.:: 2009 Malaysian GP Thread ::.

Jenson Button's Pole Lap

Gotta love BBC and the amount of video footage they're providing :D

STRATEGIC ERROR TO BLAME FOR MASSA'S EXIT

Felipe Massa blamed a strategic error for his failure to make into the second qualifying segment ahead of the Malaysian Grand Prix.

The Ferrari driver missed the cut in Q1 after not completing another run in the dying moments of the session.

Massa said after qualifying that Ferrari felt his previous best was enough to secure a place in the top 15, and hence decided not to send him out again, something which proved to be a mistake.

"Well, actually I went straight away on a new set of softs. I didn't do a perfect lap, I did a reasonable lap, but not a perfect lap," explained Massa.

"I went wide on the first lap in Turn 14 and then I improved on the second timed lap by two tenths. The team thought it was enough to be inside the top 15 and maybe I thought as well, to be honest, because when I got back to the pits I was fourth.

"I stayed in the top seven for a while, but then when I started to drop it was impossible to go out again because there was no time to do another lap.

"Maybe the track improved a lot as well, with the temperature going down many people improved. We just thought it was enough to get in the top 15 and it wasn't so we dropped completely.

"Maybe the past is still very fresh in our mind where we had a very competitive car and it was always easy to go out in first qualifying on the hard tyre or whatever and be in the top 10.

"Now it's not that easy anymore. Now we need to be able to use our tyres in qualifying because that's the only way to pass every session."

Massa refused to blame anyone for the error, and said it was a mistake from the whole team.

"As I said, maybe the past is very fresh in our mind so everybody including myself because I didn't believe that I was going to drop out of the top 15. After the qualifying I thought maybe I could go to 11th or 12th, but not to 16th. I blame everybody.

"I blame me, I blame the engineers, I blame everybody that was working on the pit looking at the laptimes. It was a team mistake, including myself. But it was a huge wake up call that we need to use everything we have because every session is difficult."

SOURCE: Autosport

Post-qualifying car weights - Malaysia

Below is the weight of each car following qualifying for the Malaysian Grand Prix, sorted by grid position.

Pos. Driver       Team                Car weight (kg)
 1.  Button       Brawn-Mercedes         660
 2.  Trulli       Toyota                 656.5
 3.  Vettel       Red Bull-Renault       647
 4.  Barrichello  Brawn-Mercedes         664.5
 5.  Glock        Toyota                 656.5
 6.  Rosberg      Williams-Toyota        656
 7.  Webber       Red Bull-Renault       656
 8.  Kubica       BMW-Sauber             663
 9.  Raikkonen    Ferrari                662.5
10.  Alonso       Renault                680.5
11.  Heidfeld     BMW-Sauber             692
12.  Nakajima     Williams-Toyota        683.4
13.  Hamilton     McLaren-Mercedes       688
14.  Kovalainen   McLaren-Mercedes       688.9
15.  Bourdais     Toro Rosso-Ferrari     670.5
16.  Massa        Ferrari                689.5
17.  Piquet       Renault                681.9
18.  Fisichella   Force India-Mercedes   680.5
19.  Sutil        Force India-Mercedes   655.5
20.  Buemi        Toro Rosso-Ferrari     686.5

AUTOSPORT 

Wow was a qualifying session! Man you have to give it to Vettel for driving the hell out of the Red Bull. He can almost compete with with trick diffuser cars. (Granted he was fueled light). Amazing job done by Trulli and Toyota, should be a great fight tomorrow with Button. Ferrari.....WTF!? And why is Piquet still in the car? lol. He got lucky last season with a few good results but so far he's been rubbish. He's not even like a younger Massa, quick but crashes a lot. He's just slow and crashes a lot.

It should be a great race tomorrow, and it could get better since they are predicting rain the whole day.

I'm quite enjoying seeing the dominant teams from the last few years struggling, either through technical problems or mistakes. It's great to see other teams that have all but been written off as middle runners now up front competing for pole and the win.

Vettel did well under the circumstances, though whether running so light compromises his race is yet to be seen.

Another great result for Button and Brawn showing their pace wasn't a fluke, though Trulli proved just how close they can get

I'm quite enjoying seeing the dominant teams from the last few years struggling, either through technical problems or mistakes. It's great to see other teams that have all but been written off as middle runners now up front competing for pole and the win.

Avenger1324

 I agree with you there, even though I'm a die-hard McLaren fan. 1 or 2 teams dominating the sport is just too... boring.

Top Post updated with coverage of Qualifying. You know, I just can't help but think the Beeb don't care about Saturday Practice :lol:Redders1989

So far the BBC coverage has been really good, both TV and website, but I did struggle to find any info about this mornings practice session. Had to go to Autosport to find the details

[QUOTE="Redders1989"]Top Post updated with coverage of Qualifying. You know, I just can't help but think the Beeb don't care about Saturday Practice :lol:Avenger1324

So far the BBC coverage has been really good, both TV and website, but I did struggle to find any info about this mornings practice session. Had to go to Autosport to find the details

and I dont like that fact they cut short the post qualifying/race interviews 

Wow :| Seriously I don't like the new F1 times here in america....... It's about 4 am here and still waiting 1 hour for the race..... Seriously, if I would be less of fan, I'd watch the re-run xDThe_Gabman

Us in the UK used to have to be up at 3/4AM for Australia, and most of the other morning races used to be about 6AM. That's why Bernie changed them, which is still unfortunate for you guys. It's quite stupid really.

My God... those clouds :|

Heh... so the Beeb were right about the order of Rubens/Alonso... better swap 'em round for the Predictions Championship then.

Are Ferrari trying to self destruct!?!

EDIT: ...but now the Gods said let there be rain!

RACE SUSPENDED ON LAP 33.

The Malaysian Grand Prix was red-flagged with 24 laps to go after the weather conditions made it impossible to continue racing.

A downpour hit the already chaotic event and the race stewards decided to deploy the safety car.

Even behind the safety car, it was impossible to drive and it was decided to stop the race.

If the event is not resumed, half the points would be awarded, as the drivers had not completed 75% of the event.

Briton Jenson Button was leading ahead of Timo Glock and Nick Heidfeld.

SOURCE: Autosport

A light rain shower disrupts proceedings. Good work FIA now the race can't finish because the sun will set before the rain clears!!!

Well my predictions are completely awful :( track is kind of a puddle right now... anyone got flippers?

they seem confused about the time keeping as well - even if they did restart under safety car they couldn't reach 75% race distance.

Better just to call it off - it looks very dangerous for the drivers

The lap counter went down one, which means Button and Glock are currently shown as a lap ahead of all the other drivers. If the restart takes place, the rest of the field will be set off first, and then Button & Glock will be let off. News says Heidfeld would be waiting with Button and Glock too, but he's shown as a lap down too.

Raikkonen has called it a day no matter what. He will only c_lass as retired if the race re-starts. Otherwise, he will be 14th.

EDIT: Actually, it's another KERS issue for Raikkonen. They are currently undetermined if Kimi will have to retire or not. GAH! CONFUSING TIMES!

EDIT 2: 10 Minutes to go, so the race in theory will now not start.

EDIT 3: RACE STOPPED. Button wins from Glock & Heidfeld.

huh? now what is going on?

The race has gone back another lap, and 2nd and 3rd have swapped places

Heidfeld is now 2nd and Glock 3rd

Discussions are going on as to who should be where. Hamilton thought he was 5th, but ended up 7th, so confusion is going on.

As for Button, he's having such a fantastic season: Wins under the safety car, now wins under a stopped race... how will he win in China? :lol:

LOL :D

Excellent choice of song for the montage - Umbrella!!

There was a lot of confusion over actual positions, but red flag rules confuse things, and it's all been corrected taking into account where people were in the pits and on track etc.. apparently that is why the result took so long to be declared.

