Ferrari roar back to business in Malaysia

Ferrari looks set for a repeat of last year's Malaysian Grand Prix rebound, posting the fastest times in Friday's pre-race practice to shrug off last weekend's disappointing results in Australia.

In 2008, Ferrari finished without a point in Australia and then dominated in Malaysia.

After another pointless finish in Melbourne in F1's season opener last weekend, Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa recorded the two best times Friday to hint at another immediate comeback.

Raikonnen's time of 1 minute, 35.707 seconds in Friday's afternoon session was faster than last year's pole-winning time set by teammate Felipe Massa, who was an eighth of a second behind his teammate Friday.

Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel, Williams' Nico Rosberg and Mark Webber of Red Bull followed the Ferrari pair.

Brawn drivers Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello, who finished 1-2 in last weekend's season-opening Australian GP, were sixth and seventh on the time sheets, ahead of Williams' Kazuki Nakajima.

Raikkonen's strong showing shook off doubts about the reliability of the Ferrari after a mishap in morning practice, when a short circuit in the KERS energy-storage device sent smoke began billowing into the cockpit and streaming from the rear of the car.

"We had felt that the situation here could be different to Melbourne, but it is still too early to say where we are up against the opposition," Raikkonen said.
"What we can be sure of is that when the car runs trouble-free, we are competitive."
On Melbourne's street circuit, Ferrari was badly hampered by degradation of its softer tires and an inability to get heat into its harder compounds, but Massa said there was better grip on the specialist racing surface of Sepang.

"Clearly looking at the time sheet today, there's a slight feeling of relief," the Brazilian said.

Rain threatened the Sepang circuit in the afternoon, but both morning and afternoon sessions were dry, preventing teams trying out their wet weather settings. This heightened the chances that they will go into Sunday's race - with rain forecast - without the benefit of acquainting themselves with a wet track.

Force India's Giancarlo Fisichella was the main casualty of the second practice, spearing off the track on the dual right-handers of turns 10 and 11, sideswiping the tire wall. It ended his session, but he walked away unhurt.

Rosberg set the fastest time in the morning practice, making it four straight practice sessions in which the German had topped the time sheets after the three at Melbourne last week.

Rosberg's time of 1 minute, 36.260 seconds was just four hundredths of a second quicker than teammate Nakajima.

Reigning world champion Lewis Hamilton's horror week - after being stripped of his third place in Australia for misleading stewards in an inquiry - continued when the McLaren driver was fined euro1,200 ($1,600) for breaching the pit lane speed limit during morning practice.

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Malaysia 2008 : Raikkonen storms to victory in Malaysia

It was a weekend in Malaysia for Ferrari to bounce back after a dismal outing in Australia with Kimi Raikkonen taking the Malaysian Grand Prix with relative ease. Second Place belonged to Robert Kubica in a fast improving BMW-Sauber F1.08 and Heikki Kovalainen in third place.

Jarno Trulli in the Toyota showed that Toyota have good pace this year with an impressive 4th place finish just ahead of a charging Lewis Hamilton who, if not for one poor pit stop would have placed higher.

The race began with Felipe Massa on pole and after turn one, Massa kept the lead ahead of Ferrari teammate Kimi Raikkonen. Nick Heidfeld and Jarno Trulli came together lightly, but enough to send Heidfeld down to 10th place. Heidfeld would have a difficult time making up ground the rest of the race from there. First lap bumper cars was limited to just Sebastein Bourdais spinning off into the gravel trap and beaching his car for the day.

Lap by lap run down:

Lap 2 had Massa in the lead edging close to a 1 sec gap ahead of Raikkonen followed by Kubica, then Trulli, Kovalainen, and Coulthard.

Lap 4 as Alonso was pushing Coulthard, Heidfeld took advantage and made a brilliant 2 car pass to move up into 8th.

Lap 6 proved bad luck for Force India when Adrian Sutil pulled off the track into retirement.

Lap 10 showed that Ferrari were by far the quickest cars on track as Massa and Raikkonen pulled a full 8 seconds ahead of BMW-Sauber’s Robert Kubica. It was apparent that barring any mechanical failure that Ferrari had washed away any ill effects from the Australian Grand Prix and were out to prove their dominance that winter testing had shown.

Lap 17 Massa pits

Lap 18 Raikkonen pits and comes out just in front of Massa to take the lead of the race for the first time and begins to pull away quickly from Massa.

Lap 19 was disaster for Lewis Hamilton when right front tire problems had him in the pits for 20 seconds and that seriously damaged his hopes of a podium in Malaysia.

