2009 Petronas Malaysian Grand Prix

[Fergie1]

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2009 FORMULA 1 PETRONAS MALAYSIAN GRAND PRIX

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First included in the Formula One World Championship in 1999, the current Malaysian Grand Prix is held at the hyper-modern Sepang International Circuit at Sepang, Malaysia. FIA-sanctioned racing in Malaysia has existed since the 1960s.
The 1962-1965 seasons of the original Formula 2 Grand Prix held on the Thomson Road circuit in Singapore is regarded as an earlier precedence of the Malaysian Grand Prix, when Singapore was originally part of the Malaysian federation from 1963 to 1965. After Singapore seceded from the federation in 1965, the Grand Prix continued on until 1973.

Between Singapore's departure from the Malaysian federation and the opening of Sepang Circuit, Malaysia hosted a range of other racing tournaments at Shah Alam's own circuit between 1968 to 1995, including the Tasman Series (1968-1972), Formula Pacific (1973-1974, 1978-1982), Formula Atlantic (1975), Formula Two (1977) and Formula Holden (1995).

- Wikipedia

Race Date: 05 Apr 2009
Number of Laps: 56
Circuit Length: 5.543 km
Race Distance: 310.408 km
Lap Record: 1:34.223 - JP Montoya (2004)

2008 Results
1- Kimi Raikkonen
2 - Robert Kubica
3 - Heikki Kovalainen
4 - Jarno Trulli
5 - Lewis Hamilton
6 - Nick Heidfeld
7 - Mark Webber
8 - Fernando Alonso

Previous Winners
2008 - Kimi Raikkonen
2007 - Fernando Alonso
2006 - Giancarlo Fisichella
2005 - Fernando Alonso
2004 - Michael Schumacher

Timetable

Fri 03 April 2009
Friday Practice 1 03:00 - 04:30
Friday Practice 2 07:00 - 08:30

Sat 04 April 2009
Saturday Practice 07:00 - 08:00
Qualifying 10:00

Sun 05 April 2009
Race 10:00

All times in BST (GMT + 1)

Drivers Championship
01 Jenson Button 10
02 Rubens Barrichello 8
03 Lewis Hamilton 6
04 Timo Glock 5
05 Fernando Alonso 4
06 Nico Rosberg 3
07 Sebastien Buemi 2
08 Sebastien Bourdais 1

Constructors Championship
01 Brawn-Mercedes 18
02 McLaren-Mercedes 6
03 Toyota 5
04 Renault 4
05 Williams-Toyota 3
06 STR-Ferrari 3

F1 Prediction League 2009 Links:
F1 Prediction System
LeaderBoard

Video Thread:: Coming soon.

Useful Links
Live Streams
5 Day Forecast

Less than a week to go until the Free Practice 1 gets underway in Sepang. Vettel has a 10 place grid penalty and Brawn come here after a 1-2. Can Brawn pull the same thing off, will Vettel come through the field, will Ferrari be on the pace and will it be an overtaking filled race? They are the talking points to get this topic started.
Please try to leave the discussion of penalties out of this topic unless they are given in Malaysia

[Rachael The Great]

i literally can't wait.

[Califax]

I was thinking Kubica or Vettel, and neither one of those is in the poll, so > Other.

[ric.rios]

The best race in my opinion.
I love the Malaysian GP.

[Fergie1]

Poll reset to include Kubica and Vettel, no more drivers can be added now.

[AzShadow]

I thought Glock got penalized so that he was put out of points? It says so here http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/74053 but on the otherhand it shows Glock 4th and having 5 points. Weird...

[Fergie1]

It was Trulli.

[AzShadow]

Ah yes I'll crawl back hiding then.

[newtrex]

it looks like it will rain there.. Barrichello is good in rain so as Button.
So Brawn GP (Virgin GP) will be again strong.

[I Love Crashes]

Rain???

[syafiqa]

Hooray..this weekend at my country.
hope kimi will done his job well here.
But its good to watch others team oso fight for winning. Championship are more open this year.

Possibility of rain? I'm not so sure.But in south of Malaysia, most of days in a week, rain comes in the evening.
One things that i'm sure, no more heat sunny day for the race to start.Now race start at 5p.m in the evening. The weather are more windy in the evening.

I'm pity to the drivers, they looked they'v been cooked if race start at 3p.m as usual.

[blizzard]

Looking forward to this one. In the past the Malaysian GP was often quite unspectacular, hopefully it´ll be different now with the new rules.

Melbourne was a fantastic race, but Melbourne has always been great. I think in Malaysia we´ll really see how the new rules changed F1, and if they can turn races into spectacles, which have been quite eventless in the past.

I also think that a lot of teams will learn from their strategy mistakes in Melbourne and we won´t see something like Kubica in Melbourne, chasing through the pack in the final laps. Strategies will be very similar in terms of when to use which tyres in my oppinion.

[TwistedArmco]

I would hope we get a race like 2005 which had a fair amount of position swapping in the last and first corners, not to mention the brilliant Fisi-Ralf-Webber-Nick battle for 3rd.

E: Which, I should add, would seem possible given the amount of close following that happened in Melbourne.

[fn1m]

If it rains Lewis will dominate. 8)

[phil1993]

I cannot see anything but a Jenson Button win. In the two years since we really saw him drive, he has matured so much, driven without complain or whinging of the bad cars (at the time) and is still sooo smooth, never sliding the car and he was faultless yesterday and basically all weekend.