Malaysia GP

First practice:
1. 1 M.SCHUMACHER Ferrari B 1'34"437 211.303 Km/h 11
2. 2 BARRICHELLO Ferrari B 1'35"380 + 0'00"943 8
3. 35 DAVIDSON BAR Honda M 1'35"970 + 0'01"533 21
4. 38 ZONTA Toyota M 1'36"147 + 0'01"710 21
5. 4 R.SCHUMACHER Williams BMW M 1'36"229 + 0'01"792 11
6. 6 RAIKKONEN McLaren Mercedes M 1'36"314 + 0'01"877 5
7. 14 WEBBER Jaguar Cosworth M 1'36"478 + 0'02"041 6
8. 3 MONTOYA Williams BMW M 1'36"606 + 0'02"169 9
9. 9 BUTTON BAR Honda M 1'37"018 + 0'02"581 5
10. 8 ALONSO Renault M 1'37"119 + 0'02"682 13
11. 5 COULTHARD McLaren Mercedes M 1'37"438 + 0'03"001 4
12. 17 PANIS Toyota M 1'37"590 + 0'03"153 12
13. 7 TRULLI Renault M 1'37"816 + 0'03"379 10
14. 11 FISICHELLA Sauber Petronas B 1'37"995 + 0'03"558 5
15. 10 SATO BAR Honda M 1'38"023 + 0'03"586 6
16. 37 WIRDHEIM Jaguar Cosworth M 1'38"086 + 0'03"649 18
17. 15 KLIEN Jaguar Cosworth M 1'38"554 + 0'04"117 11
18. 16 DA MATTA Toyota M 1'38"734 + 0'04"297 11
19. 39 GLOCK Jordan Ford B 1'38"788 + 0'04"351 18
20. 18 HEIDFELD Jordan Ford B 1'38"831 + 0'04"394 8
21. 19 PANTANO Jordan Ford B 1'39"860 + 0'05"423 14
22. 20 BRUNI Minardi Cosworth B 1'41"149 + 0'06"712 6
23. 21 BAUMGARTNER Minardi Cosworth B 1'42"556 + 0'08"119 14
24. 12 MASSA Sauber Petronas B 1'42"718 + 0'08"281 5
25. 40 LEINDERS Minardi Cosworth B 1'43"424 + 0'08"987 15

And the session started with 34°C air temp., 45°C track, and 57% humidity.

Malaysia Friday Free Practice 2: Times
19/03/2004

Pos Driver Team T Time Gap


1 Raikkonen McLaren M 1:34.395 131.356 mph
2 R Schumacher WilliamsF1 M 1:34.693 0.298
3 Webber Jaguar M 1:35.054 0.659
4 M Schumacher Ferrari B 1:35.094 0.699
5 Montoya WilliamsF1 M 1:35.100 0.705
6 Trulli Renault M 1:35.115 0.720
7 Massa Sauber B 1:35.288 0.893
8 Alonso Renault M 1:35.300 0.905
9 Coulthard McLaren M 1:35.301 0.906
10 Barrichello Ferrari B 1:35.373 0.978
11 Button BAR M 1:35.407 1.012
12 Panis Toyota M 1:35.524 1.129
13 Zonta Toyota M 1:35.850 1.455
14 Klien Jaguar M 1:35.996 1.601
15 Sato BAR M 1:36.292 1.897
16 Fisichella Sauber B 1:36.353 1.958
17 Davidson BAR M 1:36.708 2.313
18 Wirdheim Jaguar M 1:36.883 2.488
19 da Matta Toyota M 1:36.907 2.512
20 Heidfeld Jordan B 1:37.725 3.330
21 Bruni Minardi B 1:37.818 3.423
22 Baumgartner Minardi B 1:38.588 4.193
23 Glock Jordan B 1:38.796 4.401
24 Pantano Jordan B 1:39.324 4.929
25 Leinders Minardi B 1:41.485 7.090

Q1, 4 cars finished, JPM on his flyer, but how about that Renault!!! :eek:

I mean not only is Alonso 0.6 faster than MS, but 1.5 and 1,7 faster than Ralf and JPM respectively - and it can't be attributed to neither tyres nor fuel loads. One of the Renaults is flying, let's see what Trulli does.

Trulli confirms the Renault pace, Trulli goes second just behind Alonso. Now DC.

Are you watching it live on TV Alex?

