He comes on the radio to say he has a rear flat tyre. It’s a long way back to
the pits for him.
Bianchi in the pits after contact on the first lap.
Hamilton already has more than a 3 second lead over his team mate.
Lap 1 Everyone safely round the first few corners. Hamilton
holds on to the lead, Rosberg holds second, but Vettel has
lost third to team-mate Riccardo.
Alonso down to fifth. Button up to ninth.
09.03 LIGHTS OUT AND AWAY WE GO.
09.02 If it remains dry expect a three-stopper
All lining up now on the grid.
09.00 So quick reminder of how the top ten line up on the grid as they
start the formation lap:
Hamilton takes pole in heavy rain, Vettel 2nd, Rosberg 3rd, Alonso 4th,
Ricciardo 5th, Raikkonen 6th, Hulkenberg 7th, Magnussen 8th, Vergne 9th,
Button 10th
08.57 This hot weather is going to be tough on the tyres at the start
of the race.
All the teams have free-range on the tyres they pick.
Expecting the front teams to be starting on the softer, medium tyre, but we
won’t know until those blankets come off.
08.54 Update on Perez – he is now out of his car in the Force India
garage. Less than 6 minutes until lights out, so this is not looking good
for him at the moment. It looks like the Mexican has got a hydraulics
problem.
08.52 Just a 30pc chance of rain apparently. I’m with Horner – not sure
how much I would trust the forecast.
08.50 Red Bull team principal Christian Horner has been chatting to
David Coutlhard on the grid and is asked why Vettel was late on to the
track.
Horner says that after the monsoon rain of yesterday the team wanted to get a
better feel for the car and were making some last minute adjustments.
Horner also has absolutely no faith in the weather forecasts, which he says
have been wrong all weekend.
Horner – a lot of rain yesterday wanted to get better feel for car, just
making some last minute adjustments.
My money would be on some rain at some point in the race. And when it rains in
Sepang the heavens really open.
08.46 The entire paddock is now paying tribute to the missing Malaysia
Airlines flight MH370 with a minute silence.
Well that was the shortest minute I have known, and now it’s time for the
Malaysian national anthem.
08.44 Problems for Force India’s Sergio Perez stalls down at the end of
the pit lane. His mechanics have run down to him and have pushed him back to
the garage.
08.42 Ferarri team principal Stefano Domenicali talking on BBC now and
say the engineers have been working overnight to fix Alonso’s suspension
that he busted in a crash in qualifying yesterday.
Domenicali says he is hopeful for a podium today, which is possible with
Alonso starting in fourth.
08.39 The pit lane is open which means drivers can jump in their cars
and drive around to the start to take their place on the grid.
08.36 Earlier this week Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton somewhat
worringly said that drivers
were dehydrating themselves to meet weight limit.
In 30 degree heat, as it is today, this could be cause for concern for those
bigger, taller drivers, who Button said were under enormous pressure to lose
weight for fear of costing lap time.
Although the minimum weight limit for car and driver this year has been
increased by nearly 50kg to 691kg, the significantly heavier engines and
their associated electrical equipment have left drivers under enormous
pressure to lose weight, for fear of costing lap time.
Not sure how optional it will be not to take on fluids given how hot it is.
08.31 Earlier today the drivers did the parade around the track in an
open-top bus, but Fernando Alonso decided to stay down on the bottom live in
the air-conditioning.
Here are the drivers getting ready for parade.
08.26 Mercedes has paid a tribute to the missing Malaysia Airlines
flight MH370 on the side of its car this morning.
08.21 Fact of the day courtesy of the BBC.
That does not look like its going to change this weekend, according to Dan
Johnson, who has predicted a podium finish for the Italian team, namely
Fernando Alonso, who he thinks will finish behind Hamilton and Rosberg – in
that order.
08.15 View from the track ….Dan Johnson is on the track in Sepang and
has sent over his curtain raiser for the day.
Malaysia was one of the most eventful races of 2013, with team orders
affecting both Red Bull and Mercedes, and we can only hope for the same this
year.
There was absolutely torrential rain yesterday before qualifying, but so
far it is absolutely scorching in Sepang. Too hot, if you ask me.
For once I’m hoping for a dry race. Mercedes are still thought to be the
team to beat, so seeing how Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg match up in what
should be a straight fight will be fascinating. We were denied the
opportunity in Melbourne, after Hamilton’s retirement, so bizarrely it is
fingers crossed both Mercedes make it to the finish in decent shape.
Red Bull should also be a factor. They looked amazingly impressive
(considering their pre-season) in Friday practice, and Sebastian Vettel
starts from second.
Away from the racing, all the hubub in Sepang is surrounding Bernie
Ecclestone, and rumours he is planning to launch an attempt to buy back
Formula One. Accordingly to a creditable German motorsport magazine, his
plans are reasonably advanced and gaining legs with each passing day. With
that, his trial in April, as well as the Red Bull hearing over their
disqualification, the next month promises to be a hugely eventful one for
Formula One.
Temperatures hitting 31 degrees at the moment, with a track temperature of 50
degrees. Scorchio!!
08.00 Morning all. Hopefully you have remembered to turn your clocks
forward.
We are off to Sepang for the Malaysian Grand Prix, with lights out at 9am UK
time. At the moment the sun is shining, but the weather can change pretty
quickly, so I wouldn’t rule out the torrential rain saw during qualifying
yesterday.
Lewis Hamilton is slowly clawing his way into the pantheon of British greats
after he grabbed pole yesterday, to join the much-revered Jim Clark on 33
career pole positions; a British record which has stood since 1968.
But the Malaysian Grand Prix is also one Hamilton has so far failed to add to
his bow.
After coming through an “all over the place” qualifying hour, the 29-year-old
will need to be at his sharpest to keep reigning world champion Sebastian
Vettel, who showed further signs of Red Bull’s resurgence, and will join him
on the front row – a vast improvement from the German who couldn’t even make
Q3 in Australia.
Meanwhile it was an average qualifying for McLaren, with Kevin Magnussen
eighth and Jenson Button 10th – not what they would have been hoping for
after their double podium in the first race.
Stay with us as we bring you build up and lap-by-lap coverage of the opening
race of the season.
Get in touch with your thoughts. Who will win the title, which team-mates will
fall out first and is this really Lewis Hamilton’s year?