Fisichella Relives Sepang Grid Nightmare

Italian Giancarlo Fisichella revived an embarrassing moment in today's Malaysian Grand Prix when, for the second time at the Sepang circuit, he missed his grid slot.

The Jordan driver, who had qualified in 14th position, was forced to do some manoeuvering in order to take his qualifying slot after stopping on the wrong side of the track. Team boss Eddie Jordan said that as a consequence of the manoeuvering the clutch got too hot and the launch control did not work correctly.

Fisichella's car stalled on the grid and he was forced to retire. It was the second time that he had missed his qualifying slot at the Sepang circuit, having happened already back in 2001 when he was driving for the Benetton team.

"I had a problem with launch control," Fisichella said. "We don't know what was wrong as we are still investigating. I have to look ahead to the next race."

Fisichella's teammate Ralph Firman finished in 10th position after recovering well from a poor qualifying session, where he had finished at the bottom of the times.

"It was a good race with the car showing reliability," said Firman. "It was very very hard work but I had some good battles and it's great to finish. In the pit stop the car wouldn't pull away with the normal system, I don't know why, but we did a manual start and that was okay, but I lost a bit of time and it is a shame I ran out of fuel on the last lap.

"The team has done an excellent job this weekend and I'm looking forward to Brazil."