Qualifying - Malaysian GP report: Sauber Ferrari

In qualifying ahead of the Malayisan Grand Prix, the Sauber F1 Team missed Q2 by only around one tenth. Marcus Ericcson and Felipe Nasr finished in P17 and P18. For tomorrow the extreme heat and the tyre management will be the main challenges for teams and cars during the 56-lap race distance. As temperatures in the cockpit rise to 60 degrees, the drivers wear cooling vests underneath their race overalls.

Marcus Ericsson

“After a positive Friday, today has also been a decent day. With the overnight rain the track conditions on the new asphalt were different in FP3, so it was a bit tricky to get a good read of it. We made some changes and managed to go into qualifying with a good feeling. I had a clean lap with no mistakes, so overall I am satisfied with my performance. Obviously, the result does not show that, but we were close to Q2. We can see that the gap to the midfield is shrinking, which is positive. Let’s see what we can achieve in the race.”

Felipe Nasr

“The result from qualifying is obviously not where we want to be. On my last try in Q1 my front tyres were not in the ideal working window to start the lap with. This certainly affected sector 1. Besides that, it was a clean lap, but still not enough to reach Q2. On the other hand, it is positive that the long run in FP3 felt quite consistent. We will fight back tomorrow.”