Malaysian F1 GP 2008 - Qualifying - Massa on Pole, McLaren penalized (Update 2)
All sorts of weather predictions (no rain in next 20 minutes, rain within 7 minutes, no rain for another 20 minutes) turned to early minutes of Q1 into a frenzy. All the cars (except Kovalainen and BMW Saubers) went out right away to record some times before the rain. No rain came… Fisichella, Nakajima, Bourdais, Sato, Sutil and Davidson were the unlucky 6 not to make it ot Q2. Fisi missed out by 4 tenths … Jarno Trulli was the fastest driver in Q1.
Both McLarens went out quickly in Q2, took P1 and P2 but Kimi got quickly ahead of both of them with fastest lap of the weekend. Massa was second fastest ahead of Hamilton, Heidfeld and Kovalainen. Jenson Button, David Coulthard, Nelson Piquet, Sebastian Vettel, Nico Rosberg and Rubens Barrichello were eliminated in this session. Not the best of days for Williams today.
The rain stayed away for the Q3 too. Ferraris were clearly faster than McLarens and locked the front row. Pole position went to Felipe Massa ahead of Kimi Raikkonen. In McLaren also the number 2 got ahead of his no 1 team mate - Kovalainen will start from P3, Hamilton from P4. Jarno Trulli squeezed in ahead of BMW Saubers of Kubica and Heidfeld. Heidfeld’s final run has was however compromised by slowly moving Timo Glock (P10). Will be interesting to see if the stewards take in action here … Fernando Alonso had hard time with his not that easy to handle Renault and definitelly can’t be unhappy with starting from P9.
Update: Lewis Hamilton and Heikki Kovalainen have been summoned by stewards after Fernando Alonso and Nick Heidfeld complained about being blocked on their final run.
Update 2: Both McLaren drivers have been penalized for blocking their rivals at the closing stages of Q3. Hamilton and Kovalainen were moved 5 places down the grid.
Full qualifying results inside the article
Qualifying Results Malaysian GP:
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 Sauber - 1:36.727
5. N. Heidfeld - BMW Sauber - 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 - PENALTY
9. L. Hamilton - McLaren - 1:36.709 - PENALTY
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 - Renault - 1:35.562
14. R. Barrichello - Honda - 1:35.622
15. S. Vettel - Toro Rosso - 1:35.648
16. N. Rosberg - Williams - 1:35.670
17. G. Fisichella - Force India - 1:36.240
18. S. Bourdais - Toro Rosso - 1:36.677
19. T. Sato - Super Aguri - 1:37.087
20. A. Sutil - Force India - 1:37.101
21. A. Davidson - Super Aguri - 1:37.481
22. K. Nakajima - Williams - 1:36.388 - MOVED 5 PLACES DOWN (PENALTY FROM MELBOURNE)
tags: Tags: 2008, formula 1, Malaysian GP, qualifying, Sepang
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March 22nd, 2008 at 10:06 pm
Oups! Already posted
Didn’t have the updated page and I didn’t notice the news. Don’t get angry 
By the way, I have problems to connect, the server answer within 2 min or 3 min (some days ago persist). Take the note, maybe you can solve it 
March 22nd, 2008 at 10:17 pm
No worries
Re speed - Yes, I realized recently there are times that site loads too slow. Must be a server problem. Will see what I can do to have it fixed