Saturday October 16th, 1999
Ferraris take the front row of the grid
Michael Schumacher underlined his return to the Grand Prix circuit in gold during qualifying for Sunday's Malaysian Grand Prix when he took pole position a full second ahead of his team-mate Eddie Irvine, who took the second spot on the grid ahead of their two McLaren rivals.
"The car is very good and I think we managed to get the most from it today," said Michael. "I was surprised to be so far ahead of the McLarens. I am sure there are reasons for it. When I saw the gap, I knew they couldn't beat my time and decided to save my last set of tyres for the race," added Michael. Irvine was delighted to be starting at the front of the grid with Schumacher, and had the assurances of his teammate that he would let him by if it helped his championship chances - but not before the end of the race.
"My plan is to race flat out to the end and then make any decisions that may be necessary then. It should be interesting," says Michael. They might have both saved two sets of tyres for the race instead of one, but both their second runs were spoiled by a straight on for Schumacher and a spin for Irvine.
Coulthard heads Hakkinen for McLaren
David Coulthard also vowed to help his team-mate Mika Hakkinen's chances for the Championship after taking the third fastest time of the session ahead of Hakkinen for the second race in a row. "I think I could have gone a bit quicker, but I had a lot of understeer in the last section that I didn't have yesterday," Coulthard said. Mika Hakkinen like Coulthard was unhappy with the overall balance of his car at this track. "We have not found a good combination that suits the slow, medium and fast corners of this track," added Coulthard. Both McLarens were suspected of having run the harder tyre compound, the Ferraris running the softer rubber.
Stewart-Ford claim row three
Johnny Herbert and Rubens Barrichello were optimistic about their race chances after setting the fifth and sixth fastest times in qualifying. Rubens Barrichello was upset after the session saying that he had his best run spoiled by Jean Alesi who had been equally upset with the Brazilian who had spoiled the Sauber's best lap!
Wurz a delighted seventh for Benetton
After struggling with his car's handling throughout free practice, Alexander was delighted to have qualified seventh fastest after the team had discovered and fixed a problem with his car's rear suspension. Giancarlo Fisichella was back in 11th spot, angry with the fact that a wide slide on his quickest lap had cost him 4/10th's of a second which would have put him up with Wurz.
In brief...
Even though Ralf Schumacher took eighth place for Williams, it was more by a huge effort by the driver than his car. "Unfortunately we have had problems getting our cars to work on similar circuits for the past two years," said Patrick Head. Zanardi could not better 16th spot.
It was a disappointing day for the Jordan team. Damon Hill managed a best of ninth place, while Frentzen was back in 14th place after qualifying the team's spare car which was not set up correctly. "I had the cockpit head protection system come loose and fly up as I braked for the first corner and that caused me to spin off," explained Frentzen who lost the use of his specially prepared race car for qualifying.
With Jacques Villeneuve 10th and Zonta 13th, the BAR team were disappointed to be so far back after running much higher up in the free practice sessions which saw Villeneuve fastest on Friday. Diniz faded to a distant 17th for Sauber with Alesi on 15th. "My car developed a lot more oversteer in the heat and it got worse and worse. I think there was a problem with it," said Diniz.
Pos Driver Team Time
1. M.Schumacher Ferrari 1:39.688 200.136 km/h
2. Irvine Ferrari 1:40.635 + 0.947
3. Coulthard McLaren Mercedes 1:40.806 + 1.118
4. Hakkinen McLaren Mercedes 1:40.866 + 1.178
5. Herbert Stewart Ford 1:40.937 + 1.249
6. Barrichello Stewart Ford 1:41.351 + 1.663
7. Wurz Benetton Supertec 1:41.444 + 1.756
8. R.Schumacher Williams Supertec 1:41.558 + 1.870
9. Hill Jordan Mugen-Honda 1:42.050 + 2.362
10. Villeneuve BAR Supertec 1:42.087 + 2.399
11. Fisichella Benetton Supertec 1:42.110 + 2.422
12. Panis Prost Peugeot 1:42.208 + 2.520
13. Zonta BAR Supertec 1:42.310 + 2.622
14. Frentzen Jordan Mugen-Honda 1:42.380 + 2.692
15. Alesi Sauber Petronas 1:42.522 + 2.834
16. Zanardi Williams Supertec 1:42.885 + 3.197
17. Diniz Sauber Petronas 1:42.933 + 3.245
18. Trulli Prost Peugeot 1:42.948 + 3.260
19. Gene Minardi Ford 1:43.563 + 3.875
20. de la Rosa Arrows TWR 1:43.579 + 3.891
21. Badoer Minardi Ford 1:44.321 + 4.633
22. Takagi Arrows TWR 1:44.637 + 4.949