The 2002 Malaysian Grand Prix (officially the 2002 Petronas Malaysian Grand Prix) was a Formula One motor race held before 92,000 spectators at the Sepang International Circuit in Sepang, Selangor, Malaysia on 17 March 2002. It was the second round of 17 in the 2002 Formula One World Championship and the fourth Formula One Malaysian Grand Prix. Williams driver Ralf Schumacher won the 56-lap race after starting from fourth position. His teammate Juan Pablo Montoya finished in second, ahead of Ferrari's Michael Schumacher in third.
Going into the race, Michael Schumacher and Ferrari led the World Drivers' Championship and World Constructors Championship, respectively. Michael Schumacher qualified on pole position by setting the fastest lap time in the one-hour qualifying session. At the start of the race, Michael Schumacher and Montoya collided at the first corner, promoting Schumacher's teammate Rubens Barrichello to the race lead. Barrichello maintained the lead until the first round of pit stops when Ralf Schumacher took over the position. Ralf Schumacher led for most of the remainder of the Grand Prix to secure his fourth career victory, with Montoya in second 39.7 seconds behind after serving the first-ever drive-through penalty – imposed on him for the first lap accident. Michael Schumacher secured third on the final lap after overtaking Renault's Jenson Button, who had a suspected anti-roll bar bracket failure that slowed him with two laps remaining.
Ralf Schumacher's and Montoya's one-two finish promoted Williams to the lead of the World Constructors' Championship by eight championship points over Ferrari. Michael Schumacher's lead in the World Drivers' Championship was reduced to two championship points over Montoya and four over race winner Ralf Schumacher with 15 races remaining in the season.
Background
thumb|left|The [[Sepang International Circuit, where the race was held]]
The 2002 Malaysian Grand Prix, the second round of seventeen in the 2002 Formula One World Championship, was held at the Sepang International Circuit in Sepang, Selangor, Malaysia on 17 March 2002, The Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA), motorsport's governing body, had sanctioned a race in Malaysia since the 1960s, with the initial events staged in Singapore, then part of the Malaysian Federation, before moving to the Shah Alam Circuit. When the Formula One Grand Prix debuted in 1999, tit was transferred to the purpose-built Sepang International Circuit, where it remained until 2017. The track underwent safety upgrades, with 18 new safety fences installed to protect trackside personnel and the installation of new kerbs and gutters at five corners. A section of track on the straight between turns 11 and 12 was repaved.
After winning the season-opening , Ferrari driver Michael Schumacher led the World Drivers' Championship with ten championship points, ahead of Williams' Juan Pablo Montoya with six and McLaren's Kimi Räikkönen with four. Jaguar's Eddie Irvine and Minardi's Mark Webber were in fourth and fifth positions with three and two championship points, respectively. Ferrari led the World Constructors' Championship with Williams second and McLaren third with ten championship points. six teams held in-season testing sessions at various European racing courses ahead of the Malaysian Grand Prix. Luciano Burti, Ferrari's test driver, spent four days testing mechanical components and Bridgestone tyres on a F2001 chassis at Italy's Fiorano Circuit. Williams and Renault spent three days at Northamptonshire's Silverstone Circuit, joined by British American Racing (BAR) concentrating on aerodynamic and engine development on the second and third days. Toyota conducted a two-day test of electrical and mechanical components on its TF102 car with test driver Stéphane Sarrazin at Circuit Paul Ricard in Southern France, while Jean Alesi spent three days at the same track testing Michelin tyres in a McLaren MP4-16B car. The Arrows, Jaguar, Jordan, Minardi and Sauber teams did not test. stated he was confident of winning the race after finishing first in Australia with a year-old car. His teammate Ralf Schumacher encouraged drivers to take extra precautions to avoid a multi-car accident, as seen on the first lap in Australia. He planned to prevent his brother from winning in Malaysia again and hoped for no monsoons. Renault's Jenson Button was more optimistic, reckoning he could secure a podium result.
Michelin introduced a new radical tyre compound for the race. Tyres were a major topic leading into the Grand Prix, with Michelin predicted to outperform Bridgestone if conditions were hot. However, Michael Schumacher warned Bridgestone had closed the gap on Michelin's warm-weather performance but said a Williams driver would finish on the podium. The drivers met on Friday afternoon to discuss a gentlemen's agreement on "non-aggression" at the first corner on the first lap to avoid a multi-car accident as observed at the Australian Grand Prix.
