The entire qualifying session was affected by rain. When Q1 got underway the temperature was only 14 degrees Celsius and the track was wet. Maldonado was unable to take part in the qualifying due to an engine problem that had occurred in the final practice session. Some drivers started to Q1 with full wets whilst the others had chosen the intermediate tyres. Hamilton who topped the time sheets in the first session had set his lap time with full wets whilst Hulkenberg in his Force India (P2) had chosen the intermediate rubber. Gutierrez at the wheel of his C33 was the first man to be knocked out of Q2 which wasn´t a surprise. It was worrying to see that once again Kimi was struggling at the wheel of his Ferrari and the Iceman seemed to be lacking pace compared to his team-mate. Kimi was only the 14th fastest in Q1.
In Q2 the intermediate rubber was the right tyre choice. As always in rain-hit qualifying, there were some major surprises this time as well. McLaren who seemed so competitive at the season-opener in Australia had suddenly lost their performance! Both McLaren drivers were unable to make it through to the final session (Button qualified 12th and Magnussen 15th). At personal level it was much more disappointing to see that Kimi also got knocked out of Q3! Kimi was over a second slower than his team-mate Alonso! A really frustrating qualifying session for the Iceman: he struggled with the balance of the car and had problems with downshifting as well. So P11 was all the Finn could achieve today :( Another surprise was to see Grosjean in Lotus making his way in to the final session! Lotus was definitely one of the teams that benefitted most from the wet conditions.
Q3 held some further surprises though pole-setter was once again no surprise! Hamilton snatched the third pole of the season. It was the 34th career pole for the Briton which made Hamilton the new British record holder and 4th on the all-time list. Hamilton was almost 6 tenths of a second faster than his rivals so no doubt about the fastest man on track today! Rosberg on the other hand was unable to make it on the front row but qualified only 4th. Ricciardo at the wheel of his RB10 completed the front row and his team-mate Sebastian in P3 was beaten by his team-mate with half-a-second gap! To be honest, it really hurt to see Sebastian getting beaten by his Aussie team-mate. Ricciardo has outqualified Sebastian already three times this season! So not an easy start to the season for Sebastian. I´m sure we´ll see some action-packed wheel-to-wheel racing tomorrow by the Red Bull team-mates!
Alonso qualified 5th in front of the Williams duo (Massa in P6 and Bottas in P7). It was a delight to see that despite of the rainy conditions Williams were able to maintain their performance and fight for good grid slots. Although I´d have preferred to see Bottas ahead of his Brasilian team-mate. So there will be some intense battling between the Williams team-mates as well! Hulkenberg in Force India (P8), Vergne in Toro Rosso (P9) and Grosjean in Lotus (P10) completed the top ten.
The weather forecast says it should be a dry race tomorrow. Let´s see if the Red Bulls will be able to match Mercedes´s pace in the dry. Hopefully it will be a problem-free race for both my favourites! Kimi has definitely had his fair share of the technical issues so I hope his car will behave brilliantly tomorrow! Sebastian has also been struggling with the new car more than his team-mate. But Mercedes still have the edge over their rivals so I´d me amazed if somebody other than Hamilton or Rosberg won the race tomorrow. I´m also confident that without technical issues Kimi can score some decent points. I really hope I´ll soon see this series of setbacks coming to an end. Ferrari now have a new team principal Marco Mattiacci as Stefano Domenicali chose to step down earlier this week. But there´re no instant miracles despite the new leadership. Just hope that Kimi´ll be given a drivable car soon!
I just saw a touching interview of Sebastian Vettel on Finnish TV. He shared deep thoughts about life and what makes him happy. The German Red Bull ace reminded that we only have limited time here so you should enjoy the present moment and do what makes you happy. So let´s watch Formula 1 and write about it -that is what makes me so happy in life!
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