Girls Like F1 Too!: Vettel Takes Pole Position In Malaysia

With a hot and humid track, round two of the 2013 Formula One season got under way. Qualifying began in even hotter conditions than FP3, with a track temperature of 41 degrees Celsius. Q1 began and it seemed that the teams and drivers were all about preserving the tyres. No one was spotted out on track until nearly two minutes in.

First man out on track was the young British driver, Max Chilton. Driving for Marussia F1. Followed closely by his teammate Jules Bianchi, and Valtteri Bottas. As many readers may have realized by now, this writer is a big fan of the smaller teams, the "backmarkers" if you will. So when the bigger teams hold their drivers back for tyre conservation, it is nice to see these other teams getting camera time.

Though Bianchi had only set a decent time of 1:40.053 as the first recorded lap, he still manages to impress many people with his ability behind the wheel of an F1 car.

As the time ticked down in Q1, he pair of Red Bulls finally made their first appearance on track with approximately six minutes left. Even though the cameras were set on the youngest triple world champion, Vettel, Force India's Adrian Sutil pulled out the fastest time in Q1 with a 1:36.809.

Q2 and it seemed that the weather was not going to hold off. With just over six minutes to go in Q2, the rain began to fall. Catching some driver's off guard. Force India's Paul di Resta saw his chance of making it into Q3 end. The Scot had been set to go fastest early on but had to abort his lap. His subsequent efforts saw him run wide, then later have a multiple spin, as the track became super-slippery.

The second session of qualifying saw Nico Rosberg set the pace with a 1:36.190.

The rain, while not as heavy as previously in afternoons, showed very little sign of stopping prior to Q3. Even though the track and ambient temperatures stayed the same, the teams and drivers decided that intermediate tyres became the new order of the day.

In a session completely turned on his head with the weather, the track was continually evolving. Sutil set the early pace before his time was beaten by Perez... then Hamilton... then Rosberg... then Vettel.

In the final runs, Webber went fastest only for Hamilton to beat his time. But right at the end Alonso snatched the honours away from Alonso, right before before Vettel, moments later, redefined pole position time. Just to add insult to injury, Fernando Alonso was bumped to third by teammate Felipe Massa.


Sebastian Vettel	P1
Felipe Massa	P2
Fernando Alonso	P3
Lewis Hamilton	P4
Mark Webber	P5
Nico Rosberg	P6
Jenson Button	P7
Adrian Sutil	P8
Sergio Perez	P9
Kimi Räikkönen	P10
Romain Grosjean	P11
Nico Hulkenberg	P12
Daniel Ricciardo	P13
Estaban Gutiérrez	P14
Paul di Resta	P15
Pastor Maldonado	P16
Jean-Éric Vergne	P17
Valtteri Bottas	P18
Jules Bianchi	P19
Charles Pic	P20
Max Chilton	P21
Giedo van der Garde	P22