2008 Malaysian Grand Prix Race Report

By Effwun - FOAS #65

Kimi Raikkonen cruised to an almost effortless victory in Malaysia, and in doing so has kick started his world title defence. The Finn was almost unassailable as teammate Felipe Massa span off and out of the grand prix, and the McLarens had a sub-par race.

On Friday, it was Selamat datang ke Kuala Lumpur (welcome to Kuala Lumpur) for Ferrari. In P1, it was Felipe Massa who topped the time sheets with a time of 1:35.392, just over a second faster than his teammate Kimi Raikkonen. However, Raikkonen could only manage 8 laps, as he coasted to a halt with what sounded like the same mechanical failure he suffered in Melbourne - the engine cut out whilst downshifting. It would later turn out to be a "fuel miscalculation" - a trivial mistake of the kind that the Ferrari team should not be making.

The third fastest man of the session was McLaren driver Heikki Kovalainen, with a time of 1:32.556. This was just two hundredths faster than Nico Rosberg in fourth place (although Rosberg's time was set on the softer Option tyres), and just shy of a tenth faster than his teammate Hamilton, who toured back to the pits after 17 laps, having had a minor off at turn 8.

One thing that was clear was that a lot of drivers were struggling under braking, especially at turn 15 - the final corner. This is the biggest braking zone on the track, and a lot of drivers were getting out of shape as they came to the end of the braking zone. None more so than Sebatian Vettel, who spun off at the final corner in the dying moments of the session, although it was not entirely down to driver error - the young German suffered a brake failure. It could be that the drivers are missing the engine braking features they used to enjoy, but that are now outlawed thanks to the standard ECU, but it should also be borne in mind that the Sepang circuit has been repaved.

It was Lewis Hamilton who was the fastest man on track in the second Friday Practice session, with a time of 1:35.055 - one and a half tenths clear of Felipe Massa in second place, and nearly four tenths faster than the world champion Kimi Raikkonen in third place. The two Ferraris were quickest for most of the session, however, and Felipe Massa later felt that he could have gone quicker on his final lap - which was on the softer Option tyres - but was held up a little bit by Hamilton. Indeed, Massa's fastest time was set on the harder Prime tyres, whereas Hamilton's time was set on the Option tyres.

Nick Heidfeld was the fastest man in Saturday practice, setting a time of 1:35.019 in the closing moments of the session. The BMW driver pipped world champion Kimi Raikkonen and his Ferrari teammate Felipe Massa to the top spot. Heidfeld ended up just over 2 tenths faster than Raikkonen. Jarno Trulli continued his good run in the weekend to date, and was fourth fastest, ahead of the two Red Bull cars of Webber and Coulthard, who apparently must have satisfied the FIA that their cars were safe to race, having been required to submit a technical report after David Coulthard's failure in Friday Practice 1. Piquet, Button, Vettel, and Glock rounded out the top ten. Piquet looked to be on a very hot lap at the end - his first sector time was fastest of all - but subsequently lost a lot of time in the other two sectors. The competition at the front was very close - less than a second covered the top 11 places.

The worry going into qualifying was the weather - dark clouds were looming nearby, and rain had been predicted. Race control helpfully flashed that there was no rain predicted for the first 30 minutes of qualifying, then a few minutes later indicated that it would rain in 20 minutes. The Renault team were predicting rain within 7 minutes of the start of qualifying... The weather, therefore, was going to be unpredictable.

As a consequence, most drivers left the pits early to get their qualifying runs in before any rain hit. Q1 was quite busy at the beginning - 11 cars were out on track in the first minute. The track temperature was a nominal 47 degrees celcius at the beginning of the session (but would cool significantly to 35 degrees by the end of the hour), and times consistent with P3 were expected. However, a lot of the lower field runners seemed to struggle, possibly due to traffic. Jarno Trulli continued his good form to post the fastest time in Q1 (1:35.206), narrowly pipping Heikki Kovalainen. At the tail end of the field though, the six cars stuck in the basement were Fisichella, Nakajima (who will be sent to the back with a ten place penalty for his clash with Kubica in Melbourne), Bourdais, Sato, Sutil, and Davidson. Bourdais's elimination was a little disappointing, although he did lose a lot of track time (the entirety of P2) due to a gear box failure. More had also been expected from Nakajima.

