McLaren Drivers Rightly Penalised

As predicted, Heikki Kovalainen and Lewis Hamilton have both been handed 5 place grid penalties from the race stewards for blocking off Nick Heidfeld and Fernando Alonso whilst saving fuel on their in laps. This promotes Jarno Trulli to a remarkable 3rd place with Kubica 4th. Heidfeld, the aggrieved party from qualy, moves up to fifth, Webber in sixth and Alonso seventh. A pretty dismal start to the weekend so far for McLaren, and they're going to have a tough race for sure tomorrow.

Revised Starting Grid

1. Massa
2. Raikkonen
3. Trulli
4. Kubica
5. Heidfeld
6. Webber
7. Alonso
8. Kovalainen*
9. Hamilton*
10. Glock
11. Button
12. Coulthard
13. Piquet
14. Barrichello
15. Vettel
16. Rosberg
17. Fisichella
18. Bourdais
19. Sato
20. Sutil
21. Davidson
22. Nakajima**

* = 5 place penalty
** = 10 place penalty Read more!

Malaysian Grand Prix Qualifying Report

Felipe Massa will start tomorrow's Malaysian Grand Prix from pole after an imperious display from the Ferrari team in qualifying. He will lead off with his teammate alongside him, with their archrivals in the McLarens locking out row 2. That is, unless the McLaren drivers end up getting penalised... The qualifying session began with the threat of rain looming large. Fernando Alonso was warned that rain was predictied to hit just seven minutes into the first of the three qualifying sessions. Thus a fast and furious qualifying session began as the drivers were desperate to get out there and get their laps in the bag for the ever elusive rain hit. Alas, the rain didn't come until literally moments after the grid had been decided, but it had no impact on the session.

The first session passed without real incident until the final moments of the session when Sebastien Bourdais saw his Q2 hopes ended with yet another brake failure for the Toro Rosso/Red Bull teams. The battle to get through to Q2 was a frenetic one in the dying moments as the order was constantly changing as each car crossed the line. Numerous drivers looked to be in trouble as Fisichella in the Force India threatened to cause a real upset. He looked as though he had managed it for an all too brief moment until Rubens Barrichello just squeezed out his fellow veteran for the last ticket to the party. Unlucky for Fisi, hopefully it's only a matter of time until the former Jordan team can get at least one car through.

The second session was the chance for Ferrari to really show their pace on low fuel loads. Raikkonen in particular was hugely impressive, leaving the rest trailing in his wake. Someone who definitely looked to be struggling to live with the Scuderia's pace was Lewis Hamilton who had to take an extra set of tyres to put in a third run to make sure that he would even make it through to the final session. We learned after the session that Hamilton had decided to change a few things with his set-up overnight, but whatever changes he had made seemed to have a negative impact throughout all three qualy sessions. Not Hamilton's finest hour.

The battle to get through to the final session wasn't quite as closely fought as the first session with young Germans Rosberg and Vettel both having disappointing showings. The weak pace of the Williams was one of the surprises of the day as they finished a fairly woeful 16th and 18th place, with Nakajima due to start last after his penalty from last week's race. Barrichello, Piquet and Coulthard didn't really get that close to making it through so it was down to Button versus Glock versus Alonso. Button was the man to lose out, by less than a tenth of a second in the end. However, when spoken to after the session he seemed delighted with 11th and with his performance, confident in the knowledge that he could not have wrung any more performance out of his Honda.

So the final session began with the rain still holding off, and with Kovalainen and Hamilton leading the field out onto the circuit. We could immediately see from the early laps that the battle was to be between the two Ferrari drivers as they looked in a different class to everyone else. As the two red cars duked it out for pole it became apparent that Massa was running lighter than Kimi as he was able to record a lap almost a half a second faster than the World Champ. The McLarens both slotted in to the second row with Kovalainen beating his teammate for the first time this season, capping a fine weekend so far for the Finn.

Trulli put in a fine lap to take fifth and was probably the star of qualifying all things told. The other driver who looked capable of pushing the McLarens was BMW's Nick Heidfeld. Things turned sour for him in the final moments of the session is what was a rather bizarre and controversial sequence of events. It seemed that most drivers had gone out for their final runs a minute or two earlier than usual doe to the impending rainfall. Not so the BMW of Heidfeld and Alonso's Renault, who left things to the last minute for a more traditional last gasp dash for the chequered flag. Unfortunately they both came across horrendous traffic on the track as the other cars were chugging around at crawling pace to try and save fuel. People mostly did their best to stay out of the way, but Heidfeld caught the two McLarens almost parked on the racing line in the braking zone for the tricky turn 4. His hot lap was severely compromised and it cost him a possible second row finish. If BMW appeal they will have a very strong case for seeing both McLaren drivers penalised.

