and it hasn't, so we're faced with what we have and we have to make sure we produce as competitive a car as we can and comply to the FIA tests."

Renault team principal Eric Boullier added that his team would keep a close eye on the Red Bull Racing situation to decide if it was a route that the Enstone-outfit needed to consider.

"They [Red Bull Racing] are running a different set-up with more rake and we also went a different way, with a different philosophy, so we keep an eye on them, obviously, because you also look at the fastest cars on the track, especially when it's constantly fastest," he explained. "But we don't know if we will go this way or not."

Friday's press conference:

TEAM PRINCIPALS - Eric BOULLIER (Renault), Ross BRAWN (Mercedes), Paul HEMBERY (Pirelli), Christian HORNER (Red Bull), Colin KOLLES (HRT), Monisha KALTENBORN (Sauber)

PRESS CONFERENCE

Q. A question to you all. How did things go today. Colin, would you start?

Colin KOLLES: A little bit better than last time.

Q. We saw Narain Karthikeyan stop , we saw Tonio Liuzzi stop. Can you tell us why?

CK: These were really minor issues, otherwise we would not have had the possibility to go out again. There was some electrical issue and the big smoke was just too much oil from Cosworth.

Q. So basically some progress made today?

CK: I think so, yes. This was our first test day basically.

Q. You said you wanted to get miles under the belt.

CK: I think we made some progress and we will make tomorrow some progress. I think it was not too bad, we have no major issues, it is just a matter to find some set-up.

Q. Ross, today for you?

Ross BRAWN: A better day than we experienced in Melbourne, so we made reasonable progress with the car. One or two minor issues but we should be able to resolve them overnight and the car wasn't too bad. We have got to find a better balance on high fuel. The tyres are pretty critical here, perhaps more akin to what we experienced at Barcelona, and when we got onto high fuel we didn't have the right balance so we suffered because of that. We have got to focus now on finding a better balance on high fuel.

Q. How did you find the wear rate, particularly on the softs?

RB: I think if you don't have a good balance it is quite high, but if you get the balance right then it is manageable.

Q. Eric, tell us about your day. A bit dramatic?

Eric BOULLIER: Yes, a bit dramatic. We had a couple of failures this morning on the uprights on the cars. First we thought it was a brakes problem, very difficult to understand and to have a proper diagnostic. It took us a lot of time to investigate properly obviously as it is a safety issue. We found out that the two failures were coming from the same batch, a different one, so we had a back-up plan and we took the decision to run and it went okay

Q. So basically they are different uprights that you are running at the moment.

EB: No, no no. The same but different materials. We suspect there is a materials issue because it is the same design, everything is the same except it was a new part.

Q. You wouldn't send out a dangerous car, obviously, but you feel it is perfectly safe now.

EB: Yes.

Q. Paul, from Pirelli's point of view how did things go today?

Paul HEMBERY: Well, from our point of view it is almost early days. It is right we got more degradation here and there is quite a big difference between the soft and the hard, probably a second in the absolute times, so the teams are probably working out their strategies now based on that. I am guessing on a three-stop strategy, but we were surprised obviously in Melbourne with a one-stop which we certainly could not have envisaged beforehand. But three would appear from what we have seen so far today to be probably the most likely scenario.

Q. You mentioned the degradation. What about between soft and hard?

PH: The softer grains a lot. I think that was quite clear. Everyone was doing a quick lap and then some people were backing off trying to see if it would come back. They are looking at about eight to nine laps from the data I have seen briefly.

Q. When can you imagine them changing tyres. It looks like one minute, 43 seconds we were seeing at the end which was the fastest time?

PH: I think you have to ask this lot that. That is what they will be are working on tonight and tomorrow to work on their strategy.

Q. Monisha, for Sauber I guess it all starts again really.

Monisha KALTENBORN: Well I hope not.

Q. After what happened in Australia?

MK: Well, of course, the last weekend was a very disappointing one for the team. If you look at the performance I think the team did an excellent job. The drivers did a great performance, especially with Sergio Perez having that one-stop strategy and they just deserved to keep the points. With all that, if you are penalised in such a way, it just feels very, very harsh. But we focused on what we had to do and get it sorted out which wasn't a big issue as such. All it was, was a minor error. It is an annoying mistake as it cost us 10 points, but there was no great issue we had with that radius. We looked at our entire legality check procedure again to make sure that this doesn't happen again.

Q. And today, how did things go?

MK: It wasn't a bad day for us. We had set out our programme which we could pretty much fulfill. We also had a balance issue, trying to understand the tyres better, so we have enough to do.

Q. Christian, today?

Christian HORNER: Yes it was a good day for us. We worked through a programme with both of the drivers looking at the soft and the hard tyre and some other bits and pieces. It has been a productive and good day. We have covered plenty of laps trying to understand the characteristics of the tyres, so it adds an extra dimension this year with the strategy. It is going to be fascinating to see how it pans out but on top of that we have also got the weather to keep an eye on as well so it is going to be an interesting weekend.

Q. It was a fairly astonishing margin this morning wasn't it?

CH: Yeah, but again you cannot read too much into that. Different people are running to different programmes. There was even a margin between our two cars. As we saw in the afternoon certainly the McLarens look competitive and Mercedes not too far away. I don't think Ferrari have shown their full hand yet, so very difficult to draw too many conclusions, but in terms of our own performance it has been a productive Friday.

Q.Colin, I think it was a fairly tough winter for you. Just what sort of effort has it required to keep the team going?

CK: Some effort I would say.

Q. How much? Give us an indication. You have run teams in the past.

CK: I am not a person who is making a big issue out of this. We are here. We worked hard in December and in January and February and we have to improve, that's the point. If I look backwards and I go into a corner and start to cry, nobody will help me. It is past and we have to move forward.

Q. You can tell me whether this is true or not, but I believe you have failed a couple of crash tests. How much has that set things back?

CK: Well, I don't think we are the only ones who are failing a crash test, but due to the fact that we were quite tight, obviously we had some issues in Australia. We failed a crash test with 0.07G, for one millisecond we were above 20G so we could not run the front wing, we could not the front nose, so this is how it is.

Q. Was it this Wednesday that you passed it?

CK: Correct.