No rain had materialized at this point, but the threat was still there. Consequently, in a presumed effort to get their qualifying laps in early, Kovalainen and Hamilton stacked themselves at the pit lane traffic light waiting for the session to start. Q2 turned out to be a hard fought battle, with several drivers trying both the harder Prime tyre and the softer Option tyre. Not least of those attempting both was Jenson Button, who had the benefit of Ross Brawn coaching him about his tyre choice. Unfortunately, it wouldn't be enough for either of the Hondas - Button was 11th and Barrichello was 14th. This was not really a surprise - Button had cautioned after his excellent practice times not to expect the same in qualifying - but the elimination of Nico Rosberg was a surprise. He could manage no better than 16th - last in Q2, almost 7 tenths off tenth place. This could possibly be attributed to hydraulic problems that he suffered in P3, which limited his running.

The fastest man in the session was Kimi Raikkonen, who set a stunning time of 1:34.188, which was about 2 and half tenths faster than his teammate Massa. Massa looked worried at one point - he was hovering in 5th place - as did Hamilton - who was hovering in 7th. Both drivers elected to do a second run on fresh Option tyres, and ended up 2nd and 3rd respectively.

So, after Q2 the people stuck in lobby were Button, Coulthard, Piquet, Barrichello, Vettel, and Rosberg.

As Q3 began, the rain had still not come. Again Kovalainen and Hamilton stacked at the end of the pit lane, along with both Ferraris. The threat of rain was clearly dictating strategy. At this point, the track temperature has cooled significantly, and the McLarens seemed to be struggling for grip and pace. This year's McLaren has been designed to be kinder on its tyres than the MP4/22 (which tended to shred its tyres), so it's possible with the cooler track temperatures that they couldn't get the heat they needed into the tyres. Hamilton would also later admit that they had elected to run less downforce in qualifying, and this hurt their performance.

Most, if not all, drivers elected to do two runs on their race fuel loads, and some (notably the McLarens) used both Prime and Option tyres. Invariably, though, it was the Ferraris who were fastest, even with the McLarens using the Option tyres at the end of the session. The faster of the McLaren drivers was Kovalainen - Hamilton seemed to be struggling, and on his last run started the lap behind one of the Toyotas (although he quickly overtook). In the event, the rain never came, and it was Massa who took pole - he had been fast all weekend, and had been particularly fast on the Prime tyres. He was comfortably ahead of his teammate in second place, who was ahead of the two McLarens of Kovalainen and Hamilton, followed by Trulli, Kubica, Heidfeld, Webber, Alonso, and Timo Glock. There was, however, an air of controversy. Most of the drivers had set their fast times with about a minute of time left in the session as they crossed the line. Rather than continue on hot laps, they elected to coast around the track at idling speeds to save fuel. However, there were a few drivers who were still attempting hot laps - notably Heidfeld and Alonso. Most of the slow drivers had pulled off the racing line, but the two McLarens remained on the racing line. Just before turn 4, Heidfeld and Alonso came upon the extremely slow cars, and had to take evasive action because there were cars on both sides of the track (both off and on the racing line). The closing speed of Heidfeld on the slow cars was tremendous - there could have easily been a major accident had he come upon the slower cars in, say, the fast turn 5/6 flick.

After qualifying, Nick Heidfeld voiced his concerns over the matter, and the Stewards took note, electing to drop both Kovalainen and Hamilton 5 grid positions for tomorrow's race. They would now line up 8th and 9th respectively. With their race fuel loads already set, it looked like it wass going to be an uphill struggle for the McLarens in the race. And as a side bar, just 5 minutes after the end of qualifying, a gentle rain began to fall.

So, to the race. Overnight rain had soaked the track and washed away some of the built up rubber, and therefore grip, from the track. Furthermore, the race was being run under the threat of heavy rain. If it were to rain, the race would invariably turn into a lottery. However, on the formation lap, Jenson Button's engineer confirmed that it would be a dry race, and so it turned out to be. The track temperature started out at 43 degrees celcius and fluctuated a few degrees throughout the race - nothing significant. The air temperature remained constant at 30 degrees celcius (86 F) and the humidity was around 70% - it was going to be hot and sticky for the drivers.