Clearly there was no malice or forethought in the McLaren driver's actions, it was just pure carelessness on their part. A rather silly lapse in concentration from the team and the drivers, and it could prove extremely costly if they end up with grid place penalties. It wasn't just that it messed up Heidfeld's single lap, it would have made a mess of his whole strategy as he was probably running light hoping to bag a good grip spot. He can't change his fuel load now, and his race will be severely compromised. Rotten luck for the on form German, and a poor show from McLaren. Even if the drivers didn't see his coming they should have been given plenty of forewarning from their team.

So the grid for tomorrow's race has a decidedly familiar look about it with Ferrari domination looking likely to be the order of the day. McLaren and others may well be praying that the highly unpredictable Kuala Lumpur weather throws in a few surprises and can upset the form book somewhat. Personally I'd love to see some rain tomorrow to really sort the men out from the boys now that we have no traction control. Come on God, do us a favour! Read more!

Malaysian Grand Prix Final Practice

BMW's Nick Heidfeld was the surprise leader on the time sheets at the end of the final Practice session before the competitive action kicks off in qualifying. His performance will doubtless have raised a few eyebrows in the Ferrari and McLaren garages, as BMW haven't really looked impressive thus far in Malaysia. They could perhaps cause an upset and get in amongst the big boys at the front.

Ferrari continued their impressive form this session while McLaren kept their qualy-pace cards close to their chest by focusing on long run set-up work. Red Bull got the all clear from the race stewards to go out on track after question marks over the apparent fragility of their car, and they impressed with P5 and P6. The other performances of note were Rosberg and Barrichello. Both did extremely limited running this session, and I wonder whether they may be conserving their engines in the heat and humidity of Sepang.

I can't really tell you what happened on track as, alas, the only stream I could find of the footage was about the size of a postage size and impossible to make out. Ho-hum. Bring on qualifying! Read more!

Malaysian Grand Prix Practice 2

Lewis Hamilton finished the second practice session of the Grand Prix in his favourite place, P1 after snatching the Friday glory from Ferrari in the dying minutes. Ferrari will no doubt sleep soundly tonight after having a clean bill of health throughout that session, and showing some blistering pace along the way. That will certainly have banished a few of the ghosts of last Sunday that may have been lingering. Felipe Massa in particular had a good session coming in second, just ahead of team leader Kimi, followed by (shock, horror) Jenson Button's Honda!The session as a whole was not quite as eventful as the first. The amazing disintegrating Red Bull of Coulthard decided not to make an appearance and Sebastien Bourdais didn't do anything more than an installation lap. There were still a few off track excursions from the likes of Mark Webber, and Fernando Alonso managed to spin on the exit of the final turn under power. Even more worryingly for Alonso though, we heard him on the pit radio complaining of losing second gear completely. He took no further part in the session. Under the new rules gearbox changes = penalties, so it could spell trouble for the Spaniard.

The BMWs and Williams teams seemed to be focusing on longer runs this session, which left the door open for the likes of Button in the Honda and Vettel in the Toro Rosso to grab a few headlines. There were few other surprises on the time sheets really. Nelson Piquet appears to have closed the gap somewhat to his illustrious teammate after his woeful start last weekend, while Timo Glock appears to have gone the other way and fallen back from Trulli's pace.

As in the previous session there was plenty of sliding and slithering around under power. The final corner certainly looks to be the one to watch on race day as that is the corner that the drivers are consistently struggling with in terms of braking stability and traction. Rosberg was again consistently messy throughout the session there, but the honours for best 'drift' of the day go to Lewis Hamilton. He managed to get the back end out at the apex with his front brakes locked, then powerslide all the way through the exit of the corner with the grace of a ballerina. It might have cost him three tenths of a second, but it looked great!

And still no sign of the rain. Latest predictions put the chances of rain at 90% for qualy tomorrow and 70% for Sunday's race. We shall see... Read more!

