World championship leader struggles for pace in Sepang qualifying session, as team-mate Kovalainen admits: That was our maximum.
Lewis Hamilton has held his hand up to not having made the most of the qualifying session for this weekend's Malaysian Grand Prix - the second round of the 2008 Formula 1 World Championship - but the McLaren-Mercedes ace was keen to stress that 'anything can happen' in the race.
The young Briton will begin the race around the Sepang International Circuit from fourth on the grid - his lowest qualifying position since the Belgian Grand Prix last September and one that he was lucky was not significantly worse, as Jarno Trulli, Robert Kubica and Nick Heidfeld all got to within five hundredths of his best effort in the dying seconds, and the German would most likely have relegated him to row three had he not been severely compromised by slow traffic on his final run.
Hamilton struggled for grip throughout the session and indeed found himself in the unaccustomed position of having to go out for a late 'safety' run at the end of Q2 in order to protect his spot within the top ten. Despite that, the Melbourne winner and world championship leader insisted that all was not lost.
"There didn't seem to be as much grip in the tyres during the final session," the 23-year-old admitted, "and I just struggled a bit. Also it was tough finding a gap in the traffic, which had an effect on my ability to warm up the brakes and manage the tyres.
"To be honest I didn't do a perfect job today, and I will study the data to see how I can go faster tomorrow. We have to stay positive, though, as we are still in a good position and anything can happen in the race."
Team-mate Heikki Kovalainen - out of luck in Australia last weekend - made a rather better fist of things in the sister MP4-23, outpacing Hamilton to line up third, albeit a gaping nine tenths of a second shy of pole-sitter Felipe Massa in the Ferrari. The Finn was quick to underline that he was continuing to take his McLaren apprenticeship simply 'step-by-step'.
"I am pleased to have qualified third for the second consecutive time," the 26-year-old commented afterwards. "Of course, we would have preferred a position on the front row, but Felipe and Kimi [Raikkonen] have been strong here all weekend and as a result third place is the maximum we could achieve.
"I have improved step-by-step throughout all the sessions, and my lap in the third qualifying was really good. Now we have to wait and see how the strategies will unfold in the race. With rain expected tomorrow, anything could be possible."
Team principal Ron Dennis and Mercedes-Benz Motorsport Vice-President Norbert Haug echoed his drivers' sentiments that Sunday would be another day, and hinted at the cars having carried more fuel than their chief scarlet rivals, somewhat mitigating the outward deficit in performance.
"A good job by both drivers," Dennis praised, "with two solid grid positions for tomorrow's race. Obviously it would be preferable to be starting from the first rather than second row, but we fully expected to face stronger competition here this weekend and we are comfortable with our race strategy."
"Both McLaren-Mercedes' on the second row is a good basis for tomorrow's grand prix," concurred Haug. "Congratulations to Ferrari on their front row qualifying, but with the predicted rainfall everything will be possible in tomorrow's race."
