| 14.30 | Welcome to F1-Live.com and our live coverage of the 56-lap Malaysian Grand Prix. |
| 14.32 | Qualifying yesterday produced few surprises as Felipe Massa claimed the Pole Position for the race while Australian winner Kimi Raikkonen continued his low-key weekend but was still qualified third. |
| 14.33 | The cars are heading out to form up on the dummy grid. It is dry but rain clouds are not too far away.... |
| 14.34 | Ferrari showed tremendous pace in the long runs on Friday afternoon however, routinely lapping quicker than key rivals McLaren. Should the team be able to translate that pace into the race, both Massa and Raikkonen should be able to control the event from the front. |
| 14.36 | The fly in the ointment may be Fernando Alonso who is also running well in his McLaren Mercedes. Having qualified in second position he may have enough pace to keep Raikkonen behind him, but it remains to be seen if he can live with Massa’s speed. |
| 14.38 | Lewis Hamilton starts fourth in his second Grand Prix. In qualifying he did not have the pace of his championship winning team-mate, but he proved in Australia he has the race craft to make life difficult for his rivals. It will be interesting to see if he tried to pull off a big move into turn one. |
| 14.40 | Nick Heidfeld and Robert Kubica have the speed to produce a surprise. Heidfeld starts fifth while Kubica starts seventh but does not seem to have a good balance on his F1.07 in qualifying trim. Kubica normally races better than his qualifying, so he and Heidfeld should be locked into battle once again. |
| 14.42 | Nico Rosberg starts sixth in his Williams Toyota after an impressive performance in qualifying. With Alex Wurz at the back after gearbox issues, Rosberg is again carrying the hopes of the team. Points are again the target. |
| 14.44 | Jarno Trulli and Ralf Schumacher are also looking at points rather than podiums. Starting eighth and ninth the Toyota duo will be looking to keep Mark Webber’s Red Bull and the two R27s of Kovalainen and Fisichella behind them. |
| 14.46 | For Renault, a strong race is a must after the poor qualifying performance. Kovalainen may be starting ahead of Fisichella in 11th position, but after his poor debut in Melbourne, needs to show the team he can put in a strong error-free Grand Prix. For Fisichella, his target is as many points as he can get. |
| 14.48 | Takuma Sato leads the Honda brigade in his Super Aguri in 14th position. Jenson Button starts 15th in the Honda RA107 with Davidson just 18th and Barrichello at the back after a rotten qualifying session. Honda have big problems and it seems that testing and minor revisions to the car are really not going to make an awful lot of difference… |
| 14.50 | The Toro Rosso team are making gains as they get to grips with the STR2 chassis and Ferrari engine package. Tonio Liuzzi and Scott Speed start 16th and 17th while the Spyker Ferrari duo of Christijan Albers and Adrian Sutil are way off the pace at the back. |
| 14.52 | Of course strategy will play a role, but most will oft for two stop as is increasingly the standard. Tyre wear could be a factor, especially with the medium compound tyres. We don’t know yet who is on the hard and medium tyres. And then there is the threat of rain which really remains a strong factor this afternoon... |
| 14.54 | The drivers are suiting up, putting the crash helmet, radio wiring, fluid piping in place and climbing into the cars. It is a very hot day and fluids are a must for the drivers. |
| 14.56 | Rain overnight will have washed away the rubber build up from practice and qualifying. |
| 14.58 | Rubens Barrichello was to line up at the back of the grid but has opted to start from the pit lane instead. |
| 14.59 | The one minute siren sounds, the engines fire up and the grid is cleared. Massa is on the medium tyre as is Alonso, Hamilton... |
| 15.00 | The parade lap is underway as Massa leads off the dummy grid. The front runners have the softer medium tyre, those further back are on the hard tyres. |
| 15.01 | Trulli, 8th, is on the harder tyres while Ralf is blowing a lot of smoke. |
| 15.02 | The drivers are warming the tyres still, despite the heat of Sepang. |
| 15.03 | Massa lines up on his Pole Position. |
| Lap 1 | The Malaysian Grand Prix is underway! |
| Lap 1 | Alonso leads into T1 as Hamilton passes into T2 |
| Lap 1 | Alonso leads Hamilton, Massa and Raikkonen. |
| Lap 1 | Sutil is in the gravel |
| Lap 2 | Massa putting pressure on Hamilton for second position. |
| Lap 2 | Ralf Schumacher has dropped down the order. He started ninth. Fisichella is up to 8th from 12th on the grid. |
| Lap 3 | Alonso is pulling away as Liuzzi heads for the pits. he may have hit his team-mate a lap ago? |
| Lap 3 | Yes, Liuzzi is having a new front wing. He bumped Speed into the final turn a lap ago. |
| Lap 4 | Alonso is running away at the front as Massa has a go at Hamilton |
| Lap 4 | Raikkonen closing in too as Massa makes the pass only to be retaken in T4. |
| Lap 5 | Massa tries again into turn one. Hamilton is certainly frustrating the Ferrari team. It is a matter of time but Hamilton wants to keep P2 as long as he can. |
| Lap 5 | Button and Barrichello now run together. Seems qualifying means little for the Honda team. |
| Lap 6 | Massa messes it all up into turn four. Poor driving. He dives down the inside and runs onto the grass.... |
| Lap 6 | So Massa drops from third to fifth behind Raikkonen and Heidfeld. |
| Lap 7 | Alonso leads Hamilton by 7s. Now Raikkonen lines up behind Hamilton to try and win second. |
| Lap 8 | Fisichella still runs in eighth but not making much impression on the battling Kubica and Rosberg ahead. |
| Lap 8 | Barrichello has moved ahead of Honda team-mate Button. |
| Lap 8 | Albers pits the Spyker. Awful race for them. |
| Lap 9 | An engine failure for Albers. Both cars are out on lap nine. |
| Lap 10 | No major changes at the front as Raikkonen shadows Hamilton and Massa shodows Heidfeld. |
| Lap 10 | Kubica and Rosberg continue to run together and are actually pulling away from Fisichella who has Trulli and Kovalainen close behind. |
| Lap 11 | Alonso now has the lead up to over ten seconds. |
| Lap 11 | Kubica was sixth but seems to have a problem, Rosberg is ahead now. Kubica pits. |
| Lap 12 | Melbourne rivals Wurz and Coulthard run together. A slow pit stop for Kubica with a rear wheel issue. |
| Lap 13 | Barrichello pits from 16th. Wurz passes Coulthard around the outside. Nice pass. |
| Lap 14 | Ferrari are really making no progress, seemingly unable to pass at all. |
| Lap 15 | Raikkonen remains just half a second behind Hamilton. |
| Lap 16 | Alonso is getting the gap to a point that even if Raikkonen can get ahead of Hamilton, it will be tough to catch... well perhaps. |
| Lap 17 | Fisichella does not have the pace to keep up with Rosberg's Williams and is falling back at eight-tenths to a second a lap. |
| Lap 18 | Alonso leads by 16s. Ron Dennis is on the pit wall as they wave the pit board to Alonso... |
| Lap 18 | Massa pits from fifth position |
| Lap 18 | Wurz, Speed and Sato pit. |
| Lap 19 | Alonso does head to the pits. |
| Lap 19 | Raikkonen pits from third. |
| Lap 19 | Trulli pits. He will be hoping to pass Fisichella in the first round of stops. |
| Lap 19 | Hamilton leads but will be pitting soon. |
| Lap 20 | Rosberg pits from fifth position. |
| Lap 20 | Bad news for Raikkonen is that he is behind Fisichella who probably has a lot of fuel on board. |
| Lap 20 | Hamilton pits from the lead. He will be hoping to exit ahead of Raikkonen again... |
| Lap 21 | Hamilton is easlily ahead of Raikkonen who is stuck behind Fisichella. The race is not going well for Ferrari. |
| Lap 22 | So Heidfeld leads but has yet to pit. Webber pits from 8th position. |
| Lap 22 | Alonso is in the real lead from Hamilton who actually gained time in the first round of stops. |
| Lap 23 | Haidfeld now pits his BMW Sauber. Fisichella has yet to pit. |
| Lap 23 | Kovalainen pits his Renault.. |
| Lap 23 | Hamilton sets the fastest lap of the race. He is clearly happy with the car on this second set of tyres. |
| Lap 24 | Hamilton has the time to try and close on Alonso ahead of the final stop. After the final stop he probably won't be allowed to race for the win, but before he can. |
| Lap 24 | Fisichella has pitted and Raikkonen now has some clear air, a lot of clear air ahead to Hamilton. |
| Lap 25 | Alonso has realised that Hamilton is closing in a little and has reacted to stabalised the gap. |
| Lap 25 | Barrichello, Ralf, Button and Speed all run together. |
| Lap 26 | Fisichella is now back in eighth position with Trulli still behind in the Toyota. |
| Lap 26 | Kubica is still running but has some kind of problem on the BMW Sauber. |
| Lap 27 | Raikkonen is making little impression on Hamilton's 11s advantage. |
| Lap 27 | Coulthard finally makes his first pit stop. Massa is still behinf Heidfeld with Rosberg slowly closing in from behind. |
| Lap 28 | Kubica makes his second stop. |
| Lap 29 | Hamilton takes another second out of Alonso's lead. |