Q. So it was all a bit tight?

CK: It was tight, as obviously you need an FIA observer, so you have to make appointments and bring the people together. We were confident that we would pass it so everything was set up that it would be passed and we passed it so we can run the new noses.

Q. Ross, how frustrating was Australia? Does the season really start here now?

RB: I think it does for us. It was frustrating, but really, problems of our own making. We just had too many issues with various things in Australia. You can normally deal with one or two things but we had quite a flood of problems and it was just difficult to keep the car running consistently and work out what we needed to do. Then, of course, that was capped by a couple of issues in the race so It wasn't a great weekend for us. Frustrating, as the car is not where we want it to be yet, but it was a lot better than it looked in Australia and I hope this weekend we can demonstrate that.

Q. Looking at the margins that we have seen today, is it Red Bull Racing versus McLaren or can Mercedes be in there as well?

RB: I think we have got a little while to go before we can certainly trouble RBR. We have got lots happening. There are some things we still need to understand and obviously running the car consistently as we did today means we can get a better understanding. I think the warmer weather, the different conditions with the tyres, is presenting some new problems that we have got to get our heads around compared to what we saw in Barcelona so we need to make some progress but it looks a lot better than what we had in Melbourne.

Q. Eric, how much has changed since Australia? Why did we not see the problems you had this morning in Australia?

EB: First, because as I told you, we suspect, I mean very strongly, that we have heat treatment or a material issue. That's it, so it is a new part from a new batch. That's it. Shit can happen unfortunately. Since Australia, we have brought some new parts here so obviously the lack of track time is not helping us to understand car balance. I agree with Ross, it will be crucial to run at least some decent degradation so we still have a lot to think about tonight and to work tomorrow morning.

Q. After the third place in Australia, what was the atmosphere within the team?

EB: It was clearly a big relief for many reasons. First, it was a reward for the tough winter we had with everything which happened. It was also a relief to see Vitaly (Petrov) deliver properly a full weekend so for the whole team I think it was a big reward.

Q. Paul, you have brought some harder tyres here as well, a new generation of hard tyres if I can call it that, so how did those shape up today?

PH: Well, we only had a limited running this morning with them. I think there was a comment they were "slower and warmer, less degradation". They are a generation of product that goes towards, I guess, something that won't degrade at a different level. We are trying to find our feet, knowing what the right point is, so that we don't over-stretch or exaggerate but equally, if we are too conservative we will be back to square one. It was all part of our learning. It was an opportunity to see in a real track condition how the product performs as we do have limitation on testing. We do have the Toyota that we ran last weekend in Istanbul Park but it rained for a couple of days so it wasn't as successful as we wanted. But it is a way we can get close to the teams in a real-life situation and have real data.

Q. Might you bring those again?

PH: Well it depends on the race. We will see how the race goes. The track evolution is something that we are also having to learn as you can't do that when you are running on your own, you need to see all 24 cars on the circuit. Support races have a big impact as well. I think we saw that in Melbourne. That was one of the major factors in the changes in strategy, the reduction in pit-stops from what we thought maybe on the Saturday. That may happen again here. We will make a decision on that direction on Sunday night.

Q. It was generally judged to be a success in Melbourne. What would be a success here?

PH: Well, I think everyone else has to be a judge of that. It is a long season for us. It is new. This track in particular, from a tyre-maker's point of view, is very interesting. The surface, in particular, is the sort of surface that we saw in American racing. It is hard to distinguish it between almost a concrete surface. You are almost lacking grip. You come here thinking certainly after Melbourne, higher speed, higher temperature, more abrasive but in reality you are almost missing grip so it is interesting. If you were in a competitive environment you'd have a compound just for this circuit.

Q. Monisha, just to go back to the rear wing. What was required? Did you just make new rear wings to come here?

MK: Yes, that was just it. We were by a few millimetres not in conformity with the technical regulation concerned so we just had to make sure that the radius fitted into this template, R100, the FIA template. So it wasn't really much to do. More important was to make sure that this doesn't happen again, as this small mistake cost us 10 points which is quite a lot for us. We evaluated the whole process again. We reinforced it. We added a few measures. We do, as such, have a procedure which worked and proved to be right but, of course, with people mistakes can happen and it should have been caught up.

Q. Tell us about Sergio during the Australian Grand Prix. A lot of people are looking and saying 'why couldn't we do a one-stop strategy as well'. Has he got a particularly light touch?

MK: Well, we also were very surprised by his driving to be honest. But it is too early to say how his driving style is and this is just the first race and we still have the entire season to go. He definitely can handle tyres in such a condition, we could see that, but it is just too early to make a final call on that.

Q. Christian, would you explain why the front part of your car seems to be lower?

CH: There's been so much said about the front wing that I probably don't need to add to it in this forum. I think that, at the end of the day, our car conforms with the regulations. We're very happy with that. We run the car, set-up-wise, slightly differently. We run a bit more rake in the car when, inevitably, you run the rear a bit higher, the front a bit lower and you end up, potentially with a visual difference. That's the way it is. The car complies with the regs. The FIA is happy with that and we're obviously very comfortable with that.

Q. And after the performance in Melbourne, what was the atmosphere within the team?

CH: It was excellent. The winter had been very, very busy, because the challenge of winning the championship last year, with it going all the way down to the wire, obviously consumed a huge amount of energy and focus and attention, and then not to be totally distracted by that in the meantime, in the background, to be designing a car to different regulations, different challenges with KERS re-introduced, with the rear wing and a different tyre manufacturer, obviously posed its own challenges. I think the team just worked phenomenally hard, collectively, as a group, to produce the car in time for the first test - effectively in a shorter period than they've had to design and build the car previously. Then, we enjoyed a good pre-season, probably one of our best ever pre-seasons, where we were, ironically, disappointed that the first race in Bahrain was cancelled, for understandable reasons. We felt that we were ready, at that point in time. We turned up in Melbourne, not knowing the true extent of how competitive we were in respect of our rivals. Obviously, Sebastian's performance throughout the weekend was a truly dominant performance. He drove an immaculate weekend really. Obviously, the challenges of the new format of racing, with the strategy playing a key role, it was important to get that right. So, it was a great satisfaction to win the opening race in Australia, a race where we have historically had indifferent results, our best previous result being a fourth place there. The only thing that was missing for us from that result was not to have the other car up there as well, But, to have book-ended 2010 and 2011 with race wins was a fantastic team performance.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q. (Joe Saward – GP Plus) We have a regulation for engines for 2013 and yet you lot are having meetings all the time about engines for the future. Can you tell us what's going on on that count?

