So, the red flag has been thrown in Malaysia with 07:17 minutes remaining of the 3rd qualifying session.

New rules introduced this season mean that qualifying has a 3-hour window to finish from when the lights go green in Q1. The time as I type this is 09:55, and the session started at 09:00 meaning whatever happens today we need to have wrapped things up by 12:00. That’s if it doesn’t get too dark first.

The session was certainly an eventful one, as the Ferrari’s of Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso didn’t make it out of Q1. Neither did Lewis Hamilton, team mate Jenson Button did make it through to Q2 – but aquaplaned off of the track at turn 5 and beached his McLaren in the gravel. As the car could not be recovered to the pits he could not take any further part in the session.

Whilst the prospect of rain is usually a welcome addition to a grand prix weekend, with it often mixing the grids up on a Saturday – rain in Malaysia is a rare beast and has the prospect of ruining a weekend. I wrote about my thoughts in this post. We’ll get a 5 minute warning if we get going again…