For once, it's not who takes pole position (Hamilton) that makes the news, but who finishes in second place: Sebastian Vettel with Ferrari. After 38 races, the German driver brought the Ducati back to the front row in the Malaysian Grand Prix at the end of a qualifying session characterized by bad weather, with track conditions that changed three times in the space of a few minutes.
Vettel was able to make the best use of his Ferrari, coming close to pole position by just 74s, won for the second consecutive race by Hamilton (1.49.834, pole number 40 in his career), and keeping behind the other Mercedes of Nico Rosberg, who finished almost half a second behind his teammate, showing the first limits (at least in the wet) of a car that seemed unbeatable: "In these conditions you never know - explained Vettel -, you look around and when it starts to rain you can shuffle the cards a lot. It was a good qualifying session, the car went well in both wet and dry conditions, I'm generally satisfied and also for the race we should be in good shape. But I know that the opponents are difficult to beat, perhaps we are a little closer here, let's wait and see". All the others finished behind, starting with Ricciardo (4th at 1.7), Kvyat (5th at 2.1) and the very young 17-year-old Verstappen, sixth. The Williams were disappointing (Massa 7th, Bottas 9th), the other Ferrari driver Raikkonen only 11th, mocked by the flood in mid-qualifying.
In fact, the twist came between the end of Q1 and the beginning of Q2, when suddenly very black clouds full of rain appeared on the circuit, ready to unleash hell on the Malaysian circuit. It is no coincidence that as soon as the green light came on for Q2, all the riders rushed onto the track knowing that conditions would change drastically shortly thereafter. As indeed it was. The first to exit the pit lane (Vettel, Ricciardo and Rosberg) were the luckiest, managing to complete the first available lap with enough time to not take any risks. For all the others it was roulette: someone went well (Bottas, Massa, Grosjean), someone else (Hamilton in particular), despite being in traffic, managed to snatch a pass into Q3. Raikkonen, on the other hand, stuck in traffic and held back by the first drops of rain that were beginning to fall on the track, finished with the eleventh fastest time, remaining excluded from the fight for pole position. A placement that created some discontent in the Ferrari garage. The Finn said angrily "It wasn't my mistake, I went out when I was told to, it was just a bad management of the times, maybe we should have gone out earlier", the Arrivabene team principal replied "I wouldn't talk of strategy error, it came out that he was fourth. I've always maintained that Kimi can do well with a good car, he needs to concentrate a little more ”. A few minutes later, as often happens in the Malaysian Grand Prix, a violent storm broke out which forced the race directors to interrupt qualifying for over half an hour.
And Alonso? The former Ferrari driver, back on track after missing the Australian Grand Prix due to the after-effects of the accident in the pre-season tests, finished in 18th place with a McLaren in black crisis. The Spaniard also finished behind his team-mate Button (17th), and for someone who until last year complained about a Ferrari that didn't work, finding himself at the back of the grid is a nightmare, especially seeing his former team there front in the front row.
