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 ConstructorQ1 Time Q2 Time Gap Grid 1 1 Michael Schumacher Ferrari1:33.865 1:33.074 — 1 2 14 Mark Webber Jaguar-Cosworth1:34.016 1:33.715 +0.641 2 3 2 Rubens Barrichello Ferrari1:34.132 1:33.756 +0.682 3 4 3 Juan Pablo Montoya Williams-BMW1:34.941 1:34.054 +0.980 4 5 6 Kimi Räikkönen McLaren-Mercedes1:33.452 1:34.164 +1.090 5 6 9 Jenson Button BAR-Honda1:34.528 1:34.221 +1.147 6 7 4 Ralf Schumacher Williams-BMW1:34.777 1:34.235 +1.161 7 8 7 Jarno Trulli Renault1:33.264 1:34.413 +1.339 8 9 5 David Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes1:34.321 1:34.602 +1.528 9 10 16 Cristiano da Matta Toyota1:35.684 1:34.917 +1.843 10 11 12 Felipe Massa Sauber-Petronas1:35.132 1:35.039 +1.965 11 12 11 Giancarlo Fisichella Sauber-Petronas1:34.877 1:35.061 +1.987 12 13 15 Christian Klien Jaguar-Cosworth1:35.618 1:35.158 +2.084 13 14 17 Olivier Panis Toyota1:35.247 1:35.617 +2.543 14 15 18 Nick Heidfeld Jordan-Ford1:36.769 1:36.569 +3.495 15 16 20 Gianmaria Bruni Minardi-Cosworth1:38.729 1:38.577 +5.503 16 17 21 Zsolt Baumgartner Minardi-Cosworth1:39.805 1:39.272 +6.198 17 18 19 Giorgio Pantano Jordan-Ford No time 1:39.902 +6.828 18 19 8 Fernando AlonsoRenault1:33.193 No time 19 20 10 Takuma SatoBAR-Honda 1:34.971 No time 20 Notes – Giorgio Pantano did not get time in Q1 due to gearbox problems. – Fernando Alonso did not get a time in Q2 after spinning off the track at turn 14. – Takuma Sato did not get a time in Q2 after spinning off the track at turn 11. – Giorgio Pantano, Fernando Alonso and Takuma Sato received a 10-place grid penalty for engine changes. – Giorgio Pantano became the first driver to experience the new penalty for using the spare car and as such a different engine during a Grand Prix weekend.

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

Championship standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings +/– 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 8Source:

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

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

References