The pre-race buzz was about the McLarens - how would they cope with their 5 place grid penalties, and what fuel loads were they on. There was suspicion that they were on a lighter fuel load than the cars surrounding them, but that would remain to be seen.

As the cars peeled off on the formation lap, the different tyre strategies became clear - most of the field were starting on the Option (medium) tyres, but notable exceptions were the two Ferraris, and the two BMWs, who elected to start on the Prime (hard) tyres. So the cars lined up on the grid, and the lights went out. It was a drag race down into the first corner for the two Ferraris, but Massa held his advantage to lead into turn 1. Further back, Hamilton had a blinding start, and climbed to 5th place, as did Nakajima, who climbed from 22nd to 17th. Nick Heidfeld was a big loser in the first corner shoving match, and was forced wide by Jarno Trulli. This would drop the German from 5th to 10th.

There was further drama at turn 4, where Sebastien Bourdais lost control of his Toro Rosso, and prematurely ended his race beached in the gravel trap. After such a strong showing in Melbourne, this is not what the Frenchman wanted. Later in the lap, Rosberg and Glock had a coming together at turn 14 - Rosberg was attempting to go up the inside of Glock, who chopped across the front of Rosberg, and the two had a minor coming together. The result was a retirement for Glock, and a damaged nosecone for Rosberg. Rosberg did not pit on lap 1 to repair the damage, however - possibly because he was boxed to the inside by traffic - and made an entire lap minus a front wing before pitting at the end of lap 2.

Ahead of all the chaos, the Ferraris of Massa and Raikkonen calmly began to march into the distance - it didn't look like anyone was going to mount much of a challenge. Further back, though, there was a great 3-way tussle for 8th place between Coulthard, Alonso, and Heidfeld. Coming down the long back stretch, Alonso attempted a pass on Coulthard on the right hand side, meanwhile Heidfeld picked up the Scot's tow, and moved to the left to pass. In their attempts to outdo each other, Alonso and Coulthard left the door open for Heidfeld, who passed both of them under braking for turn 15, the final corner. It was a fine piece of driving from Heidfeld, making a three-wide pass that would not have looked out of place in the Daytona 500. Alonso, who couldn't get the job done at turn 15, took a wider line than Coulthard, and thus made a better exit of the corner. Alonso capitalised, and was able to pass Coulthard into turn 1/2.

So, lap 3 was completed! Back at the front, the Ferraris were half a second per lap faster than anyone else on track, whereas the McLarens were struggling for pace - overheating of their tyres was apparently an issue. Hamilton slowly inched up to the back of Mark Webber's Red Bull and caught him by lap 14, but then got bottled up behind the Australian until the first round of pit stops. When Webber pitted on lap 17, Hamilton instantly went a second per lap quicker, and looked in good shape to comfortably leap ahead during the pit stop rotation. However, when Hamilton pitted on lap 19, there was a problem with the right front tyre, which resulted in a 20 second pit stop. The McLaren team also elected to use another set of the Option tyres, which was probably the wrong rubber to be on. Also, in the confusion, the right front wheel rim shield was not set in its correct position, and it was spinning freely at speed. The aerodynamic penalty was probably small, but all in all, it was a lacklustre stop for the McLaren team, and when Hamilton rejoined the race, he rejoined in P11 - behind Webber again.

It was smooth sailing for the Ferrari boys though. After having put in some very quick laps, Massa pitted on lap 17. Raikkonen stayed out, and proceeded to blitz round the track, setting a new fastest lap of the race (1:35.679) on lap 18, and was on course for an even faster lap on lap 19 (having set the fastest first and second sector times), but peeled into the pits. With their usual efficiency, Ferrari serviced Raikkonen and sent him back out and as he trundled down pit lane, Massa steamed down the pits straight. It looked like it would be close, but Raikkonen emerged ahead of Massa. Those stunning laps turned by Raikkonen had allowed him to leapfrog his teammate.

