Saturday Qualifying : Malaysian Grand Prix 2008

We head on to Malaysia for the second race of the 2008 season. The Sepang International circuit which is rated among the best and the most challenging circuits by the drivers and critics alike, is the venue for the Formula One Malaysian Grand Prix. It boasts of some of the best pit garages and media facilities and even more impressive grandstands.



Coming to the qualifying sessions, Ferrari came out on the top after a dismal performance in Australia last weekend. Ferrari fans will be a happy lot. As rain threatened to play spoil sport in the afternoon qualifying session (and it never came down!!), Ferrari showed that they still are the ones to beat. Felipe Massa claimed the pole position, almost half a second clear of team-mate Kimi Raikkonen. The Ferraris looked totally dominant today as they qualified ahead of the two Mclarens of Heikki Kovalainen and Lewis Hamilton, who came in 3rd and 4th respectively.



Toyota finally seem to be making progress with Jarno Trulli qualifying 5th and team mate Timo Glock qualifying 10th. Toyota team bosses would be happy to see both the cars in the top ten.


BMW Sauber had a slightly disappointing outing with Robert Kubica and and Nick Heidfeld placed 6th and 7th respectively. Nick Heidfeld had to work past the traffic of too many cars as he went out to put in a flying lap. The sight sure was a treat for all racing enthusiasts.


The Red Bull of Mark Webber lines up 8th ahead of two time World Champion Fernando Alonso in Renault, who qualified 9th. The other Red Bull of David Coulthard will start 12th and Nelson Piquet Jr in his Renault wil start 13th. The Hondas of Jenson Button and Rubens Barichello will start 11th and 14th respectively.


Coming to the Toro Rosso of Sebastian Vettel and Sebastian Bourdais, they could only manage 15th and 18th places. Bourdais made a mistake which saw him running off the track and lose his final run in the first qualifying. The biggest disappointment was Williams, who managed to get a car on the podium in the last race. Nico Rosberg had hydraulics issue and never recovered. He came in 16th and Kazuki Nakajima came in 18th but will drop back at the end of the grid as a result of penalty suffered in Melbourne.


The Force India of Giancarlo Fisichella threatened to push out a few drivers from making it to the second qualifying but that was short lived. He finishd 17th and Adrian Sutil came in 20th. Takuma Sato and Anthony Davidson start 19th and 21st in their Super Aguris.


The Ferraris look dominate the race tomorrow, IF they have their reliability issues sorted out and their drivers don't make mistakes similar to Australia. Happy racing everyone!! :)



Driver's Line up:
1. Felipe Massa 1′35.748
2. Kimi Raikkonen 1′36.230
3. Heikki Kovalainen 1′36.613
4. Lewis Hamilton 1′36.709
5. Jarno Trulli 1′36.711
6. Robert Kubica 1′36.727
7. Nick Heidfeld 1′36.753
8. Mark Webber 1′37.009
9. Fernando Alonso 1′38.450
10. Timo Glock 1′39.656
11. Jenson Button 1′35.208
12. David Coulthard 1′35.408
13. Nelson Piquet 1′35.562
14. Rubens Barrichello 1′35.622
15. Sebastian Vettel 1′35.648
16. Nico Rosberg 1′35.670
17. Giancarlo Fisichella 1′36.240
18. Kazuki Nakajima 1′36.388
19. Sebastien Bourdais 1′36.677
20. Takuma Sato 1′37.087
21. Adrian Sutil 1′37.101
22. Anthony Davidson 1′37.481

NOTE: Kazuki Nakajima will start at the end of the grid due to penalty imposed during Australian Grand Prix incident.

NOTE 2: Lewis Hamilton and McLaren Mercedes team-mate Heikki Kovalainen, third fastest, were each penalised five grid positions for impeding rival drivers at the end of the final session.