Yes I am :)

May I just say that with the camera showing the FW26 head on and from a low angle, that thing is so unbelievably ugly! :eek7: :smooch:

Just 2 renaults to go, my bet is that they can repeat last year's performance in quali.

Scrap that, Trulli just 8th with just Alonso to run.

Perhaps pole is not important to Renault? With a starting system like theirs.

Scrap that too, Alonso spun, and at that point he was already down on MS by 0.6

Alonso beached it too :eek:
On the bright side he and Panto can have fresh engines for tomorrow! Sato too...

OMG Webber is on the front row!!!!!

Have you heard anything about the Renault starting system? From what I heard, they found some way to circumvent the rules and the FIA can't seem to be doing anything to stop that. Any news? And Ferrari has been shaking down "new electronic solutions" for a whooping 2 laps. Could be that other teams are exploiting the same loophole.

I only know as much as the FIA does i.e. They'll only be allowed to exploit it as long as Ferrari are still winning.

Pos No Driver Team Laps Time/Retired Grid Points

1 1 Michael Schumacher Ferrari 1:33.074 :D :evillol:

2 14 Mark Webber Jaguar-Cosworth 1:33.715 :smokin:

3 2 Rubens Barrichello Ferrari 1:33.756 :iceslolan

4 3 Juan Pablo Montoya Williams-BMW 1:34.054

5 6 Kimi Räikkönen McLaren-Mercedes 1:34.164

6 9 Jenson Button BAR-Honda 1:34.221 :sunglasse

7 4 Ralf Schumacher Williams-BMW 1:34.235

8 7 Jarno Trulli Renault 1:34.413 :eek7:

9 5 David Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes 1:34.602

10 16 Cristiano da Matta Toyota 1:34.917

11 12 Felipe Massa Sauber-Petronas 1:35.039

12 11 Giancarlo Fisichella Sauber-Petronas 1:35.061

13 15 Christian Klien Jaguar-Cosworth 1:35.158

14 17 Olivier Panis Toyota 1:35.617

15 18 Nick Heidfeld Jordan-Ford 1:36.569

16 20 Gianmaria Bruni Minardi-Cosworth 1:38.577

17 21 Zsolt Baumgartner Minardi-Cosworth 1:39.272

18 19 Giorgio Pantano Jordan-Ford 1:39.902

19 10 Takuma Sato BAR-Honda :rolleyes:

20 8 Fernando Alonso Renault :rolleyes:

I only know as much as the FIA does i.e. They'll only be allowed to exploit it as long as Ferrari are still winning.

Yada yada :icon16: I'm more interested in what they're actually doing, which loophole and how they're exploiting it. But there seems to be no information on that.

Yada yada :icon16: I'm more interested in what they're actually doing, which loophole and how they're exploiting it. But there seems to be no information on that.

Yada yada and yada :icon16: A more pertinant question would be what loophole(s) is(are) Ferrari exploiting.

I know that one! Get the best driver, build the best car, build a stable team and, well, win races and championships. Renault launch control, or the start system, is much more mysterious :D

Think we'd better call time on this tanget.
Strange phenomena though: Ferrari/Schumacher do well - all is right with the universe; another team/car/driver do well - circumvent rules, loopholes, cheating :screwy:
TIME!

I never said Renault cheated. Quite on the contrary, I'm very impressed that they managed to develop such a system. It's just one of the team personnel (I don't remember which one) said something to the effect that "other teams should read the rules more carefully" when it comes to launch control. I was just wondering what they used. But hey, I see that you don't know and would rather turn it into another opportunity to moan and bash Ferrari :rolleyes:

Edit: Pat Symonds: "Of course, we wouldn't like to talk about it, but you only have to take a look at the rules..."

I never said Renault cheated. It's just one of the tem personnel (Gascoyne? I don't remember) said something to the effect that "other teams should read the rules more carefully" when it comes to launch control. I was just wondering what they used. But hey, I see that you don't know and would rather turn it into another opportunity to moan and bash Ferrari :rolleyes:


IIRC that quote was from Pat Symonds.
Come now Alex, you said you don't know what Renault had done but then proceeded to use words like "loophole", "circumvent the rules" and " FIA can't...stop that". Last time a big loophole was exposed it led to the term Micheatalin being used on this board.
If Alonso leads into turn one tomorrow what are the odds Todt will have drafted a minute to Max before the first stops?

Well maybe not Alonso this time. Last to first would be a hell of a start!