Thereafter, Felipe Massa seemed to go off the boil. Maybe he was rattled, or perhaps disheartened, by the fact that he had lost the lead to his teammate, echoing the Brazilian's disappointment at the 2007 French GP where exactly the same thing happened. His lap times worsened, and Raikkonen extended his lead. Then on lap 31, Massa spun at the exit of turn 8, and beached his car in the gravel. His race was over. He would later complain that the rear end of the car felt strange, but his mechanics could find nothing untoward in the telemetry. Had he simply made a mistake and got the power down too soon? Is this symptomatic of Felipe struggling without traction control?

So, it looked like it would be a comfortable run to the flag for Raikkonen. The same could not be said for Hamilton. After having emerged behind Mark webber (again) after his disastrous first pit stop, Hamilton got bottled up (again) for 18 laps, until Webber pitted on lap 40. Hamilton ran longer, and pitted on lap 45. He switched to the Prime tyre and, although it was a relatively conservative stop by the McLaren crew, he emerged ahead of Nick Heidfeld, who was in 6th place. The man infront of Hamilton was Jarno Trulli, some 12 seconds ahead. Hamilton put the hammer down, and set personal best after personal best lap in his attempt to hunt down the Italian. In the end, he came within a second of fourth place, but there were just too few laps remaining to be able to attempt a pass. Hamilton would have to settle for 5th.

But at the front, Raikkonen cruised home to a fine win, some 20 seconds clear of Robert Kubica, who drove a very low key race to come home an excellent second, and a further 19 seconds clear of Kovalainen in 3rd. The Finn had also driven a somewhat low key race, but it was a well deserved podium nonetheless. Trulli came home 4th, just 0.7 seconds ahead of Hamilton in 5th, with Heidfeld 6th. Heidfeld would record the fastest lap of the race on the penultimate lap, proving the pace of the BMWs. Collecting the rest of the points were Mark Webber, and Fernando Alonso. The battle between those two in the closing stages was a close as the Trulli/Hamilton battle, but Webber proved himself a difficult man to catch and pass, yet again. David Coulthard would come home 9th, ahead of Button, Piquet, Fisichella (who drove an excellent race by all accounts), Barrichello, Rosberg (who was the only man on a one stop strategy, and whose race was scuppered by the early clash with Glock), Davidson, Sato, and Nakajima (who seemed to fade late in the race).

It was a hot, tough race for the drivers. Robert Kubica looked a mess on the podium, and indeed needed a drink of water before his official weigh in. Hopefully that was taken into account... Also, Lewis Hamilton's in car water system failed, and he drove the entire race without any drinking fluids. He seemed none the worse for it, but after the race he said that he could do with a beer.

So, Raikkonen boosted his title defence with a fine win in Malaysia, however Ferrari were only able to take home the same points haul as McLaren due to the retirement of Felipe Massa. Surely the diminutive Brazilian cannot afford any more offs this season, especially as Ferrari are rumoured to be courting the services of Sebastian Vettel for 2009.

And one final note. On the last lap, four drivers set their personal best lap times of the race - Button, Barrichello, Rosberg, and Davidson (and Heidfeld set fastest lap on the penultimate lap). Obviously they were on low fuel, but you can bet the team managers are asking where that pace was in the rest of the race. This will probably be especially true for Jenson Button. That personal best lap time of his was 1:35.715. Compare that to the fastest lap set by Nick Heidfeld - 1:35.366. Clearly the pace of that Honda is improving...

Final Classification

Fastest lap: Nick Heidfeld 1:35.366 (Lap 55)

The Alternative Podium Ceremony

1st - The John Watson Award for most places gained in the race: Anthony Davidson (21st - 15th, 6 places)
2nd - The Olivier Grouillard Award for best roadblock: Mark Webber (for holding up Hamilton - twice!)
3rd - The Philippe Alliot Award for most pointless crash: Felipe Massa (spin at turn 8)

Constructors - The David Coulthard Award for outstanding achievement in the field of complaining: Nick Heidfeld (for the complaints about blocking in qualifying, although to be fair he is perfectly justified).

Brazilian Grand Prix Race Report

Chinese Grand Prix Race Report

Japanese Grand Prix Race Report

Singapore Grand Prix Race Report

Italian Grand Prix Race Report

Australia - Mar 28

Malaysia - Apr 04

China - Apr 18

Bahrain - Apr 25

Spain - May 09

Monaco - May 23

Turkey - Jun 06

Great Britain - Jun 20

Germany - Jul 11

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