2004 Malaysian Grand Prix

2004 Malaysian Grand Prix
Race 2 of 18 in the 2004 Formula One World Championship
Race details
Date	21 March 2004
Official name	2004 Petronas Malaysian Grand Prix
Location	Sepang International Circuit, Sepang, Malaysia
Course	Permanent race circuit
Course length	5.543 km (3.444 miles)
Distance	56 laps, 310.408 km (192.879 miles)
Weather	Dry, light rain at the start Air Temp 34 °C (93 °F)
Attendance	84,010 (Weekend)
Pole position
Driver	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari
Time	1:33.074
Fastest lap
Driver	Juan Pablo Montoya	Williams-BMW
Time	1:34.223 on lap 28
Podium
First	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari
Second	Juan Pablo Montoya	Williams-BMW
Third	Jenson Button	BAR-Honda
Lap leaders

The 2004 Malaysian Grand Prix (officially the 2004 Petronas Malaysian Grand Prix) was a Formula One motor race held on 21 March 2004 at the Sepang International Circuit. It was Race 2 of 18 in the 2004 FIA Formula One World Championship. The race was won by Michael Schumacher for Ferrari. This was also the first podium for future World Champion Jenson Button, who finished in 3rd place.

Friday drivers

The bottom 6 teams in the 2003 Constructors' Championship were entitled to run a third car in free practice on Friday. These drivers drove on Friday but did not compete in qualifying or the race.

Constructor	No	Driver
BAR-Honda	35	Anthony Davidson
Sauber-Petronas		-
Jaguar-Cosworth	37	Björn Wirdheim
Toyota	38	Ricardo Zonta
Jordan-Ford	39	Timo Glock
Minardi-Cosworth	40	Bas Leinders

Race report

With all drivers starting on dry tyres, the action started sooner than expected as on the parade lap Kimi Räikkönen spun but was able to retake his grid position. Mark Webber, starting from P2, made a woeful start and slid down the field to be 9th by the 1st lap. Fernando Alonso on the other hand, made a brilliant start from 19th (2nd last) and was up behind Webber in 10th after lap 1. Michael Schumacher led from the start while drivers behind jostled for position. By the second lap, rain started to fall and cars were starting to lose traction on the dry tyres. Jarno Trulli overtook Button but the Brit promptly took the place back again. Alonso barreled past Webber for eighth and closed in on the McLaren of David Coulthard. From the back to a points position within four laps was an outstanding performance from Alonso but it was the best he got all race. By this time Michael Schumacher had already built up quite an advantage, but this was quickly eroded by the hard-charging Juan Pablo Montoya. It was to prove to be just a brief shower as soon the precipitation passed and Schumacher was back on his way.

Webber managed to get past Ralf but the Williams retaliated and got ahead again, puncturing the Jaguar's rear right tyre on his way. Takuma Sato spun into the gravel but recovered the BAR smartly and Webber had to pit for a tyre change. To add insult to injury he got a drive-through penalty for speeding in the pit lane and finally compounded his misery by spinning out of the race a few laps later.

A string of cars in the midfield were jostling for position, starting with Nick Heidfeld's Jordan in 11th, then Cristiano da Matta's Toyota, the second Jaguar of Christian Klien, Sauber's Giancarlo Fisichella and da Matta's teammate Olivier Panis. In the first round of pit stops Heidfeld's fuel rig failed and he had to go out and back in again. He eventually pulled into the pits to retire with a gearbox problem.

Trulli got ahead of Coulthard in the first stops and running order at the front, where not much was happening, was Michael, Montoya, Räikkönen. Montoya was falling away from the Ferrari in the second stint of the race but not letting him get too far ahead. Alonso took Coulthard for sixth but then the pair pitted for the second time and the McLaren got out ahead.

Alonso swapped to a two-stop strategy but it gave him no advantage and he seemed resigned to staying behind Coulthard, while Trulli, who had been on quite an early charge, also seemed to lose momentum. Ralf's engine unexpectedly gave up midway through the race, the first failure for BMW for 17 races. Felipe Massa, who was having a pretty good race, got held up by a Minardi and did a bit of agitated hand waving as he went by. The gap between Michael and Montoya was holding at around four seconds and Button moved up to third, jumping Räikkönen in the second pit stops. Both of the Finn's stops seemed quite long and eventually he pulled off to the side of the track with a transmission failure. Disappointing for Räikkönen and McLaren as Kimi was showing good pace until then.

Panis ducked into the pits only to find no crew ready for him and had to go straight back out. Then next lap he was back in again to serve a drive-through for speeding on his previous effort. Not a good day for Panis, or Toyota in general. Da Matta finished ninth after a fairly anonymous race.

In the final laps the BAR crew froze as one of the cars pulled off with an engine failure but it was Sato rather than third placed Button. Bad luck for Sato but the relief that it wasn't his teammate was palpable. Barrichello was gaining ground on Button but with only a few laps to go, he was not in a position to challenge.

