Sepang, 22 October
The Malaysian GP was to decide if BAR Honda should finish fourth, fifth or sixth in the championship, so the team made a great effort to get the cars right. Ricardo was 9th at the first session and then improved his time by a further 1.5 seconds ending the day seventh fastest while his team mate was out of the picture with fuel pressure problems.
Ricardo Zonta:
"The car looks very good here. The set-up was quite good and we made some useful changes today where the car was going faster and faster all the time. I'm very happy about the progress we have made and I hope I can qualify in the top six tomorrow."
Friday 1st practice:
9th, 1:42.967
Friday combined practice:
7th, 1:41.497, 39 laps
Ricardo started off the qualifying with a lap of 1:39.507 (10) followed by a 1:39.326 (10) at his second attempt. He aborted his 3rd attempt and then improved to 1:39.158 during his last attempt to qualify 11th.
Saturday practice:
12th, 1:39.440, 32 laps
Qualifying:
11th, 1:39.158, 11 laps
During the warm-up Ricardo's car was finally to his liking and he started off with a 1:42.841 (3). At the second half of the warm-up he improved to 1:42.107 (6) and 1:41.466 before he in the last minutes made a lap of 1:40.032 (1), a time Häkkinen and Schumacher were unable to better in their last attempts. So Ricardo headed the warm-up results table.
As the lights turned to green Häkkinen made a false start to head the field while Ricardo's start was a catastrophe. He went towards the middle of the field in a heavy slide being passed by cars on both sides to enter the first corner in 17th position. He then started to regain positions safely passing on the outside a bunch of cars that a moment later crashed. Because of the crash de la Rosa (Arrows), Heidfeld (Prost) and Diniz (Sauber) retired while Alesi, who also was involved, survived. With Ralf Schumacher (Williams) spinning in the grass and Trulli (Jordan) going to the pit there was a great confusion and when the safety car came out Ricardo found himself up in 12th position. At the restart Ricardo pulled to left out of the slipstream from Salo's Sauber on the main straight and passed for 11th. Ricardo was now really flying, passing Button (Williams) and Herbert (Jaguar) and closing in on Frentzen (Jordan). The latter went wide and had to come in for repairs and as Häkkinen had a stop and go it meant that Ricardo was suddenly up to 7th.
He then followed Irwine until the Jaguar driver made his pit stop on lap 19 and with Wurz (Benetton) and Villeneuve also making their stops Ricardo was up to 4th before making his own 7.7 s stop on lap 23, dropping to 10th. A few laps later Ricardo had to see himself passed by Fisichella (Benetton) but with drivers in front of him making stops Ricardo was up to 7th again when he made his second (8.45s) stop on lap 37, dropping him to 9th. Still in 9th position and starting his 47th lap Ricardo's engine went up in smoke at the end of the main straight and Ricardo parked the BAR in the gravel pit.
Warm up:
1st, 1:40.032, 13 laps
Race:
DNF 46 laps engine
FL: 1:40.498 on lap 21 (+1.955, 8th) - Two pit stops (lap 23: 33.8 ,lap 37: 34.9)
Winner: Michael Schumacher (Ferrari)