"Cato Batista" 28/03/2015 14:50:17 ID #726

Ladies and Gentlemen,

The rain came down to shake things up a little, but not for HAM who got the pole after almost missing Q3. VET broke the Mercedes front-row stronghold pushing ROS to 3rd, but RAI was left out of the shootout in the mixed wet conditions of Q2 that caught many drivers with the wrong compound. The 90% prediction of rain was fully vindicated at the start of Q2 when the cars had got halfway through their first flying lap and the skies opened. Red Bull took advantage of the situation placing its drivers in 4th and 5th, the opposite of Williams that could only got 6th & 9th when they had the speed to be higher up in the grid. Same mixed results for Toro Rosso with one car each in the top 10, as well as GRO’s Lotus in 8th but will have to serve a 2-grid penalty for a pit lane infraction.

Erik somehow had the vision to place ROS in 3rd to take QF honours with 2 points as 15 of us had to settle for single marks thanks to HAM on pole. Even though we had more VETs than RAIs in the top 3 none of us was able to predict the right combo. It’s was basically an opportunity lost for all us except one...

The grid for tomorrow:

HAM VET ROS RIC KVY MAS VET BOT ERI GRO

Pirelli brought the medium and hard compounds to this abrasive surface thinking of a 2 stop strategy for the 56 laps, but it is rainy season in this part of the world at this time of the year and the forecast for 3pm Sunday calls for 67% chances of precipitation.

Not only we have a difficult starting grid to work out our predictions but now we have to seriously consider wet conditions during the race. It’s going to be exciting, I tell you that. Passing is possible in Sepang with its 2 contiguous long straights under DRS.

In 16 races the poleman has won 9; VET has won 3 of the last 5, HAM score pole-fastest lap -victory last year. RIC has never score points in Malaysia.

And here we go, lots to choose from, bring out your lucky charms!

Cato - HAM ROS VET MAS RAI RIC

Good luck, enjoy the race!