.:: The Malaysian GP Topic ::.

Here you can discuss everything about round 2 in the FIA F1 championship!

• No of laps: 56
• Length: 5.543km
• Lap Record: J.P Montoya 1:34.223
• Race Distance: 310.408km
  
• Previous Pole: G. Fisichella 1:33.840
  
• Previous Winner: G. Fisichella

Provisional Race Results:

Pos  Driver        Team                      Time
 1.  Alonso        McLaren-Mercedes     (B)  1h32:14.930
 2.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes     (B)  +    17.557
 3.  Raikkonen     Ferrari              (B)  +    18.339
 4.  Heidfeld      BMW Sauber           (B)  +    33.777
 5.  Massa         Ferrari              (B)  +    36.705
 6.  Fisichella    Renault              (B)  +  1:05.638
 7.  Trulli        Toyota               (B)  +  1:10.132
 8.  Kovalainen    Renault              (B)  +  1:12.015
 9.  Wurz          Williams-Toyota      (B)  +  1:29.924
10.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault     (B)  +  1:33.556
11.  Barrichello   Honda                (B)  +     1 lap
12.  Button        Honda                (B)  +     1 lap
13.  Sato          Super Aguri-Honda    (B)  +     1 lap
14.  Speed         Toro Rosso-Ferrari   (B)  +     1 lap
15.  R.Schumacher  Toyota               (B)  +     1 lap
16.  Davidson      Super Aguri-Honda    (B)  +     1 lap
17.  Liuzzi        Toro Rosso-Ferrari   (B)  +     1 lap
18.  Kubica        BMW Sauber           (B)  +     1 la

Fastest lap: Hamilton, 1:36.701
* All timings courtesy of Autosport  

LIVE QUALI IN UK: 06:30 - 08:20 on ITV3 (NOT ITV1)
QUALI RE-RUN: 13:40 - 15:30 ITV1

LIVE RACE: 07:30 - 10:00 ITV1
RACE RE-RUN: 15:40 - 18:00 ITV1

LIVE QUALI IN UK: 06:30 - 08:20 on ITV3 (NOT ITV1)
QUALI RE-RUN: 13:40 - 15:30 ITV1

LIVE RACE: 07:30 - 10:00 ITV1
RACE RE-RUN: 15:40 - 18:00 ITV1

Redders1989

do you think kimi is going to change his engine before the start of the race ? mjk1

But what if it breaks????The_Gabmaster

Doesnt that help Ferarri???The_Gabmaster

Well, Ferarri has always been good in rain. But that was the Schumacher era and that is done now. I dont know if they will still be as dominant in the rain as they once where. But, most of the top drivers in Formula 1 now have almost never faced rain and that could be a disadvantage. But I guess this could be good for a certain man named Jenson Button......

Well, Ferarri has always been good in rain. But that was the Schumacher era and that is done now. I dont know if they will still be as dominant in the rain as they once where. But, most of the top drivers in Formula 1 now have almost never faced rain and that could be a disadvantage. But I guess this could be good for a certain man named Jenson Button......

The_Gabmaster

 He won his first race in rain... haha

Really??? I didnt know that!!!

You kidding me?KimisApprentice

Well, Ferarri has always been good in rain. But that was the Schumacher era and that is done now. I dont know if they will still be as dominant in the rain as they once where. But, most of the top drivers in Formula 1 now have almost never faced rain and that could be a disadvantage. But I guess this could be good for a certain man named Jenson Button......

The_Gabmaster

Story & Pictures from speedtv.com

F1: Massa Makes It in Malaysia
Written by: RACER staff
Sepang, Malaysia - 4/7/2007

Massa celebrates with team boss Jean Todt: first '07 pole comes with last-lap effort. (LAT Photo)

In his very last qualifying lap, Ferrari's Felipe Massa managed to edge Fernando Alonso's McLaren and bag his first pole position of the year.

The Brazilian's 1:35.043 mark obtained in the final section of knockout qualifying beat Alonso's best by 0.277 - a somewhat unexpected result as the Spaniard had authoritatively paced the first two qualifying rounds. Perhaps more crucially to Massa, who finished sixth in the Australian season opener two weeks ago after being forced to start from dead last, teammate and Melbourne winner Kimi Raikkonen ended up third, more than 0.4sec behind.

Rookie Lewis Hamilton was nearly 0.5sec slower than Raikkonen but was still able to secure a second-row spot. BMW Sauber's Nick Heidfeld completed the top-five, another 0.5sec further back.

"It was a great lap, I tried to do everything I could," Massa reported. "On the second try I had traffic so I couldn't improve my laptime and the last one was a clean lap, it was just dropping a little bit some rain showers so I thought there might be problems at the end of the lap but they didn't and it helped me a lot."

Alonso, for his part, remained cautious on his prospects of fighting for the win tomorrow.

"I think we have to be realistic and say that our pace maybe on the long runs is not as good as the Ferrari, they seem very consistent in the long runs," he said. "But we have to say we improved the car last weekend and we saw this weekend we are much more competitive than in Melbourne."

