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I’ve been travelling the last few days.  In fact I’m typing this right now very early in the morning at Sydney airport.  Somehow I managed to arrange things so that I’d be away for both the Malaysian Grand Prix and the Chinese Grand Prix so I was a bit worried that I would be at the mercy of the local TV stations when I wanted to watch the race.

Surely if I could get to an internet connection there must be a way?  I brought my PSP to try using remote play to connect to my PS3 back home, but that is always a bit random as to whether the PS3 is going to wake up.  Now that the BBC is broadcasting everything online, though, there is another way.  The BBC content is restricted to UK IP addresses but there are ways around that.

So in the end I found myself in my hotel room in Singapore watching the Malaysian Grand Prix 200 miles away on my laptop with a connection routed through my home PC in London.  And amazingly everything worked perfectly!

Jenson Button has won his second Grand Prix in a row for Brawn GP in a race that was halted due to rain.  Despite having to replace his front wing because the team left it out overnight in the rain, Jenson’s car once again proved its worth on a new circuit in difficult conditions.  Nico Rosberg got the better of Button off the starting line but Jenson regained the lead a couple of laps before his first pit stop and was still leading on lap 32 when the red flags came out.  The final positions were taken from the leader’s last full lap (31) which meant that  Nick Heidfeld took second place and Timo Glock was third.

Like Australia, the Malaysian Grand Prix had a late starting time of 5pm, to give it a better timeslot on the European TV schedules, but drivers had warned that visibility could be a problem, especially if it rained.  Sure enough, although the race started in dry conditions, the Sepang circuit was hit by a torrential downpour.  I am actually in Singapore at the moment and it seems we got the weather here first.  Around lunchtime we were hit by a thunderstorm of biblical proportions and anyone who was caught in that could tell you that there was no way racing could continue in those conditions. Lewis Hamilton said they were the worst he had ever driven in:

When the rain came down, it was impossible to drive. I was aquaplaning everywhere – these were the most dangerous conditions I’ve ever raced in.

In the end it was all about being on the right tyres at the right time.  Kimi Raikkonen took a gamble on full wets but was a couple of laps too early and destroyed his tyres.  Timo Glock, on the other hand, timed the switch to intermediates just right.

In hindsight it seems like it was a mistake to run the race so late and I suspect it will return to its normal time next year but at least the few laps we had were entertaining.  The Red Bulls were fast and there was a great battle between Mark Webber and Lewis Hamilton.  In the end it was a bit of an anticlimax to what was shaping up to be a fantastic race and because it was red flagged on lap 32 only half-points were awarded.

Unfortunately, the politics are not over.  The FIA haven’t ruled out further action against McLaren and Hamilton and BMW at last managed to get their diffuser protest in on time so they can join in the fun at the FIA Court of Appeal on April 14.

2009 Malaysian Grand Prix Race Results

The big news of the day is the fallout from the McLaren-Trulli affair in Australia.

On Friday morning, McLaren sporting director Davey Ryan was sent home by team boss Martin Whitmarsh for his role in misleading the stewards at the Australian Grand Prix last weekend.  Ryan has been with McLaren since the seventies but it looks like his exit from the team will be permanent.

Ryan is taking the fall because for some reason as he and Hamilton walked to the stewards office after the race Ryan told Hamilton to withhold the fact that the team had told Lewis to let Jarno Trulli through in the final safety car session of the race.  Lewis was clearly uncomfortable with doing this but wanted to follow the senior team member’s instructions and went along with it.

Later on Friday a clearly emotional Hamilton apologised in front of the world’s media, saying:

As soon as I got out of the car I did the TV interviews at the back of the garage and straight away I gave a good account of what happened during the race.

Straight after that we were requested by the stewards, and whilst waiting for the stewards I was instructed – and misled – by my team manager to withhold information, and that’s what I did.

I sincerely apologise to the stewards for wasting their time and for making them look silly.

I’m very, very sorry for the situation – for my team, for Dave, who’s been a good member of the team for many years and whilst I don’t think it was his intention…he’s a good guy.

When I went into the meeting I had no intention of… I just wanted to tell the story, say what happened.

I was misled and that’s the way it went.

Some might say that Davey is a scapegoat and Hamilton has got away lightly.  But I do believe that Lewis was just trying to go along with what his team wanted out of a sense of loyalty.  In the days that followed Lewis obviously regretted what he’d done and I think the following statement goes some way to explaining how it happened:

As a human being and as a man it’s right for me to stand in front of you and put my hands up. I want to say sorry to all my fans. I am not a liar or a dishonest person; I am a team player.   If the team ask me to do something, I generally do it – but I felt awkward and uncomfortable. This is not an easy thing to do, to step back and realise I was in the wrong – but I was in the wrong. I was misled. I don’t know what else is going to happen in the future.

I still think it could have all been avoided if race control could have provided guidance to the drivers and teams at the time.  Neither Lewis nor Trulli did anything wrong on the track and if the race organisers had sorted out the proper race order at the time instead of handing Trulli a ridiculous 25 second penalty none of this would have had to happen.

But with all the controversy we shouldn’t forget there is still a race on Sunday and in Friday practice the Ferraris of Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen topped the timesheet despite Kimi suffering a problem with KERS and a fire in the cockpit.

Red Bull and Williams looked quite strong again but it seems Brawn GP won’t necessarily have it all their own way on Sunday.  Rubens Barrichello will take a five place grid penalty for changing a gearbox.

Other teams like Toyota and BWM concentrated on setup rather than lap times so they may do better in qualifying than their Friday times would suggest.

Here are the times from the first two practice sessions:

First Practice

Second Practice

After all the controversy of the recent days it seems we finally have a definitive result for the Australian Grand Prix.  Unfortunately (or fortunately) it means some people’s points have changed from the original result.  This was good news for Sergio and Correa but bad news for Nathan and Eygló.

All the points have now been updated on the Prediction Game Page and we are ready for round two!  With the threat of tropical monsoons, Malaysia looks like it’s going to be just as unpredictable as Australia.

Remember, you can add (or even update) your predictions until qualifying starts on Saturday (that’s 14:00 local time) so get ’em in and good luck!

If you want to keep up to date with the blog you can subscribe to the RSS feed or even get updates sent to you by email.

Oh, and I still haven’t figured out what the prize should be.  Any suggestions?

The FIA have released a summary of key considerations in their decision to disqualify Lewis Hamilton from Sunday’s Australian Formula One Grand Prix.  The press release also includes recordings of the radio transmissions between Lewis Hamilton and the McLaren team in the closing stages of the 2009 Australian Grand Prix.

There has been a lot of confusion about what exactly happened on Sunday, but here is the rough order of events.

1. During the final safety car period Jarno Trulli was in 3rd and Lewis Hamilton was in 4th.
2. Jarno Trulli ran off the track (probably because of cold tyres) and so Hamilton had no choice but to pass him.  This is allowed under the rules.
3. McLaren weren’t sure if Lewis should have made the pass under the safety car and so they asked him to let Trulli take 3rd position back.
4. Hamilton seemed to think the pass was legal but slowed to let Trulli through anyway.
5. Trulli sees Hamilton slow down and thinks he has a problem so he passes the McLaren.  This is allowed under the rules.
6. The race ends with Trulli in 3rd and Hamilton in 4th.
7. During a hearing after the race Lewis Hamilton and his team manager David Ryan are asked whether McLaren told Hamilton to let Trulli through.  They denied this was the case.
8. Trulli is handed a 25 second penalty for passing under the safety car and so Hamilton is awarded 3rd place.

There were two reasons a second hearing was held in Malaysia.  Firstly, after the Australian Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton told reporters that McLaren had in fact told him to let Trulli through and secondly, it seems the stewards did not listen to any of the radio transmissions before making their decision to penalise Trulli.

Here is the recording of the radio transmission between Lewis Hamilton and the McLaren team:

Here  is the recording of the radio transmission between Jarno Trulli and the Toyota team:

Here is the interview given by Lewis Hamilton to the Media immediately after the race:

McLaren team boss Martin Whitmarsh doesn’t think the team did anything wrong:

We, the team, made a mistake.  We did not provide a full account of a radio conversation which we believe was being listened to in any case, and we don’t believe was material to the decisions being made by the stewards. At that time, we did not know that Trulli was right off the circuit and Lewis was asked to give back the place to Trulli. That was a team view, having not seen it, and we thought it was the safest thing to do.

Hamilton did not agree but attempts to get an answer from Race Control failed and the the race ended under the Safety Car. McLaren assumed in the hearing that the stewards were aware of the radio exchanges that had taken place but it seems they were not.

The whole thing has been a huge fuckup and it is ridiculous it has taken the FIA so long to come to a definitive decision on the controversy.  Speaking to German broadcaster RTL, Former World Champion Niki Lauder called it “the biggest joke of all time”.

The stewards made a mistake in Australia and the statement that Hamilton “acted in a manner prejudicial to the conduct of the event by providing evidence deliberately misleading to the Stewards” just sounds like they are trying to weasel out of a complete failure of the sport’s adminstration.

Why couldn’t McLaren get an answer from race control?  Why didn’t the stewards listen to all pertinant evidence before making a decision?  And why has it taken so long for the matter to be decided?

A spokesman for the FIA has stated:

Given the seriousness of this matter, we cannot rule out further action at this stage.

Good grief!  What could the further action be?  Suspension from races or even the rest of the 2009 season?