Sebastian Buemi spins out in the wet weather in his STR-Ferrari during Qualifying for the 2010 Malaysian Grand Prix And then down came the rain!

The rain forecast for Qualifying in Kuala Lumpur for tomorrows’ Formula One Malaysian Grand Prix arrived a few minutes before the start of the official Qualifying Session. The result? Probably one of the most interesting F1 grids in a long time!

Out in Session 1 went both Ferraris (Alonso-19th, and Massa-20th) and the McLaren of Hamilton (21st) – all due to very poor tyre selection timed lap timing.

Joining them at the back of the grid are Trulli (18th), Chandok (22nd), Senna (23rd), and di Grassi (24th). Add to that a spin into the thick gravel towards the end of the session by Jenson Button which excluded him from Q2 left him 17th.

Session 2 filled the mid-grid with Petrov (11th), de la Rosa (12th), Buemi (13th), Alguersuari (14th), Kovalainen (15th) and Glock who will start in 16th.

The crucial Q3 Session started with Robert Kubica cheekily sneaking past the queue waiting for the green light to start the session, heading off first to start the final session. His move came to nought though as Race Director Charlie Whiting red flagged the session before anyone could complete a full timed lap.

The restart 15 minutes later for the last 7 minutes saw nine of the ten qualifiers on full wet-weather tyres with Mark Webber the only rebel, opting instead for intermediates on his Red Bull. A decision that proved decisive minutes later when Webber topped the time sheet by over 1.25 seconds and secured pole position for the race! Starting next to him will be the Mercedes of Nico Rosberg, with Sebastian Vettels’ sister RBR behind him in P3 and Adrian Sutils’ Force India making up the second row.

So, the third RBR-Renault pole for the season, two ex-World Champions and the reigning Champion fighting their way through from the back of the pack, and the strong likelihood of rain during the race itself – it’s going to be an absolute cracker!

Pos

No

Driver

Team

Q1

Q2

Q3

Laps

1

6

Mark Webber

RBR-Renault

1:51.886

1:48.210

1:49.327

18

2

4

Nico Rosberg

Mercedes GP

1:52.560

1:47.417

1:50.673

22

3

5

Sebastian Vettel

RBR-Renault

1:47.632

1:46.828

1:50.789

19

4

14

Adrian Sutil

Force India-Mercedes

1:49.479

1:47.085

1:50.914

21

5

10

Nico Hulkenberg

Williams-Cosworth

1:49.664

1:47.346

1:51.001

22

6

11

Robert Kubica

Renault

1:46.283

1:46.951

1:51.051

19

7

9

Rubens Barrichello

Williams-Cosworth

1:50.301

1:48.371

1:51.511

21

8

3

Michael Schumacher

Mercedes GP

1:52.239

1:48.400

1:51.717

24

9

23

Kamui Kobayashi

BMW Sauber-Ferrari

1:48.467

1:47.792

1:51.767

21

10

15

Vitantonio Liuzzi

Force India-Mercedes

1:49.922

1:48.238

1:52.254

21

11

12

Vitaly Petrov

Renault

1:47.952

1:48.760

  

15

12

22

Pedro de la Rosa

BMW Sauber-Ferrari

1:47.153

1:48.771

  

14

13

16

Sebastien Buemi

STR-Ferrari

1:48.945

1:49.207

  

15

14

17

Jaime Alguersuari

STR-Ferrari

1:48.655

1:49.464

  

16

15

19

Heikki Kovalainen

Lotus-Cosworth

1:52.875

1:52.270

  

16

16

24

Timo Glock

Virgin-Cosworth

1:52.398

1:52.520

  

13

17

1

Jenson Button

McLaren-Mercedes

1:52.211

no time

  

3

18

18

Jarno Trulli

Lotus-Cosworth

1:52.884

    

6

19

8

Fernando Alonso

Ferrari

1:53.044

    

8

20

2

Lewis Hamilton

McLaren-Mercedes

1:53.050

    

8

21

7

Felipe Massa

Ferrari

1:53.283

    

7

22

20

Karun Chandhok

HRT-Cosworth

1:56.299

    

9

23

21

Bruno Senna

HRT-Cosworth

1:57.269

    

9

24

25

Lucas di Grassi

Virgin-Cosworth

1:59.977

    

4

The 2010 Malaysian Grand Prix at Sepang starts at 16h00 Local | 08h00 GMT  | 10h00 SAST on Sunday, 04 April