F1: 2008 second round fails to thrill

The best thing that can be said about the Malaysian GP for 2008 is that it demonstrated that in F1 the only constant is unpredictability.

At the end of qualifying, it seemed situation normal: two Ferraris and two McLarens would steam off at the front and battle it out, and others would finish - if qualifying performance was any guide - anywhere between 20 seconds and a minute behind.

Of course, in F1, that means that after the first four, there would be at least a dozen cars in close proximity for an hour and a half and therefore - especially given the especially technical nature of the Sepang circuit, close racing.

Throw into the mix that heavy rain fell between 3pm and 4:30 pm almost every day for the past week, and race control on Friday warned of a high probability of rain, and the fact that no traction control would mean difficult driving in the wet, and everything looked set for an exciting afternoon.

On Saturday night, huge parites at several venues attracted thousands of clubbers: the KL Tower hosted an international DJ techno-fest with spectacular fireworks at 1 am, the music pumping out until much later. On Sunday, from late morning, the helicopters buzzed over KL, ferrying drivers and dignataries to the track. The bars filled up with people settling down to watch the big screens in the outdoors. The streets went quiet after 2:30 as KL - which is a town in love with F1 - prepared to watch.

But much of the result had already been decided: in the last gasp of qualifying, the two McLarens - along with several other cars, slowed right down. There is a rule that says that the post run-in lap has to be within a certain percentage of the qualifying time - but here it is arguable that that rule does not apply because the qualifying session had technically ended whilst those cars were on their final flying lap which does count under the rules. Unfortunately, the Mclarens, unlike the other cars, were taking the shortest route around the track and driving slowly to conserve fuel. The shortest route is the racing line. Unaware that two more cars had started their flying laps with just moments to spare before the session ended, they cluttered up the track and interfered with the chances of those cars to set best times.

Quite properly, the McLarens were dropped five places from their qualifying spots.

That meant that Ferrari shot off into the distance.

The first bend showed the McLaren pace and they made up places by the end of turn three by demon driving. But from that point on, Kovalainen basically held station, inheriting third when Massa apparently simply dropped the back end off the track and got stuck in the gravel. Kubica did a sterling job to finish second - but with 20 seconds in front of him and behind him, and by his own admission cruising for much of the race, his result underlined the improvements by BMW but hardly made for good spectacle. Hamilton's poor result - fifth - was the result of hard work. Twice he was stuck behind Webber which slowed him significantly but both times were, seemingly, the result of team problems. Starting the race on the option tyre (softer compound) his tyres overheated and he was losing bucketfuls of time for a dozen or more laps as they gradually came into their performance range. At his first pit-stop, incredibly, the team put another set of the same tyres on - and so off he went to make slow progress until his tyres started to work. But worse, at the first pit stop, he lost more than ten seconds when the right front wheel stuck on. After his second stop, switching as the rules required, to the prime (harder) tyre, his progress was as expected. In fact, he reeled in Trulli, doing a fine job in fourth in the Toyota, hand over fist to finish a few car lengths behind, having picked up around 15 seconds in 12 laps.

Alonso (it appeared) barged into Coulthard but the wheels didn't fall off the Red Bull - a bit of a surprise given that twice in the past week they have fallen when kerbs have been hit at the wrong angle.

Button hustled the Honda up to just outside the points. Alonso picked up the final point with his Renault - and didn't get called before the stewards for his apparent attack on Coulthard (unless he did not, as it appeared, actually bang wheels, in which case we withdraw the comment) and Barrachelo managed his second foul up in two weeks by speeding in the pit lane and suffering a drive-through penalty.

The result showed several things:

1) the smooth drivers can get less competitive machinery up the order

2) Ferrari and McLaren are the fastest cars but BMW are catching up fast

3) Toyota - reportedly the biggest budget team in the paddock - has at last got a driver / car combination that is capable of keeping up with the front runners - although if the race had been three or four laps longer, it's probable that Trulli would have been passed by Hamilton even allowing for the latter's problems. But Trulli did get his fourth place entirely on merit, it should be made plain.

4) Ferrari engines have reliability problems - although the team cars didn't break, customer cars were in difficulty again.

5) Kovalainen has the potential to match Hamilton - leading to the prospect of some serious racing as the year goes on

6) The stewards are taking a non-nonsense approach this year and drivers and teams had better be aware that there is, on the evidence of the first two meetings, much less leeway being given.

So long as that applies equally from one end of the pit lane to the other, and so long as decisions are consistent, that's a good thing.

The 10th Malaysian Grand Prix may have been an anti-climax in terms of actual racing, but it may well prove to be very important for the way the season progresses.

But it's a shame - the Sepang track is designed to encourage close racing, and generally does its job very well. Today, all manner of things conspired to militate against that. And it didn't rain.