Lap 31 was Massa’s downfall when he loses the rear of the car ans spins into the gravel trap where he’s beached for the day. This hands 2nd place over to Robert Kubica.

Lap 47 Rubens Barrichello limps into the pits for a 10 second stop and go penalty, his second penalty in 2 races. This one for speeding in the pits.
The deserving winner, Kimi Raikkonen finishing well in front of Robert Kubica who was well in front of Heikki Kovalainen.

It was fitting to hear Raikkonen say his drive to the victory was ‘pretty easy’ once he had the lead. Did I hear Lewis Hamilton say that last week in Australia.
As far as the race goes, it was a fairly uneventful race with drivers showing they could actually get along without traction control. Compared to Australia this was a clean race. Ferrari were clearly the quickest team on the day, but the second quickest team on the day had to be BMW-Sauber. McLaren struggled for grip all day and couldn’t muster up enough pace to challenge either Ferrari or BMW-Sauber.

It’s a pretty dramatic turnaround with respect to who has the bragging rights. Last week no one questioned that McLaren won with ease and Ferrari fumbled their way out of Australia. Now, after such a dominant performance in Malaysia by Ferrari, a steadily improving BMW-Sauber, and McLaren much slower despite Kovalainen’s 3rd place, the bragging rights are squarely on the shoulders of Ferrari.

1. RAIKKONEN Ferrari 1h31m18.555s
2. KUBICA BMW +19.5s
3. KOVALAINEN McLaren +38.4s
4. TRULLI Toyota +45.8s
5. HAMILTON McLaren +46.5s
6. HEIDFELD BMW +49.8s
7. WEBBER Red Bull +1m08.1s
8. ALONSO Renault +1m10.0s
9. COULTHARD Red Bull +1m16.2s
10. BUTTON Honda +1m26.2s
11. PIQUET Renault +1m32.2s
12. FISICHELLA Force India +1 lap
13. BARRICHELLO Honda +1 lap
14. ROSBERG Williams +1 lap
15. DAVIDSON Super Aguri +1 lap
16. SATO Super Aguri +2 laps
17. NAKAJIMA Williams +2 laps
R. VETTEL Toro Rosso +17 laps
R. MASSA Ferrari +26 laps
R. SUTIL Force India +51 laps
R. GLOCK Toyota +55 laps
R. BOURDAIS Toro Rosso +56 laps

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Malaysian F1 GP 2008 - Qualifying :Malaysia Mighty Massa heads Ferrari front row at Sepang

Today in the Malaysian Grand Prix qualifying, it was Ferrari’s turn to shine in qualifying as they claimed the first row of the grid. It was Felipe Massa who grabbed pole with a 1:35.748 and Kimi Raikkonen behind.

Heikki Kovalainen out qualified Lewis Hamilton for the 3rd spot with Hamilton grabbing 4th on the grid. So an all Ferrari front row, and an all McLaren Mercedes second row is what will start the Malaysian Grand Prix.

During Q3, and after flying laps, both McLaren drivers were ordered to slow down on their way back to the pits to conserve fuel. While doing this, Both Nick Heidfeld and Fernando Alonso, on flying laps seemed to be impeded by the slow MP4-23s. In particular you could easily see Nick Heidfeld having to weave through them because they remained on the racing line.

Nick Heidfeld described the McLarens as:
“cruising on the racing line”.

After being summoned by the race stewards to explain their actions on track, both Lewis Hamilton and Heikki Kovalainen have been penalized 5 grid positions. This puts Kovalainen starting 8th and Hamilton starting 9th.

Back to qualifying. Next was the usually fast qualifier Jarno Trulli in his Toyota followed by Robert Kubica and Nick Heidfeld in that order.
It was Williams Toyota who suffered terribly with the new track surface with Nico Rosberg not able to advance from Q2 and finished 16th. Kazuki (crash) Nakajima, who everybody now wants to stay clear of managed a disappointing 18th on the grid. Nico Rosberg said the Williams is not coping with the new track surface well and cannot find enough grip to keep from sliding around everywhere.

Honda continue to gain ground with a fairly solid qualifying round and the team are especially pleased with Rubens Barichello’s result considering that after a gearbox change in final practice had to run with Jenson Button’s setup.