The Grand Prix featured eleven teams of two drivers (each representing a different constructor), with no changes to the season entry list. Phoenix Finance unsuccessfully attempted to enter the Grand Prix with two 2001-spec Prost AP04 cars possibly powered by -spec TWR engines with drivers Tarso Marques and Gastón Mazzacane after the FIA ruled it had not purchased Prost Grand Prix's entry. Toyota's Mika Salo had a severe case of flu, meaning Ryan Briscoe, Toyota's test driver, was on standby to replace him. However, Salo recovered in time to enter the Grand Prix. To assist the cooling of their internal components in Malaysia's hot and humid atmosphere, teams installed more apertures on their cars. Ferrari again sent two F2001B cars and opened additional vents on their sides. Renault employed a more powerful qualifying engine for the race and upgraded the rear wing, extractor profile and rear suspension components. The Jaguar team received a new engine and aerodynamic updates for their R3 cars.
Practice
Two one-hour practices on Friday and two 45-minute sessions on Saturday preceded the race. The Friday practice sessions at Sepang took place shrouded by a smoky haze caused by forest fires in four Peninsular Malaysia states exacerbated by a prolonged drought in parts of Southeast Asia, threatening to significantly limit visibility of the circuit.
thumb|right|upright|[[David Coulthard (pictured in 2007) had his first practice session interrupted when he stopped his McLaren with an overheating exhaust collector causing the right-rear bodywork to catch fire.]]
Michael Schumacher lapped fastest in the first practice session, which happened in the morning in hot and humid weather, with a time of 1:38.626, nearly a second faster than his teammate Rubens Barrichello. Sauber's Nick Heidfeld, Arrows' Enrique Bernoldi, Button, Jordan's Takuma Sato, Bernoldi's teammate Heinz-Harald Frentzen. Renault's Jarno Trulli, Jordan's Giancarlo Fisichella and Montoya followed in the top ten. Some drivers lost control of their cars as they became acclimatised to the circuit during the session. On his first lap, David Coulthard stopped his McLaren exiting turn 11 when an overheating exhaust collector caused the right-rear bodywork to catch fire. Coulthard spent 20 minutes pushing the car back to the pit lane for repairs. Because the rules prohibited using the spare car on Fridays, his team replaced the engine before the start of the second practice.
The second practice session held later in the afternoon was also hot and humid, giving the advantage to Michelin-shod cars. Coulthard was 0.639 seconds slower in second. Michael Schumacher, Ralf Schumacher, Salo, Montoya, Barrichello, Button, Trulli and Heidfeld were in positions three to ten. The forest fires' haze made it humid and overcast. Most drivers did not enter the circuit after halfway through, when more grip was available. Several drivers lost control of their cars on the damp track surface. Ralf Schumacher, Barrichello, Coulthard, Michael Schumacher, Button, Fisichella, Massa and Heidfeld rounded out the top ten. and the high ambient and track temperatures favoured the Michelin-shod cars. Michael Schumacher used nine of his twelve allocated laps and secured his first pole position of the season and the 44th of his career with a lap time of 1:35.266. He theorised he could have lapped faster had he waited until the end of qualifying as it seemed to be the best time to avoid slower cars. Montoya qualified second, He initially struggled to stay consistent all around the track and reporting understeer that cost him time between turns seven and eight. Barrichello missed the first half of qualifying, Ralf Schumacher was affected by car setup issues. He ended qualifying prematurely after spinning into the turn 14 gravel trap. Sato admitted to pushing too hard on his second and fourth runs and qualified 15th.
