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Practise & Qualifying 

First the bad news to get it out of the way, (it’s always been a habit with me) Force India drivers  Giancarlo Fisichella and    Adrian Sutil qualified only 14th & 18th respectively. On Raceday, Fisichella finished 9th, just 1 track position shy of points while Sutil retired early in the race. A lot of their fans must getting pissed that in the process of preparing primarily for the 2009 season and the second half of this season, they aren’t able to produce good results in the current races.

Now, just for the record, here’s my review of the the Malaysian GP Weekend which took place day before yesterday on 23rd of March. The practise session on Friday 21st March did not prepare us for the thrilling qualifiers on Saturday 22nd March at all. While the practise sessions were dominated by the Mclaren’s, qualifiers were for the Ferrari’s, a Toyota and the BMW Sauber guys. At the end of Q3, Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen were 1 & 2 respectively for the Ferrari team, Jarno Trulli for Toyota was best of the rest and the remaining grid was as follows:

4. Robert Kubica (Poland) BMW Sauber 1:36.727
5. Nick Heidfeld (Germany) BMW Sauber 1:36.753
6. Mark Webber (Australia) Red Bull 1:37.009
7. Fernando Alonso (Spain) Renault 1:38.450
8. Heikki Kovalainen (Finland) McLaren 1:36.613 *
9. Lewis Hamilton (Britain) McLaren 1:36.709 *
10. Timo Glock (Germany) Toyota 1:39.656
11. Jenson Button (Britain) Honda 1:35.208
12. David Coulthard (Britain) Red Bull 1:35.408
13. Nelson Piquet (Brazil) Renault 1:35.562
14. Rubens Barrichello (Brazil) Honda 1:35.622
15. Sebastian Vettel (Germany) Toro Rosso 1:35.648
16. Nico Rosberg (Germany) Williams 1:35.670
17. Giancarlo Fisichella (Italy) Force India 1:36.240
18. Kazuki Nakajima (Japan) Williams 1:36.388
19. Sebastien Bourdais (France) Toro Rosso 1:36.677
20. Takuma Sato (Japan) Super Aguri 1:37.087
21. Adrian Sutil (Germany) Force India 1:37.101
22. 22. Anthony Davidson (Britain) Super Aguri 1:37.481

Race-day:

The air temperature was in the high 30’s while the track was burning in the 50’s centigrade and hopes were high for a great race. But then frankly, the Malaysian GP wasn’t as exciting as I had anticipated it to be in the end, even on the most technical of circuits where drivers get two very long straits in which they can rest their heads, hands etc in each lap, there wasn’t exciting overtaking nor was there any spectacular wheel to wheel racing. It’s still like the good old days in F1, strategy and pit lane tactics pretty much decide the outcome of the races. Even guys like Kimi & Hamilton (Hamilton who finished 5th followed Mark Webber of Red Bull for a lot of race distance and then followed Trulli to the chequered flag) couldn’t make passes on track.

 I was surprised and frankly disappointed when Kimi didn’t try to snatch the lead from Massa on the track itself, he waited till Massa dived in to the pits, Kimi then got in some quick lap times in his lighter Ferrari, pitted himself and came out ahead of Massa.

Well, I guess after losing the lead, Felipe Massa wasn’t concentrating very well and he threw away the second position and the prospect of a Ferrari 1 & 2 in Sepang in the 30th lap. He made a slight error, applying to much power too early out of a corner and without the driver aids, he spun and lost it. Another driver who’s perhaps not focusing well in-spite of being the most experienced driver on the grid is Rubens Barichello. He managed to get penalized for the second race in a row. In Australia he missed the red signals and after the race criticized the location of Pit Lane Traffic Lights and then the race marshals penalized him again in Malaysia for speeding in the pit lane. Barrichello and the whole Honda team have to get their act together soon. 

Anyway, at the end of the race, Kimi Raikonen was the first driver for the Ferrari, he finished the race in 1 hrs, 31 minutes and 18.555 seconds. Robert Kubica was second, 19.570 seconds behind Kimi and Kovaleinen came in at third, 38.450 seconds behind Kimi.

So, the BMW’s and the Toyota’s have shown good pace two races in a row and this time, BMW was faster than it’s German Rival Mclaren Mercedes. If I were Ron Dennis, I’d be less worried about the Ferrari’s and more worried about the BMW,s Toyota’s and even some other teams who have shown promise such as Red Bull.

So, after the 56 laps of the Malaysian Grand-Prix, the best of the rest were:

4. Trulli - Toyota +45.832
5. Hamilton - McLaren +46.548
6. Heidfeld - BMW Sauber +49.833
7. Webber - Red Bull-Renault +1:08.130
8. Alonso - Renault +1:10.041
9. Coulthard - Red Bull-Renault +1:16.220
10. Button - Honda +1:26.214
11. Piquet - Renault +1:32.202
12. Fisichella - Force India + 1 lap
13. Barrichello - Honda +1 lap
14. Rosberg - Williams-Toyota +1 lap
15. Davidson - Super Aguri +1 lap
16. Sato - Super Aguri-Honda + 2 laps
17. Nakajima - Williams +2 laps

{Adrian Sutil failed to make the cut having retired somewhere around the 8th lap}

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