This has been an unusual start of the season: The three-week gap between the opening race in Australia and the second round in Malaysia next week means I have fully recovered from jet-lag before going to Kuala Lumpur!

Almost all teams went straight from Melbourne to Kuala Lumpur and this week a four-day test session was organised on the Sepang circuit (it was originally meant to last for only three days but after rain on Thursday it was decided to run on Friday as well). The test was promising for the Panasonic Toyota Racing team, and I am sure Ralf Schumacher and Jarno Trulli will be fighting for points in the Malaysian Grand Prix next Sunday.

The organisers in Sepang used to promote their race under the “Hottest Race of the Year” motto and Malaysia IS hot at this time of the year. A couple of years ago the Bahrain Grand Prix took place in temperatures close to 45 degrees C and even though we may “only” experience temperatures in the mid or late 30s in Malaysia, it feels much hotter. The dry air in Bahrain makes temperatures around 40 degrees seem pleasant - but in the humidity of Malaysia, these temperatures are almost unbearable.

To give you an idea of the climate we will experience in Malaysia, let me tell you what happened during testing last week: Heavy rain on Thursday morning left a lot of standing water on the circuit (Ralf Schumacher went out on the track with his Panasonic Toyota TF107 equipped with Bridgestone´s “extreme weather tyres”). BUT - when the sun came out, the heat dried the circuit very quickly, and Ralf could switch to dry weather tyres!

The heat is the main reason the Malaysian Grand Prix is not very high on my list of favourite races. At this time of the year I am just getting used to temperatures above freezing point in Denmark, and it is actually a huge shock for the body to step out of the air-conditioned Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) - it feels like walking into a wall of heat and humidity! And every year, the constant changes from the air-conditioned media centre to the hot paddock leaves me with a severe cold.

The Sepang circuit - next to the KLIA but some 50 kilometres from central Kuala Lumpur - is OK but it lacks the history which makes circuits like Silverstone, Monza and Spa-Francorchamps so special to me. The first Malaysian Grand Prix took place in 1999 and back in those days it was held at the end of the season. In 2001 it moved to its present position as the second race of the season, but despite the excellent facilities in Sepang, the Malaysian Grand Prix has never been a great success as far as the number of spectators goes. This year, ticket sale has also been rather slow, but the organisers are still optimistic that more than 100.000 spectators will come for the race.

I will be back with a “hot” diary from Malaysia after Friday practice!

The first day of practice for the Malaysian Grand Prix here in Sepang in saw Felipe Massa fastest in both sessions. Panasonic Toyota Racing drivers Jarno Trulli and Ralf Schumacher were seventh and ninth in the first session and eighth and 16th. in the second session.

The hot temperatures means the paddock is almost deserted - most people prefer to stay in the air conditioned team offices or in the media centre. But a few people have to stay in the paddock and Christian Pfaffenthaler is one of them. “I am on patrol from seven in the morning until seven at night. It is the same at every race and it never changes. And my job is always the same: Guarding the rear door to the Toyota garage!”

Christian is one of Panasonic Toyota Racing´s security guards and even though it involves a lot of hours, he still says: “I enjoy my job. I get to travel the world, see many nice places and meet some interesting people. What more can you ask for?”

Despite working full-time for Panasonic Toyota Racing, Christian is not actually employed by the team: Like most of the security guards in F1, Christian works for the Austrian company Christof Ammann Management (CAM). “We are around 10 CAM people working full-time for various teams today,” Christian says. “We work in two-shifts; one at night from 19 to seven and one at day from seven to 19.”

Christian always has the dayshift at Toyota. “I have worked for CAM longer than my night-time colleague so I get first choice,” he says. “This is my fifth season with Toyota and before that I spend three years guarding the Formula One Management TV facilities. And I prefer the dayshifts - except here in Malaysia, where it is so bloody hot during the day.”

The fact that Christian has been assigned by CAM to Toyota for five years means he has made a lot of friends in the team. “Yeah - we have a very good relationship and I sometimes go on holiday with some of the team members,” he says.

The very word security guard sounds like trouble, but in his eight years in F1, Christian has never experienced any serious problems. “I have never been in a fight and there are no troublemakers in the paddock - the electronic turnstiles at the entry makes sure of that. My job is really a combination of security and receptionist: I make sure there are no unwanted people in the garage - such as you media guys! - and if people are looking for certain team members, they often come to me. I will then contact the people they are looking for and that is why I also say I work as an receptionist!”