RB: Well, we're designing an engine for 2013. There's a set of regulations and we're designing an engine to them. As always there's a lot of debate going on but that's the regulations the FIA have issued, so unless the FIA change their position, that's what we will be racing in 2013.

CK: We will see.

EB: Yes, we are working on designing a new engine following the regulations that have been released for 2013. That's it.

CK: We are no engine manufacturers.

CH: Renault are focused on the 2013 regulations as they currently stand.

MK: Same for us here. We know Ferrari is working on it. For us, it's important that whatever engine we have, we have to make sure that financially independent teams can afford it, so that's the biggest issue for us, and of course we also have to make sure that we have innovative technologies coming in, so we have to make sure a balance is created.

Q. (Joe Saward – GP Plus) Monisha, you were talking about ten points; what are those ten points worth?

MK: That I will tell you at the end of the season.

Q. (Joe Saward – GP Plus) It's an awful lot of money, isn't it?

MK: It could be, but we are still confident that we can manage to make that up again.

Q. (Joe Saward – GP Plus) Ross and Colin, can you just have a little chat about your wind tunnel deal that you have between you?

CK: This is a commercial Mercedes issue.

RB: We have two wind tunnels. Because of the FOTA constraint regulations we only use one of them for our own Formula One programme so the other one is let out to customers and Colin, along with a number of other activities, is renting some time in the tunnel. It's really as simple as that. We have a tunnel which we don't use, (that) we used to use before the constraints came in – it's the original tunnel that was built at Brackley - and we rent it out to whoever wants to buy time in it. It's really as simple as that. I didn't know it was Colin until my commercial manager told us he was buying some time in it, which is great, if we can help, but it's just rent on normal commercial terms.

Q. (Joe Saward – GP Plus) Christian, can you talk about KERS a little bit. In Australia you didn't appear to have it on the cars, are you running it here? What was the problem in Australia?

CH: In Australia we ran the system on the Friday. We felt that there was a potential reliability risk and the benefit of KERS in Australia is arguably less than (at) other venues, so we decided not to take that risk and remove the system from both cars on Friday evening, with a view to running the system here again, which we've done today. The system has run well and obviously reliably, so a decision will be made on it no doubt later this evening.

Q. Could you just clarify: is it your own KERS system or is it a Renault KERS system?

CH: It's a system that has commonality with Renault. It's been designed in conjunction with them. Obviously, the installation of the system tends to be more personalised to each team, but there's a great deal of commonality, certainly between the two Renault-powered teams that are running KERS.

Q. (Dan Knutson – National Speedsport News) For the team bosses: it doesn't make much sense that the drivers can use the movable rear wing any time they want during Friday and Saturday and then only once a lap during the race. Should the rule be changed, how soon should it be changed, what you can you do to change the rule?

CH: I think we probably need a few more samples. In Melbourne, the wing obviously wasn't that powerful. Arguably, it put a few cars in a position to make an overtaking manoeuvre but it is one of the shortest straights. We will have a much better view on the impact that the DRS has here this weekend with the length of the straights. Certainly the FIA seems open-minded as to the activation points. We probably just need to gather a few more samples before becoming able to judge it effectively. It's an interesting question. I think, in many respects, it might be easier to have consistency of use but it's a little bit of a voyage of discovery that we're learning about as we go.

EB: I think it's common sense as well to run it even if it's – let say – when we want, so when the driver wants, during the free session and qualifying, at least for reliability issues and to get the driver used to the top speed, rather than the inverse.

RB: I think we have to run it in practice, for sure, to get the thing set up, it's all about ratios, getting the drivers into using it. Qualifying is an open point. In the race, the reason it's used is to enhance overtaking so there are particular parts of the track where you want to make it available to one car and not the car they're trying to overtake, so that's why it's triggered by proximity systems. I think this will be a race where we will see the true value of it. It's a system which is very easy to turn off or increase the usage of and we want to see how it develops and see if it's really a benefit to the show of Formula One.

(Julien Febreau – L'Equipe) Question to all of you, except Mr Horner and Mr Hembery: what is your opinion of the Red Bull front wing and are you working on or do you plan to work on a similar system?

MK: We, of course, we had another issue we had to sort out regarding wings, so we focused on that and not Red Bull's front wing. Red Bull's car has been checked, and if the FIA think it is legal, it is alright. We will keep on looking at it, of course, Red Bull knows that, but I think we should focus more on our own car than looking at other cars that much.

CK: I think I have little bit different issues than the Red Bull's front wing at the moment. I'm focusing more on my issues. I think Ross can maybe say more.

RB: There's a regulation which says that the bodywork should be rigid. We all know that's impossible because everything moves. It's a question of degrees, so the FIA has a series of tests to measure the degree to which bodywork moves and as long as you pass those tests then your car is to all intents and purposes legal. Those tests can change, in fact they changed over the winter because, as they do in a lot of areas, the FIA try and improve those tests. There's a new test this year. Red Bull obviously pass it so that's all there is to say about it. They've got a philosophy of their car and approach and teams have got to decide if that's the reason – or one of the reasons - for their level of performance. If it is, then you need to consider going that route yourself, or make sure it's not an excuse for the fact they're winning everything at the moment. It's a philosophy. It ties in a lot with the whole car concept. It's fair to say that probably, over the winter, a lot of teams assumed with the new test that the situation was going to change and it hasn't so we're faced with what we have and we have to make sure we produce as competitive a car as we can and comply to the FIA tests.

EB: I'm not going to repeat what Ross said but obviously I agree with what he said. There is a regulation in place, there are some tests done by the FIA, especially regarding the flexibility of the bodywork parts and if Red Bull is complying with the rule then there is nothing much to say. Back to the question: again it's a philosophy. As Christian said, they are running a different set-up with more rake and we also went a different way, with a different philosophy, so we keep an eye on them, obviously, because you also look at the fastest cars on the track, especially when it's constantly fastest. But we don't know if we will go this way or not.

