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2007 Malaysian Grand Prix

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The 2007 Malaysian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on 8 April, 2007 at the Sepang International Circuit. It was the 2nd race of the 2007 Formula One season.

Report

Pre-Race

When the Formula One teams arrived in Malaysia, the Customer Car row quickly flared up again, with Spyker putting in a protest against Scuderia Toro Rosso[1]. The Malaysian stewards rejected their protest, stating that it fell "outside their jurisdiction".[2].

The FIA also introduced stringent tests on the cars as teams were trying to gain an aerodynamic advantage, with some people trying to claim that Ferrari's car was illegal in Melbourne. Ferrari duo Felipe Massa and Kimi Räikkönen said the performance F2007 would not be compromised in any way.[3].

Felipe Massa set the pace in the first of two 90 minute practice sessions on Friday, with a time of 1:34.972, edging out Fernando Alonso in the McLaren by three tenths of a second. Alonso's team-mate, Lewis Hamilton was 3rd, with Ferrari's Kimi Räikkönen just behind in fourth. Nico Rosberg, Mark Webber, Jarno Trulli, Kazuki Nakajima, Ralf Schumacher and Robert Kubica rounded out the top ten. However, it was a bad morning for Renault, with Heikki Kovalainen 14th and Giancarlo Fisichella 15th. The Hondas had a very bad morning, also with their cars languishing down in 19th and 20th.[4].

The Hondas still struggled in the 2nd practice session on Friday with Barrichello calling it extremely frustrating[5], as they also were beaten by Super Aguri's Takuma Sato. However, Renault improved dramatically, with Fisichella second and Kovalainen third. But Massa was unstoppable, and set the pace again in the Ferrari. Räikkönen was again fourth, but the McLarens were down in 9th and 12th[6]. However, McLaren boss Ron Dennis played down the slow times, saying they were concentrating on "tyre evaluation"[7].

In the final practice session on Saturday morning however, Massa and Ferrari were knocked off top spot, as Hamilton set the fastest time in the McLaren with a lap of 1:34.811, just one tenth ahead of the Ferrari. World Champion Alonso followed the leading two, but five tenths off Massa. Kubica completed the leading quartet and Anthony Davidson did a stunning job for Super Aguri, finishing the practice session in 8th, just 1.3 seconds down on the leaders, and well ahead of the Honda A-team who were still near the bottom of the pack, in 17th and 19th place, only to be split by Kovalainen[8].

Qualifying

Part 1

Honda's misery continued as Rubens Barrichello was knocked out of part 1 and ended up 19th. Alexander Wurz was one place behind the Brazilian, as he endured gear-selection problems in his Williams[9]. Scott Speed in the Toro Rosso missed the cut with 17th spot, but team-mate Tonio Liuzzi made it through to Part 2. Anthony Davidson in the Super Aguri also failed to make the cut with 18th, and laid the blame completely with Liuzzi, saying that he was "pretty aware I was behind him"[10]. The Spykers rounded off the back row, with their technical director Mike Gascoyne saying they "made a mistake" in missing the test at Sepang a week earlier[11].

At the front, the McLarens were one-two, with the Ferraris third and fifth, only to be split by Robert Kubica's BMW Sauber.

Part 2

The threat of rain appeared and everyone went out at the start of the 15-minute session to post a quick lap. The rain never materialised, though. The McLarens, Ferraris and BMWs completed the top-six, but the Renaults were the shock as both Fisichella and Kovalainen were knocked out, with Pat Symonds later stating that they "didn't maximise our chances"[12]. Hondas misery was also compounded as Jenson Button was knocked out, saying it was the "maximum we could possibly get"[13], along with Coulthard, Liuzzi and Sato. However, it was revealed after qualifying that Coulthard had changes engines before qualifying, along with Rubens Barrichello, and therefore both got a 10-place grid penalty. Closer examination revealed that Coulthard changed his engine before the start of the race weekend, preventing his 10 place-drop.[14].

Part 3

In the final part of qualifying, Massa snatched pole from Alonso in the dying seconds as rain began to fall, with Kimi Räikkönen completing the top three. Lewis Hamilton was fourth, over half a second behind the leading three, blaming the lack of pace on a rookie error made at the end of the session, saying that there were "some spots of rain on my visor, so I had to sort of let off"[15]. The BMWs were 5th and 7th, only to be split by Nico Rosberg in the Williams, who was delighted with his performance[9]. The Toyotas of Jarno Trulli and Ralf Schumacher, along with Red Bull's Mark Webber rounded out the top 10.

