Qualifying - Malaysian GP report: Ferrari

Sebastian Vettel’s Ferrari will line up on the front row of the grid for tomorrow’s Malaysian Grand Prix, after qualifying second in a session hit by a massive storm. The rain arrived at the Malaysian track towards the end of the second part of the session and that meant Kimi Raikkonen, eleventh at the time in 1.42.173, was unable to make the cut into the top ten.

In the delayed final part, the German steered his SF15-T to second, running two sets of intermediate tyres, with a best lap of 1.49.908, splitting the two Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton, who took pole in 1.49.834 and Nico Rosberg third in 1.50.299.

Kimi Raikkonen

“Today it was simply a bad time to go out, we should have been out earlier. I did try to pass Ericsson but he was there trying to do his job; it’s not an unlucky situation but it was a mistake. Tomorrow we’ll try to climb some positions, for sure we have the speed but we are quite far from the front and when you start in this position is not going to be an easy race. Obviously there is going to be more risk in the first corner, but we’ll try to make the best out of it tomorrow.”

Sebastian Vettel

“I think we had a good pace in the end, it was very tight with Lewis. If you look back to one year ago, we had the same conditions, intermediates in the end and it was one tenth, so maybe next year … For sure the result puts us in a good position for tomorrow. I think the target for Sunday is to extract the best race we can, and then we go from there. The nature of the track suits our car well, I expect nothing else than to be very strong tomorrow, but you never know about the conditions in Sepang. There is rain in the air that can hit you at the right time, but also make go all wrong, you just never know. Let’s keep our feet on the ground, in the end we have to look after ourselves. Mercedes is very strong and has an advantage, but it would be nice to give them a hard time tomorrow, it has been a bit too chilled for them in the last months”.

Maurizio Arrivabene

“Today’s result leaves a bittersweet taste. Seb has been just great and the same goes for the all team. About Kimi, I don’t believe either in bad or good luck. First impression comments may render different opinions, but now we have to leave this behind us and focus on tomorrow’s race. I’m sure that also Kimi, who is a great driver himself, will have a go”.