Michael took the win with Montoya five seconds behind. BAR and Button were by far the happiest of the lot and the Englishman got the biggest cheer from the crowd as he lifted his first trophy on the third step of the podium.

Classification

Qualifying

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Q1 Time	Q2 Time	Gap	Grid
1	1	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari	1:33.865	1:33.074	—	1
2	14	Mark Webber	Jaguar-Cosworth	1:34.016	1:33.715	+0.641	2
3	2	Rubens Barrichello	Ferrari	1:34.132	1:33.756	+0.682	3
4	3	Juan Pablo Montoya	Williams-BMW	1:34.941	1:34.054	+0.980	4
5	6	Kimi Räikkönen	McLaren-Mercedes	1:33.452	1:34.164	+1.090	5
6	9	Jenson Button	BAR-Honda	1:34.528	1:34.221	+1.147	6
7	4	Ralf Schumacher	Williams-BMW	1:34.777	1:34.235	+1.161	7
8	7	Jarno Trulli	Renault	1:33.264	1:34.413	+1.339	8
9	5	David Coulthard	McLaren-Mercedes	1:34.321	1:34.602	+1.528	9
10	16	Cristiano da Matta	Toyota	1:35.684	1:34.917	+1.843	10
11	12	Felipe Massa	Sauber-Petronas	1:35.132	1:35.039	+1.965	11
12	11	Giancarlo Fisichella	Sauber-Petronas	1:34.877	1:35.061	+1.987	12
13	15	Christian Klien	Jaguar-Cosworth	1:35.618	1:35.158	+2.084	13
14	17	Olivier Panis	Toyota	1:35.247	1:35.617	+2.543	14
15	18	Nick Heidfeld	Jordan-Ford	1:36.769	1:36.569	+3.495	15
16	20	Gianmaria Bruni	Minardi-Cosworth	1:38.729	1:38.577	+5.503	16
17	21	Zsolt Baumgartner	Minardi-Cosworth	1:39.805	1:39.272	+6.198	17
18	19	Giorgio Pantano	Jordan-Ford	No time	1:39.902	+6.828	18
19	8	Fernando Alonso	Renault	1:33.193	No time		19
20	10	Takuma Sato	BAR-Honda	1:34.971	No time		20
Source:

Notes

• ^1 – Giorgio Pantano, Fernando Alonso and Takuma Sato received a 10-place grid penalty for engine changes.

Race

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Tyre	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	1	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari	B	56	1:31:07.490	1	10
2	3	Juan Pablo Montoya	Williams-BMW	M	56	+5.022	4	8
3	9	Jenson Button	BAR-Honda	M	56	+11.568	6	6
4	2	Rubens Barrichello	Ferrari	B	56	+13.615	3	5
5	7	Jarno Trulli	Renault	M	56	+37.360	8	4
6	5	David Coulthard	McLaren-Mercedes	M	56	+53.098	9	3
7	8	Fernando Alonso	Renault	M	56	+1:07.877	19	2
8	12	Felipe Massa	Sauber-Petronas	B	55	+1 Lap	11	1
9	16	Cristiano da Matta	Toyota	M	55	+1 Lap	10
10	15	Christian Klien	Jaguar-Cosworth	M	55	+1 Lap	13
11	11	Giancarlo Fisichella	Sauber-Petronas	B	55	+1 Lap	12
12	17	Olivier Panis	Toyota	M	55	+1 Lap	14
13	19	Giorgio Pantano	Jordan-Ford	B	54	+2 Laps	PL
14	20	Gianmaria Bruni	Minardi-Cosworth	B	53	+3 Laps	16
15	10	Takuma Sato	BAR-Honda	M	52	Engine	20
16	21	Zsolt Baumgartner	Minardi-Cosworth	B	52	+4 Laps	17
Ret	6	Kimi Räikkönen	McLaren-Mercedes	M	40	Hydraulics/Engine	5
Ret	18	Nick Heidfeld	Jordan-Ford	B	34	Transmission	15
Ret	4	Ralf Schumacher	Williams-BMW	M	27	Engine	7
Ret	14	Mark Webber	Jaguar-Cosworth	M	23	Spun off	2
Source:

Notes

• ^1 – Pantano started the race from the pitlane.

Championship standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings

+/–	Pos	Driver	Points
	1	Michael Schumacher	20
	2	Rubens Barrichello	13
2	3	Juan Pablo Montoya	12
2	4	Jenson Button	9
2	5	Fernando Alonso	8
Source:

Constructors' Championship standings

+/–	Pos	Constructor	Points
	1	Ferrari	33
	2	Williams-BMW	17
	3	Renault	14
	4	BAR-Honda	9
	5	McLaren-Mercedes	4
Source:

• Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.