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By Emanuele Venturoli| Posted March 28, 2014 | In Formula1, MotoGP, Sport News, Sport Sponsorship, Sports Marketing
Lewis Hamilton has taken pole position for the 2014 Malaysian Grand Prix at the Sepang International Circuit. The Mercedes driver scored his second pole position in two races, after a similar wet qualifying to the Australian race two weeks ago.
Sebastian Vettel was only six hundredths of a second down on Hamilton and took second place on the grid ahead of Nico Rosberg.
Q1:
With Hamilton and Rosberg having taken first and second in the final practice, Mercedes were hoping for a front row lock-out as qualifying approached.
Qualifying was delayed by fifty minutes due to a downpour of rain, almost a tradition of the Malaysian Grand Prix. All the cars queued up at the end of the pit-lane to head out on track, with the two Silver Arrows leading the field away.
A majority of the field were out on the Intermediate tyres, with Nico Rosberg taking the provisional top spot ahead of Hamilton. Daniel Ricciardo moved up into third, with his team-mate Vettel returning to the garage with a problem.
Sebastian’s RB10 was soon back up and running after a restart for his energy recovery system. The world champion got back out on track and immediately jumped up into third place, four tenths off of Rosberg.
The McLaren’s didn’t the same pace as they had in Australia, with Magnussen 12th and Button in the drop-out zone as the clock ticked down into the final few minutes of the session. Button managed to drag his McLaren into the next session, knocking out Pastor Maldonado in his Lotus in the process.
Adrian Sutil seemed to struggle throughout the session and had to settle for 18th place ahead of Bianchi, Kobayashi, Chilton and Ericsson. The two Caterham drivers were desperate to out qualify the Marussia’s as it was one of the home races for the team.
Ericsson seemed a little too desperate however as he lost control of his car on the exit of turn three and smacked the barrier before slewing back onto the circuit; narrowly missing Esteban Gutierrez in the Sauber. The Swedish driver had never driven a Formula One car in wet conditions and managed to climb out of the cockpit, with the experience certainly making an impact on the young rookie!
Out of Q1:
POS | Driver | Team | Time |
17 | Pastor Maldonado | Lotus | 2’02.074 |
18 | Adrian Sutil | Sauber | 2’02.131 |
19 | Jules Bianchi | Marussia | 2’02.702 |
20 | Kamui Kobayashi | Caterham | 2’03.595 |
21 | Max Chilton | Marussia | 2’04.388 |
22 | Marcus Ericsson | Caterham | 2’04.407 |
Q2:
Once again the Mercedes were at the head of the queue at the start of the second session. The rain had intensified near the end of the first session, which meant that most of the drivers were on full wet tyres. Ferrari were an exception with both cars on the Intermediates. The decision looked to be a mistake as Raikkonen complained of aquaplaning.
Alonso wasn’t very lucky either, with the Spaniard coming into contact with rookie Daniil Kvyat when the Russian attempted to pass on the inside. The contact left Alonso with a broken suspension rod and debris on the circuit which bought out the red flag. Alonso managed to get his car back to the pits, with the Ferrari mechanics able to fix the car very quickly.
With the session back under-way, Lewis Hamilton took the provisional top spot, one second ahead of Rosberg in the sister Mercedes. The two Red Bulls soon split the Silver Arrows, with Vettel in second ahead of Ricciardo in third. Rosberg then managed to fight back in the final minutes to retake second.
A battle ensued for the final few positions for the top ten shoot-out. With six minutes remaining, Gutierrez, Massa, Button, Kvyat, Bottas and Vergne were all in the drop-zone.
Button managed to scrape his car into tenth place, with team-mate Magnussen having a moment at the final hairpin. The rookie lost control of his car and ended up in the gravel trap, but somehow managed to coax his car out and back into the pit-lane. There would be no more running in Q2 for the Dane who was in 8th, so it was a nervous final few minutes as he waited to see whether anyone would knock him out.
Button improved up into 8th place, with Kvyat moving into tenth. Vergne then popped in a lap that was just quicker than his team-mate’s to put him up into the top ten shoot-out.
Valtteri Bottas had a poor qualifying down in 15th, but was then given a three place grid penalty for impeding Daniel Ricciardo during the session.