Q. (Joe Saward – GP Plus) Paul, have you had any nasty surprises this season or has it all gone pretty much according to plan?

PH: No nasty surprises, no. Surprises, yes, but no nasty ones. I guess it's very different for us to be on the track with 24 cars as I mentioned earlier. The lack of testing facilities or ability for us is tough and would be tough for anyone coming into the sport. That's been interesting. We're going to keep learning. I'm quite sure that it's going to be a season of learning for us, as each track is different, has a different challenge. I think at the end of the season we will then have enough data for everything we need to do.

Q. (Joe Saward – GP Plus) When the teams are doing all their simulation work back in their factories, can you tell us about Pirelli's simulation? How does that work and can you learn an awful lot from that?

PH: Well, going forward, with the lack of testing, ultimately we will want to have our own simulator or means of simulating vehicle and tyre inter-reactions and that's something we will work on going forward. At the moment, of course, we're just supplying data to allow the teams to run their own work, but going forward we want to use simulation, and we do it for road cars in reality, simulations to allow us to make our product development without going testing, or at least do a screening to get to a point where you can arrive at a solution without having to go on the track. But a lot of our performance is obviously related to the surface and weather and there are still a lot of unknowns in our business in that area.

Coverage begins with FP3 on the red button which gets underway at 0600BST. BBC One coverage starts at 0800BST before qualifying starts at 0900BST.

[DFF]

Qualy 1 just finished. All the cars have made the 107% limit which is cool. The guys out in the first round are: Maldonado, Kovalainen, Trulli, Glock, d'Ambrosio, Liuzzi and Karthikeyan

[MJB]

Schumacher's out. McLaren look really impressive at the minute. Button especially.

JESUS!

Lewis just did a 1.35:000

Edited April 9, 2011 by MJB

[MJB]

Balls. Balls. Balls. I hate Vettel!

[Katsuya]

Lotus were a LOT closer this race to the seventh driver which is nice, albeit Maldonado is shit as everyone is aware. Good to see Kobayashi in the top 10 again, so Sauber haven't really lost anything from changing the rear wing...we do seem to have quite a defined top 10 though in the RBR's, McLarens, Ferraris, Renaults then Rosberg and Kobayashi.

[Lineker]

Fucking hell that was an awesome qualifying session! First time for a while that I've 'marked out' when Vettel stuck that KERS-powered RBR on pole. Seems that the main problem for Mercedes lies in its DRS system.

Lewis Hamilton was quickest in final practice for the Malaysian Grand Prix, as the McLaren driver edged out the Red Bull of Friday pacesetter Mark Webber.

Hamilton set his best time of 1m36.360s with four minutes to go, during the traditional late scramble on soft tyres.

Webber was 0.290 seconds slower when he completed his qualifying-style run a few minutes later, so had to settle for second, while his world champion team-mate Sebastian Vettel was only fifth, having been in the thick of traffic on his final flying lap. Jenson Button was third in the second McLaren.

Vettel had ended up on top during the 'race preparation' part of the session before drivers switched to the soft tyres in the final 10 minutes, the Red Bull getting down to a 1m38.016s. The champion had earlier complained that his DRS wing did not feel like it was working correctly, so pitted for the problem to be investigated, and then lost his on-board camera on his last run.

Renault had a strong session, showing no ill effects from the time lost to yesterday's suspension failures as Nick Heidfeld and Vitaly Petrov took fourth and seventh.

Fernando Alonso had a spell on top for Ferrari after being one of the first to try soft tyres, but by the end he was down to sixth, two places ahead of team-mate Felipe Massa.

Kamui Kobayashi (Sauber) was ninth, followed by the two Mercedes.

At the rear of the field, both Hispanias were again outside the 107 per cent qualifying margin based on practice pace, with Tonio Liuzzi - who only made it out for the final 11 minutes - a tenth of a second away from making the theoretical cut and Narain Karthikeyan a further 0.236s slower.

FP3


Pos  Driver              Team/Car              Time       Gap       Laps

 1.  Lewis Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes      1m36.340s            11

 2.  Mark Webber         Red Bull-Renault      1m36.630s  + 0.290s  16

 3.  Jenson Button       McLaren-Mercedes      1m36.762s  + 0.422s  14

 4.  Nick Heidfeld       Renault               1m37.115s  + 0.775s  17

 5.  Sebastian Vettel    Red Bull-Renault      1m37.175s  + 0.835s  14

 6.  Fernando Alonso     Ferrari               1m37.284s  + 0.944s  11

 7.  Vitaly Petrov       Renault               1m37.297s  + 0.957s  17

 8.  Felipe Massa        Ferrari               1m37.762s  + 1.422s  12

 9.  Kamui Kobayashi     Sauber-Ferrari        1m38.059s  + 1.719s  18

10.  Michael Schumacher  Mercedes              1m38.300s  + 1.960s  20

11.  Nico Rosberg        Mercedes              1m38.307s  + 1.967s  20

12.  Sergio Perez        Sauber-Ferrari        1m38.448s  + 2.108s  17

13.  Adrian Sutil        Force India-Mercedes  1m38.464s  + 2.124s  16

14.  Pastor Maldonado    Williams-Cosworth     1m38.597s  + 2.257s  15

15.  Sebastien Buemi     Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m38.665s  + 2.325s  14

16.  Rubens Barrichello  Williams-Cosworth     1m38.681s  + 2.341s  16

17.  Jaime Alguersuari   Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m38.716s  + 2.376s  14

18.  Paul di Resta       Force India-Mercedes  1m38.864s  + 2.524s  13

19.  Heikki Kovalainen   Lotus-Renault         1m39.260s  + 2.920s  19

20.  Jarno Trulli        Lotus-Renault         1m39.699s  + 3.359s  15

21.  Jerome D-Ambrosio   Virgin-Cosworth       1m41.215s  + 4.875s  17

22.  Timo Glock          Virgin-Cosworth       1m41.414s  + 5.074s  18

23.  Vitantonio Liuzzi   HRT-Cosworth          1m43.147s  + 6.807s  6

24.  Narain Karthikeyan  HRT-Cosworth          1m43.383s  + 7.043s  11


All timing unofficial[/code]




Sebastian Vettel denied Lewis Hamilton pole position for the Malaysian Grand Prix in an extremely close battle at Sepang.



