Malaysian GP 2005
MARCH 19, 2005
Qualifying 1 Report - Viva Espana!
© The Cahier Archive
Fernando Alonso set the fastest time of the first qualifying session in Kuala Lumpur on Saturday with a lap of 1m32.582s, half a second a lap faster than last year's pole position at the Sepang circuit. The Renault driver was only a tenth faster than Jarno Trulli who was surprisingly quick in his Toyota with Giancarlo Fisichella third fastest in the second Renault. Kimi Raikkonen confirmed the pace of the McLaren-Mercedes MP4-20 with fourth fastest ahead of Ralf Schumacher's Toyota, Mark Webber in his Williams-BMW, Juan Pablo Montoya in the second McLaren and Nick Heidfeld in the second Williams. The top 10 was completed by Jenson Button in the BAR-Honda and Christian Klien in his Red Bull-Cosworth. David Coulthard was 11th in his Red Bull.
The extraordinary thing about the session was the lack of competitiveness of the Ferraris with Michael Schumacher setting the 12th best time and Rubens Barrichello 14th. The two men were split by Felipe Massa in the Sauber.
Anthony Davidson was 15th ahead of Jacques Villeneuve, who was 0.7secs slower than Massa. At the rear as usual were the two Jordans and the Minardis.