March 20, 200817 yr Malaysian Grand Prix /monthly_03_2008/post-4484-0-1593842970-89704_thumb.jpg" class="ipsImage ipsImage_thumbnailed" alt="wvujciyexqszoyukmpy.jpg">
March 20, 200817 yr Coulthard: Hamilton should join GPDA20 March 2008David Coulthard agrees with Pedro de la Rosa that McLaren driver Lewis Hamilton should become a member of the GPDA. The Grand Prix Drivers' Association is the union of Formula 1 drivers and was founded back in 1961. Speaking in his ITV column Coulthard said about the situation: "I think Lewis is a fantastic role model for other young drivers who want to be in Formula 1 - his professionalism, the way he works with the team and deals with the media are exemplary, and he deserves all the success he is achieving on-track. "It wouldn't take much effort for him to sign a piece of paper to become a member of the GPDA, and it would massively strengthen our ability to continue to influence the safety of the cars that we drive." Coulthard strongly believes the GPDA's work played an important role in preventing serious accidents and injuries in Formula 1. "By the very nature of our business, it is dangerous," said Coulthard. "There will be another injury or fatality at some point in the future. Hopefully, by continuing to work together, we can make that a distant point. "Lewis walked away from the crash he had in qualifying at the Nurburgring last year thanks to the efforts of Jackie Stewart in his day, Max Mosley throughout his FIA presidency, and all the drivers who have been members of the GPDA. Having someone like Lewis add his support would be a massive boost to us. "His name is worth more currently than a lot of the other drivers because he has such a high media profile. I haven't spoken to him personally about it because it's up to the chairman and the directors to do that, but I would certainly encourage him to join."
March 20, 200817 yr Massa won't apologise to Coulthard20 March 2008In Sunday's Australian Grand Prix Felipe Massa and David Coulthard crashed into each other as Massa tried to overtake Coulthard on the inside. Coulthard never saw the Ferrari driver coming. The two drivers touched and Coulthard's Red Bull car was a wreck. After the race Coulthard said he expects the Brazilian to apologise for his absurd actions, but Massa said on Thursday he refuses to apologise to him. Coulthard said after the race he expects Massa to apologise, but commenting on this special request Massa reacted: "I was a bit surprised, to be honest, because we are there to race. I tried to pass him. I was inside and he closed (the door on) me and we crashed. I think everybody knows two cars cannot be in the same place in a corner and usually the guy who's outside has more possibility to go off, so that's it." When asked if he has apologised for the incident Massa replied: "No, because I didn't do anything wrong. When I do something wrong, I will apologise but this time I don't need to." But Coulthard completely disagrees with Massa. The Scotsman believes he could have never see Massa coming. Speaking about the incident Coulthard said in Malaysia: "The reality is, in this situation, Felipe is not racing me for the world championship so he can do the same manoeuvre for the next 17 Grands Prix and have the same result, because quite clearly my eyes point forward, they don't point rearward. "He's got a much clearer view as to how much space there is and I didn't take a different line than I took any other lap so… I was fully prepared for him to pass me in corner three because a Ferrari has a much better top speed, it's a much quicker car. He made his choice. If he makes the same choice (again), he'll get the same result. I can't make my car invisible but as I say, I'm not fighting for the world championship, he is, so next time he should wait until corner three." To be continued?