Hamilton had held provisional pole early in Q3 with a 1m35.000s lap, which put the McLaren a tenth clear of Vettel's Red Bull at that stage.



The Briton then improved to 1m34.974s on his final run, but Vettel managed to dig deeper still, producing a 1m34.870s to maintain his 100 per cent pole rate for 2011 - although the margin of 0.104 seconds was far tighter than in Australia.



Mark Webber was 0.309s off team-mate Vettel's pace in third, and 0.021s ahead of Jenson Button in the second McLaren.



That quartet had the pole fight to themselves, with the rest of the frontrunners a long way off the pace and without enough soft tyres to do more than one Q3 run.



Fernando Alonso led this 'best of the rest' group in fifth for Ferrari, with his team-mate Felipe Massa seventh.



Both Renaults made it to Q3 despite the team's tough start to the weekend. Nick Heidfeld put his Melbourne misery behind him with sixth on the grid, while Vitaly Petrov took eighth.



Mercedes' Nico Rosberg pipped Kamui Kobayashi's Sauber for ninth.



For the second race in a row, Michael Schumacher missed out on a Q3 spot and will start 11th - this time after his Mercedes team-mate Rosberg's late improvement knocked him out.



Neither Toro Rosso reached Q3 at Sepang, Sebastien Buemi recovering from losing a large chunk of sidepod bodywork (the retrieval of which required a brief red flag) in Q1 to qualify just ahead of team-mate Jaime Alguersuari in 12th.



The Force Indias were 14th and 17th, with Paul di Resta outqualifying Adrian Sutil again. They sandwich Rubens Barrichello, on a disappointing day for Williams, and Melbourne hero Sergio Perez, whose Sauber was only 16th today.



Though neither of its cars got out of Q1, there was great encouragement for Lotus as Heikki Kovalainen and Jarno Trulli got within half a second of Williams - Pastor Maldonado joining them in an early exit - and beat the Virgins by two seconds. And Hispania had cause for celebration too: Tonio Liuzzi and Narain Karthikeyan made the 107 per cent qualifying cut very comfortably in Q1.



[code]Qualifying


Pos  Driver                Team                 Time         Gap   

 1.  Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault     1m34.870s

 2.  Lewis Hamilton        McLaren-Mercedes     1m34.974s   + 0.104

 3.  Mark Webber           Red Bull-Renault     1m35.179s   + 0.309

 4.  Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes     1m35.200s   + 0.330

 5.  Fernando Alonso       Ferrari              1m35.802s   + 0.932

 6.  Nick Heidfeld         Renault              1m36.124s   + 1.254

 7.  Felipe Massa          Ferrari              1m36.251s   + 1.381

 8.  Vitaly Petrov         Renault              1m36.324s   + 1.454

 9.  Nico Rosberg          Mercedes             1m36.809s   + 1.939

10.  Kamui Kobayashi       Sauber-Ferrari       1m36.820s   + 1.950

Q3 cut-off time: 1m36.811s                                   Gap **

11.  Michael Schumacher    Mercedes             1m37.035s   + 1.466

12.  Sebastien Buemi       Toro Rosso-Ferrari   1m37.160s   + 1.591

13.  Jaime Alguersuari     Toro Rosso-Ferrari   1m37.347s   + 1.778

14.  Paul di Resta         Force India-Mercedes 1m37.370s   + 1.801

15.  Rubens Barrichello    Williams-Cosworth    1m37.496s   + 1.927

16.  Sergio Perez          Sauber-Ferrari       1m37.528s   + 1.959

17.  Adrian Sutil          Force India-Mercedes 1m37.593s   + 2.024

Q3 cut-off time: 1m38.163s                                    Gap *

18.  Pastor Maldonado      Williams-Cosworth    1m38.276s   + 1.532

19.  Heikki Kovalainen     Lotus-Renault        1m38.645s   + 1.901

20.  Jarno Trulli          Lotus-Renault        1m38.791s   + 2.047

21.  Timo Glock            Virgin-Cosworth      1m40.648s   + 3.904

22.  Jerome D-Ambrosio     Virgin-Cosworth      1m41.001s   + 4.257

23.  Tonio Liuzzi          HRT-Cosworth         1m41.549s   + 4.805

24.  Narain Karthikeyan    HRT-Cosworth         1m42.574s   + 5.830


107% time: 1m43.516s


* Gap to quickest in Q1


** Gap to quickest in Q2

Pole position for the Malaysian Grand Prix was switched to the right hand side of the track following a pre-event request from drivers, AUTOSPORT has learned.

Traditionally the front grid slot at Sepang was on the left hand side of the track, because it gave a better line into the opening corner - which is a tight right-hander.

Sources have revealed, however, that following discussions between the FIA and F1's drivers in the build-up to the season about the impact of Pirelli marbles on the track, a decision was made to switch it.

Although the racing line is not as clearly defined as other tracks because drivers work their way over from the right hand side of the track to the left, a number of drivers felt that if there was a high level of marbles in Malaysia then they would most likely fall on the left hand side of the grid.

FIA race director Charlie Whiting agreed to make the change, and it means that pole position man Sebastian Vettel will now be forming up on the right hand side.

Speaking about the difference it makes after qualifying, Vettel said: "It is very important here to be on the clean side, especially as they changed sides, but we will see."

Post-qualifying press conference:

TV UNILATERALS

Q. Sebastian, third pole in a row, but a little bit closer than it was in Australia this one.

Sebastian VETTEL: Yeah, I would say so definitely. It was quite a challenging weekend until qualifying. I was happy with the car but we never really got into a rhythm, so yesterday wasn't as smooth as we hoped for. Also this morning, but we knew that we had it in the car. The main thing was to keep believing in it and in qualifying it worked out straight away, so first qualifying, second and third, was very good and, as you said, so very close in the end with the McLaren guys. So, very happy. Big compliment to the guys in the team, especially the guys with the KERS system. We got lots of criticism after the last race for not having run it all the time. It is something we were not proud of but we came here and we solved most of our problems, and I think if we did not have it today then we would not be here, both of us, so it is a great achievement and compliments to those guys. We all work hand-in-hand and if this is the reward, then we keep working, I would say, so very pleased.

Q. For a minute we thought you were just trying to prove to people that you were right before the race and before qualifying and that McLaren had caught up a lot to Red Bull, but obviously not the case. Talk us through some of the problems that you have been having. Why was it such a struggle?

SV: Well it was not a particular problem with the car or anything wrong, nothing broke down. It was just not as smooth, so we didn't have all the laps that we wanted. A little bit of traffic and then I did mistakes. It just did not all come together as nicely and didn't allow me, and us, probably, to find that rhythm. The track around here can be very challenging in that regard. You have got a lot of corners with different lines, so it takes a little while to understand every year. In the end I am very happy that we have proven that we can do it. The gap is quite a lot smaller than it was in Australia. It just showed how quickly things can change. Next race, you never know. Now, we focus on tomorrow. A good job today, so I think we can be happy. I am happy also for the boys as it is quite a difficult race. It is very hot in the garage. The air is pretty humid and they are sweating a lot, so tonight they will get some sleep for the first time, so happy for them as well.

Q. Lewis, almost your first pole since Canada last year. Disappointment or a lot of happiness for you and McLaren that you got much closer?

Lewis HAMILTON: I don't think we can be disappointed. As I said going into the last race, we have done a fantastic job to even be up there with the Red Bulls, so I feel very proud of the effort the guys put in, especially in getting some new parts for this weekend and just constantly moving forward. I think we can be happy with it. I would have loved to have put (the car) into P1 but these guys still have a slight edge. Clearly, we have closed the gap a little bit or so it seems here. The lap wasn't perfect, so I will have to improve on that.

Q. So there was more to come? But at what stage did you think pole might be yours today or did you suspect Red Bull had a little bit in hand?

LH:: We always expected that they might have a little bit in hand especially going into their last run. You just never know. They usually tend to pull something out of the bag, which they did. They obviously picked up a bit of pace going into Q3 and going towards the end of Q3. I think, for my lap, we lost a little bit of time, just in the one corner, but I can't be too disappointed as you can never get it that perfect.

Q. Mark, four drivers were going for pole right in their final lap. Someone had to miss out and sadly you missed out on the front row. Were you aware how tight it was throughout the whole of the lap?

Mark WEBBER: Oh, absolutely. I knew everyone was on a similar pace after the first run on the options. It was pretty straightforward for us, just try to drive as quick as we can. We can't control how tight it is. We don't say someone is three-tenths or two-tenths or whatever, you still just try to do you best. Better performance from me today compared to Melbourne and so looking forward to tomorrow.

Q. Third might not be a bad place to start from. I seem to remember Sebastian won from third last year.

MW: Yeah, I think the grand prix tomorrow will be different to last years so it will be interesting.

Q. Sebastian, in that respect how much different will tomorrow's race be? How much of a gap do you think you can pull out in the first stint on tyres that might not last as long as you want? SV: Well, I think we learned quite a lot in Australia. We came here and we saw that the tyres don't last nearly as long or not even as close to how long they lasted in Australia. It is different here. It is a different track, different conditions. It is much hotter, so it is tougher for them. I think we had an idea yesterday. I think we were pretty happy with it, so we will see what we can do. Surely, as Mark said, it will be quite a different race. I expect more stops definitely than Australia, so we will see how many. I am just hoping that all the spectators don't lose the count, so we try to keep it up and hope people outside are as well.

PRESS CONFERENCE

Q. Sebastian, it wasn't just tight in terms of time. It was tight in terms of you getting across the line. You just made it by four seconds. SV: Yeah, so I had three I hand. I knew it was tight. I knew it the moment I went out. I was aware I was the last car to get out and then I think I had a Renault or a Lotus and Jenson (Button) in front of me. I would have loved to have crossed the line a bit earlier, to have a bit more margin, but then I would have been in the back end of Jenson and then there is no need to do a lap, so I had to time my gap. I think I was fairly close for the qualifying lap, as you don't want to be closer. I didn't know there was only four seconds. I know it will be tight, so I thought it would be in the region of less than ten. The main thing is we made it and the lap following was quite important.

Q. Your best grid position here and your 17th pole in total.

SV: Yeah, Mark was on pole last year and I was third. I hope down to turn one he doesn't do the same thing to me as I did to him last year. I think the race will be very long and last year was quite different, but overall I am very happy. As I said earlier, I think all weekend I was happy with the car but never just got to a point where I could prove it to myself. I never found the real rhythm I would say. I was believing in it and I knew that it was somewhere in there, and (that) the car was fine. I didn't have big issues, but qualifying was the first time where I would say we had trouble-free runs, so very pleased with the result and also big compliments to those guys in the team and in the factory. Within this short period of time, only two weeks or really 10 days, also given the fact we are not racing at Silverstone, we are racing in Australia and Malaysia, it is a bit more far away, I am so very happy that they could work hard on the KERS and I think that made the difference today. Without that i think we would have been behind both McLaren drivers so very happy with that.

Q. The tenth-of-a-second margin between you and Lewis. Is that correct?

SV: I think, when you go to qualifying, you put your trousers down and you see what you have got. I am very pleased that we made it. It is very important here to be on the clean side, especially as they changed sides but we will see. On the other hand there are so many things still to come. It is a long race tomorrow and when we wake up tomorrow, today is history, and it is a new day, a new chance. Obviously, if you start from pole you cannot really improve, but first you have to get the job done. Surprised it has not rained yet but we know here that it is very likely to rain, so things can happen and you can't take anything for granted.

Q. Lewis, second on the grid. You mentioned new parts this weekend; did they arrive overnight? We saw seven boxes and a suitcase downstairs this morning, and I don't suppose they were new overalls for you.

LH:: They might have been new overalls. Have you not seen the tiger effect here? Well, we had some newer components come earlier on in the weekend, so we've had them since Friday, so nothing new this morning. Small improvements to the car, nothing major, but it just so happens (that) we seem to be a lot closer to these guys this weekend. The update package that we thought we had here didn't give us as much as we had hoped, so that's a good sign, shows that there's still more to come. I can't really complain. I'm on the front row. I will have to see if they've cleaned up the oil; I heard there was a bit of an oil spill on P2 (grid position) earlier on today, so hopefully that's cleaned up.