Out in Q2:
POS | Driver | Team | Time |
11 | Daniil Kvyat | Toro Rosso | 2’02.351 |
12 | Esteban Gutierrez | Sauber | 2’02.369 |
13 | Felipe Massa | Williams | 2’02.460 |
14 | Sergio Perez | Force India | 2’02.511 |
15 | Valtteri Bottas | Williams | 2’02.756 |
16 | Romain Grosjean | Lotus | 2’02.885 |
Q3:
For once it wasn’t the Mercedes cars who were the first out on track, with Raikkonen and Button being the first to emerge. Both Button and Magnussen took a gamble to go on the Intermediate tyres, with Kevin soon peeling into the pits, complaining that it was too wet.
Raikkonen set the first time with a 2’01.218, but it was annihilated by Hamilton a few seconds later who put in a 1’59.4 to take the provisional pole position. Sebastian Vettel came through on his first lap to go a few hundredths slower than Lewis. Fernando Alonso set the third fastest time ahead of Nico Rosberg in fourth.
The drivers came in for a change of tyres and reared themselves up for a final lap for pole. The rain was intensifying slightly, which meant that it was becoming increasingly difficult for anybody to improve upon their times.
There was a traffic jam heading into the final hairpin as all the drivers tried to get some space for their final attempts. Sebastian Vettel made an uncharacteristic mistake in backing up too much. The chequered flag came out just before Vettel crossed the line, which meant that the German didn’t get another attempt at pole.
Rosberg did however, but he couldn’t dethrone Hamilton from the top-spot and had to settle for third as he jumped ahead of Fernando Alonso. Hamilton tried to improve upon his lap, but made a mistake and ran wide at turn four. This didn’t matter however, as he had already secured pole position for the Malaysian Grand Prix; equalling Jim Clarks record of 33 pole positions.
2014 Malaysian Grand Prix provisional grid:
POS | Driver | Team | Time |
1 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1’59.431 |
2 | Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull | 1’59.486 |
3 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 2’00.050 |
4 | Fernando Alonso | Ferrari | 2’00.175 |
5 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull | 2’00.541 |
6 | Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | 2’01.218 |
7 | Nico Hulkenburg | Force India | 2’01.712 |
8 | Kevin Magnussen | McLaren | 2’02.213 |
9 | Jean-Eric Vergne | Toro Rosso | 2’03.078 |
10 | Jenson Button | McLaren | 2’04.053 |
11 | Daniil Kvyat | Toro Rosso | 2’02.351 |
12 | Esteban Gutierrez | Sauber | 2’02.369 |
13 | Felipe Massa | Williams | 2’02.460 |
14 | Sergio Perez | Force India | 2’02.511 |
15 | Romain Grosjean | Lotus | 2’02.885 |
16 | Pastor Maldonado | Lotus | 2’02.074 |
17 | Adrian Sutil | Sauber | 2’02.131 |
18 | Valtteri Bottas* | Williams | 2’02.756 |
19 | Jules Bianchi | Marussia | 2’02.702 |
20 | Kamui Kobayashi | Caterham | 2’03.595 |
21 | Max Chilton | Marussia | 2’04.388 |
22 | Marcus Ericsson | Caterham | 2’04.407 |
*Three place penalty for impeding for Valtteri Bottas.
Lewis Hamilton, 1st place: “I’m all over the place at the moment. I’m really happy with how well we’ve done over the weekend, but today was incredible – how heavy was the rain? It was tricky out there for everyone because at the end it was almost impossible to see. I couldn’t see where the track went, where the corners were, where to brake. I had to bail out of my final fast lap, so it was very close.”
Sebastian Vettel, 2nd place: “At the beginning of Q1, the heartbeat was rising very quickly when we realised there was an issue. I came in, we restarted the car and that seemed to solve the problem. After that it was fine. It was good to go out and get another feel in the wet conditions. Q3 was not perfect. I would have loved to have a second go. My first attempt, I felt there was time to gain here and there. It was very close, too close. I should be on the good side for tomorrow but it depends on how good the start is. I’m happy with the result.”
Nico Rosberg, who finished third: “I was a little bit less comfortable on the full wets, especially braking. But third is still a decent place to be – who knows what the weather is going to do tomorrow? I’m looking forward to the race now, to try and make the most of third.”
By Jordan Groves Formula 1 correspondent for RTR RTR Sports Marketing - Sport Sponsorship Agency
Are you ready to explore the transformative power of athlete sponsorship for your brand? Click here to learn more about how sponsorship can help brands grow and thrive in the exciting world of motorsports.
A graduate in Public, Social and Political Communication from the University of Bologna, he has always been passionate about marketing, design and sport.
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Read MoreIn an era where it is possible to get anywhere with a click, there is a strong temptation to approach teams and properties directly for sponsorship projects.
