Practice on day one of the Malaysian Grand Prix, the second race of the season was held at the Sepang Circuit in the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur.

Kuala Lumpur, being located not all that far from the equator, receives mid-summer temperatures throughout the whole year. Friday was no different, with conditions hot and humid (air temperature: 31 degrees C; track surface: 37 degrees C) at the start of practice. After a far from favourable result in Bahrain, Panasonic Toyota Racing participated in earnest right from the start of the first session, with Ralf Schumacher and Jarno Trulli clocking up nine and eight laps, respectively, for the morning. The focus for the session was on a setup to best match the tyres being used.

The afternoon's practice session restarted to a track temperature of over 40 degrees C. The two Panasonic Toyota Racing drivers spent the session trying out a number of setups, including a change of rear wings, in an effort to get the best performance from the tyres. The team was able to collect more beneficial data than from the Bahrain Grand Prix concerning heat generation from the tyres and as a result, they looked to be moving towards a solution to their problems - a positive sign to finish the first day on.

Anthony Davidson (Honda) marked a time of 1'35"041 in the second session to put him in overall top position.

The second day of competition at the Malaysian Grand Prix, the second round for this season. The Sepang International Circuit on Saturday was even hotter than the day before, with the track temperature at a blistering 50 degrees C by the time the afternoon session got underway.

The two Panasonic Toyota Racing drivers worked concertedly on their respective machine setups right from the start of the first practice from 11am. Ralf Schumacher ran clocked up just seven laps to preserve his tyres in readiness for the afternoon's qualifying. In the meantime, team-mate Jarno Trulli, who was having some problems with balance, completed 19 laps before finishing practice in tenth.

After getting caught up in congestion at the Bahrain Grand Prix that saw him not clear the first qualifying period, Ralf Schumacher elected to run on fresh tyres for the start of the first period this time around. The strategy worked, with his eighth-position finish seeing him, along with thirteen fasted Trulli, through to the second period.

In the second period, Ralf Schumacher marked a solid time of 1'34"586 in his first attack, only to have smoke appear from the engine immediately afterwards. This forced him to bring the machine to a stop on the edge of the course, a move that left him out of the final period. Combined with Trulli's 13th-position finish, this resulted in the end of Toyota's qualifying challenge.

The final period of qualifying saw a time of 1'33"840 from Giancarlo Fisichella (Renault) to secure pole position. There were some changes made to the remainder of the grid positions after several machines switched engines before qualifying. This saw Trulli move up provisionally to ninth, with Ralf Schumacher dropping to 22nd at the rear of the field after his forced engine change.

A thick cloud cover over the Sepang International Circuit on Sunday from early morning brought about cooler conditions for the main race.

Ralf Schumacher started the race from the rearmost row on the grid, relegated there by new regulations after switching engines after qualifying. On the other hand though, team-mate Trulli was bumped up to ninth on the grid after finishing qualifying in 13th as a result of other drivers also being dropped back after they too switched engines.

Despite starting from the rear of the pack, Ralf Schumacher made a flying start and had moved up into 13th position by the end of the first lap. Soon after though, his machine developed a problem with the pneumatics that control the engine valves, forcing the team to change their pit stop schedule and bring him in for the first of now three stops in the 13th lap. After topping up the pneumatics, Ralf Schumacher had to pit again in the 22nd lap to repeat the process, before pitting yet again in the 38th lap to refuel.

This failed to hinder his times, showing sleet of foot to record the sixth-fastest lap overall and the second fastest pf the Bridgestone users. By the 49th lap, he had improved his position to eighth. After that point, he fought nose-to-tail in a close match with seventh-positioned Jacques Villeneuve (Sauber-BMW); however, he was unable to get the better of him and had to be contented with taking the chequered flag in eighth. This result gave both him and the team their first point of the season.

For team-mate Jarno Trulli, the start was not so fortunate, his diffuser being damaged after being hit by another machine not long into the race. This left him with little downforce and meant he was unable to obtain the pace he was hoping for. Despite the setback, though, he put in a very strong performance to finish the race directly behind Ralf Schumacher in ninth. This gave the team their second double-finish in a row.

The race was taken out by Giancarlo Fisichella (Renault), who led from pole to finish. The win was his first for this season, taking his career total to three.