Sauber: Only Ericsson is top ten on qualifying at Sepang

In qualifying for the Malaysian Grand Prix the weather once again played an important role. Q1 was held in dry conditions, but in Q2 a tropical rain storm came, which meant the first laps were crucial. Marcus Ericsson put in a great performance and made it into Q3 with P10, while Felipe Nasr only missed out on Q2 by a narrow margin. He was 16th.

Marcus Ericsson (Qualifying: 10th in Q3 - 1:53.261 min): “It has been a great weekend so far. I was able to finish every session in a top ten position, and we can be satisfied to have repeated that in Qualifying. In dry as well as wet conditions I felt comfortable in the car. At the end of Q3 we were quite close to our competitors, which is positive. It was another good day for us, so we can be happy with today’s result. Tomorrow we have a promising chance to again score points.”

Felipe Nasr (Qualifying: 16th in Q1 - 1:41.308 min): “After the third free practice session we saw that we were still struggling with the rear tyres. In qualifying we seemed to have found something. However, on my second run on the medium tyres the rear wheels locked in Turn 4, and I lost time there. It has not been an easy weekend for me. We need to review what happened and learn for tomorrow. I’m already looking forward to the race. We know our car is competitive in race conditions, so I am confident about making up some positions.”

Monisha Kaltenborn, Team Principal: “This is a qualifying result which has showed again our potential, but mainly with one car. For Marcus it was an excellent personal performance. With this starting position we surely have good chances of scoring points, and we will do our best to achieve that. During the whole weekend Felipe had issues with the balance of the car, but was able to make a good step forward in qualifying. Therefore it is a pity he could not make it into Q2. Now it is important that we all focus together with Felipe on the race tomorrow, as the chances are there.”

Giampaolo Dall’Ara, Head of Track Engineering: “Once again an interesting qualifying, as so often happens here. It started quite smoothly, but unfortunately we lost Felipe in Q1. Marcus did a good job finishing quite high up in Q1, and then it was a matter of tactics with this big thunderstorm coming. In Q2 we decided to line up at the front, which helped us later to get clear of traffic. In Q3 we opted for a conservative approach and sent Marcus out on full wet tyres, before he came in to get intermediates. Congratulation to Marcus on a good performance.”

Sauber F1 Team