Q. You said yesterday that you had problems with the balance in P1; has it been progressively improving since then?

LH:: Yeah, I think they've done a great job. I'm really happy with the balance that I've got. Bit by bit, through each session, we've made just small incremental changes to the balance and I've been very comfortable with it. I was just saying, there was a little bit of time in my lap and afterwards I saw that there was just over a tenth (between myself and Sebastian) and that's pretty much exactly what I had in the lap, no more, so it would have been very, very close, if I had been able to extract... it would have generally been the perfect lap if I'd managed to get that out of the car so… I'm quite happy.

Q. This is obviously your best grid (position) here, do you think it's just going to be between yourselves and Red Bull or is it going to be Ferrari as well?

LH:: I think it will be very interesting to see. As Sebastian was saying, there's going to be a bit of a difference through strategy, probably more pit stops, tyres seem to be lasting as well in this climate, but you don't know what the weather's going to be like tomorrow. I think, generally, you will see the fight between ourselves and the Red Bulls. They seemed to have a little bit better long run pace yesterday, so we will see how it is tomorrow. I don't know who is behind us, is it the Ferraris? Of course, they are still in the fight and anything can happen.

Q. Mark, obviously you feel better than you did a couple of weeks ago.

MW: Yeah, it was a pretty exciting qualifying, wasn't it? For us in the car, we don't really know how exciting it is from what you guys get to see. Clearly, it was very tight for all of us going into that last run. Yeah, I was pretty happy today, to be honest. I couldn't have got much more out of it. It was tight between all of us. There's always a tenth here and there, a couple either way if everyone gets it all together, but I'm looking forward to the grand prix tomorrow and going from there, really.

Q. How much of a difference has KERS made during practice, that you've noticed?

MW: It's always hard. I think we know that a lot of people are on different strategies in practice. Clearly, we've got a quick car but you still come up on people and most people we can pass without KERS, within reason obviously. Most of the field are a bit off; obviously when we come against Ferraris and McLarens and those sort of guys it's more even. KERS is something which you should always push to have and, as I've touched on, the guys have done a monumental job in getting everything here. It's a long season, so we needed to try to introduce it as soon as possible, we're learning with every lap. We believe it's the right thing; that's why it's on the car and we'll go into tomorrow's race and learn even more again. It's a good step from the team this weekend. Ferocious conditions for the guys to work in. I don't know how well the curfew is working but I look in their eyes and it doesn't look so clever, the curfew, but anyway, they've done a great job.

Q. Sebastian said it hasn't all been plain sailing for him; what about for yourself?

MW: I've had a pretty good build-up into qualifying. All of my runs have been competitive apart from Q1, which felt like I was on a set of inters, they never did anything for me, so I was in trouble on those, but apart from that, I've always been pretty solid every time I've gone out. It was a good weekend so far, so we will see again tomorrow.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q. (Michael Schmidt - Auto, Moto und Sport) Lewis, as you mentioned already, the car was more or less Melbourne specification. How do you explain that you have been much closer to the Red Bulls, taking into account that the Red Bulls here were using KERS, which they didn't obviously have in Melbourne?

LH:: That's a really good question that I don't really have a great answer for. Probably, at the last circuit, there were more medium and slower speed corners and obviously less straights, and the KERS was worth less there than it is here. I think their car, particularly, seemed to be quite good, a little bit better than ours maybe in the slower, medium… and the fast. I'm not sure, maybe we optimised it a little bit more through set-up and we were able to extract… because the package that we had in the last race had just arrived and we had to make do with it through P1, P2 and P3 and we don't have a lot of time, so maybe we just optimised it a little bit more. As I said, we do have a couple of small things on the car that have given us more efficiency so overall it's been all positive generally for us.

Interesting line from STR this morning:

Jaime Alguersuari and Sebastien Buemi must deliver good enough results this season to prove they can be future candidates for Red Bull Racing now that they have a competitive car.

That is the view of their Scuderia Toro Rosso team principal Franz Tost, who says that the time has come for his driver pairing to show they have the potential to drive for the world championship-winning team.

With Toro Rosso's third driver Daniel Ricciardo waiting on the sidelines and ready for promotion to a race seat if Buemi or Alguersuari disappoint, Tost has laid out just what is expected from his men in 2011.

"It's very simple and clear," he explained. "We are responsible in forming and educating drivers for Red Bull Racing. If we do not believe a driver can succeed at Red Bull Racing, he has no room in Scuderia Toro Rosso either.

"Though learning never ends in F1, Buemi and Alguersuari must prove now what they can do. Both of them improved very much over the winter - physically and mentally. But now we must see results."

And although Ricciardo is being considered for a race seat switch, Tost says that Buemi and Alguersuari also have a great opportunity - because one of them could be moved to Red Bull Racing for next year.

"Ricciardo has made a very good impression," explained Tost. "He has a lot of talent, and his output for the engineers is very good and useful.

"If one of our race drivers does not fulfil his expectations during this season, we will put Ricciardo into the cockpit. This puts some pressure on Buemi and Alguersuari. But, on the other hand, RBR might have to fill a vacancy at the end of 2011, so this would be a big chance."

Lewis open to a Vettel partnership in the future:

Lewis Hamilton reckons a tie-up with Sebastian Vettel at Red Bull Racing in the future would work absolutely fine, amid fresh talk about his long-term future in Formula 1.

The former world champion's current deal with McLaren runs until the end of 2012 and there has been a renewed focus on his future plans following the announcement of his management deal with Simon Fuller's XIX Entertainment company.

And although Red Bull Racing team principal Christian Horner poured cold water on the possibility of slotting in Hamilton alongside Vettel in the future - the British driver is more sure about the situation.

"It can work," Hamilton told the British media. "You saw me and Fernando [Alonso]; we were very competitive. You see me and Jenson [button], so world champions can definitely race together as long as there is equality in the team.

"There is definitely not that at a couple of the teams around us. At my team you will probably see the most equality out of all the teams."

