Ross Brawn has admitted he’s a little disappointed to have seen his cars qualify fourth and sixth in Malaysia, believing they had the pace to be higher.
Lewis Hamilton will start behind the Red Bull of Sebastian Vettel and the Ferraris, whilst team-mate Nico Rosberg, who had been fastest in the dry Q2 running, will start two places further back.
Team principal Brawn admitted he would have been happy with such a result in the closing races of 2012, but he was ‘disappointed’ with the positions considering their form.
“I don’t think we were able to see the full potential of the cars in the dry, but I think we’re certainly top six in terms of our cars,” he said. “So I think it’s a measure of where we are right now that we’re disappointed with fourth and sixth. Fourth and sixth would have been very welcome in the second half of last year, this year we’re a bit disappointed.”
When asked if he would also be disappointed to finish in those positions tomorrow, he replied: “It would be OK. There are worse positions, and there are better positions. I think the drivers have worked really well this weekend, and the engineers have worked really well to have the car that we want to have. If that all comes together in the race, then fourth and sixth probably would be a bit of a disappointment.”
Hamilton is hoping for dry conditions on Sunday after the team showed good race pace during practice.
“It’s the second race on the second row for me and there are lots of positives to take out of the weekend so far,” he said. “Our long run pace looked pretty good compared to the other teams so I’m hoping for dry conditions tomorrow.”
