Adam Cooper F1

Nico Rosberg lost out to team mate Lewis Hamilton in Malaysian GP qualifying, and will start third for the second race in a row.

At the end of Q3 Rosberg pulled off a cheeky move when he passed Sebastian Vettel as he prepared to start his final lap.

“It was either me or him, and I decided it was going to be me!,” said Rosberg. “He didn’t see me. You never see in your mirrors, he didn’t see me coming, so it worked out OK for me. It wasn’t an ideal lap anyways, because I had to still be pretty close to Ricciardo, and the last part of the flying lap I couldn’t see where I was going, because I was too close.”

Nico said he wasn’t too upset at losing out to Hamilton and Vettel.

“They were a little bit quicker, both of them, on the full wets. On the inters I was more comfortable, but on full wets a little bit less comfortable, and I think they were just a bit quicker. It’s Ok. It’s a good place to start from tomorrow, anything’s possible from there in the race. I prepared well for the race on Friday, so it should be good.”

Asked if Sebastian Vettel’s wet pace was a sign that RBR is catching up, he had an interesting view point: “We don’t need warning signals, we’re expecting them already. They’re still the absolute benchmark in this sport, and they’re pushing like crazy, so we expect them to close the gap.”

Valtteri Bottas has been given a three-place grid penalty for an impeding incident in Malaysian GP qualifying involving Daniel Ricciardo.

The Finn, who drops from 15th to 18th, has also been given two super licence penalty points. He’s the first driver to accrue points under the new system – 12 points in 12 months will trigger a one-race ban.

Bottas was adamant that he was not at fault, but the stewards decided that he “did not pay attention to the approaching car and continued to impede car 3 through Turns 14 and 15.”

He endured a troubled session, as Williams struggled to get both its cars out on the right tyres at the right time.

“It was a difficult qualifying session for us today and it was very reminiscent of our qualifying in Melbourne,” said Bottas. “The more water there was on track the more we struggled with the rear grip of the car. We tried both the intermediates and the wets but we just couldn’t get the grip we needed from either tyre.

“The wet conditions highlight where our weaknesses are, so we have a clear direction for where we need to improve the car. I still think we have a chance of fighting for some points though if we have a dry race.”

The FIA’s Charlie Whiting is confident that the rules regarding the measurement of fuel flow are clear, despite Red Bull’s assertion to the contrary.

In Australia Daniel Ricciardo was found guilty of breaching Article 5.1.4 of the 2014 Technical Regulations, which says simply: “Fuel mass flow must not exceed 100kg/h.”

It does not say how that figure is to be measured, and Red Bull sees that as a key element of its case. The team also says that technical directives issued by Whiting, and which refer to the sensors, have no regulatory value.

However, later in the Technical Regulations there is a clear reference to the FIA sensor. Article 5.10.3 reads: “Homologated sensors must be fitted which directly measure the pressure, the temperature and the flow of the fuel supplied to the injectors, these signals must be supplied to the FIA data logger.”

The following 5.10.4 adds: “Only one homologated FIA fuel flow sensor may be fitted to the car which must be placed wholly within the fuel tank.”

Both rules were referenced by the Australian GP stewards in their judgement on Ricciardo.

Asked by this writer in a media briefing whether he felt that 5.10.3 compensates for the fact that the actual 100kg/h rule makes no specific reference to measurement, Whiting was adamant.

“Absolutely,” he said. “Article 5.10 makes it quite clear in my view that the only way that the fuel flow will be measured is with the homologated sensor. As you probably know Gill is the only sensor that is homologated by the FIA. So for me it’s perfectly clear.”

Earlier this writer had asked Christian Horner about the reference to the sensor. He said: “There isn’t [one]. Which rule is that? There’s nothing that makes reference to the FIA sensor, it’s purely technical directives. There a regulation 8.2.4 that I think you are referring to, that is a sensor is anyway invalid it’s the team’s responsibility to run within the regulations.”

For the record 8.2.4 reads: “If sensor faults or errors are detected by the driver or by the on-board software, back-up sensors may be used and different settings may be manually or automatically selected. However, any back-up sensor or new setting chosen in this way must not enhance the performance of the car. Any driver default turned on during the start lockout period may not be turned off before the end of that period.”

Nico Rosberg set the pace in Malaysia on Friday, but the Mercedes driver admitted that keeping his tyres in good shape was a major concern.

“It was a decent day,” said Rosberg. “It was very, very hot, tough for the car and tough for the tyres. We never expected so much tyre degradation, it’s just massive degradation out there, which is a big challenge. For sure there will be lots of different strategies. With the tyres, anything can happen.”

Rosberg said there were no issues with fuel conservation.

“It’s not a problem this year, especially this track, it’s not on the limit here. That’s not unusual in any way, it’s like last year. We’re just focussing more on the tyres and getting the long runs done.”

Regarding his personal battle with Lewis Hamilton, he said: “Definitely it will be close, it will always be close I think, and I need to try and stay ahead. Being on pole does help, just getting that clean start and getting away from the front is always a big advantage at the beginning of the race.”

Renault Sport insists that it has got to the bottom of the problems suffered in Australia.

Although three of its cars made the top 10, the other five Renault powered cars failed to see the flag, albeit for a variety of reasons.

“After a difficult race in Australia we are really looking forward to Malaysia,” said head of track operations Remi Taffin. “We had several issues across the cars in Melbourne but we have recreated the problems in the dyno at Viry. Most are fixed and the remaining will be under control by Friday in Sepang. While we anticipate further issues may occur we are much more able to react quickly to minimize their impact.”

Intriguingly Taffin pointed out that Sepang will be one of the toughest races of the year for the V6 part of the new power unit.

“Sepang is one of the circuits whose technical requirements will change under the new regulations. In the V8 era the circuit sat towards the middle of the table for the challenge it posed for engines, but now it will be one of the toughest races of the year.

“Of the six main components of the PU, the internal combustion engine will be under the most pressure in Malaysia. The humidity in Sepang made it a little bit easier on normally aspirated engines, since power comes down as the water content in the air increases. This means we were generally able to offset the impact of the two long straights.

“This year we won’t have this luxury. With a turbo engine the air intake is controlled at all times regardless of ambient conditions so those long straights will really start to hurt. As a result Sepang will become a lot less forgiving as twice a lap the PUs will be flat out, with the turbo revving at close to 100,000rpm for over 10secs.”

He also pinpointed the role of energy recovery in Malaysia: “The straights, which are over 1km each, will however provide plenty of opportunity for the MGU-H to be recharged. The tight corners such as the T15 hairpin, the first corner complex and the mid to low speed corners in the third sector will allow the MGU-K to recover energy under braking. With relatively high fuel consumption due to the short bursts of acceleration between turns, getting maximum energy from these opportunities will be incredibly important.”