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Ferrari and McLaren were left with egg on their faces after totally misjudging the weather conditions in qualifying for the Malaysian Grand Prix.

Their four drivers will start from the back of the grid after their teams held them back at the start of a rain soaked first part of qualifying.

They presented an open goal to their title rivals Red Bull and Mercedes, who took full advantage.

Mark Webber was the only driver to gamble on intermediate tyres in the final session and took pole by a big margin, with team mate Vettel third. Nico Rosberg did a great job to take second, his first front row start and a full second ahead of his rain master team mate Schumacher who starts 8th.

The session was full of drama. The track was damp at the start of Q1, but there was more rainfall during the session. So it was important to be out on track at the right time.

While Robert Kubica and Sebastian Vettel got on with it early on, both Ferrari drivers, both McLarens and Mercedes stayed in the garage. Unfortunately for them the track was its fastest in the first 10 minutes and the rain began falling more heavily as those cars went out on track.

Button and Schumacher were the first of those cars on track and just managed to get in, but Button subsequently aquaplaned off the track having set 13th fastest time at that point, meanwhile Lewis Hamilton, Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa were forced to go for full wet tyres in an attempt to get into the game. They failed, Alonso having a lurid triple spin.

It was extraordinary that the leading teams should have misread the weather situation so badly, especially as the rain had been falling pretty consistently at that time of day all week.

“We got it wrong, we thought that first rainstorm was it, ” said Button. “I aquaplaned off and got stuck in the gravel. Very disappointing, strange session with both Ferraris and both McLarens off. I’m in front of three of my championship rivals, but behind others.”

The top teams’ misfortunes were good news for Virgin Racing and Lotus, who both got a car through to Q2. Kovalainen qualified 15th, with Glock 16th.

The second session challenged the drivers’ and teams’ tactical acumen. It started on a damp track but with rain forecast five minutes in. Most runners took a second set of intermediates, Red Bull went for full wets.

The Renault was handy in these conditions, with Kubica fastest in Q1 and second in Q2 as was Adrian Sutil in the Force India. Sebastian Vettel judged it perfectly and was fastest in Q2. The rain held off until two minutes before the end and the track was at its fastest in the few minutes before that. It was a question of being out there on the intermediate tyres with fuel in the car at the right moment.

Both Williams drivers made it through to the top ten shootout as did both Force India cars.

The decisive final part of qualifying was held in traditional Malaysian monsoon conditions. Robert Kubica cheekily drove around the queue of cars in the pitlane to get out on track first. But the session was stopped after three minutes before any of the cars had managed a lap.

At the restart, with seven minutes left on the clock, most drivers went for full wet tyres, Webber went for the intermediate. Initially it looked like the wrong choice, but on his second flying lap he took provisional pole and then found another 1.1 secs on his third lap.

Team principal Christian Horner confirmed that the decision to take the inters was Webber’s own.

Adrian Sutil qualified fourth and Nico Hulkenberg an impressive fifth.

MALAYSIAN GP QUALIFYING

1.	Webber	Red Bull-Renault	1:51.886	1:48.210	1:49.327
2.	Rosberg	Mercedes	1:52.560	1:47.417	1:50.673
3.	Vettel	Red Bull-Renault	1:47.632	1:46.828	1:50.789
4.	Sutil	Force India-Mercedes	1:49.479	1:47.085	1:50.914
5.	Hulkenberg	Williams-Cosworth	1:49.664	1:47.346	1:51.001
6.	Kubica	Renault	1:46.283	1:46.951	1:51.051
7.	Barrichello	Williams-Cosworth	1:50.301	1:48.371	1:51.511
8.	Schumacher	Mercedes	1:52.239	1:48.400	1:51.717
9.	Kobayashi	Sauber-Ferrari	1:48.467	1:47.792	1:51.767
10.	Liuzzi	Force India-Mercedes	1:49.922	1:48.238	1:52.254
11.	Petrov	Renault	1:47.952	1:48.760	-
12.	de la Rosa	Sauber-Ferrari	1:47.153	1:48.771	-
13.	Buemi	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	1:48.945	1:49.207	-
14.	Alguersuari	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	1:48.655	1:49.464	-
15.	Kovalainen	Lotus-Cosworth	1:52.875	1:52.270	-
16.	Glock	Virgin-Cosworth	1:52.398	1:52.520	-
17.	Button	McLaren-Mercedes	1:52.211	No Time	-
18.	Trulli	Lotus-Cosworth	1:52.884	-	-
19.	Alonso	Ferrari	1:53.044	-	-
20.	Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	1:53.050	-	-
21.	Massa	Ferrari	1:53.283	-	-
22.	Chandhok	HRT-Cosworth	1:56.299	-	-
23.	Senna	HRT-Cosworth	1:57.269	-	-
24.	di Grassi	Virgin-Cosworth	1:59.977	-	-