Malaysian Grand Prix Practice 1

An eventful first practice session for the Malaysian Grand Prix has drawn to a close with the Ferraris setting the pace so far with a decent sized gap back to the McLaren of Kovalainen and Nico Rosberg's Williams. It doesn't tell the full story for Ferrari however as Kimi Raikkonen's car ground to a halt out on track with what looked like something electronic or hydraulic. It certainly wasn't an engine failure by the looks of things, but still not great news.

McLaren didn't have the best of sessions either. They were a little short on pace compared to the Ferraris, and with 5 minutes of the session to go Hamilton had a minor trip off the circuit at turns 7 and 8 and he cruised back to the pits and called a halt to proceedings. Whether that was just a precaution or whether something was actually wrong with the car it's hard to say at the moment.

Hamilton wasn't the only one off track however. David Coulthard went off in rather spectacular fashion by snapping his front suspension wishbones bouncing over a kerb. Teammate Mark Webber fared even worse. His Renault engine blew up under full throttle down the straight and he had to pull off and then jump out as his car was still pouring out smoke and flames. He will surely get a grid penalty for the race. Heidfeld went bouncing across the gravel at turn 8, Nakajima spun in turn 9, and Vettel had a front brake failure whilst slowing for the final corner. It was a very similar incident to the one that befell Mark Webber's car in Melbourne last weekend. I wonder if they have the same braking system as their Red Bull stablemates?

Aside from the numerous offs there was plenty to see as lots of drivers seemed to struggle in the tight final corner. It seemed like every 30 seconds or so the director would cut to somebody getting horribly crossed up mid-corner. I think the problem is that they are shedding a LOT of speed and also trail-braking right the way through towards the apex, then no sooner have they got off the brakes they have to try and get the power down out of a tight, slow hairpin. It seemed to be that transition from braking to getting the power down that was causing balance problems for a lot of drivers. Nico Rosberg struggled with it more than most throughout the session, but finally got his act together late on and put in an excellent lap to take fourth spot from his good mate Hamilton.

No sign of the thunderstorms yet...
Read more!

Malaysian Grand Prix Preview

With barely a couple of days to take stock and review the events of Melbourne on Sunday the teams have unpacked their bags and motorhomes in the paddock of the Sepang circuit on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. It's one of the fastest, toughest turnarounds of the year for the teams, especially as they are all so far from home and it makes things very hard to get new parts shipped out from the factories. And after last weekend's mayhem there are plenty of repairs needing to be carried out! Whilst this may not be the biggest problem for the big boys, the likes of Super Aguri will be stretched to their already very thinly stretched limits.

One team who will be looking to lick their wounds after their Australian debacle is Ferrari. They must be somewhat shell-shocked after their appalling weekend, and they must still have serious concerns over the performance of their engines which had numerous failures throughout the weekend. They will of course have fresh engines on hand to use this weekend, but it is doubtful whether they will have had time to fully diagnose and rectify any problems they may have in the design or manufacture of their power plants. This will be a big test of Stefano Domenicali's fledgling Team Director career. I don't imagine for a moment that they will have as bad a weekend as in Oz. But will they come back fighting and go after McLaren, or will they try to stabilise and get some healthy points on the board so they can regroup before we hit the European season?

Arch-rivals McLaren on the other hand couldn't be in better shape. Faultless reliability, great qualifying pace, great race pace, and a lead driver who looked as fit as a butcher's dog after 2 grueling hours in the scorching heat of Albert Park. Hamilton is in incredible shape, and his driving looks as good if not even better than last year. But knowing McLaren, they certainly will not be resting on their laurels. They will be pushing as hard as ever to try and extend their early advantage over Ferrari. And let's not forget BMW, who raised a few eyebrows with their impressive pace in Australia despite a fairly indifferent winter testing performance.

The Sepang circuit has a bit of everything. It is mostly a mixture of loooooooong straights and some very fast and medium speed corners with some tricky braking zones. But there are also a few very tight hairpins thrown in there for good measure. The surface is generally good given that it is a relatively new circuit, and it is plenty wide enough, which will come as a relief to the drivers after the bumpy, dirty, narrow track in Melbourne. On paper, the circuit should provide considerably less challenge to the drivers in terms of traction and braking stability. However, there is potentially a BIG spanner going to be thrown in the works in the form of rain. Not just your average rain or drizzle, we're talking full on South Asian tropical thunderstorm type rain. The weather is predicted to be "Scattered thunderstorms" on all three days of the Grand Prix. Apparently it has been raining heavily on and off in KL for close to 3 weeks, and it shows no signs of abating. This could mean rapidly changing track conditions for the drivers to deal with, and some tough choices for the teams in terms of tyres and set-up. Without traction control, if the rain starts to develop patches of standing water at any time during qualy or the race the drivers will certainly be earning their money!