I used the words loophole and circumvent for the exact reason that I don't think it's breaking the rules in any way (as opposed to last year's Michelin...) The "FIA can't seem to be doing anything to stop that" phrase is there to illustrate just that - that so far there is no indication that the FIA see it as breaking the rules and the phrase after that tells you that I think other teams will be, or are, developing a similar system (rendering the LC rule pointless, but that's beyond the point). And big kudos to Renault for seing an opportunity and taking the advantage from that.

Version for you, so that you don't have to read between the lines of the longer one above): Renault cheat, and should be thrown out of F1, might as well take Jordan with them because I'm sure they cheat as well. :rolleyes:

I see several contradictions above and I'm not just refering to the last paragraph.

Think we'd better call time on this tanget.
Strange phenomena though: Ferrari/Schumacher do well - all is right with the universe; another team/car/driver do well - circumvent rules, loopholes, cheating :screwy:
TIME!

:iagree:

That's called hitting the nail right on the head.

Ferrari will be exploiting the loophole in the engine block of the Mercedes.

Touche! :D

I don't think there is a loophole in the Mercedes' engine block, it's more like a frigging 4 lane express way!

Alonso sure looked like he was on a tear before it got away from him. Oh well, that's the way the ball bounces.

I'm hoping that Webber turns in a good performance and get a podium out of this. Talk about a way to shake up the look of the championship points.

Kimi spins on the warmup lap!!!

Anyway, air 32 deg C, track 42. Kimi was able to recover and take his grid position.

Disaster for Webber at the start. Excellent start from Trulli, Montoya and bother Ferraris. Especially Trulli, as Pantano spins...

Rubens makes a mistake on the brakes and Montoya and Kimi are past him and Montoya catching MS immediately after.

Rubens dropping back as Mclaren ready for a pitstop!

It"s Raining!!!!! Imsure I saw some rain on one part of the circuit.

Webber has a puntcure (i think ralf ran into him and caused that).

Schumi stamping fastest lap after lap and pulling away little by little. Alonso pestering DC as Rubens is back with Kimi.

Webber under investigation. He gets a driverthrough for speeding in the pitlane as Schumacher, DC and Alonso pit.

Next lap Rubens, Kimi and Trulli in as williamses stay out. They can win this! Trulli gets past Rubens in the pits.

Kimi flying! And he's right behind JPM after the latter comes out of the pits. JPM also had a very short stop - probably fuelled it less to be able to get out in front of Kimi.

JPM now posting times 2 seconds faster than Schumi

Alonso goes around the outside of DC and starts to pull away.

... only for DC to get back in front at the pitstops - Alonso's car was stationary two times longer than DC's. Both cars' front wings got adjusted too. Kimi pits.

Webber finally beaches it in the gravel. Awful day that started so promisingly :(

Both leaders in.

Button passes Kimi with a great pitstop from BAR.

Ralf out with a bang. As the team was ready to take him in, Rubens in.

If Monty gets close enough to make a succeed at all costs lunge and Schumi defends at all costs, Button could win this :eek:

Rubens now falls further and further behind Kimi. Wonder why. Montoya comes into the pits now. Good move. His car is faster than the Ferrari immediately after the pitstops. Trulli is right behind him.

Another piece of German/British engineering rolls to a halt.

All over now bar meltdowns. The time JPM was caught behind Rubens has left too big a gap.

Honda! Boom! Luckily, not the most important Honda on this day.

Honda! Boom!
Honda! Podium!

72nd win for Shumi, 21st (i think) podium for JPM, 1st ever podium for Button (took him two years to claim what was his at this very track), then Rubens, Trulli, DC, Alonso, and Massa rounding up the top 8. Excellent showing from Jenson, I'd like to praise BAR and Honda (although that failure of Sato's engine with 3 laps to go and in 8th position must be heartbreaking). Rubens didn't impress, JPM ran a sensible race for a change, and BMW and Mercedes blow an engine each.

Is it just me or does Montoya look just plain bummed on the podium compared to Michael and Jenson?

And man what a bummer about Webber. That's just a shame that he went down like that. On the other hand, oft questioned drivers Massa and Klien turned in solid performances (even though Klien failed to score points).

All in all, it was a fun GP. We need more like it. :biggrin:

Juan is such a sad loser it's unbelievable! :mad: He'll do well in one team with Ron Dennis.

I was surprised to see Kimi shove that corner worker out of the way, Mr. Ice must be getting very frustrated with the MP4/whatever.