In the battle for "best of the rest" behind Ferrari and McLaren, the Williams-Toyota of Nico Rosberg split the two BMWs, relegating Robert Kubica to seventh place. The Toyotas of Jarno Trulli and Ralf Schumacher made progress with the eighth and ninth spots, while Mark Webber's Red Bull was the final car to make it into the third round of the knockout quals.

That group's most notable absence was without a doubt reigning world champions Renault, winners of the last two Malaysian GPs. After an erratic debut in Australia, rookie Heikki Kovalainen at least had the consolation prize of outpacing teammate Giancarlo Fisichella as the duo settled for the sixth row, ahead of David Coulthard in the second Red Bull.

Super Aguri's Takuma Sato again outpaced Honda's works cars with P14, one slot ahead of Jenson Button in the factory-run RA107. Also for the second time this year, Vitantonio Liuzzi managed to put Toro Rosso into the second qualifying round, once more outqualifying teammate Scott Speed in the process. The American was one position behind, in 17th.

Speed was unable to go beyond Q1 and will start 17th. (LAT Photo)

Malaysian Grand Prix qualifying results:

1) Felipe Massa, Ferrari, 1:35.043
2) Fernando Alonso, McLaren-Mercedes, 1:35.310
3) Kimi Räikkönen, Ferrari, 1:35.479
4) Lewis Hamilton, McLaren-Mercedes, 1:36.045
5) Nick Heidfeld, BMW, 1:36.543
6) Nico Rosberg, Williams-Toyota, 1:36.829
7) Robert Kubica, BMW, 1:36.896
8 ) Jarno Trulli, Toyota, 1:36.902
9) Ralf Schumacher, Toyota, 1:37.078
10) Mark Webber, Red Bull-Renault, 1:37.345

11) Heikki Kovalainen, Renault, 1:35.630
12) Giancarlo Fisichella, Renault, 1:35.706
13) David Coulthard, Red Bull-Renault, 1:35.766
14) Takuma Sato, Super Aguri-Honda, 1:35.945
15) Jenson Button, Honda, 1:36.088
16) Vitantonio Liuzzi, STR-Ferrari, 1:36.145

17) Scott Speed, STR-Ferrari, 1:36.578
18 ) Anthony Davidson, Super Aguri-Honda, 1:36.816
19) Rubens Barrichello, Honda, 1:36.827
20) Alexander Wurz, Williams-Toyota, 1:37.326
21) Christijan Albers, Spyker-Ferrari, 1:38.279
22) Adrian Sutil, Spyker-Ferrari, 1:38.415

Article & Picture source: SpeedTV.com

F1: Barrichello to Start From Pit Lane
Written by: Adam Cooper, RACER Magazine
Sepang, Malaysia - 4/7/2007

Barrichello has been forced to switch cars twice so far in Malaysia. (LAT Photo)

Rubens Barrichello will have to start his Honda the Malaysian GP from the pitlane after changing his car after qualifying.

The Brazilian had a terrible day in Sepang. While warming his race car up before qualifying the team discovered that he had a gearbox problem. That forced him to take the T-car, which counted as an engine change and consigned him to a 10-place penalty.

He could only manage 19th, which meant he was guaranteed to start at the back of the grid. However, the team has decided to put him back in the race car for Sunday, and this second, post-qualifying change means he has to start from the pitlane.

The team decided that it was not worth bothering to start the T-car as it is missing a number of current parts, most notably the latest steering rack, and without them Rubens would have been wasting his time.

"There is very little I can say, I am so disappointed," said the Brazilian. "Given our current performance level, qualifying well was always going to be a struggle but to find myself where I am is so frustrating. Immediately before the session we had the problem with my race car so I had to switch to the spare car. That car wasn't set up for me, so in many ways it was like starting from the beginning again.

"At least by the end of free practice today my race car was well-balanced but obviously I wasn't able to benefit from the small improvement we had made with that car this morning which is very frustrating."

James Allen: "......alonso wins the malaysian GP.....BUT WHERES LEWIS! LEWIS! WE WANT LEWIS!" :lol:

but yeh good race, way better than australia and worth getting up for! Good to see the Mclaren doubters proved wrong so early in the game 8) 

what was massa doing ???mjk1

it started here at 7.30am so it was prefect timing mjk1

Watched the race at 2:30am and proud to say it!!!!The_Gabmaster

 Well, we were hot here. Even inside our house

Watched the race at 2:30am and proud to say it!!!!The_Gabmaster

BUT WHERES LEWIS! LEWIS! WE WANT LEWIS!"  

BlaZe_irl

[QUOTE="BlaZe_irl"]

BUT WHERES LEWIS! LEWIS! WE WANT LEWIS!"

OofO

What's with the white stripe around the tires? (I hate not have been able to keep up on news)icytower38

So, next race is Bahrain in what a week or two???The_Gabmaster

Well I was able to catch only 5 laps before I had to leave to do the family Easter thing. But I will say that Hamilton looks to have the goods, I could see him winning a race this year.

[QUOTE="icytower38"]What's with the white stripe around the tires? (I hate not have been able to keep up on news)mjk1

I see, thanks for the info. Odd rule in my opinion.