Malaysian Grand Prix Qualifying

Just a few quick observations on this morning's qualifying session from Sepang.

If not wholly surprising that the McLaren team monopolised the front row of the grid, there were some interesting developments behind them. 

The major talking point may well be Michael Schumacher's creditable effort to end up in third position. Although this is not altogether a shock, when taking account of Mercedes' testing form, it will give a boost to the seven-time champion, and perhaps mollify some of those who have been questioning his continued presence in Grand Prix racing.  It remains to be seen whether the team can improve on its rather anti-climactic outing in the race in Melbourne.

One of the pleasing aspects of the session was the solid and convincing form of Lotus, with both cars in the top ten, even though Kimi Raikkonen will start from tenth place because of his penalty.  A heartening state of affairs, and the approval for Raikkonen's comeback becomes slightly less qualified by the hour.

Many people expected Red Bull to return to something like their "rightful" place in the scheme of things in Malaysia, but things have not quite worked out that way. They are not sounding in any way downcast, but there still appears to be room for improvement in some elements of the car's performance, and the decision by hedge their bets on strategy is quite revealing.  We shall see what, if anything, Red Bull have up their sleeves for the race.

Not unexpectedly, Ferrari continue to struggle, with Alonso striving manfully to extract some performance from the car, and Massa, rightly or wrongly, continuing to be under the microscope.  The margin of their deficit on the stopwatch to the top teams should be the concern, rather than the grid position.  A damage limitation exercise may be the limit of their hopes in tomorrow's contest.

So, McLaren in the driving seat, but others could well have a say in how tomorrow pans out.  Almost everybody is mentioning tyres as the major imponderable.....