Although Sauber team-mate Kamui Kobayashi struggled to the 17th grid slot at Sepang, Sergio Pérez was able to translate a poor opening pair of practice sessions into a top ten position; the Mexican qualified tenth and moves up one place for the race.
The rise to ninth comes as Kimi Räikkönen goes backwards with a five-place gearbox penalty, meaning he starts right behind the 2011 rookie.
“I am very happy we made it into Q3,” he said. “Considering all the balance problems we had yesterday that we could not fully explain, it was a great achievement today for the team. Also, I think our car is still better in race conditions than in qualifying form, so we should have good potential for tomorrow’s race.
“For some reason it is difficult to find proper grip with the Medium compound tyres, but the changes we made after free practice helped a bit. It will be a tough race tomorrow for the car, the tyres and the drivers. I will fight and bring home as many points as possible.”
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| Pos. | Driver | Team | Time | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. |  L. Hamilton | McLaren | 01:36.219 | 14 |
| 2. | J. Button | McLaren | 01:36.368 | 14 |
| 3. | M. Schumacher | Mercedes | 01:36.391 | 14 |
| 4. | M. Webber | Red Bull | 01:36.461 | 19 |
| 5. | K. Raikkonen | Lotus | 01:36.461 | 13 |
| 6. | S. Vettel | Red Bull | 01:36.634 | 14 |
| 7. | R. Grosjean | Lotus | 01:36.658 | 14 |
| 8. | N. Rosberg | Mercedes | 01:36.664 | 14 |
| 9. | F. Alonso | Ferrari | 01:37.566 | 16 |
| 10. | S. Perez | Sauber | 01:37.698 | 17 |
| Full results | ||||
| Sergio Perez | |||
|---|---|---|---|
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| More Sergio Perez photos | |||
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