Massa grabs pole

Sorry for the folks who don't like it. Much Formula 1 news these days since it's Grand Prix weekend again. I give you the bare essentials and all the Ferrari news and an occasional extra one.

Felipe Massa stole pole for the Ferrari team for the Malaysian Grand Prix tomorrow with a 1:35.043s. He pipped McLaren's Fernando Alonso, who was running fastest through out, by three tenths of a second. Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen and McLaren's Lewis Hamilton will make up the second row respectively.

BMW Sauber was the third strongest team as Nick Heidfeld and Robert Kubica ended up fifth and seventh respectively. Nico Rosberg was a very impressive sixth fastest in his Williams, whilst Jarno Trulli, Ralf Schumacher and Mark Webber will make up the top ten of the grid tomorrow.

In the first qualifying segment, all the cars went out on harder tyres except Jenson Button who used the softer compound and it seemed to work for him as he took his Honda to eleventh fastest. His team-mate Rubens Barrichello, however, was not so lucky and suffered a gearbox problem. The Honda team tried to put the engine in the spare car except that was even worse and Barrichello was unable to break into the top 16. Williams' Alexander Wurz succumbed to the same problem and also failed to qualify for the second segment. Renault, who won the Malaysian Grand Prix in 2005 and 2006, almost had a shock when its drivers Heikki Kovalainen and Giancarlo Fisichella only just squeezed into the top 16.

In the second segment, all the drivers opted for the softer compound as the teams started to worry as well that it would rain. At the death of the segment, it looked like both the Red Bulls would be out and that Kovalainen would sneak into the top ten, but Mark Webber changed all that and confirmed a place for his Red Bull at the expense of the Finn. As a result both Renaults went out, ending up tenth and eleventh for the grid, whilst the other victims were David Coulthard for Red Bull, Takuma Sato for Super Aguri, Jenson Button for Honda and Vitantonio Liuzzi for Toro Rosso respectively. That meant that the Toro Rossos were a solid sixteenth and seventeenth ahead of rival Anthony Davidson in his Super Aguri and both the Spykers, who start from the back row of the grid.

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