| 2005 Malaysian Grand Prix | |||||
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Race 2 of 19 in the2005 Formula One World Championship
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| Race details | |||||
| Date | 20 March 2005 | ||||
| Official name | 2005 Formula 1Petronas Malaysian Grand Prix | ||||
| Location | Sepang International Circuit Sepang,Selangor,Malaysia | ||||
| Course | Permanent racing facility | ||||
| Course length | 5.543 km (3.444 miles) | ||||
| Distance | 56 laps, 310.408 km (192.879 miles) | ||||
| Weather | Fine, Air: 34–36 °C (93–97 °F) and Track: 44–50 °C (111–122 °F) | ||||
| Attendance | 106,422 (Weekend)[1] | ||||
| Pole position | |||||
| Driver | Renault | ||||
| Time | 3:07.672 (aggregate) | ||||
| Fastest lap | |||||
| Driver |  Kimi Räikkönen | McLaren-Mercedes | |||
| Time | 1:35.483 on lap 23 | ||||
| Podium | |||||
| First | Renault | ||||
| Second | Toyota | ||||
| Third | Williams-BMW | ||||
Lap leaders | |||||
The2005 Malaysian Grand Prix (officially the2005 Formula 1 Petronas Malaysian Grand Prix)[2] was aFormula One race held atSepang on 20 March 2005.
After theAustralian Grand Prix,Giancarlo Fisichella led the Drivers' Championship by two points ahead ofRubens Barrichello and four points ahead ofFernando Alonso. In the Constructors' Championship,Renault ledFerrari by eight points andRed Bull by nine points.
AtBAR, after free practice on Friday,Takuma Sato was struck by a fever, following which the doctors advised him against taking part in the race. Therefore, from free practice on Saturday onwards, the second car was entrusted to third driverAnthony Davidson. For Davidson, the race was his first Grand Prix start since the2002 Belgian Grand Prix.[3]
The race also marked Rubens Barrichello's 200th Grand Prix.
At the start, Alonso andJarno Trulli were able to maintain their respective positions on the starting grid, followed by Fisichella andMark Webber. Further back,Nick Heidfeld overtook the two Red Bulls and was now behindKimi Räikkönen.
At the start of the second lap,Jenson Button attacked Räikkönen on the start-finish straight and overtook him, but retired immediately afterwards due to engine failure. At the same time,Patrick Friesacher in theMinardi went off the track in the first corner and also retired. A similar fate befell the other Honda engine, Davidson's, which caused a small fire.
During the 23rd lap, Räikkönen, who was in sixth place at the time, suffered a puncture and had to give up all desire to win. Three laps later,Jacques Villeneuve went off the track in the first corner and was the fourth driver to retire. Six laps later,Ralf Schumacher and Webber collided on the main straight, but without causing too much damage to the cars. Nineteen laps from the end, in the final corner, Webber tried to overtake Fisichella on the outside for third place, but the two collided: the Italian ended up on top of the Australian and both had to retire. Heidfeld benefited from this and took third place.
The Alonso ultimately won the race ahead of the Trulli and Heidfeld. For Alonso it was the second victory and the first since the2003 Hungarian Grand Prix. Alonso's win made him the first Spaniard ever to lead the Formula 1 World Championship. It was Heidfeld's second podium finish and first since the2001 Brazilian Grand Prix.
The race also markedToyota's first-ever podium in Formula One and first Asian-licensed constructor to score a podium since1968 United States Grand Prix whenJohn Surtees drove forHonda in the 3rd place.
This was the first race since the2003 Hungarian Grand Prix where neitherFerrari driver finished on the podium.
David Coulthard's sixth place finish ensured he overtook Nigel Mansell as the UK's all time highest F1 points scorer, a record held by Lewis Hamilton as of 2025[update].
