Preview Malaysia

This weekend sees the F1 circus roll into Kuala Lumper for round two of the 2012 FIA Formula One World Championship at the Sepang circuit. I absolutely love the circuit because it reminds me of the classic Hockenheim circuit layout as it has two extremely long straights. The FIA confirmed today that unlike in Australia where there were two DRS zones this weekend's race will only feature one DRS zone.

The weather in Australia last weekend was very unpredictable with rain on Friday during practice which meant the team's had very little dry running in the build-up to qualifying. This weekend in Malaysia the weather is due to be very stormy and when it rains in Malaysia it is like a monsoon. So where we are expecting rain for the weekend the temperatures are going to be very high making it very humid. On Friday temperatures are expected to reach 32 degrees and on both Saturday and Sunday the temperature's are expected to reach 30 degrees.

It is going to be interesting o see if the order will have changed at all this weekend. Last year the race was dominated by Sebastian Vettel and RedBull, this year however I have a feeling that the team's will be a a lot closer if the race in Australia was anything to go but of course all circuits have very different characteristics. For example, we have just come come from Albert park in Melbourne which is a mix of public roads and park land whereas the Sepang circuit is a permanent facility.

Last weekend, McLaren dominated in qualifying locking out the front row and I wouldn't be at all surprised if they do it again this weekend. However I believe that Lotus will also be up there with Kimi Raikkonen and Romain Grosjean challenging RedBull and Mclaren as the team showed great pace in Australia, when Grosjean started 3rd and Kimi came through the field from 17th to finish 7th.

The E20 certainly has the pace over a race distance. Kimi has had mixed results in Malaysia however he got his first F1 victory there in 2003 with McLaren and he believes that with the car that Lotus have given him they will be challenging for the podium this weekend. I believe that this is the case. Kimi showed last weekend that he hadn't lost any of his speed during two year's away from the sport.

It will be very interesting to see if HRT will be allowed to race this weekend as they were well outside the 107% rule in Australia meaning that they were not permitted to race at that event.

The team were still building Pedro Dela Rosa's car on Saturday morning before qualifying and I thought it was absolutely crazy when I saw that they had to shave carbon fibre off the nose in order to fit it to the car. And I for one think this is extremely dangerous as in opinion it weakens the structure of the car. So we'll just have to wait and see if the team are allowed to race in Malaysia.

I also thought that it was ridiculous when I heard that Sky Sports F1 HD had more personnel at the race then HRT did. That is just crazy!!

I believe that this weekend's race is going to be another extremely close race and in fact the next few races in Malaysia, China and Bahrain are going to be very close in opinion it won't be until we get to Spain in May for the first race of the European season when we will see the development race really begin as the start of the European season is traditionally when we see the team's with major upgrades.

the timetable for this weekend's race is a follows:

Friday

Free Practice 1- 2:00AM
Free Practice 2 - 6:00AM

Saturday


Free Practice 3 - 5:00AM
Qualifying - 8:00AM


Sunday

Race - 8.00AM

All times are +8 hours