Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (My Sportsbook) - Felipe Massa captured the pole for Sunday's Formula One Malaysian Grand Prix at the Sepang Circuit in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The No.2 Ferrari driver circled the 3.444-mile, 15-turn road course in one minute, 35.748 seconds.
The pole victory was the 10th of Massa's F1 career.
Starting on the front row with Massa will be teammate Kimi Raikkonen, who posted a second-best time of 1:36.230.
McLaren took row two with Heikki Kovalainen (1:36.613) and 2008 points leader Lewis Hamilton (1:36.709). Jarno Trulli was the big surprise grabbing fifth place ahead of the BMWs.
In the first session (Q1), won by Trulli, six cars were knocked out. Sitting out after the first round were Adrian Sutil and Giancarlo Fisichella in the Force India cars, Takuma Sato and Anthony Davidson in the Super Aguri Hondas along with Kazuki Nakajima and Frenchman Sebastien Bourdais, the four-time Champ Car Series champion.
Session two (Q2) was won by the defending World Champion - Raikkonen. Among those knocked out were: Jenson Button, Mark Webber, Nico Rosberg and Rubens Barrichello.
The final session was run with the threat of rain on the way. All the top runners (McLaren, Ferrari and BMW) sent their drivers out right away. Massa put up an early quick time, then bettered it to grab his first pole win of 2008.
The season-opener in Australia was one of the most entertaining in recent memory, not because there was a great battle for the win, but because of the number of cars that fell by the wayside during the race.
To be sure, Hamilton drove a nearly perfect race, dominated from start to finish and easily collected the 10 points for winning the event. But the fact that only seven of the 22 cars were running at the finish made this race so interesting.
The races in Malaysia are usually run in even hotter, wetter weather than what is normally seen in Australia. Add to that the recent rules changes requiring engine and gearboxes to last multiple races and it is a recipe for more trouble.
When the green flag drops on Sunday at 3 a.m. (et) we will see if the trend continues.
