WilliamsF1 struggles in Malaysian Qualifying

For Ralf he was still far from happy with the balance of his car, finishing eight tenths behind Juan Pablo. He would admit that he did make two mistakes on his flying lap which lost him some time but for the German he really has not been able to get any sort of competitive times out of his car all weekend.

Having said that both WilliamsF1 drivers seemed to feel that there performances come the race would improve based on the strategy that they have adopted.

Juan Pablo would comment by saying: “I think that we’re well prepared for the race with our strategy."

As for what strategy the WilliamsF1 team could adopt, if one looks at that used in 2002 where both drivers made only one stop, we could see a repeat of such a strategy. But will this be enough to allow them any chance of a race victory?

Both Juan Pablo and Ralf are quite some time behind the times set by those cars at the front but with only one pit stop there is every chance that they could find their way to the front. It was quite noticeable in qualifying how much fuel the WilliamsF1 cars were carrying by the way that they drifted in the curves.

For the leading Renault cars of Fernando Alonso and Jarno Trulli, which occupy the front row, it is believed that they are running lighter fuel loads and as such will be forced to make an additional stop. This hopefully should give an advantage to the BMW WilliamsF1 drivers.

Another point to notice was how both cars were way down on the top speeds set in 2002 with the P82 engine, indicating that both cars are set up for the race.

With the two top places held by the Renault drivers third was taken by Ferrari's Michael Schumacher, fastest in the first qualifying session. McLaren's David Coulthard, winner in Australia a fortnight ago, took fourth place.

In fifth was Rubens Barrichello followed by Sauber's Nick Heidfeld in sixth place Kimi Raikkonen was seventh with both Toyota drivers performing well with tenth and eleventh places on the grid for Panis and Da Matta respectively.

Another rumour doing the rounds is that Michelin has developed a tyre for the 2003 Renault cars. After the qualifying performances of the two Renault's in qualifying this supported this rumour.

But for Michelin's Competition Director Pierre Dupasquier the result was more to do with strategy. He said: "I think we have to look at qualifying in a relative fashion.

"The result reflects more the strategy than the performance of the car. I do not know the fuel strategy made by Renault. We do not know how competitive we are against our rival in the race. Contrary to rumours there are not any special tyres for Renault here at Sepang."

As it was in Australia the times set in Saturday qualifying will only have some meaning come the race on Sunday when the teams will reveal what strategy they have set their cars up for. Despite their optimism regarding their chances in the race it is going to be a very difficult race for both Juan Pablo and even more so for Ralf. Don't expect another one-two come the race end.