I worry that if it rains heavily before and during the start time of the race it could even put the race in jeopardy. I recall an A1GP qualifying session being red-flagged here a couple of years ago due to heavy rain making the session too dangerous. If they do start the race in wet conditions it will make the first two turns very interesting indeed. Having a very long, wide, high-speed run down to the first corner followed by hard braking into two ever tightening hairpins has caused lots of problems for drivers even in dry conditions. If they're trying to brake with cold tyres and brakes into those corners then the chances of everyone getting out in one piece are virtually nil!

It'll certainly make for an eventful race if it does rain, and let's hope the race will be eventful even without the wet conditions. It certainly has a lot to live up to after the excitement of last weekend, so bring it on! Read more!

Back on the Beeb

There was a fair bit of shock this morning when it was announced that F1 will be returning to the BBC after a 12 year stint at ITV.

ITV have shown remarkable commitment to the sport throughout these years, even when things were at their lowest ebb during the years of the Ferrari/Schumacher strangulation of the sport. It must be particularly galling for them to hear this news greeted with unbridled rejoicing throughout the F1 world. After all the millions they've pumped into the sport they have somehow ended up universally resented by Formula One fans in Britain and beyond.

There are two obvious reasons or this. One - constant advert breaks throughout the race, sometimes missing as much as 15 minutes of any given race. Two - the personnel, in particular lead commentator James Allen, but also the likes of irritating half-witted pit reporter Ted Kravitz. Obviously the first of these problems is automatically solved by the move to BBC. We can only hope that the second of these will be solved by getting rid of Allen, Kravitz, Goodman and co. Martin Brundle needs to be kept on of course, he's the best in the business (and you can sign an online petition for his services to be retained here - http://www.gopetition.co.uk/online/17851.html ), and I personally don't mind Steve Ryder. He was the presenter of 'Grand Prix' on the BBC throughout the nineties and I would have no problem in him returning to that post.

So what else can the BBC do to improve things? People have often complained about what is shown by the live director during the race, when in the past we have seen endless footage of Schumacher/Alonso/Hamilton cruising away by themselves at the front while we miss some good racing behind them in the midfield. However, the feed that ITV show, and indeed every other TV company in the world shows, comes directly from Bernie's FOM TV company. They employ a different live director for each race in each country. The actual broadcasters have no control over the feed that they receive. The camera angles, the replays, the onscreen graphics etc are identical in every country, so the BBC will be powerless to improve the coverage in that respect.

One thing that F1 fanatics will be keen for them to do is tone down the sickly, over-zealous promotion of Lewis Hamilton. Yes he's British; yes he's a nice guy; and yes he's ludicrously talented. That doesn't mean we want it shoved down our throats from the very first minute of the broadcast to the last. Some of us are interested in a little more than just Lewis. But what about the casual, drop in and out F1 viewer? Whilst many aficionados complained about the Hamilton-heavy coverage, the fact is that ITV received their best viewing figures in years. The season ending Brazilian Grand Prix was the most watched sporting event in Britain last year, even more popular than the Champions League Final. This was mostly down to the media hype around Stevenage's finest. So whilst it may have riled a few F1 die hards, the focus on Lewis Hamilton was in retrospect the right move in terms of drawing in the viewers, and in increasing the interest in the sport. For me that's no bad thing, and as such I doubt that the BBC will choose to tone down the coverage of Hamilton-mania too much, especially if he wins the title this year.

My big reservation over the BBC getting the rights to the coverage is the fact that they simply don't have that much money. They used to do a damn good job back in the eighties and nineties, but TV sports coverage has moved on enormously since then. People want ever more hi-tech production values, TV graphics and interesting features. ITV was able to do these things to a certain extent with the likes of Martin Brundle's "Inside F1" features, where he would analyse certain aspects of F1 car handling and the technology that impact upon it. These were very well put together, well produced pieces, utilising some sophisticated graphics and even gaining use of Red Bull and Williams F1 cars for Brundle to illustrate his points with. Will the BBC be able to commit the resources to producing features as good as this? I have my doubts.

So whilst the immediate reaction of the F1 fraternity seems to be a big sigh of relief, and even celebration in some circles, for me the jury is still out... Read more!