| 14.30 | Welcome to F1-Live.com and our coverage of the 56-Malaysian Grand Prix which gets underway in half an hour. Contrary to expectations, it seems we have a dry race ahead. |
| 14.32 | Qualifying yesterday was hardly a scintillating affair with Felipe Massa dominating proceeding with a best lap of 1:35.748s, almost half a second clear of Ferrari team-mate Kimi Raikkonen. |
| 14.34 | However, it is worth noting that Massa’s qualifying lap in the final session with race fuel was just 1.3s slower than his low fuel run in the second round of qualifying while the all of his rivals were around the 1.8s plus. Draw your own conclusion. |
| 14.36 | Kimi Raikkonen makes it an all red front row while an all silver second row was thrown out by the race stewards after both Heikki Kovalainen and Melbourne winner Lewis Hamilton were found guilty of blocking rivals Nick Heidfeld and Fernando Alonso at the end the third qualifying session. |
| 14.37 | While it was not a deliberate action, a race car travelling at 30 MPH on the racing line cannot be acceptable in a qualifying session (imagine Monaco) and now it is up to the FIA to think through their rules changes by imposing a certain percentage – in terms of time - of which cars are allowed cruise back to the pit. |
| 14.40 | With Kovalainen and Hamilton demoted from third and fourth to eighth and ninth, Jarno Trulli will line up a superb third for Toyota. The TF108 is one of the best handling chassis on the circuit with little or no movement under braking. |
| 14.42 | Trulli however has a reputation for qualifying well, but being something of a mobile chicane in race conditions, so this will be something to watch as the BMW Sauber duo of Nick Heidfeld and Robert Kubica chase from fourth and fifth positions on the grid. |
| 14.44 | Renault-powered cars start sixth and seventh with Red Bull’s Mark Webber ahead of Renault’s Fernando Alonso. The RB4 has proven fast and fragile while the R28 seems to be a handful in the high speed turns and it will need all of Alonso’s skill to bring more than points away from the second round of the championship. |
| 14.46 | Starting eighth and ninth, Kovalainen and Hamilton have it all to do. The Melbourne winner does not seem comfortable with his MP4-23 looking really “soft” as it rolls and wallows though the faster turns. The end result yesterday was the back end stepping out in the high speed turns while Kovalainen’s car seemed the smoother and less of a handful on the limit. |
| 14.48 | Timo Glock has done a solid job for Toyota and lines up tenth as the German aims for a points paying position. Outside of the top, Honda were relatively happy to see Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello line up 11th and 14th with David Coulthard and Nelson Piquet in between for Red Bull and Renault. |
| 14.50 | Toro Rosso scored points courtesy of Sebastien Bourdais in Melbourne but the team seem less competitive in Malaysia with Bourdais just 18th after a brake problem and Sebastian Vettel 15th. Reliability will be key for the STR duo. |
| 14.52 | Qualifying was poor from Williams Toyota with Nico Rosberg a disappointed 16th after showing little pace in the FW30. Team-mate Kazuki Nakajima starts at the back after setting the 18th best time in qualifying but incurs a penalty for to ramming Kubica behind the safety car in Australia. Nakajima needs a clean incident-free race. |
| 14.54 | Force India and Super Aguri bring up the rear and neither is likely to make much progress in normal circumstances. Fisichella continues to show the way to Sutil while Sato has the measure of Davidson again in the battle at the back. |
| 14.56 | There was little to choice between the tyre compounds yesterday with the hard and the medium proving closely matched. There should be a mix of tyres on the dummy grid. Most will run a two stop strategy those at the front pitting first and those lower down running longer first stints. |
| 14.58 | It is cloudy and dry but with a chance of rain. The drivers are in the cars as the countdown continues. |
