BTW the qualifying session you are thinking of was the GP of Europe of 1997, the Championship deciding final race of that season. J Villeneuve, M Schumacher and HH Frentzen were the 3 drivers with identical times to within 0.001 second. Fourth place went to Damon Hill in the Arrows, just 0.058 seconds behind ! What was not caught on TV (everyone was too excited over the pole time(s!) ) was that Hill was on course to beat the pole time on that lap when, on the last corner, Ukyo Katayama spun in front of him and Damon had to take avoiding action, ruining the lap!

Anyways, some fantastic racing before the red flag I thought. A great example of KERS Vs Non KERS. It saved Alonso a great many times, and to see a few dog fights with many drivers was so good to see. I hope it continues and think that the fact that not everyone has KERS is a good thing to a certain extent. Yes those without find it a bit hard to overtake, but from a selfish point of view it makes for great TV, as non KERS can generally brake later and so stay in touch? But it was a slippery track, so we’ll see over the next few races a to see if it ‘s fair for those without.

Thought Jensons flying laps to get him in front after his pit stop were just stunning. He was miles in front when leaving the pit lane with Trulli ( I think ) a very distant second.

So for now the new changes are really working. The qualifying times are so close! But I do remember one year it was the last race I think where the first 3 cars had exactly the same time. to 1’000s of a second! Sure it one drier was MIka H. Not sure if it was a timing error, though.

It’s so great to see different teams being “up there”. Long may it continue, for if it does, at least the changes prove that it makes for much better racing. As I think I heard DC say, before, big teams could spend their way into the lead. Now they have to think and do some real work, something the lower teams have had to do for decades!

Ferrari once again their own worst enemy. How can a team with that much experience commit such terribly stupid acts.

On the subject of Hamilton, I’m afraid he was lost to honesty the moment he joined Mclaren which is without doubt the most dishonest, most cheating team on the entire grid.

Briton Jenson Button celebrated his second consecutive victory of the season after what he called a “crazy” Malaysian Grand Prix.

The event was abandoned after 32 of the scheduled 56 laps as the weather conditions made it impossible for drivers to stay on track, even behind the safety car.

When the race was stopped, Button had already made four pitstops and, despite that, the Brawn GP driver emerged on top to give his team a dream start to the year.

“What a crazy race,” said Button, who had won the Australian Grand Prix behind the safety car.

“My start was pretty bad. I don’t think I’d got enough heat in the tyres and had a lot of oversteer. But I went back to fourth, got up to third, eventually got back up to the front, and I was pretty happy with that, our pace was pretty good.

“Choosing the tyres was very difficult, because normally here when it rains it pours, but it didn’t to start with. We went for the full wet tyre and it destroyed itself, and then I saw Timo (Glock) flying up behind us with the inter, so we put the intermediates on.

“Just as he came by I saw his tyres were bald and it was raining out the back, so he was struggling quite a lot and had to pit.

“I got one lap in on the inter at a reasonable pace and was able to get in and put the wet tyre on and get back in front.”

Half points were awarded for the race, leaving Button on top of the standings with 15, five ahead of team-mate Rubens Barrichello, fifth today.

Regarding the wet conditions and the late running of the Grand Prix, read this excellent article posted on F1 Fanatic that it was the FOM fault for this surreal ending to the race:

http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2009/04/05/f1-victim-of-own-greed-as-late-malaysian-gp-start-fails-to-go-distance/