MARCH 18, 2006

Who is where on the grid?

The important point to be made is that the grid for the Malaysian Grand Prix will not be published until Sunday morning and thus it is possible that there will be teams who will decide to change engines before the race begins. If they do that they will face a penalty of starting at the back of the grid. If more than one driver suffers this fate they will line up in number order with the lowest numbers ahead of the higher numbers. At the moment we know that Ralf Schumacher and Felipe Massa will be changing engines and so will be 21st and 22nd on the grid if there are no others with problems. They had their problems after the start of qualifying, at which point the penalty for an engine change increases from 10 places on the grid to a drop to the back.

The other penalised drivers (those who had the problem before the start of qualifying) have penalties of 10 places on the grid. Thus Michael Schumacher dropped from fourth to 14th, David Coulthard 11th to 21st and Rubens Barrichello 12th to 22nd. However with Ralf getting a penalty on Sunday morning after parc ferme reopens Michael will move up to 13th. Coulthard will move up to 19th (because there is no-one left in front of him) and Barrichello will be 20th for a similar reason. Massa will be 21st and Ralf Schumacher 22nd.

This could change if anyone else has to switch engines tomorrow morning but in principle the grid will be: Fisichella, Button, Rosberg, Webber, Montoya, Raikkonen, Alonso, Klien, Trulli, Villeneuve, Heidfeld, Speed, Michael Schumacher, Liuzzi, Albers, Monteiro, Sato, Ide, Coulthard, Barrichello, Massa and Ralf Schumacher.