The 2007 Petronas Malaysian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on 8 April 2007 at the Sepang International Circuit. It was the second race of the 2007 Formula One season. Fernando Alonso won the race, having started second on the grid, with rookie team-mate Lewis Hamilton in second position. This was the first time since the 2005 Brazilian Grand Prix that both McLarens had finished first and second. Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen finished third.
Raikkonen's team-mate, Felipe Massa started from pole position for the race, but was passed by both McLarens in the first two corners of the first lap. Massa then went off the circuit while trying to pass Hamilton a couple of laps into the race. This dropped the Brazilian to fifth place, where he stayed for the remainder of the race.

Practice
Felipe Massa set the pace in the first of two 90-minute practice sessions on Friday, with a time of 1:34.972, edging out Fernando Alonso in the McLaren by three tenths of a second. Alonso's team-mate, Lewis Hamilton was third, with Kimi Raikkonen just behind in fourth. Nico Rosberg, Mark Webber, Jarno Trulli, Kazuki Nakajima, Ralf Schumacher and Robert Kubica rounded out the top ten. Renault's Heikki Kovalainen was 14th and Giancarlo Fisichella 15th. The Hondas finished the session in 19th and 20th places.
The Hondas struggled again in Friday's second practice session as they were beaten by Super Aguri's Takuma Sato. However, Renault improved dramatically, with Fisichella second and Kovalainen third. Massa was comfortably fastest and set the pace again. Raikkonen was again fourth, but the McLarens were down in 9th and 12th. McLaren boss Ron Dennis played down the slow times, saying they were concentrating on "tyre evaluation".
Hamilton vindicated Ron Dennis's comments by set the fastest time in Saturday practise with a lap of 1:34.811, one tenth ahead of Massa. World Champion Alonso followed the leading two, half a second behind Massa. Kubica finished fourth, whilst Anthony Davidson finished the practice session in 8th, 1.3 seconds down on the leaders and well ahead of the Honda A-team who finished the session in 17th and 19th place.

Qualifying
Honda's poor form continued as Barrichello was knocked out in Q1, qualifying 19th. Alexander Wurz was one place behind the Brazilian, as he endured gear-selection problems in his Williams.[22] Scott Speed in the Scuderia Toro Rosso missed the cut with 17th spot, but team-mate Tonio Liuzzi made it through to Q2. Super Aguri's Anthony Davidson also failed to make it through to Part Two, qualifying 18th. He laid the blame for missing out on Q2 with Liuzzi, stating he was "pretty aware I was behind him". The Spykers rounded off the back row, with their technical director Mike Gascoyne saying they "made a mistake" in missing the test at Sepang a week earlier. At the front, the McLarens were first and second, with the Ferraris third and fifth, split by Robert Kubica's BMW Sauber.
The threat of rain, whilst not materialising, caused all the drivers to post quick laps at the start of Qualifying 2. The McLarens, Ferraris and BMWs completed the top six, but both Renaults were knocked out.[25] Honda's Jenson Button was also knocked out, saying it was the "maximum we could possibly get", along with Coulthard, Liuzzi and Sato. The race stewards initially imposed a 10 place penalty on Couthard and Barrichello, for changing their engines prior to qualification. However, after further investigation they rescinded Couthard's penalty, as his change had been made before the start of the race weekend.
In Qualifying 3, Massa took pole position from Alonso in the last few seconds as rain began to fall, with Kimi Raikkonen completing the top three. Massa's pole marked tyre company Bridgestone's 100th pole position in Formula One. Lewis Hamilton was fourth, over half a second behind the leading three, blaming the lack of pace on a rookie error made at the end of the session, saying that there were "some spots of rain on my visor, so I had to sort of let off". The BMWs qualified 5th and 7th, split by Nico Rosberg in the Williams. The Toyotas of Jarno Trulli and Ralf Schumacher were 8th and 9th respectively, with Red Bull's Mark Webber qualifying 10th.