Race

At the start, Alonso took the lead from Massa and Hamilton went round the outside of Massa into turn two and was up to second. Adrian Sutil's suspension failed at turn four[16] and hit Button. Sutil was out but Button continued. Liuzzi and Sato also collided at turn four, with Sato carrying on and Liuzzi having to pit for a new front wing. Afterwards, they seemed to both point their finger at each other, with none of them laying the blame on themselves[17].

Massa tried several times to get past Hamilton, but ran very wide into turn four and into the gravel. He dropped to fifth, behind team-mate Raikkonen and BMW's Nick Heidfeld. After starting fifteenth, Button quickly found himself being dropped, and was overtaken for 17th place by team-mate Barrichello, who started from pitlane after the engine change. By lap 7, Alonso was 8.1 seconds ahead of Hamilton.

The Renaults had a good start and by lap eight they were running in 8th and 10th, with Fisichella ahead of Kovalainen. The Spyker team's weekend got worse as Christijan Albers retired on lap 9 with a gearbox-fire[16].

On lap 12, Robert Kubica was the first man to pit, however he reported traction control problems four laps later and dropped down the order. Button's weekend got worse, as Takuma Sato passed the Briton. Despite the problems Button said he believes the team made "a small step forward"[18].

Alonso started developing radio problems just before the 1st round of pitstops, but these were fixed during his stop. The top five remained in the same positions after the pitstops, with Alonso leading Hamilton, Raikkonen, Heidfeld and Massa. Hamilton began to close at a second a lap and set the fastest lap on lap 22 with a time of 1:36.701.

Kubica dropped to thirteenth as his traction control problem got worse, and a train of cars developed behind him. Kovalainen's performance was much better than in Melbourne, and he hussled Jarno Trulli for 8th.

The top five again remained the same after the 2nd round of stops. Nico Rosberg, who was in 6th place, retired with engine problems and was extremely frustrated afterwards[19]. David Coulthard also retired after problems with his brake pedal, the same problem that he experienced in the Friday practice session[20]. Hamilton started to struggle in the latter stages and Räikkönen began to catch him.

In the end though, Alonso won comfortably from team-mate Hamilton, who was barely a second ahead of Räikkönen, with Heidfeld and Massa some fifteen seconds up the road. Heidfeld said later "this is a fantastic experience (to beat Massa)"[21]. Fisichella finished sixth (he later said it felt like a podium given the performance of the car)[22], Trulli was 7th, and rookie Kovalainen scored his first points in 8th. Wurz managed to come through from 19th to 9th, and although he claimed no points, said later it "bodes well for Williams's chances in the rest of the season"[23].

Hamilton admitted afterwards that this was his hardest race[24], while Räikkönen admitted he "did not have enough speed on the straightline to try to challenge either of them (Lewis Hamilton and Felipe Massa)"[25].

Classification

Qualifying

Pos Name Team/Engine Part 1 Part 2 Part 3
1 Brazil Felipe Massa Ferrari 1:35.340 1:34.454 1:35.043
2 Spain Fernando Alonso McLaren-Mercedes 1:34.942 1:34.057 1:35.310
3 Finland Kimi Räikkönen Ferrari 1:35.138 1:34.687 1:35.479
4 United Kingdom Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1:35.028 1:34.650 1:36.045
5 Germany Nick Heidfeld BMW Sauber 1:35.617 1:35.203 1:36.543
6 Germany Nico Rosberg Williams-Toyota 1:35.755 1:35.380 1:36.829
7 Poland Robert Kubica BMW Sauber 1:35.294 1:34.739 1:36.839
8 Italy Jarno Trulli Toyota 1:35.666 1:35.255 1:36.902
9 Germany Ralf Schumacher Toyota 1:35.736 1:35.595 1:37.078
10 Australia Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault 1:35.727 1:35.579 1:37.345
11 Finland Heikki Kovalainen Renault 1:36.092 1:35.630
12 Italy Giancarlo Fisichella Renault 1:35.879 1:35.706
13 United Kingdom David Coulthard Red Bull-Renault 1:35.730 1:35.766
14 Japan Takuma Sato Super Aguri-Honda 1:36.430 1:35.945
15 United Kingdom Jenson Button Honda 1:35.913 1:36.088
16 Italy Vitantonio Liuzzi STR-Ferrari 1:36.140 1:36.145
17 United States Scott Speed STR-Ferrari 1:36.578
18 United Kingdom Anthony Davidson Super Aguri-Honda 1:36.816
19 Brazil Rubens Barrichello Honda 1:36.827
20 Austria Alexander Wurz Williams-Toyota 1:37.326
21 Netherlands Christijan Albers Spyker-Ferrari 1:38.279
22 Germany Adrian Sutil Spyker-Ferrari 1:38.415