By doing so, we are convinced that we are shortening the value chain, saving time and money. However, these DYI methods are anything but risk-free and what initially appears to be a competitive advantage soon turns into a problem that is difficult to resolve. That’s why there are agencies. And this is why you should rely on us for your sponsorships.
When first approaching a sponsorship or sports marketing project, it is difficult to know immediately which stakeholders are correct, what the decision flow is, and what the right timelines are for each process. Sports is a very specialized field of action, and fitting effectively into its paths can take a lot of time and therefore money. We, on the other hand, know referents and spheres of action and know who to talk to, when and how. So you are also more effective.
Sports is an immense passion, and for our heart colors we would be willing to do anything. But business is a different business, and it is important to make the best possible strategic decisions based on independent research, statistics and reliable data. A sports marketing and sports sponsorship agency like RTR has an objective, 360-degree picture of the scenario and can tell you what is really best for you: which sport, which athlete, which team. This is because we possess a great deal of data and information on ratings, segmentation and attitudes. Because the numbers don’t lie. Never.
Activations are the real heart of sports sponsorship. Without them, there remains only a blank sticker on a motorcycle, car or uniform and no contact with the public, no emotional connection, no impact on the bottom line. Then how do you do it? It certainly won’t be the teams or the athletes who will help you leverage sponsorship and enjoy the many marketing rights you have paid for. To bring out the best in a sports marketing project you need an agency that knows how to use sponsorship to engage the fanbase on the Web, to reach out to Shopping Centers, to organize hospitality, to develop B2B and B2C opportunities, and to get “your” athletes in front of millions of potential consumers.
Would you ever go to the dealer who sold you the car and ask if the competitor’s car is better? No, of course. So, how do you expect to get firm measurements of the effectiveness of your sponsorship if you do not rely on someone super partes? At RTR, we have always worked with independent third-party agencies that allow us to know the return on any exposure of your brand on TV and in the media. In addition, we believe in calculating ROI as the ultimate measure of your success-so we can tell you for every penny you spend how much you are making.
We have been involved in sports sponsorship and sports marketing for more than 15 years. We are consultants in the sense that our goal is to maximize your investment, but we are also an agency that manages the project from start to finish. We have been doing this since 1995 with passion and professionalism, following three principles that have become cornerstones of our business: independence, verticality and transparency.
I would like to highlight the fact that one of the qualities of RTR is its great ability to approach the sponsorship scenario strategically, together with its passionate attitude, its amazing enthusiasm for solving problems, and its high level of professionalism.
Gianluca Degliesposti
Executive Director Server&Storage EMEA
Eurosport is truly delighted with its business relationship with Riccardo Tafà, who has become extremely popular, thanks to his detailed knowledge of the sports marketing sector and his highly diligent attitude to work.
Francois Ribeiro
Commercial Director
Passion and Expertise are the features that I have found in RTR since the very beginning. Serious and reliable professionals but also very helpful, nice and open-mind people, willing to listen and compare different ideas. All the values in which RTR believes make this agency a partner, not just a supplier, a partner with whom we have had the opportunity to achieve significant commercial results in term of success and image.
Luca Pacitto
Head of Communication
We have been working with RTR Sports Marketing for over 10 years. The objectives and the programmes of collaboration continue to be renewed and to grow with mutual satisfaction. I believe RTR is a team of great professionals led by Riccardo Tafà, who I consider a manager of exceptional skills and with a great passion for his work.
Lucio Cecchinello
Team Principal
I have known and worked with Riccardo Tafà since 1995 when we collaborated for the first time on a project for the Williams Formula 1 team. Several clients followed. After leaving Williams to work for Gerhard Berger then owner of the Toro Rosso F1 Team, I turned again to Riccardo to seek his help in finding a tool supplier for the team and Riccardo duly obliged with an introduction to USAG, a partnership with Toro Rosso which endured for five years. I recently started a new role as Group Commercial Director for the renowned Andretti Autosport organisation and I find myself working with Riccardo once again on a number of interesting projects. Why has this relationship with Riccardo endured ? He’s smart, knows the commercial side of sport inside out and back to front and he’s honest and trustworthy. Riccardo Tafà is a “doer” not a “talker”: in over 20 years I have never had a dispute either with him or with a company that he has introduced and each partnership introduced by Riccardo has delivered quantifiable ROI to rights holder and sponsor alike. I can think of no better testimonial of Riccardo’s diligence, knowledge, contact base and hard work than that.
Jim Wright
Group Commercial Director
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