Second qualifying session of 2014, second wet one. This being Malaysia, today’s downpour was torrentially tropical and began a full hour before the 4 o’clock start, which was then delayed by 50 minutes. In Melbourne, Fernando and Kimi qualified fifth and eleventh while here, the Spaniard improved by one, to fourth on Row 2 and the Finn went up five places to sixth on Row 3.

It’s too early to talk of a monopoly, but Mercedes man Lewis Hamilton followed up his Albert Park pole with another one here in Sepang. Sebastian Vettel secured a front row start in second place for Red Bull and Fernando has Melbourne winner Nico Rosberg alongside him, while Kimi will have Daniel Ricciardo for company at the start.

Having got through Q1, Fernando had a worrying start to Q2, when Daniil Kvyat dived inside him in the Toro Rosso. The inevitable collision left the Spaniard’s F14 T with broken steering on the left corner. Very often, that type of damage can be fatal, but the Scuderia mechanics did a brilliant job of changing the components and getting him out again to fight back into Q3, even if there had been no time to readjust the alignment of the front wheels, which makes the double world champion’s Q3 lap all the more remarkable. As we knew, Kimi wasn’t so happy with the feeling from his car especially in the wet, but if you could see his ‘on-board’ footage, you would understand the meaning of the word ‘commitment!

Tomorrow’s race? Rain is an ever-present threat so predictions are impossible, but the podium has to be the Prancing Horse target.

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