Initial Grid (Before Penalty)

1 F. Massa Ferrari 1:35.748
2 K. Räikkönen Ferrari 1:36.230
3 H. Kovalainen McLaren 1:36.613
4 L. Hamilton McLaren 1:36.709
5 J. Trulli Toyota 1:36.711
6 R. Kubica BMW 1:36.727
7 N. Heidfeld BMW 1:36.753
8 M. Webber Red Bull 1:37.009
9 F. Alonso Renault 1:38.450
10 T. Glock Toyota 1:39.656
11 J. Button Honda 1:35.208
12 D. Coulthard Red Bull 1:35.408
13 N. Piquet jr. Renault 1:35.562
14 R. Barrichello Honda 1:35.622
15 S. Vettel Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:35.648
16 N. Rosberg Williams 1:35.670
17 G. Fisichella Force India F1 1:36.240
18 K. Nakajima Williams 1:36.388
19 S. Bourdais Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:36.677
20 T. Sato Super Aguri 1:37.087
21 A. Sutil Force India F1 1:37.101
22 A. Davidson Super Aguri 1:37.481


Revised Grid (After Penalty)

1 F. Massa Ferrari 1:35.748
2 K. Räikkönen Ferrari 1:36.230
3 J. Trulli Toyota 1:36.711
4 R. Kubica BMW 1:36.727
5 N. Heidfeld BMW 1:36.753
6 M. Webber Red Bull 1:37.009
7 F. Alonso Renault 1:38.450
8 H. Kovalainen McLaren 1:36.613
9 L. Hamilton McLaren 1:36.709
10 T. Glock Toyota 1:39.656
11 J. Button Honda 1:35.208
12 D. Coulthard Red Bull 1:35.408
13 N. Piquet jr. Renault 1:35.562
14 R. Barrichello Honda 1:35.622
15 S. Vettel Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:35.648
16 N. Rosberg Williams 1:35.670
17 G. Fisichella Force India F1 1:36.240
18 K. Nakajima Williams 1:36.388
19 S. Bourdais Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:36.677
20 T. Sato Super Aguri 1:37.087
21 A. Sutil Force India F1 1:37.101
22 A. Davidson Super Aguri 1:37.481

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Malaysia F1 GP 2008 - Testing

After both Ferrari’s made it to the top of the time charts in Friday’s 1st practice session, it was Lewis Hamilton who topped the 2nd practice session in fine form.

Jenson Button had a good outing posting the 4th fastest time. Even though these sessions are much like in testing with times not really telling too much of a story, Honda really have made some improvements that are beginning to show.

It was Sebastien Bourdais, after very nearly taking out Nick Heidfeld exiting his pit who paid a coincidental price with a transmition failure soon after. A little more luck for Bourdais is all he needs to show what he is really made of.

Giancarlo Fisichella had a great outing with a top 10 finishing time and continuing to show that Force India are not going away and really do have some good potential. I hope for good things from him in qualifying and the race as long as he isn’t punted off the track like Australia.

Both Renaults were either a big disappointment or they had an agenda other than posting a quick time as Fernando Alonso and Nelson Piquet (jr) were significantly slower in session 2 than in session one with 14th and 15th best times.

It was reliability problems that struck Red Bull throughout Friday practice when Mark Webber in the RB4 had an engine burn out in session 1 and then David Coulthard with a steering malfunction. He ran wide in turn 12, over the curbs blowing out his front suspension.

This starts the story of the day. Back in the Australian Grand Prix when David Coulthard and Felipe Massa came together, the damage to Coulthard’s front suspension did seem a little exaggerated considering the impact. Now, with another front suspension blow out, the F1 Stewards are wondering if the RB4’s suspension is too fragile to race. Here’s their request:

“Following a verbal report from the Race Director, the Team Principal and the Technical Representative are require to report to the Stewards of the Meeting to discuss the incident involving Car no. 9 during practice session 1 as soon as possible, after the end of practice session 2.”

Further to this and after the meeting:
“The Stewards, having met with the Team Principal and Technical Representative of Red Bull racing in relation to the incident involving Car 9 in Practice 1, have requested that the competitor provide to the FIA Technical Delegate a report verifying that the integrity of the suspension is such that the car should not be deemed ‘of dangerous constructions’ under Article 2.3 of the 2008 Formula One Technical Regulations.”

To be brief, Article 2.3 does say that ‘The stewards of the meeting may exclude a vehicle whose construction is deemed to be dangerous‘.

This definitely leads to a possibility (although a slim one at most) that Red Bull could be excluded from the Malaysian Grand Prix. Not likely to happen because the super charged David Coulthard just may want to kick the *$%& out of someone

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