Race
Alonso started better than Massa and took the inside line into turn one, taking the lead. Hamilton passed Raikkonen for third, then drove round the outside of Massa into turn two to take second place.[1] Adrian Sutil's suspension failed at turn four, causing him to collide with Button and retire from the race. After making an early pitstop to repair the damage, Button was able to continue. Liuzzi and Sato also collided at turn four, with Liuzzi having to pit for a new front wing. After the race both drivers blame each other for the incident.
Massa repeatedly tried to pass Hamilton. His first major attempt to pass was on lap two at turn four, but he failed to overtake the McLaren. Massa attempted another pass at turn four on lap five, but ran very wide and into the gravel. He dropped to fifth, behind team-mate Raikkonen and BMW's Nick Heidfeld. After starting 15th, Button quickly found himself being overtaken, and dropped to 17th place by team-mate Barrichello, who started from pitlane after the engine change. Alonso was 0.7 seconds faster than team-mate Hamilton every lap and was 15 seconds ahead at the first-round of pitstops. The Renaults had a good start and by lap eight they were running in 8th and 10th, with Fisichella ahead of Kovalainen. The Spyker team's other car driven by Christijan Albers retired on lap 9 with a gearbox fire.
Felipe Massa was unable to get past Nick Heidfeld after losing time due to a mistake while attempting to pass Lewis Hamilton earlier in the race.
On lap 12, Robert Kubica was the first man to pit, however he reported traction control problems four laps later and dropped down the order. Button's weekend got worse, as Takuma Sato passed the Briton. Despite the problems Button said he believed the team had made "a small step forward". Alonso developed radio problems prior to his first pitstop, but these were fixed during his stop. The top five remained in the same positions after the pitstops, with Alonso leading Hamilton, Raikkonen, Heidfeld and Massa. Raikkonen was stuck behind Fisichella after the first pitstops, allowing Hamilton to get away from the Ferrari and close in on Alonso at a second a lap. Hamilton set the fastest lap on lap 22 with a time of 1:36.701. He made an early second stop, enabling him to get out in front of Raikkonen.
Kubica dropped to thirteenth as his traction control fault deteriorated further, and a train of cars that wanted to pass developed behind him. Kovalainen's performance was much better than at the previous round in Melbourne, and he attempted to pass Jarno Trulli for 8th. The top five again remained the same after the second round of stops, but Raikkonen was closer to the McLarens despite failing to get past. Nico Rosberg, running in 6th place, retired with hydralic problems with thirteen laps to go. David Coulthard also retired after problems with his brake pedal, the same problem that he experienced in the Friday practice session.
Lewis Hamilton kept Kimi Raikkonen's Ferrari at bay to score McLaren's first one-two since the 2005 Brazilian Grand Prix.
Hamilton started to struggle in the latter stages and Raikkonen began to catch him. Hamilton, barely a second ahead of Raikkonen on the last lap, held on to finish second behind Alonso. Heidfeld and Massa secured 4th and 5th places respectively, fifteen seconds behind Raikkonen. Massa failed to overtake Heidfeld due to BMW's pit strategy. Heidfeld said later that beating Massa was "a fantastic experience". Fisichella finished 6th, however he later said it felt like a podium given the performance of the car. Trulli was 7th, and rookie Kovalainen scored his first point in 8th. Wurz managed to come through from 19th to 9th after an aggressive first stint.[1] Although he claimed no points, he said later it "bodes well for Williams's chances in the rest of the season".
Hamilton said afterwards that this was his hardest race to date,[38] while Raikkonen admitted he "did not have enough speed on the straightline to try to challenge either [Hamilton or Alonso]".[39] Raikkonen also had to protect his engine from overheating, caused by a water-leak in the closing stages of the Melbourne, with Raikkonen stating Ferrari had to "play on the safe side of that engine". After their disappointing Malaysian race, Ferrari boss Jean Todt stated that they "will try to do a better job" in the next round in Bahrain.