When asked about Horner's comments doubting a Vettel/Hamilton partnership could work, Hamilton reckoned that the team principal was simply being defensive of his current driver.

"The only reason I would imagine that he [Horner] would suggest that is because certain individuals don't like being beaten," said Hamilton. "Some individuals can take it. Some people are better losers or better winners. So it is just dependant.

"In this team, when Jenson beats me I take it on the chin and think, 'Next time I am going to beat him.' When I beat him, he doesn't whinge and say: 'Oh, Lewis has a better car than me or Lewis did this and I did that.' There is none of that here, it is very equal.

"In some places you can imagine it could be different. I never have any complaints. If a guy beats me it is because he has done a better job."

Ferrari has admitted that it is struggling for answers as to why its new car has proved to be no match for McLaren and Red Bull Racing so far this season.

The Italian outfit had headed into the Malaysian Grand Prix seeking confirmation as to whether its Australia form had been the result of an aerodynamic deficit or tyre issues related to the cold weather.

Having failed to get anywhere near Red Bull Racing and McLaren at Sepang, however, the team is now in no doubt that it is simply not fast enough and needs to undertake a major development programme to get itself back in the hunt.

Technical director Aldo Costa revealed on Saturday that the team was still baffled as to why all the aerodynamic updates introduced at the final Barcelona test had not worked - and that it could take further testing in China, or even a straight-line run before the Turkish Grand Prix – to get to the bottom of the issues.

"If it was easy, we would already have fixed it," said the Italian. "We don't know yet where the problems are coming from. We are working on it, but it's quite a complex evaluation that we are doing in several environments, not only here at the track."

Costa believes that if the team found out the answer to understanding its problems then that would help deliver a good step forward in form – with more to come from updates.

"If we are able to discover what went wrong in the initial part of development, that would be quite a good chunk of the performance deficit," he explained.

"Then, we have to be very aggressive in the development, that's for sure. We need to ask ourselves how we can try to do it and for sure we will have to change our approach.

"These guys here [Red Bull Racing and McLaren] are putting the bar higher, so we have to react and I'm sure in Maranello we have got very good talented people. They will be very upset. For sure, they will react and I trust in them, I trust in the team so we will go for it."

Costa said that Ferrari had an upgrade programme in place, and the lesson of the past two races was that it had to ramp up even this.

"The programme is to recover, to catch up," he said. "We are working on several items, several areas. We have good developments for China, we have got really good developments for Turkey, there is some interesting stuff coming for the middle of season races.

"We have got our programme. Is it enough? I don't know. We need to go home and we need to push even more. We need to develop faster than the other people, you need to have a certain pace week by week inventing new stuff, inventing new systems.

"These two teams have done a better job than ourselves, so we have to learn from them and then we have to do the changes in our approach that are required. The important part is that the car is fast, parts that are faster landing on the car at a higher speed compared to others."

Costa admitted that the focus on its aerodynamic problems had cost it valuable set-up and tyre evaluation work in Malaysia, but that he still felt quite prepared for the race.

"Unfortunately, when you start working on Friday doing constant speed, you do not concentrate enough of the setup," he said. "You do pay some penalty in arriving very late to fix the set-up for that race, which I think we did.

"We lost a lot of time in constant speed aerodynamic tests and we didn't work at all on tyres and setup. You pay the bill then. During the night and this morning I think we caught up and we arrived in qualifying with a reasonable car in terms of balance.

"In terms of the race pace and tyre wear, I think we did interesting progress during this weekend. So let's see tomorrow. I don't expect that we will go as fast as the first four, but we will do our best."

Ferrari has revealed it is planning to introduce its own version of Red Bull Racing's 'flexible' front wing soon in a bid to help close the gap to the front of the field.

After ongoing intrigue in Malaysia about the behaviour of Red Bull Racing's front wing, following fresh questions from McLaren about the RB7's characteristics, a number of rival teams are now expected to harness the concept.

And Ferrari has become the first to confirm that it already has a development plan under way now that it has been shown the low-running front wing can still be used despite tougher flexible bodywork tests introduced this year.

Aldo Costa, Ferrari's technical director, said on Saturday: "We are going deeper in the evaluation of front wings and we will do a 'flexible' front wing soon."

Mercedes GP team principal Ross Brawn says a number of rival outfits have been caught out in terms of front wing development because they believed the tougher 2011 tests would rule out the idea of a flexible wing working.

"The test changed over the winter," explained Brawn. "So I think a number of us assumed the new tests would capture everything, and maybe they haven't. But because the test changed over the winter then I think certainly from our perspective we did not put any effort into that side of things. But Red Bull have demonstrated that you can take an approach that is perfectly legal and gain advantage from it."

Brawn said that there was no question about Red Bull Racing's legality, and that the only options going forward were for either even more stringent FIA tests to tighten up that area of car design, or for rival outfits to copy it.

"It is an interesting point at the moment," he said. "You have to pass an FIA test and, if you pass an FIA test, then that is a measure. That is the only measure there is.

"Their wing probably gets tested more than anyone else's. I think there are two developments that will come - either the tests change or more people will move in that direction because it brings greater efficiency. That is where it is.

"They pass the test and those are the tests that decree whether the car is legal or not. But we see quite honestly there is another car out there that is not using that approach that is quite competitive as well, so it is not the only solution."

[maninblack]

And Red Bull take Malaysia!

[Asuka's Gonna Kill You]

Was that really blocking from Hamilton? Looked like nothing more than Alonso being his usual twatish self and driving into the back of his car, yet Hamilton get's docked a place.

[Rich]

Horrible decision from the stewards for me, Alonso has 20 seconds taken off... and stays in the same position, Hamilton then drops a position, so technically Alonso isn't punish for driving in to the back of one of his rivals, well done...

[Katsuya]

Someone over on another forum actually showed that from the last corner of the lap before the accident, Lewis actually moved five times to try and stop Alonso from passing him; some of them aren't as clear cut as others, but there were definitely two occasions where he broke the rules. I seem to remember he got a reprimand at some point last year for doing the same, so in a way it's only fair. If anything, the penalty was harsher on Alonso, since the commentators said that the accident was ultimately a racing incident and that they shouldn't be penalised, whereas Hamilton's blocking was less a racing incident and more...well, obvious blocking.