Qualifying performance which sees yet another all-red front row of the grid for tomorrow's second round of the world championship, the Malaysian Grand Prix.

For the second consecutive year, the advantage of seeing no cars ahead of him when the lights go out goes to Felipe Massa, the Brazilian thus securing his tenth pole. The Scuderia Ferrari  driver has been on fine form all through free practice and he out-paced team-mate Kimi Raikkonen by around half a second this afternoon. After Melbourne, it was clear that, with new technical and sporting regulations, starting from the front was a major bonus in terms of doing well in the race and the team evidently worked on this over the past week. With cars having to start the race with the fuel they have in the fuel cell at the end of qualifying, the unknown factor is what fuel loads our competitors have on board.

Those competitors start on Row 2 of the grid, in the shape of the expected challenge from McLaren-Mercedes. However, third place belongs to the team's new recruit, Heikki Kovalainen who out-qualified Melbourne winner Lewis Hamilton. The third row sees the Toyota of Jarno Trulli just ahead of sixth placed Robert Kubica in the BMW-Sauber. There was some controversy this morning surrounding Red Bull Renault, as following an accident in Melbourne and another here on Friday for David Coulthard, the Stewards asked the team to validate the safety of his car. In the end, the team was allowed to take part in the rest of the event.

In the winter testing, the drivers had, as a generalisation, claimed they were not so concerned about running without electronic driver aids, but in Melbourne it was clear that maybe the task of actually racing without traction control and engine braking was tougher than expected. So with the chance of a tropical rain storm in tomorrow's race which starts at 15h00 local time, we could witness the first wet race of this new era in which drivers will really have to use all their skill to stay on track.