well, the season has started with one race under the belt. Kimi Raikkonen has claimed the weekend hat trick of pole, win and fast lap, becoming the first Ferrari driver to get a pole in his debut with the scuderia since Fangio did it in 1956. He is also the first ferrari driver since Nigel Mansel to win in his Ferrari debut. Felipe Massa, Ferrari's other driver, suffered gearbox troubles in qualifying and started 16th, but after an engine change, he was penalized and forced to start dead last. After getting past the two factory hondas, Massa was able to claim a 6th place finish.

Lewis Hamilton shined in his Mclaren debut, gaingin a 3rd place finish, becoming the first rookie since Jaques Villeneuve and first black Formula 1 driver to score a podium in his debut race. His teammate, 2 time world champion Fernando Alonso gained a 2nd place finish which means that Mclaren is ahead of Ferrari in the constructor's championship while Raikkonen claims the lead in the driver's championship. Super aguri qualified better and finished better than the factory honda team, which is unbelieveable considering that Super aguri is using last year's honda chassis.

i'll update after each race to fill in any Formula 1 fans that are on the board who can't see the races.

Was a great race.Did not expect Raikkonen to do so well.

i figured Kimi would do good, but i had hoped that Massa had finished in second so Ferrari was ahead of Mclaren

LOL Thats funny.I was going for Massa also.I thought he had a real good chance.

I'm a big Ferrari fan so i was pulling for either one of them but I'm just glad that one of them beat Alonso.

Glad to see Toyota is still screwing up...man, I feel bad for my man Jarno. Despite the fact that they've got an insane budget, they've still got a crappy car. At least RSchumi finished in the points (albeit only 1). David Coulthard being a bonehead as usual, I can't stand him.

Also glad to see Keke's boy doing well, hopefully he'll have a good year. I just pray that Trulli can get out of his deal with Toyota and move somewhere else next year (as long as it isn't Super Aguri).

Go Scott Speed!!!

I am too, but I can't root for them any longer now that Kimi drives their car. I was a huge Schumacher fan though.

ah i don't mind, Kimi is a good driver after all, now if Alonso went to Ferrari, then we'd have a problem.

I don't like Kimi after he was caught fucking around on his wife last year (or maybe the year before)...

What about Lewis Hamilton The Englishman finished third at the Australian Grand Prix and it was his first race,thats some going.

That was great, I was actually surprised when Hobbs mentioned that Hamilton was of "questionable ethnicity" for F1 during the broadcast of the Melbourne race...I usually like Hobbs, and can't stand the whole sort of Tiger-Woods-diversity crap, but it seemed a little odd. Hamilton did a great job, regardless of his skin color.

yea but thats sort of like the comment made during the American Le Mans race earlier in the day about one driver during his pit stop.. the in pit commentator had said "he is sitting awfully calm for a mexican" which surprised me more than hobbs questioning hmilton's ethnicity.

Well qualifying is done for the Malaysian Grand Prix and after exciting third session Ferrari driver Felipe Massa takes pole. Alonso held provisional pole until late in the third session when Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen snatched it from the reigning world champion. Alonso was second to cross the line taking back provisional pole by 0.169 seconds. Hamilton crossed third but could not improve from P3. Felipe Massa was last across the line and managed to snatch pole away from Fernando by 0.267 seconds which would put Hamilton back into 4th and on the second row with Raikkonen.

Renault looked out of form; Sepang being a race the reigning constructors champions won the past two years in a row, neither renault made it to the third session. Coulthard in the second Red Bull Racing-Renault car qualified 13th whereas his teammate Mark Webber qualified 10th.

Super Aguri Honda out qualified the factory Hondas yet again, Takuma Sato taking 14th over Honda's Jenson Button who took 15th. Super Aguri's Anthony Davidson qualified 18th with Honda's Rubens Barrichello taking 19th.

The American, Scott Speed, qualified 17th with his teammate for the Scuderia Toro Rosso-Ferrari qualifying 16th. After a gearbox failure in which he could not shift the car into any gear, Alexander Wurz will start 20th while his Williams-Toyota teammate Nico Rosberg starts in 6th, splitting the BMW-Saubers who qualified 5th and 7th.

Toyota had a decent run this time around, with Ralf Schumacher taking 9th and Jarno Trulli taking 8th. Last but not least the Spyker-Ferraris of Christijan Albers and Adrian Sutil round out the grid taking 21st and 22nd respectively.

Forcast for the grand prix shows a high chance of rain, roughly a 60% chance due to the fact that it has rained around 3:30pm everyday for the past week at the Sepang International Circuit. Race time is 3pm (3am EST) local instead of the usual 2pm (2am EST) start.

Go Trulli!

update for the race, the forecast is now a 20% chance of rain from the original 60% chance.