The bottom 6 teams in the2004 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 |
|---|---|---|
| McLaren-Mercedes | 35 |  Pedro de la Rosa |
| Sauber-Petronas | none | |
| Red Bull-Cosworth | 37 |  Vitantonio Liuzzi |
| Toyota | 38 |  Ricardo Zonta |
| Jordan-Toyota | 39 |  Robert Doornbos |
| Minardi-Cosworth | none |
| Pos | No | Driver | Constructor | Q1 | Q2 | Total | Gap | Grid |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 5 | Fernando Alonso | Renault | 1:32.582 | 1:35.090 | 3:07.672 | 1 | |
| 2 | 16 | Jarno Trulli | Toyota | 1:32.672 | 1:35.253 | 3:07.925 | +0.253 | 2 |
| 3 | 6 | Giancarlo Fisichella | Renault | 1:32.765 | 1:35.683 | 3:08.448 | +0.776 | 3 |
| 4 | 7 |  Mark Webber | Williams-BMW | 1:33.204 | 1:35.700 | 3:08.904 | +1.232 | 4 |
| 5 | 17 |  Ralf Schumacher | Toyota | 1:33.106 | 1:35.901 | 3:09.007 | +1.335 | 5 |
| 6 | 9 | Kimi Räikkönen | McLaren-Mercedes | 1:32.839 | 1:36.644 | 3:09.483 | +1.811 | 6 |
| 7 | 15 |  Christian Klien | Red Bull-Cosworth | 1:33.724 | 1:35.865 | 3:09.589 | +1.917 | 7 |
| 8 | 14 |  David Coulthard | Red Bull-Cosworth | 1:33.809 | 1:35.891 | 3:09.700 | +2.028 | 8 |
| 9 | 3 | Jenson Button | BAR-Honda | 1:33.616 | 1:36.216 | 3:09.832 | +2.160 | 9 |
| 10 | 8 | Nick Heidfeld | Williams-BMW | 1:33.464 | 1:36.453 | 3:09.917 | +2.245 | 10 |
| 11 | 10 |  Juan Pablo Montoya | McLaren-Mercedes | 1:33.333 | 1:36.757 | 3:10.090 | +2.418 | 11 |
| 12 | 2 | Rubens Barrichello | Ferrari | 1:34.162 | 1:37.340 | 3:11.502 | +3.830 | 12 |
| 13 | 1 | Michael Schumacher | Ferrari | 1:34.072 | 1:37.561 | 3:11.633 | +3.961 | 13 |
| 14 | 12 | Felipe Massa | Sauber-Petronas | 1:34.151 | 1:37.733 | 3:11.884 | +4.212 | 14 |
| 15 | 4 | Anthony Davidson | BAR-Honda | 1:34.866 | 1:37.024 | 3:11.890 | +4.218 | 15 |
| 16 | 11 |  Jacques Villeneuve | Sauber-Petronas | 1:34.887 | 1:38.108 | 3:12.995 | +5.323 | 16 |
| 17 | 19 |  Narain Karthikeyan | Jordan-Toyota | 1:37.806 | 1:39.850 | 3:17.656 | +9.984 | 17 |
| 18 | 18 |  Tiago Monteiro | Jordan-Toyota | 1:37.856 | 1:40.106 | 3:17.962 | +10.290 | 18 |
| 19 | 20 | Patrick Friesacher | Minardi-Cosworth | 1:39.268 | 1:41.918 | 3:21.186 | +13.514 | 201 |
| 20 | 21 |  Christijan Albers | Minardi-Cosworth | 1:40.432 | 1:42.569 | 3:23.001 | +15.329 | 19 |
| Pos | No | Driver | Constructor | Tyre | Laps | Time/Retired | Grid | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 5 | Fernando Alonso | Renault | M | 56 | 1:31:33.736 | 1 | 10 |
| 2 | 16 | Jarno Trulli | Toyota | M | 56 | +24.327 | 2 | 8 |
| 3 | 8 | Nick Heidfeld | Williams-BMW | M | 56 | +32.188 | 10 | 6 |
| 4 | 10 | Juan Pablo Montoya | McLaren-Mercedes | M | 56 | +41.631 | 11 | 5 |
| 5 | 17 | Ralf Schumacher | Toyota | M | 56 | +51.854 | 5 | 4 |
| 6 | 14 | David Coulthard | Red Bull-Cosworth | M | 56 | +1:12.543 | 8 | 3 |
| 7 | 1 | Michael Schumacher | Ferrari | B | 56 | +1:19.988 | 13 | 2 |
| 8 | 15 | Christian Klien | Red Bull-Cosworth | M | 56 | +1:20.835 | 7 | 1 |
| 9 | 9 | Kimi Räikkönen | McLaren-Mercedes | M | 56 | +1:21.580 | 6 | |
| 10 | 12 | Felipe Massa | Sauber-Petronas | M | 55 | +1 Lap | 14 | |
| 11 | 19 | Narain Karthikeyan | Jordan-Toyota | B | 54 | +2 Laps | 17 | |
| 12 | 18 | Tiago Monteiro | Jordan-Toyota | B | 53 | +3 Laps | 18 | |
| 13 | 21 | Christijan Albers | Minardi-Cosworth | B | 52 | +4 Laps | 19 | |
| Ret | 2 | Rubens Barrichello | Ferrari | B | 49 | Handling | 12 | |
| Ret | 6 | Giancarlo Fisichella | Renault | M | 36 | Collision | 3 | |
| Ret | 7 | Mark Webber | Williams-BMW | M | 36 | Collision | 4 | |
| Ret | 11 | Jacques Villeneuve | Sauber-Petronas | M | 26 | Spun Off | 16 | |
| Ret | 3 | Jenson Button | BAR-Honda | M | 2 | Engine | 9 | |
| Ret | 4 | Anthony Davidson | BAR-Honda | M | 2 | Engine | 15 | |
| Ret | 20 | Patrick Friesacher | Minardi-Cosworth | B | 2 | Spun Off | 20 | |
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| Previous race: 2005 Australian Grand Prix | FIA Formula One World Championship 2005 season | Next race: 2005 Bahrain Grand Prix |
| Previous race: 2004 Malaysian Grand Prix | Malaysian Grand Prix | Next race: 2006 Malaysian Grand Prix |
2°45′39″N101°44′18″E / 2.76083°N 101.73833°E /2.76083; 101.73833