March 22, 200817 yr Malaysian Grand Prix1st Free Practice1 F. Massa 1:35.392 202 K. Raikkonen 1:36.459 83 H. Kovalainen 1:36.556 214 N. Rosberg 1:36.578 235 L. Hamilton 1:36.626 176 F. Alonso 1:37.022 187 N. Piquet jr. 1:37.034 288 R. Kubica 1:37.218 99 J. Button 1:37.282 1710 J. Trulli 1:37.540 2411 N. Heidfeld 1:37.649 1712 K. Nakajima 1:37.649 1813 R. Barrichello 1:37.076 2014 T. Glock 1:37.782 2715 S. Vettel 1:38.219 2616 D. Coulthard 1:38.232 717 M. Webber 1:38.707 1218 S. Bourdais 1:38.798 2519 G. Fisichella 1:39.046 2120 T. Sato 1:40.178 121 A. Davidson 1:40.351 1422 A. Sutil 1:41.269 5
March 22, 200817 yr Malaysian Grand Prix 2nd Free Practice1 L. Hamilton 1:35.055 322 F. Massa 1:35.206 333 K. Räikkönen 1:35.428 364 J. Button 1:36.037 405 S. Vettel 1:36.474 356 J. Trulli 1:36.493 387 H. Kovalainen 1:36.512 308 R. Kubica 1:36.671 339 G. Fisichella 1:36.756 3710 K. Nakajima 1:36.838 3411 R. Barrichello 1:36.879 3812 N. Rosberg 1:36.908 3613 N. Heidfeld 1:37.106 314 F. Alonso 1:37.328 2315 N. Piquet jr. 1:37.331 4216 M. Webber 1:37.346 3717 T. Glock 1:37.512 3518 A. Sutil 1:37.614 3519 T. Sato 1:39.021 2720 A. Davidson 1:39.361 3021 S. Bourdais no time 122 D. Coulthard no time
March 22, 200817 yr 3rd Free Practice1 N. Heidfeld 1:35.019 182 K. Räikkönen 1:35.262 173 F. Massa 1:35.388 174 J. Trulli 1:35.389 205 M. Webber 1:35.437 166 D. Coulthard 1:35.653 177 N. Piquet jr. 1:35.768 158 J. Button 1:35.781 199 S. Vettel 1:35.827 1610 T. Glock 1:35.911 2111 L. Hamilton 1:35.927 1312 F. Alonso 1:36.068 1413 K. Nakajima 1:36.183 1414 G. Fisichella 1:36.229 2115 N. Rosberg 1:36.490 716 H. Kovalainen 1:36.529 1617 R. Kubica 1:36.618 1918 S. Bourdais 1:36.668 1519 T. Sato 1:36.908 1420 A. Sutil 1:36.939 2121 A. Davidson 1:37.140 1222 R. Barrichello 1:37.703 6
March 22, 200817 yr Malaysian Grand Prix Qualifying 1 F. Massa 1:35.748 2 K. Räikkönen 1:36.230 3 H. Kovalainen 1:36.613 4 L. Hamilton 1:36.709 5 J. Trulli 1:36.711 6 R. Kubica 1:36.727 7 N. Heidfeld 1:36.753 8 M. Webber 1:37.009 9 F. Alonso 1:38.450 10 T. Glock 1:39.656 11 J. Button 1:35.208 12 D. Coulthard 1:35.408 13 N. Piquet jr. 1:35.562 14 R. Barrichello 1:35.622 15 S. Vettel 1:35.648 16 N. Rosberg 1:35.670 17 G. Fisichella 1:36.240 18 K. Nakajima 1:36.388 19 S. Bourdais 1:36.677 20 T. Sato 1:37.087 21 A. Sutil 1:37.101 22 A. Davidson 1:37.481
March 22, 200817 yr Red Bull happy with qualifying22 March 2008 Red Bull Racing got more than it expected in qualifying at Sepang as Mark Webber put his car eighth on the grid and David Coulthard recovered from his suspension problem on Friday to qualify twelfth.Become an ereporter"Today went better than expected to be honest," Webber said. "We worked hard on the car yesterday and the guys did a great job to make the improvements that they did, so we've laid the foundations ahead of tomorrow's race. Q3 was quite tricky for a lot of people, as the grip level was lower than in Q2, but we're in a sensible position for the start of the race. If it's half as wild as Melbourne - it will be interesting to see." Coulthard commented, "I was a bit surprised as in qualifying I was slower in the first sector than I had been in the morning practice. I'd lost some mechanical grip, which made it difficult to nail the middle sector. What's happened this weekend doesn't concern me, as a racing driver you never think you're going to have a car failure, so you don't think about it, and I have complete faith in the team too." Team boss Christian Horner added, "A strong qualifying performance from Mark puts him on the fourth row for tomorrow's race. The weather was closing in towards the end of Q3 and it all got a little bit frantic, but P8 is a positive result. David has been recovering today after losing a lot of track time yesterday. He only just missed out on Q3 and starts from 12th,so the target tomorrow is obviously for points."
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