Malaysian GP Qualifying

[MikeLane]

Malaysian Grand Prix

Toyota qualifies strongly, but Massa takes pole in Sepang.
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Sepang, Kuala Lumpar - Round 2 - Mar.22, 2008

By

Mike Lane
F1 Correspondent

Following the dream start in Melbourne, McLaren were hoping to repeat their strong performance whilst Ferrari needed to reassert their position after the disaster last weekend.

In Friday’s practice Honda and Toyota looked to have improved, whilst Red Bull were trying to regroup after questions had been asked by the FIA about their car safety, following another big accident for David Coultard in Friday’s practice when a track rod broke causing a large amount of damage. This seemed to mirror the large amount of damage to Coultard’s car at Melbourne, when Massa collided with the Red Bull but appeared not to suffer.



QUALIFYING

The circuit is one of those tracks designed by Hermann Tilke and which the drivers love. This is the 10th time the Grand Prix has been held here.

It is 3.41 miles long (5.543 km) with long high-speed straights and tight twisting complexes. It is a complicated circuit but wide, which allows for good overtaking opportunities.

The race is 191.1 miles long (310.408km) and the lap record is 1:34.223 minutes, set in 2004 by Pablo Montoya.

In Saturday’s qualifying session the weather forecasters were predicting rain and as the first session started (Q1), the prediction was for rain in 7 minutes. Consequently, all the cars went out early in order to get a lap in before the rain.

Sebastien Bourdais in the Toro Rosso was the first to post a time with a 1:38.410 minutes, but this was quickly beaten by Kimi Raikkonen with a 1:35.987 min.

As the session progressed the top cars were lapping in the 1min 35 secs and with six minutes remaining Jarno Trulli in the Toyota put in a great lap at 1:35.205 to lead the times.

Unfortunately, Bourdais suffered brake failure and was out of the session although he managed to avoid damage to his car.
At the end of the session (Q1), the following drivers were eliminated, Giancarlo Fisichella, Kazuki Nakajima, Bourdais, Takuma Sato, Adrian Sutil and Anthony Davidson.

As we entered the second session (Q2), the weather prediction had changed but rain was still forecast and again we saw drivers going out early to get a dry lap in.

Kimi Raikkonen put down a marker with a stunning lap of 1:34.188 mins on his first run. This is the session where we see the fastest times as in Q3 the cars have to carry their race fuel.

As the session progressed, Hekki Kovalainen was 3rd but his team mate, Lewis Hamilton was 7th with 5 minutes to go and clearly didn’t feel safe. He and a number of other potential top ten contenders felt the need to go out again and compromise a further set of tyres for Sunday’s race.

At the end of the session, Rikkonen’s initial time had not been beaten but Hamilton had managed to get into 3rd place, 0.439 secs behind the Finn.

Drivers eliminated at this stage were Jenson Button, David Coultard, Nelsinho Piquet,
Rubens Barrichello, Sebastian Vettel and Nico Rosberg.

Although eliminated, Honda had a much improved performance with 11th and 14th places for Sunday’s race.

On the other hand, Williams had a disappointing result after their strong showing in Melbourne.They go into tomorrow’s race in 16th and last places on the grid.

The new format for the 3rd session (Q3) means that drivers start with their race fuel for Sunday’s race and they no longer get credit back for the fuel used. Times are therefore expected to be slower than Q2 and a good deal of strategy is necessary.

After the stunning time set by Raikkonen in Q2, this time we saw Felipe Massa step up and immediately set a faster time than his team-mate. Kovalainen was again faster than Hamilton, as was Robert Kubica in the BMW.

As the session finished, Massa went faster again and took pole with Raikkonen nearly half a second behind, perhaps indicating a different fuel strategy. Clearly the two Ferraris have to pit at different times in the race tomorrow and the lap times today seem to support the fact that Raikkonen may be heavier than Massa.

Hamilton managed to pull himself up to 4th place, behind his team mate, Kovalainen.
This may also indicate he is heavier than Kovalainen on fuel, however the Finn has been faster than Hamilton all weekend so far.

This final session again saw cars slowing dramatically on the final lap as other cars were still trying for their fast lap. This must increase risk with the closing speed of the cars and I anticipate the Stewards may well look at that risk carefully.


The grid order at the end was:-

Massa, Ferrari
Raikkonen, Ferrari
Kovalainen, McLaren
Hamilton, McLaren
Trulli, Toyota
Kubica, BMW Sauber
Heidfeld, BMW Sauber
Webber, Red Bull
Alonso, Renault
Glock, Toyota

On today’s performances I think we can say Ferrari is back after their troubles last week and McLaren looks to be on the back foot.

BMW Sauber appear strong again, whilst Toyota had a great qualifying performance. We will see on Sunday whether they can translate that performance into race results.

Finally Honda under Ross Brawn’s leadership appears to have made a good step forward and again we will have to see if that translates into race performance.

Tomorrow promises a great race and with the possibility of rain the event may turn out to be unpredictable.

If it rains at Sepang it usually comes down in force and without traction control we could see some upsets.

Mike Lane F1 Correspondent - Home Base - England

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