Webber on Pole as big names cock it up in the wet is a post from: worldwormweb

The Australian clocked one minute 32.230 to finish ahead of Brawn GP’s Rubens Barrichello and Jenson Button.  Sebastian Vettel was fourth in the second Red Bull as the unpredictable weather made for a thrilling afternoon.  The improving McLaren of Lewis Hamilton will start fifth, equalling his best qualifying performance of the season.

Read More at BBC.co.uk

Webber secures maiden pole position in Germany is a post from: worldwormweb

The threat by members of the F1 Teams Association (Fota) escalates their row with world motorsport boss Max Mosley over his budget cap proposals.

“The teams have declined to alter their original conditional entries to the 2010 F1 Championship,” said the teams.

“We’ve no alternative than to commence preparation for a new championship.”

Mosley was insistent on introducing a voluntary £40m budget cap for teams to curtail a “financial arms race” in F1.

But Fota refused to agree to his conditions, prompting championship leader Brawn GP, Ferrari, McLaren, Renault, Toyota, BMW Sauber, Red Bull Racing and Toro Rosso to take their drastic action.

They announced their decision following a four-hour meeting on Thursday night ahead of this weekend’s British Grand Prix at Silverstone.

Read more @ bbc.co.uk

BBC SPORT | F1 teams drop breakaway bombshell is a post from: worldwormweb

IMG_0493, originally uploaded by Andrew Farmer.

This is from the car I was driving down the main Straight at Eastern Creek Raceway today

Industry drive day @ Eastern Creek is a post from: worldwormweb

Webber was happy with his driving form but frustrated at the RB3's habit of breaking during races.

The Australian comprehensively out-qualified teammate David Coulthard but the Scot edged ahead in the points chase as finishing became a lottery for the pair.

Coulthard finished tenth in the championship and Webber 12th, although the Aussie finished ahead of the Scot in the annual AutoSport magazine rankings.

Red Bull Racing boss Christian Horner has promised reliability will be the main target for 2008.

While the team finished fifth in the manufacturers' championship, Red Bull suffered a a rash of race-ending gearbox and hydraulics problems.

“We learnt many lessons during 2007 and obviously reliability is a key topic that the design and development groups are fully focused on,” Horner told the official F1 website.

“In 2007 we gave away approximately 24 points as a result of poor reliability, without which we would have been much closer to Renault and ahead of Williams.”

The team has raised its sights for 2008 and is now looking at challenging Renault which has re-employed former dual world champion Fernando Alonso, who fled McLaren after a messy season.

“With the same engine as the factory Renault team they, more than any other team, are our barometer,” Horner said.

Red Bull will debut its new RB4 car during the first major test of 2008, at Jerez in mid-January.

With a stable driver line-up and former Honda technical chief Geoff Willis working with design guru Adrian Newey, Horner is confident the team has a good platform to build on its 2007 progress.

“For the first time in our short history, there is continuity within the design group, with our engine partner and with the drivers,” he said.

Horner praised Webber and Coulthard, saying “they did an excellent job for the team in 2007 and remain one of the strongest driver line-ups in F1.”

Red Bull Renault made a big step forwards in 2007 in terms of pure pace, securing 24 championship points, 11 points clear of the heavily-funded Toyota.

But gearbox, clutch and hydraulic failures proved to be ongoing issues with the RB3 as both Webber and Coulthard notched up seven retirements each from the 17 races this year.

Webber's season was highlighted by a third place at the European Grand Prix but the low point was being taken out by Torro Rosso's Sebastian Vettel while running second in the wet Japanese GP.

AAP

Source – SMH

Webber banking on better Bull is a post from: worldwormweb