Race

Pos No Driver Team Lap Time/Retired Grid Points
1 1 Spain Fernando Alonso McLaren-Mercedes 56 1:32:14.930 2 10
2 2 United Kingdom Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 56 +17.557 4 8
3 6 Finland Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 56 +18.339 3 6
4 9 Germany Nick Heidfeld BMW Sauber 56 +33.777 5 5
5 5 Brazil Felipe Massa Ferrari 56 +36.705 1 4
6 3 Italy Giancarlo Fisichella Renault 56 +65.638 12 3
7 12 Italy Jarno Trulli Toyota 56 +70.132 8 2
8 4 Finland Heikki Kovalainen Renault 56 +72.015 11 1
9 17 Austria Alexander Wurz Williams-Toyota 56 +89.924 19
10 15 Australia Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault 56 +93.556 10
11 8 Brazil Rubens Barrichello Honda 55 +1 lap 22
12 7 United Kingdom Jenson Button Honda 55 +1 lap 15
13 22 Japan Takuma Sato Super Aguri-Honda 55 +1 lap 14
14 19 United States Scott Speed STR-Ferrari 55 +1 lap 17
15 11 Germany Ralf Schumacher Toyota 55 +1 lap 9
16 23 United Kingdom Anthony Davidson Super Aguri-Honda 55 +1 lap 18
17 18 Italy Vitantonio Liuzzi STR-Ferrari 55 +1 lap 16
18 10 Poland Robert Kubica BMW Sauber 55 +1 lap 7
Ret 6 Germany Nico Rosberg Williams-Toyota 42 Hydraulics 6
Ret 10 United Kingdom David Coulthard Red Bull-Renault 36 Brakes 13
Ret 21 Netherlands Christijan Albers Spyker-Ferrari 7 Engine 20
Ret 20 Germany Adrian Sutil Spyker-Ferrari 0 Collision 21

Notes

  • Fastest Lap: Lewis Hamilton, 1:36.701 (Lap 22)

References

  1. ^ "Spyker lodges protest against STR" ITV-F1. Retrieved 5 April 2007
  2. ^ "Stewards reject Spyker protest" ITV-F1. Retrieved 6 April 2007
  3. ^ "Ferrari duo not worried about floor test" ITV-F1. Retrieved 6 April 2007
  4. ^ "Practice 1: First blood to Massa" ITV-F1. Retrieved 6 April 2007
  5. ^ "Honda troubles frustrate drivers" ITV-F1. Retrieved 6 April 2007
  6. ^ "Massa dominates Malaysian heat" ITV-F1. Retrieved 6 April 2007
  7. ^ "McLaren plays down slow times" ITV-F1. Retrieved 6 April 2007
  8. ^ "Hamilton on top in final practice" ITV-F1. Retrieved 7 April 2007
  9. ^ a b "Rosberg delighted with P6" ITV-F1. Retrieved 7 April 2007
  10. ^ "Davi: Liuzzi runied my quali chances" ITV-F1. Retrieved 7 April 2007
  11. ^ "Struggling Spyker rues missing test" ITV-F1. Retrieved 7 April 2007
  12. ^ "Renault admits to underperformance" ITV-F1. Retrieved 7 April 2007
  13. ^ "Button: Fifteenth was maximum result" ITV-F1. Retrieved 7 April 2007
  14. ^ "Engine penalties for DC, Barrichello" ITV-F1. Retrieved 7 April 2007
  15. ^ "Lewis blames pace on rookie error" ITV-F1. Retrieved 7 April 2007
  16. ^ a b "Spyker disappointed with early exit" ITV-F1. Retrieved 8 April 2007
  17. ^ "Liuzzi and Sato blame each other" ITV-F1. Retrieved 8 April 2007
  18. ^ "Button: Race a 'small step forward" ITV-F1. Retrieved 8 April 2007
  19. ^ "Rosberg frustrated by retirement" ITV-F1. Retrieved 8 April 2007
  20. ^ "Glitches return to end DC's hopes" ITV-F1. Retrieved 8 April 2007
  21. ^ "Heidfeld thrilled to beat Massa" ITV-F1. Retrieved 8 April 2007
  22. ^ "Fisi: Sixth feels like a podium" ITV-F1. Retrieved 8 April 2007
  23. ^ "Wurz confident after 'fun' race" ITV-F1. Retrieved 8 April 2007
  24. ^ "Lewis: That was my hardest race" ITV-F1. Retrieved 8 April 2007
  25. ^ "Raikkonen hints at engine worries" ITV-F1. Retrieved 8 April 2007
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Previous race:
2007 Australian Grand Prix 		FIA Formula One World Championship
2007 season 		Next race:
2007 Bahrain Grand Prix
Previous race:
2006 Malaysian Grand Prix 		Malaysian Grand Prix Next race:
2008 Malaysian Grand Prix
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