Well that was a messy ending. I still don't get what happened to Vettel. Did the car shut down or something?

Hope Button continues to dominate this year. He deserves it.

Well that was a messy ending. I still don't get what happened to Vettel. Did the car shut down or something?

Hope Button continues to dominate this year. He deserves it.

janti_hakouz

BOURDAIS LAMENTS RACE NOT RESTARTING

Sebastien Bourdais was left lamenting the Malaysian Grand Prix was not restarted, as he felt he could have scored some points.

The Toro Rosso driver, who finished in 10th position after the race was stopped on lap 32, believes his pace in the wet was strong enough to allow him to climb up the field.

"Round about lap 18, we were running low on fuel so we were hoping for rain before the end of the first stint," said Bourdais. "It didn't come quite in time and we gambled on extreme wets as heavy rain was expected, but instead it was more like drizzle, so we changed again to intermediates.

"Then the rain really came and I had to come in again for extremes and after that, the race was stopped. It was a shame, as it seemed we were pretty competitive in these very changeable conditions.

"I would have liked to restart, as it might have been an opportunity to pick up points, even if only half-points."

Team-mate Sebastien Buemi retired from the race after he spun off in the tricky conditions.

The Swiss driver also felt he could have collected points today.

"We were really going well and I think I was around P7 or 8 and the plan was to come in on the following lap, but then I went off at Turn 5," he said. "The extreme tyres were completely gone, like driving on slicks and I slowed down, but obviously not enough for the amount of water, so I spun, went into the gravel and stalled.

"We were competitive in terms of speed at some stages, running in the top six laptimes, even though I was running last, having had to come in to change the nose.

"I think one of the Force India cars pushed me wide at the exit of the last corner and I ran over something that broke the front wing. I am disappointed as the spin at the end was my mistake and it is on days like this that we should have picked up some points."

SOURCE: Autosport

WEBBER BELIEVES TIME CHANGE MADE NO DIFFERENCE

Mark Webber believes there is no way that the Malaysian Grand Prix's early abandonment could have been avoided, and does not think the change of start time had any impact.

The Sepang race was halted after 31 laps when a massive downpour hit the circuit. Earlier in the week some drivers had expressed concern that the decision to move the start back to 5pm local time for the benefit of European television audiences could cause problems with visibility and make the event more vulnerable to bad weather, but Webber believes the timeslot made no difference.

"I'm not so sure you can blame the time of day for today's conditions, as the weather was bad at 3pm too," he said. "It seems it was just one of those days. It's been the mistiest and coolest day I've ever seen in Malaysia for race day."

He also supported the decision to stop the race early.

"The guys made the best call to stop the race when they did," Webber said. "It would have been nice to have had some more laps to give us a crack at getting on the podium - but that's how it is, so I've got mixed emotions. It's dark now, so it was the right call not to make a restart."

However Red Bull team boss Christian Horner was left ruing the time of the red flag, as he reckoned Webber was on for a podium rather than his eventual sixth place.

"If he would have completed that lap, we believe he would have been third in the running order," said Horner.

Sebastian Vettel spun out during the rain shower in the second Red Bull, and was frustrated that he had to retire with a stalled car.

"I was approaching Turn 7 and there was suddenly lots of water, but I was being very cautious," he said. "I lost the car due to aquaplaning and there was nothing I could do. There was too much water and my tyres were not made for those conditions.

"A spin wouldn't have been much of a problem, but the anti-stall didn't work. Without that, I would just have spun, lost some time and that would have been it.

"In the past drivers had three pedals, a throttle, a brake and a clutch and when you were spinning you knew exactly what to do. It's not in our hands anymore, so it's a shame that we have to retire for this stupid reason."

SOURCE: Autosport

"Felipe Baby stay cool" that cracked me up :lol:
mjk1

[QUOTE="mjk1"]"Felipe Baby stay cool" that cracked me up :lol:
XSamFisherX

Allready on 

"I need a white visor, WHITE VISOR!!!!!  :lol: