Sepang, 7th April 2007

So far this season, Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro has recorded a clean sweep of pole positions, admittedly from just two races. After Kimi Raikkonen's number one slot on the grid in Melbourne, it was Felipe Massa's turn to take pole, the fourth of his Formula 1 career. If tomorrow's Malaysian Grand Prix is just half as exciting as this afternoon's qualifying session, then it will be very exciting indeed. Once again, the Scuderia's main opposition came from the McLaren-Mercedes duo of Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton and the Spaniard and the two Ferrari drivers all traded fastest times during the final third part of the qualifying procedure. It was only in the very last moments of the session that Felipe crossed the line to take pole, while the reigning world champion lines up alongside him.


Kimi is right behind his team-mate in third place and in the official post-session press conference hinted that starting third, on the clean side of the track could turn out to be better than getting off the line from the outside of the front row. Hamilton is fourth. Confirming BMW-Sauber's position in the relative order of the teams, Nick Heidfeld is on the third row in fifth place with Nico Rosberg showing well to take sixth place in the Williams-Toyota. At the very end of the session, there were a very few drops of rain and the threat of a heavy tropical shower is ever present in this part of the world, but apparently the chances are minimal for one during the race which starts one hour later than usual at 3 in the afternoon local time. In some ways rain would be welcome for its cooling effect, given this will be such a stern test of the cars' and especially the engines' reliability at this early stage of the season.