Sunday Race (23 March)
Kimi Raikkonen this weekend has taken the 2008 World Championship title to the door of Lewis Hamilton in the second race leading from the first pit stop. Felipe Massa led his team mate into the first corner and held the lead for the first part of the race, running with less fuel which allowed his team mate to stay out a couple of laps longer, just enough to put in a couple of very good laps and leap frogging the Brazilian in the "boxes" The two McLarens had been relagated 5 places each for blocking Heidfeld and Alonso in Q3 yesterday, but Lewis Hamilton made a good start on his soft compound to overtake his team mate Heikki Kovalainen but he just could not get past Mark Webber´s Red Bull. He had hoped to do this in the first round of stops, but their was a problem changing the front right which cost him an additional 10/11 seconds in the boxes. Hamiltonfought back in the final stage, on hard rubber, to salvage a fifth place behind Robert Kubica (+19.5 secs) who drove a lonely race to finish second, Heikki Kovalainen (+38.4 secs) claiming the honours for McLaren this weekend with third ahead of an impressive Jarno Trulli (+45.8 secs) in the Toyota. Behind Lewis Hamilton (46.5 secs) was Nick Heidlfed (49.8 secs), underlining the fact that the BMW chassis will be a force to reckoned with this year and that either of their drivers could claim a victory for the German team this year. Fernando Alonso (+70.0 secs) was giving Mark Webber (+68.1 secs) the same pressure as Hamilton was to Trulli in the closing stages, but the the customer engined Renault just finished in front of the works engined car. Hamilton possibly made a mistake in electing to do two rounds, the first and second, on the soft compound, whereas Kovalainen changed to the hard rubber for his second and third session. Although he drove a lonely race Robert Kubica was probably driver of the day with a close nomination for Jarno Trulli. What happened to Felipe Massa? An unexplainable incident on lap 30 when the tail went out for no apparent reason, putting him into the gravel trap. This year drivers will not have Lewis Hamilton´s luck of last year where, by keeping the engine running, he was allowed to rejoin the race. This year it is GAME OVER!
Half a second faster than team mate Kimi Raikkonen (1m 36.230s) allowed Felipe Massa (1m 35.748s) to take pole position to make it an all Ferrari front row today. New boy to McLaren. Heikki Kovalainen (1m 36.613s) managed to take third spot from a complaining Lewis Hamilton (1m 36.709s) - grip, the MP4-23 looking more ragged than normal. Jarno Trulli (1m 36.711s) was impressive with 5th fastest time, having set the fastest time in Q1. Robert Kubica (1m 36.727s) in the closing stages was looking particularly strong and it looked as if he might be able to repeat his Australian performance. Team mate Nick Heidfeld (1m 36.753s) was clearly less fortunate his fastest lap being greatly hampered by slowing cars after the chequered flag, the German complaining about a slow McLaren * being in the centre of the track. This situation clearly needs to be addressed by the authorities as it is VERY DANGEROUS (saving fuel could be expensive and life threatening) the German complaining about it after Q3. Red Bull’s Mark Webber (1m 37.009s) will start behind the two BMW’s in eigth alongside Fernando Alonso´s Renault (1m 38.450) and Timo Glock (1m 39.656) a second promising performance from this new driver to F1 in the number two TF108 rounding up the top 10 for tomorrow’s race.
* Lewis Hamilton dropped 5 places on the grid tomorrow for this action. Also his team mate.
Friday Practice (21 March)
This morning it was Ferrari that set the pace with Felipe Massa (1m 35.392s) fastest Next up were the two McLarens of Kovalainen and Hamilton split by Nico Rosberg. Kubica was 8th with Button and Trulli making up the top ten. In the last 10 minutes this afternoon Lewis Hamilton grabbed the honours for the fastest lap (1m 35.055s) from Massa (1m 35.206s) and Raikkonen (1m 35.428s). Sebastian Vettel (1m 36.474s) had been running in the top four for most of the afternoon session, but in the dying moments Jenson Button (1m 36.037) put his Honda ahead of the promising German. Hoping for no battery overheating problems this weekend was Jarno Trulli´s (1m 36.756s) Toyota - 6th ahead of Kovalainen (1m 36.512s), Robert Kubica (1m 36.671s), Giancarlo Fischella (1m 36.756s) and Kazuki Nakajimja (1m 36.838s). David Coulthard did not practice this afternoon after the his Red Bull appreared to suffer a suspension failure after running over a kerb, the team preferring to analyse the incident the have the chassis properly prepared for tomorrow.
Malaysian Grand Prix on ITV
Live qualifying Saturday 22 March 0515-0720 ITV1
Qualifying re-run Saturday 22 March 1340-1510 ITV1
Live race Sunday 23 March 0615-0900 ITV1
Race re-run Sunday 23 March 1445-1730 ITV1
Highlights Monday 24 March 0020-0120 ITV1
Highlights re-run Monday 24 March 1800-1900 ITV4
Fernando Alonso - "Sepang really is my favourite track, I took my first pole position there in 2003 with Renault, and I have won this race twice. It's a circuit that I enjoy and I always tend to attack a little bit more. I hope that this year I will be able to do well and I'm really looking forward to the race."
Heikki Kovalainen - “I now have my first race with the team under my belt, apart from the safety car it went really well and we are now going to push harder in Sepang. The car was really quick and we now have to work hard to take that performance to Malaysia.”
Sir Jackie Stewart - "I'm surprised and disappointed that Lewis has not yet joined the GPDA," Stewart was quoted as saying by the Daily Telegraph newspaper.
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