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[cap-dude]

Buemi. "I was for 4 tenths up, nooooooooooooooooooooo"
Seriously, not my favourite driver. He wasn't ready for F1, and I really do think he'll falter. Sato or Senna would've been a much better fit.

Massa, they made a costly mistake today. They played it dangerously and was saying during Q3, watch Massa drop. Even I knew it was stupid move. But at least they've learnt a lesson today, the hard way. Ferrari just aren't on form. The car looks a handful actually, and personally I think that's the effect KERS is having. The center of gravity is higher and it's affecting the car too much. Again today we saw Kubica not running it and outpacing Heidfeld. KERS is



I've been saying this since Australia, Toyota are the ones to watch. Yesterday at work we were all talking about F1, and I said Toyota are the ones to watch. Everyone just sorta said nothing and thought, what? Why? Button vs Truili. Epic battle for pole position. I was rooting for Truili the whole way. Truili is underrated in my opinion, and that was an phenomenal effort lap after lap. The middle sector was where he was just amazing. He was setting purple lap after lap pushing the car so hard.

Glock starts 3rd, so it looks to be Toyota's best weekend in F1 yet. Unless it rains.

Truili's not bad off the start either, he's had some brilliant starts. Brawn haven't had enough testing and the starts are something I doubt they've concentrated on. Barrichello showed that last week. Not only that, Sepang isn't a track with a dirty side to start. In fact over the last few races at Sepang, 2nd has been the place to start. So expect a challenge into turn 1.

Red Bull have really impressed me. Simply because they're the team that are in the mix with the diffuser bunch. The diffuser gang clearly leading the field. Red Bull will find it harder than most to adapt to the new diffuser because of their unique design. But once they do, they'll be seriously quick. Vettel has already qualified 3rd twice. With that extra advantage, they'll be one heck of a force later in the season.

It should be a good race tomorrow. We'll have Massa, Barrichello, and Vettel all fighting through the feild and the way is set for a great battle at the front. Cannot wait.

[EwanM]

Renault are awful.
But I have one solution that is easily fixed.
Piquet out, Davidson in.

[Denthúl]

Buemi. "I was for 4 tenths up, nooooooooooooooooooooo"
Seriously, not my favourite driver. He wasn't ready for F1, and I really do think he'll falter. Sato or Senna would've been a much better fit.

Sato probably would've put it in the wall at Australia, rather than driving a fine race to pick up points (in his debut, no less). Senna, equally, is not ready for the sport, in my view. But had he not made that mistake, I feel that Buemi would have been lining up ahead of at least one of the McLarens. He's looking better than most people expected.

[bud]

congrats on Button again! who did i tell a Brawn would be on pole???? bud bet i tell ya!!!

[EwanM]

congrats on Button again! who did i tell a Brawn would be on pole???? bud bet i tell ya!!!

How's your odds for the Grand National today then ?

[welshie]

Button . . . . your the man!

[McLaren Fan]

How can Piquet be so bad?, that's what I want to know. He did a solid enough job in GP2, and whilst he may not have been capable of consistently bettering Alonso, he is getting an absolute pasting. If it were a boxing match, the fight would have been stopped ages ago.

[texasmr2]

I stayed up until 4am only to fall asleep waiting for quali , way to go Button , Jarno and Sebastian.

[7UpJordan]

Any news on fuel loads yet? Nico's hinted in his interview that he's got a fair bit of fuel in. If so, that's a good bit of gambling from Williams counting on Vettel and Barrichello's penalties to put him in a good place. I'm surprised though he wasn't as quick in Q1 and Q2.

Still, all shall be revealed when the fuel tank weights are revealed. I wouldn't be surprised if Alonso filled it to the brim, how he got into Q3 is all but a miracle taking into account his illness and the poor handling of the Renault.

Piquet's P45 is probably being sent to print right now...

[EwanM]

Na nothing as of yet, i've been wondering that myself.

[7UpJordan]

If it rains tomorrow Alonso might have handed himself a handy position, because driving in the wet isn't as physically tiring and Alonso isn't exactly shabby in wet conditions either.

[EwanM]

If it rains tomorrow Alonso might have handed himself a handy position, because driving in the wet isn't as physically tiring and Alonso isn't exactly shabby in wet conditions either.

But that Renault is awful, he'll need a miracle lol

[bud]

If it rains tomorrow Alonso might have handed himself a handy position, because driving in the wet isn't as physically tiring and Alonso isn't exactly shabby in wet conditions either.

i think if its wet it would be better for him to have been 11th so he could play with fuel loads.

[cap-dude]

If anyone wants the car weights, there up here.

http://www.fia.com/en-GB/mediacentre/f1 ... event.aspx

Here's James Allen's take on things

The state of play going into the race

April 4, 2009 by James Allen

After a dominant performance in qualifying in Melbourne, Brawn GP has been made to work a lot harder here in Sepang by the Toyota team and I think Toyota can win this race tomorrow.

It looks as though the Brawn is about 2/10ths faster around here than the Toyota, but thats close enough for Trulli and Glock to put real pressure on Button, so he will have to keep the car on the limit, which could be interesting in this heat. Reliability is still not assured for Brawn, look at Barrichello’s gearbox, for example and they have not done much mileage in hot conditions, really only what they’ve done here this weekend.

In contrast Toyota had the most reliable car in winter testing and they did a big mileage in the heat of the Bahrain test. So it’s not going to be comfortable for Button tomorrow.

Let’s look at the fuel weights, just published by the FIA: what strikes me straight away is that Rosberg, Trulli, Glock and Webber are all carrying identical fuel loads. They will pit on lap 15 tomorrow. Looking at their qualifying performances then, we can make a direct comparison on pace. Trulli was half a second faster than Rosberg and Webber, whereas Glock was only a tenth ahead of them. This means that the Toyota, Williams and Red Bull are almost perfectly matched, but that Trulli did an exceptional job in qualifying.

Button has four kilos more fuel than these four drivers and he will probably stop on lap 16. Again this shows that the Brawn has a small margin, but that Trulli excelled himself today.

Kubica lines up sixth tomorrow, with more fuel in his car than the other front runners. He will go to lap 17. With only two laps more fuel in the car than Williams, Toyota and Red Bull and yet three tenths slower, it’s not a great picture for BMW.

As predicted Vettel has gone aggressive on fuel, in order to be able to attack in the race tomorrow from P13 on the grid (thanks to a 10 place penalty) He will stop on lap 11!

To make that work he’s going to have to be able to pass the KERS cars of McLaren, Alonso and Heidfeld, which will not be easy. They are substantially heavier than him - 40 kilos in Hamilton’s case, more for Heidfeld and that should make passable if Vettel really goes for it. I would say that this will be the area to keep an eye on in the opening phase of tomorrow’s GP.

[EwanM]

So Trulli did another one of his Qually wonders? Toyota could win tomorrow! (Weather permitting)