| 14.59 | The engines fire up and the grid is being cleared for the parade lap. |
| 14.59 | Hamilton, Trulli and Glock on soft tyres. Ferrari and BMW on hard. |
| 15.00 | The parade lap is underway as Massa leads the field away from the grid. |
| 15.01 | So a mix of tyres in use for the first stint. |
| 15.02 | The drivers are warming the tyres and brakes as they weave side to side. |
| 15.02 | Massa lines up on the pole ahead of Raikkonen, Trulli, Kubica, Heidfeld, Webber, Alonso, Kovalainen, Hamilton and Glock… |
| Lap 1 | The Malaysian Grand Prix is go! |
| Lap 1 | Trulli and a BMW touch into turn one. Ferrari lead. |
| Lap 1 | Hamilton dives past glock. |
| Lap 1 | One of the Toro Rosso is off. |
| Lap 1 | Massa leads Raikkonen, Kubica and Webber. Glock spins. |
| Lap 2 | It was Bourdais who spun off on lap one. A tough weekend all around for him. |
| Lap 1 | Glock is cruising to retirement it seems. |
| Lap 2 | Glock is back to the pit. |
| Lap 2 | Rosberg (14th) has a broken front wing. |
| Lap 3 | Rosberg pits. He actually hit Glock that sent him into a spin and then retirement. |
| Lap 3 | Massa leads Raikkonen, Kubica, Webber, Hamilton, Trulli, Kovalainen. |
| Lap 4 | Coulthard is eighth and has Alonso and Heidfeld all over him. |
| Lap 5 | Heidfeld takes both Coulthard and Alonso into the final turn as Alonso and Coulthard battle for ninth. |
| Lap 5 | Alonso has now passed Coulthard. |
| Lap 5 | Raikkonen is staying roughly a second behind Massa with Kubica falling away. |
| Lap 6 | Trulli is closing on the back of Hamilton. Trulli and Heidfeld both lost time in turn two on lap one. |
| Lap 6 | Sutil (14th) runs off track and stops. It must be a mechanical problem. Team-mate Fisichella runs where he started in 17th. |
| Lap 7 | Massa leads Raikkonen by two second with Kubica five second back in third clear of Webber, Hamilton, Trulli, Kovalainen, Heidfeld and Alonso. |
| Lap 8 | Rosberg runs at the back after pitting for a wing after hitting Glock. |
| Lap 8 | Nakajima passes Vettel with ease for 13th into turn one. |
| Lap 9 | Raikkonen picks up the pace and starts to close the gap to Massa. |
| Lap 10 | Raikkonen is closing fast on Massa at the moment. |
| Lap 11 | Massa has responded to the challenge from behind and pegged the gap at 1.6s. |
| Lap 12 | Hamilton is now closing in on Webber a little. |
| Lap 12 | Rosberg is making no impression at the back as he is still half a minute behind Davidson and making no real progress. |
| Lap 13 | Alonso is ninth and is dropping away from Heidfeld at quite a rate. We know he is heavy on fuel, but he is losing a lot of time. |
| Lap 13 | Nakajima is lining up Piquet who runs 12th. |
| Lap 14 | Massa pulls a few tenths on Raikkonen and gets the gap back to almost two seconds. |
| Lap 14 | The Ferrari duo are trading fastest laps with Kubica now 10 seconds back in third. It is a Ferrari walk-over at the moment. |
| Lap 15 | Rosberg is now being lapped by Massa and Raikkonen. |
| Lap 16 | Hamilton remains behind Webber but is pushing to get in the tow. |
| Lap 17 | Webber pits his RB4 from fourth. |
| Lap 17 | Nakajima pits as Webber rejoins. |
| Lap 18 | Massa pits from the lead. |
| Lap 18 | Massa has a 1 second lead as he pitted. |
| Lap 18 | Trulli pits fom sixth. |
| Lap 18 | Heidfeld has also pitted. |
| Lap 18 | Raikkonen is pushing hard to try and get the jump in his pit stop. He pits too. |
| Lap 19 | Raikkonen exits the pit ahead of Massa. |
| Lap 19 | So Massa loses the lead in the first round of stops. |
| Lap 20 | Hamilton pits from second, Kubica has yet to stop. |
| Lap 20 | Slow front right wheel change and Hamilton's stop takes 20 seconds. |
| Lap 20 | Hamilton exits behind Webber and ahead of Heidfeld. |
| Lap 21 | Kovalainen dives for the pit. |
| Lap 21 | Kovalainen takes the hard tyre. |
| Lap 21 | Kubica pits his BMW Sauber from the lead. |
| Lap 22 | A clean stop for Kubica. |
| Lap 22 | Alonso, Coulthard and Button yet to pit. |
| Lap 23 | Alonso pits his Renault from fourth. |
| Lap 23 | Button also in the pits in his Honda. Alonso exits ahead of Barrichello. |
