Webber takes pole at wet Sepang

Mark Webber will start Sunday’s Malaysian Grand Prix from pole position after setting the fastest time in qualifying.

This is Red Bull Racing’s third pole in a row.

Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg will line up alongside the Australian on the front row of the grid while Sebastian Vettel and Adrian Sutil will line up on the second row.

Let’s have a quick look at how the session unfolded:

Q1

It was raining quite heavily at the start of the session prompting half of the field to get out on track as soon as possible while the rest of the drivers, including most of the leading contenders, opted to wait a bit longer.

They were hoping for conditions to improve but eventually got it wrong. This resulted in the shock elimination of Lewis Hamilton, Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso. Jenson Button managed to post the 13th fastest time before having a spin and ending stuck in the gravel. Though he made it through to Q2, he was not able to take further part to the session.

Of the leading teams, Red Bull Racing proved to be the wisest as they sent their drivers on track early.

Renault’s Robert Kubica set the fastest time ahead of Pedro de la Rosa and Sebastian Vettel.

Apart from Hamilton and both Ferrari drivers, the other drivers eliminated were Trulli, Chandhok, Senna and di Grassi.

Q2

There was no major drama in this second part of the session with track conditions staying consistent.

The drivers were able to put on intermediate tyres to set their lap times with Robert Kubica challenging Sebastian Vettel for P1. The RBR driver finally had the edge over his rival and ended Q2 on top.

The Pole was just over 0.1s slower than the German. Sutil was third quickest for Force India with both Nicos – Hulkenberg and Rosberg – rounding off the top five.

Eliminated were Vitaly Petrov, Pedro de la Rosa, Sébastien Buemi, Jaime Alguersuari, Heikki Kovalainen, Timo Glock and Jenson Button.

Q3

Heavy rain was falling at the start of this final shootout and all ten drivers rushed out of the pits.

Track conditions rapidly deteriorated and the session was red flagged with less than three minutes gone as it was clearly too dangerous to continue.

The action resumed 17 minutes later in spite of other storms threatening to hit the track.

While his rivals stayed on wet tyres, Mark Webber gambled on intermediate tyres. It proved a brilliant call from the Australian who went 1.3s faster than 2nd placed Nico Rosberg.