Apr.4 (GMM) Ferrari's form dissolved into a nightmare in Sepang qualifying.
Felipe Massa and his crew committed a strategy catastrophe, comfortable to sit out the final 'Q1' dash but ultimately watching the field go quicker and strand him at sixteenth on the grid.Kimi Raikkonen made a similar mistake but scraped through, ultimately however qualifying just ninth on the grid, despite being the pre-qualifying favourite.Melbourne pole sitter and winner Jenson Button was therefore delightedly surprised to be on top at Sepang, although Toyota's Jarno Trulli kept him honest, racing to within a tenth of the Briton.Rubens Barrichello admitted the "bad taste" of not only qualifying fourth in the other Brawn with understeer, but now dropping to ninth with his penalty for an unscheduled gearbox change.Sebastian Vettel had even more pace in his Red Bull, appearing in the top-3 qualifying press conference, but his penalty for crashing into Robert Kubica a week ago drops him to a draconian thirteen.Fernando Alonso told reporters after the session that his ear infection has improved overnight, but was disappointed with the Renault, admitting that tenth place "is what we deserve".Both McLarens are outside of the top ten, and Toro Rosso's rookie Sebastien Buemi brings up the rear of the grid.