| Lap 24 | Hamilton runs 11th following his pit stop problem as Rosberg passes Sato. |
| Lap 24 | Coulthard now makes his first stop. |
| Lap 25 | Piquet and Vettel pit. |
| Lap 25 | Hamilton trying to find a way to pass Webber. |
| Lap 26 | Trulli lost out to Kovalainen in the stop but now the Toyota driver is closing in on the back of the McLaren. |
| Lap 26 | Massa is unable to keep pace with Raikkonen at the front and is now over four seconds adrift. |
| Lap 28 | Not much happening, all very stagnant. The closest battle is Webber, Hamilton and Heidfeld as they run in close company. |
| Lap 30 | Hamilton's front right wheel insert is rotating with the wheel which cannot be good for the brakes or aero. It was that part that caused the slow first stop. |
| Lap 31 | Rosberg and Nakajima have both pitted for Williams. |
| Lap 31 | Massa has spun out of second. He is stuck in the gravel. A disaster for him. |
| Lap 32 | Massa just lost the back end in the double right hander mid lap. |
| Lap 32 | Two races and two spins from Massa. |
| Lap 32 | Raikkonen now has a comfortable 20s lead over Kubica with Kovalainen a similar distance back in third. |
| Lap 33 | Trulli runs in fourth running right behind Kovalainen while Webber is soem way back with Hamilton still close behind him. |
| Lap 34 | Heidfeld runs in seventh with Alonso a lonely eighth. |
| Lap 34 | Rosberg pitted at the start of the race and then again a few laps ago, so he is not going to pit again. The rest are on two stops. |
| Lap 37 | Trulli remains right behind Kovalainen but cannot find a way to pass. Same for Hamilton behind Webber. |
| Lap 38 | Raikkonen picks up the pace at the front. He has no need to but perhaps he is just keeping himself busy. |
| Lap 39 | Raikkonen makes his second and final stop. |
| Lap 39 | Raikkonen exits second behind Kubica. |
| Lap 39 | Fisichella makes his second stop in the sole surviving Force India. |
| Lap 40 | Webber pits from fifth which will please Hamilton who has spent the whole second stint looking at the Red Bull rear wing. |
| Lap 41 | Trulli makes his final stop from fourth position. |
| Lap 41 | Vettel pulls his STR off track from 12th with a blown Ferrari engine. |
| Lap 41 | Piquet has pitted his Renault. |
| Lap 42 | Heidfeld and Alonso both pit. Hamilton laps Rosberg. |
| Lap 43 | Webber has lost ground in the second stop to both Hamilton and Heidfeld. |
| Lap 44 | Kubica pits from the lead. |
| Lap 44 | Clean stop as Raikkonen regains the lead. |
| Lap 44 | Kubica exits behind Trulli. Button pits his Honda. |
| Lap 45 | Correction, it wasn't Trulli he exited behind. He runs second as Hamilton pits his McLaren. |
| Lap 45 | A clean stop for Hamilton. Coulthard pits. |
| Lap 45 | Hamilton exits just ahead of Heidfeld. |
| Lap 46 | Kovalainen pits his McLaren. |
| Lap 46 | Barrichello has picked up his second penalty of the year, speeding in the pit lane. He is 12th but will lose further ground. |
| Lap 48 | Barrichello takes his penalty |
| Lap 48 | Hamilton is looking to close the gap to Trulli. He can catch him but can he pass? |
| Lap 49 | Alonso has caught Webber who runs in seventh. |
| Lap 50 | Nakajima is at the back and stuggling for pace. Williams team-mate Rosberg is little better off in 14th. |
| Lap 51 | Hamilton is on the hard tyre for the final stint and very fast. It is odd that he took the soft tyre for stint one and two. |
| Lap 52 | Trulli has picked up his pace and stopped Hamilton's charge. |
| Lap 53 | Alonso is pushing hard to try and take Webber. |
| Lap 54 | Raikkonen leads Kubica by 22s with Kovalainen 18s back in third. |
| Lap 55 | Hamilton is a second behind Trulli. |
| Lap 55 | Button runs off track and loses his tenth position. |
| Lap 56 | Raikkonen wins the Malaysian Grand Prix, a flawless drive. |
| Lap 56 | Kubica is second ahead of Kovalainen, Trulli, Hamilton, Webber and Alonso. |
| Lap 56 | Coulthard is ninth ahead of Button who did not lose the position to Piquet. Fisichella is 12th ahead of Barrichello, Rosberg, Davidson, Sato and Nakajima. |
