Malaysian Grand Prix – Race

April 8, 2007 by paul
Filed under: Uncategorized

Check out my notes on the qualifying sessions; the provisional grid looks like this: Massa, Alonso, Raikkonen, Hamilton, Heidfeld, Rosberg, Kubica, Trulli, Schumacher, Webber, Kovalainen, Fisichella, Coulthard, Sato, Button, Liuzzi, Speed, Davidson, Barrichello*, Wurz, Albers, Sutil. (RB dropped to P22 because he qualified in the T-car after his car developed gearbox problems.)

Air temperature 34°C; track 52°C; wind 0.3m/s; humidity 49%
Apparently it’s rained at the same time for the past few days, so there’s a possibility of rain about 30mins in to the race.

Sutil looks like he’s stranded before getting to the grid; he’s being pushed in to place.

Barrichello will start from the pit lane, but then he was at the very back of the grid anyway.

Formation lap: Massa leads the grid away; he’ll want to take it really slowly at the end of the lap to make sure he’s not sitting there too long.
Sounds like Trulli is the only one starting on hard tyres.
Smoke from Schumacher’s Toyota – a problem or just overfill?

01/56: FA leads through Turn 2
LH in to P2, pushing both Ferraris down to P3+4
Yellow flags – AS off in the gravel

02: FA, LH, FM, KR, NH, RK, GF
FM is close to LH but can’t get close enough to try for a pass

03: VL pits for a new nose cone
LH has allowed a gap of ~2.5secs to open up

04: FM tries to pass LH around the outside in T1
KR thinks about passing his teammate
FM passes LH but LH immediately retakes P2
KR looks at passing FM but backs off

05/56: FA leads by ~5secs
Replay of lap 1 shows Button being clipped by Sutil

06: Tyre smoke from LH as he locks it up
FM passes LH for P2 but locks up and runs off onto the grass

07: FA, LH, KR, NH, FM, RK, NR, GF
RB has passed JB for P17

08: FA lead now 8.1s
KR now pressuring LH for P2

09: CA pits and leaps out of the Spyker as the pit crew set about the engine with fire extinguishers

10/56: FA, LH, KR, NH, FM, RK, NR, GF; JB=18
FA leads by 9.6s

13: KR still ~0.5s behind LH
RK has pitted and dropped to P11
AW makes a good move on DC

14: FM struggling to find a place to pass NH

15/56: FA, LH, KR, NH, FM, NR, GF, JT; JB=17

16: ITV-F1 report that RK has a problem with a traction control sensor – he won’t have that problem next season

17: FA lead now just over 15secs

18: Does FA have a problem with the pit-car radio? They were waiving the pit board at him and Ron Dennis looked concerned
FM pits from P5 – 9.4s stop

19: FA pits from P1; he taps his helmet, confirming there’s a radio problem
KR pits from P3; 10.0s

20/56: LH leads as the first round of pit stops are underway
NR pits – just 7.6s stop

21: LH pits from P1 – good aggressive in lap and attacking the speed limit line; 7.4s stop including a turn of front wing

23: FA, LH, GF (yet to pit), KR, NH, FM, NR, DC (yet to pit)

25/56: JB is just 0.3s behind Schumacher
Pit-car for JB: “have a go at Ralf – we haven’t got much to lose”!

27: FA leads LH by 10.3s, who in turn leads KR by ~8s

28/56: FA gesticulates at a Toro Rosso as he finally laps them

29: LH is gaining ~0.5s/lap on his teammate; the lead is down to 8.4s

31: AW pushing HK for P9

32: FA, LH, KR, NH, FM, NR, GF, JT, HK, AW, MW, DC, RB, JB, SS, TS, AD, VL, RS, RK; retirements: AS, CA.

35/56: DC tells his pit crew he thinks they should retire the car because there’s a problem with the brake pedal

37: DC has pitted the Red Bull but the team are working on the car

38: LH continues to close in on FA but there’s still a comfortable margin

39: LH pits from P2 – 7.6s stop – hard tyres

40/56: FA, KR, LH, NH, FM, NR, GF, JT

41: FA pits from P1 – 7.2s – hard tyres
FM pits – 7.5s – hard tyres

42: KR pits from P1 – 6.9s – hard tyres (I guess everyone’s going to do that)

44: NR pulls off and parks the Williams

45/56: FA, LH, KR, NH, FM, GF, JT, HK
LH seems to be struggling with the hard tyres

47: MW is pushing AW hard for P9

48: RK is off in to the gravel – he drags the BMW (and a lot of gravel) back onto the track

49: KR is still closing on LH but by only ~0.5s/lap
HK runs wide again and kicks up some dust

50/56: KR has closed the gap to LH to 3.8s

51: KR takes another 0.5s out of LH

52: KR now 2.8s off LH with 5 laps left

53: KR closes by 0.1s in sector 1, 0.1s in S2, but ~0.7s in S3

54: FA is pushing as hard as KR, but he has a 20-odd second lead

55/56: FA, LH, KR, NH, FM, GF, JT, HK
LH driving really well – he’s keeping it under control, even though KR is closing right up on him

56/56 = final lap: LH tries to break the tow on the main straight but KR is relentless
FA wins
LH takes P2, only just ahead of KR
NH comes in for P4, followed by FM, GF, JT, HK

Provisional results: