This weekend promises to be a very interesting weekend for F1 in the second race of the 2007 FIA F1 world championship, the Sepang track is one of the best on the calendar and will provide a great indication of the current pecking order in F1, and with the heat and humidity it is a real acid test for the drivers and of course the cars with reliability being the prime concern especially as it is the second race for all the engines. Also this weekend's weather is very unpredictable with showers predicted for all three afternoons of the GP weekend so strategy could become all important and recent rain masters such as Alonso and Button could have a day to remember.

At the moment Ferrari still seem like the in form team however Renault, BMW and Mclaren have done alot of work so signs are that there will be closer to the pace, however despite these three teams being bullish about how far they have come since Melbourne Ferrari will still be pretty confident that they can get another win as they had a good advantage in Melbourne, it won't all be evaporated now, in the dry conditions at least. Kimi may have to have an engine change but with Malaysia being a great track for overtaking Raikkonen won't be panicking too much as long as it doesn't happen too often like in 2005 at mclaren where engine failures in practice sessions blighted his season. If Kimi does indeed move 10 places back expect Massa to make the most of this opportunity, but don't be too surprised if he overdoes this in the process.

Like I said mclaren, Renault and BMW will be trying to close the gap and Alonso will want to make sure he is quicker than Lewis and I think he will show his experience this weekend as this is a very demanding race for a rookie. If Hamilton can give Alonso a run for his money again then wouldn't that be utterly sensational, and Heikki will want at least a solid run without errors and I think we will see a better performance, he looked good in testing where Renault managed to get alot more from the tyres, so overall expect Flav to show a small smile this weekend(as well as being quite sweaty I would imagine.)


Another key feature of this weekend will the floor tests, all the teams don't seem too bothered at all by this but this could provided an unexpected sting in the tail for a few teams, but even if the worse does happen don't expect Ferrari and BMW to sink down the field as their cars are strong in many different areas, it won't affect them like the mass damper ban did to Renault before the German GP in 2006.

The other feature of this weekend will be the customer car row which is now stepping up the pace now that Spyker has filed an official complaint against Torro Rosso, will there be alot of tension between these two teams this weekend, we will soon find out, physical fights on the grid? well anything can happen in this mad world.

And what of the midfield runners? I expect Williams to make the biggest leap forward out of these teams, their long runs looked good in testing and I feel they will have improved significantly in their single runs so 1 or both their cars could make Q3 on saturday, Nico Rosberg has a great chance to get more points and Wurz will be looking in his mirrors to make sure DC isn't near by, in regards to Wurz he really needs to nearer to Rosberg on pure pace but give him a chance and see. Honda will have made slight gains ut I feel Aguri will still be slightly ahead as the 2006 Honda was very strong in Sepang last season,. It won't be till Europe when Honda can salvage their season. Red Bull could be another surprise. they went better in testing then I expected them to go, will they be able to take this progress to the track, we will have to see but Webber likes this place over a single lap, remember in 2004 where he got a jaguar on the front row? But he will need to improve his fortunes in the race if he is to get a result here.

And of the backmarkers? Expect to see Spyker make a big leap forward with a hugely updated package with Torro Rosso being the wooden spoon team for a while to come.

So overall another very interesting weekend with alot of unanswered questions but what about my predictions?

Well firstly I think Kimi will end of with an engine change but if the race stays dry I think Massa will sneak the win with Alonso a close 2nd with Kimi managing to get up to third.

And if it rains I get the impression that the mclaren is on terms with Ferrari in these conditions so I would think that Alonso could pick up a victory in these circumstances. But it would depend on how bad the rain is, if it like the 2001 race anyone could go off and everyone will have the same tyres so it would make for an even contest.

Enjoy the Malaysian GP weekend

Report by Dcoulthard19

We need another wet race, Hungary was fun.