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Warm-up
On race morning, a 30-minute warm-up session was held in hot, sunny weather. Barrichello led with a lap of 1:39.611, which he set late on, Some drivers drove their team's spare cars after being permitted by the rules. They reported problems with them during their last preparations on the dry course before the race. Ralf Schumacher lost control of his car at turn 14. In the pit lane, he suffered a front disc brake failure and extinguished a brief fire in his car. Yoong caused the yellow flags to be waved when he entered the turn 12 gravel trap but returned to the pit lane. The air temperature ranged from and the track temperature was between ; a 90% chance of a thunderstorm was forecast. Approximately 92,000 spectators attended the event. When the red lights went out to begin the race, His car was pushed into the pit lane by mechanics and was restarted with Frentzen a lap behind. Michael Schumacher collided with Montoya, breaking his front wing against Montoya's right-front wheel and sending Montoya off the circuit. The front wing folded under Montoya's car. The collision ended both drivers' chance at victory. Meanwhile, Barrichello took the race lead from Ralf Schumacher and Räikkönen. The impact severed Sato's front wing and Fisichella's rear wing. Meanwhile, Michael Schumacher passed Massa for 11th place before battling Bernoldi for tenth, overtaking him two laps later.
Michael Schumacher regained a points-paying place on lap 27 after Salo entered the garage to address an electrical fault with the traction control system following his first pit stop. Montoya overtook Heidfeld for fourth on that lap. This cost Button 14 seconds over the final two laps, and Michael Schumacher overtook him for third on braking at turn four on the final lap, preventing Button from clinching his first podium. Montoya finished second, 39.700 seconds behind, helping Williams to its first one-two result since the 1996 Portuguese Grand Prix. De la Rosa (after his front wing was removed in a collision with Panis while battling for 14th position early in the race), Frentzen, Salo and Fisichella were the final four finishers. Montoya said that finishing in second was "pretty good" considering his start to the race but thought he was slightly unlucky, adding, "After the start, I thought my race was over. I will try to push and try to get one or two points and here I am with six. It's pretty good." Montoya chastised the stewards for overreacting to criticism following the multi-car accident at the start of the preceding Australian Grand Prix, and downplayed the Malaysian crash as "a racing incident".
thumb|right|[[Jenson Button (pictured in 2007) was on course to achieve his first podium result until a suspected anti-roll bar bracket failure slowed him two laps from the end of the race.]]
Button said had he been running fourth throughout the race, finishing fourth would have been satisfactory but that him losing a podium result was "very hard to take." Massa was delighted to score his first championship point in his second Grand Prix start, saying, I thought if I finished I could score a point, and though this circuit was very difficult in the circumstances today, that's how it worked out." Sato suggested the accident happened because Jordan had implemented an pre-race agreement to let him past Fisichella when behind his teammate since he had a ligher fuelled car, something confirmed by Jordan technical director Gary Anderson.
Coulthard was disappointed to retire from the race but urged McLaren to remain focused, "I know we have a package which is capable of winning races, but we just need a bit of reliability." Mercedes-Benz motorsport head Norbert Haug said the manufacturer would thoroughly analyse the reason for the engine failures to prevent them from reoccurring.
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Championship standings after the race
;Drivers' Championship standings
{| class="wikitable" style="font-size: 85%;"
|-
! scope="col" |
! scope="col" |
! scope="col" | Driver
! scope="col" | Points
|-
| align="left"| 10px
| align="center"| 1
| Michael Schumacher
| align="left"| 14
|-
| align="left"| 10px
| align="center"| 2
| Juan Pablo Montoya
| align="left"| 12
|-
| align="left"| 10px 7
| align="center"| 3
| Ralf Schumacher
| align="left"| 10
|-
| align="left"| 10px 1
| align="center"| 4
| Kimi Räikkönen
| align="left"| 4
|-
| align="left"| 10px 1
| align="center"| 5
| Eddie Irvine
| align="left"| 3
|-
!colspan=4|Sources:
|}
;Constructors' Championship standings
{|class="wikitable" style="font-size: 85%;"
|-
! scope="col" |
! scope="col" |
! scope="col" | Constructor
! scope="col" | Points
|-
| align="left"| 10px 1
| align="center"| 1
| Williams-BMW
| align="left"| 22
|-
| align="left"| 10px 1
| align="center"| 2
| Ferrari
| align="left"| 14
|-
| align="left"| 10px
| align="center"| 3
| McLaren-Mercedes
| align="left"| 4
|-
| align="left"| 10px
| align="center"| 4
| Jaguar-Cosworth
| align="left"| 3
|-
| align="left"| 10px 2
| align="center"| 5
| Renault
| align="left"| 3
|-
!colspan=4|Sources: