Massa heads Ferrari front row at Malaysia

F1 Grand Prix, GP Malaysia, Sepang International Circuit

Ferrari have confirmed that they have the right pace but putting both of the cars on the front row for the Malaysian race. Massa was a 4 tenths quicker than his teammate. Behind them are both McLarens and Jarno Trulli in 5th place.

As the first session start, rain is predicted in 20 minutes, luring out all cars early in the session. Yet the first cars are not too quick either as the track quickly improves. Trulli ends out on top on the medium tyres, ahead of the Ferraris and McLarens in mixed order.

15 minutes later, the rain is called off for another 20 minutes and a lot of drivers rejoin the track to make sure they will be in Q2. While Bourdais goes off and ruins his qualifying chances, Vettel qualifies without problems. Fisichella is out after being closely topped by Barrichello. Nakajima joins him, together with Sato, Sutil and Davidson.

At Q2, both Ferraris and McLaren are out as of the first second to anticipate possible rain. Trulli again joins the battle as he puts himself in between the best four, while moments later both BMW Saubers do the same.

The second wave of flying laps is then header by Nico Rosberg. He doesn't get any further than 13th place and is eliminated. So is Vettel while Glock manages to jump into the safe zone. Alonso is 10 and just in for Q3, while Button, Coulthard, Piquet, Barrichello, Vettel and Rosberg are out.

The best 10 cars are now refuelled for tomorrow's race and will participate the final session with this amount of fuel. Kovalainen aligns in the pitlane straight away and is joined by his teammate and the reds just before the green light.

Massa imposes after the first attempts, leading Raikkonen, Kovalainen and Kubica. Webber and Glock take it on a little slower and they do not set an early time. Alonso is apparently heavily loaded with fuel as he is largely behind 8th place, while Glock apparently went off slightly and will have to count on his second attempt.

It is also interesting to note that both McLarens were on the hard compound in their first attempts, contrary to Ferrari's mediums. For their second attempts, all are on the soft tyre.

After the second attempts, Massa is ahead of Raikkonen, Kovalainen and Hamilton. Trulli will be a happy 5th on the grid.