| Lap 29 | Alonso unhappy with Liuzzi as he tries to lap him. |
| Lap 29 | Ralf Schumacher pits his Toyota for the second time. The race has slipped away for Toyota. |
| Lap 30 | Raikkonen is still lapping slower than the leading duo. Amazing given their domination in Australia. |
| Lap 31 | It is very static at the moment. Alex Wurz is however closing in on Kovalainen. |
| Lap 32 | Wurz is having a good race. He started 19th and has worked his way up to tenth and is pushing to pass Kovalainen for ninth. |
| Lap 33 | Kovalainen is pushing hard to keep Wurz behind him. It is the closest battle in the field although Massa remains less than two seconds behind Heidfeld. |
| Lap 34 | Alonso remain in control with the gap stable to Hamilton at just over eight seconds. Raikkonen can do little in third while Heidfel;d is keeping Massa back. All very static. |
| Lap 35 | Alex Wurz makes his second stop. |
| Lap 35 | Barrichello and Speed pit. |
| Lap 36 | Heidfeld is in traffic and Massa is right on him. |
| Lap 37 | Heidfeld is actually coming up to lap Kubica, so perhaps the Polish racer will try and help his team-mate. |
| Lap 37 | Kubica pulls over and lets both Heidfeld and Massa though. |
| Lap 38 | Coulthard pits again. He was 11th and must have a problem |
| Lap 38 | Seems like a retirement from Coulthard. |
| Lap 38 | Trulli is still right with Fisichella. Actually he has closed down the three second gap. |
| Lap 39 | Hamilton makes his second stop. He was last in earlier and first in now so a short fuel at the first stop. |
| Lap 39 | Rosberg pits from sixth. |
| Lap 39 | Trulli pits the Toyota. |
| Lap 40 | Kovalainen pits from ninth. |
| Lap 41 | Alonso makes his second and final stop. Like most of the others it is the hard tyres for the final stint. |
| Lap 41 | Alonso makes his second and final stop. Like most of the others it is the hard tyres for the final stint. |
| Lap 41 | Massa pits from fifth position. |
| Lap 42 | Raikkonen pits the Ferrari. |
| Lap 42 | Heidfeld pits his BMW Sauber |
| Lap 43 | So Alonso is back in the lead ahead of Hamilton and Raikkonen. |
| Lap 43 | Fisichella pits again. He ran a long first stint to try and make up ground. The reality was that the gain came off the line. |
| Lap 43 | Webber pits his Red Bull Renault. |
| Lap 44 | So Raikkonen has gained some time in the recent laps on Hamilton. |
| Lap 44 | Nico Rosberg is out with what looks to be an engine failure. |
| Lap 44 | A shame for Rosberg who had a great race and was set for a sixth place finish. |
| Lap 45 | So Fisichella gains another position. He gained four off the start and one with Kubica hitting problems and now another with Rosberg out. |
| Lap 45 | Raikkonen takes another second from Hamilton's advanatge. |
| Lap 46 | Webber is pushing hard as he wants to get ahead of Alex Wurz who runs ninth. |
| Lap 47 | Raikkonen gets the gap to Hamilton to below six seconds. |
| Lap 47 | Webber continues to shadow Wurz and is shaping up to make a pass. |
| Lap 48 | Kubica runs off track and into the gravel. He was 15th and lost the back end and around it went. |
| Lap 49 | Hamilton is losing half a second a lap to Raikkonen as Kovalainen runs wide again in the Renault. |
| Lap 50 | Just six laps to go and Raikkonen gets the gapo to four seconds. He probably does not have time to do much but he can apply pressure and hope for an error. |
| Lap 50 | Massa remains behind Heidfeld but has had a scrappy race and has been very ineffective in making progress. |
| Lap 51 | Hamilton's McLaren looks to be on the limit as he slides it through the turns. |
| Lap 52 | Raikkonen is now less than three seconds behind Hamilton. |
| Lap 53 | Raikkonen continues to push hard but he will not have time really to try a pass, unless Hamilton makes an error. |
| Lap 54 | A lovely slide from Raikkonen through the final turn as he gets the gap down to under two seconds. |
| Lap 55 | Some opposite lock from Raikkonen again through the final turn as he continues to close in, the gap is just over a second. |
| Lap 56 | The final lap and Hamilton is under real pressure. |
| Lap 56 | It may come down to the last corner but out front, Alonso is set to win for McLaren, their first since 2005. |
| Lap 56 | Alonso wins the Malaysian Grand Prix. |
| Lap 56 | Hamilton does hold on and he takes second position ahead of Raikkonen. |
| Lap 56 | Heidfeld finishes fourth ahead of Massa. |
| Lap 56 | Fisichella finishes sixth ahead of Trulli while Kovalainen scores his first point in F1. |