“The only time I really work as a security guard is at the races - mostly in Europe - where the spectators can enter the track after the chequered flag. Then I have to make sure our equipment don´t disappears,” Christian says with a smile.

Qualifying for tomorrow´s Malaysian Grand Prix saw Felipe Massa take pole position. He will be joined on the front row by Fernando Alonso while Panasonic Toyota Racing drivers Jarno Trulli and Ralf Schumacher impressed with eighth and ninth fastest time respectively

On a physical level, the Malaysian Grand Prix will be a very tough race. The drivers will be facing incredible heat and humidity that can cause them to lose up to four litres of fluid during the race! Cockpit temperatures can reach over 50 degrees C which make dehydration a real problem.

Dehydration is a serious concern as it will effect concentration, balance control and reflexes - exactly what you DON´ T need while driving a F1 car! To avoid dehydration, the drivers will prepare for the Malaysian Grand Prix by increasing their fluid levels in anticipation of what they will need to drink - this allows the body to adapt to increased fluid intake. This re-hydration continues into the evening and throughout the entire weekend here in Sepang.

With such extreme heat, it is also important the body can enter the new time zone gently - the more prepared the driver is, the better equipped his body will be at coping with the stresses. It takes the body a number of days to get used to the heat, and I am told the majority of the adaptation occurs within the first three to four days.

This is nice to know: I arrived here from Denmark - seven degrees C - on Thursday afternoon and I still feel more than a little “second-hand” in the 35 degrees C. And I will fly back to Denmark on Sunday night - that means after exactly the tree to four days required for the adaptation!

But I am not expected to drive a F1 car for close to two hours tomorrow, of course. But the drivers are, and that is why most of them have spent several days here in Malaysia (many of them took part in the test session here last week, of course). World Champion Fernando Alonso was one of the drivers not taking part in the test and to adapt to the heat in Malaysia, he flew out to Sepang on Monday, and on arrival here he spent some time playing tennis outside to get used to the heat. Other parts of the acclimatisation program included indoor cardiovascular exercise and light stretching.

“I have also trained for the heat and I have been able to adjust to the climate with the testing last week so I am in good shape for the race - there are no worries about that,” Ralf says.

Jarno is also in good shape: “Sepang is an interesting technical challenge - and the heat and the humidity makes it one of the hardest races of the season.”

More news from the hottest - AND hardest - race of the season tomorrow!

The 2007 Malaysian Grand Prix saw Fernando Alonso win in front of Lewis Hamilton and Kimi Raikkonen. Panasonic Toyota Racing drivers Jarno Trulli and Ralf Schumacher finished seventh and 15th,. respectively.

It is already dark here but there is still a lot of activity in the paddock with the teams busy packing up: The “circus” must be ready again next Thursday with practice for the Bahrain Grand Prix starting on Friday morning in Sakhir. I am flying up to Bangkok and on to Copenhagen in a couple of hours. Due to the time difference I will actually be in Copenhagen at 07.30 Monday morning, which means I will have a full three days at home before heading down to Bahrain on Thursday. That will be nice - the change from 35 degrees C down to 10 degrees - and back up to maybe 40 degrees in Bahrain will not...

Most people agree that the Malaysian Grand Prix is the toughest race of the year - for drivers AND cars. Yesterday I told you about how the hot temperatures affect the drivers - today I will tell you a little bit about what the cars - or more specifically the brakes - have to endure in the heat. “The Sepang circuit is hard on every element on the car,” Panasonic Toyota Racing Senior General Manager Chassis Pascal Vasselon says.

But let´s look closer at the brakes. Despite the temperatures, Sepang is only considered as a 'medium' circuit as far as brakes are concerned - but it still requires braking eight times per lap. To put it in another way: Around 16 percent of the lap time in Sepang is spent under braking.

For six of the eight corners which require braking, the car has to be slowed from close to 300 km/h. Drivers arrive at both the first and the last corner with very close to 300 km/h and before the remaining 'heavy braking corners', the speed is between 280 and 290 km/h.

Both the last and the first corner requires the cars to go from close to 300 km/h to around 100 km/h, which means the deceleration will be almost 4 g - and the discs reaches temperatures over 900 degrees C (puts the 35 degrees air temperature we had to endure into perspective!). During this heavy braking, the carbon fibre discs heat up to 600 degrees centigrade in one second!

If these figures sound extreme, remember that Sepang is only 'medium' when it comes to braking: Other circuits are considerably harder on the tyres, and the discs can actually reach a maximum temperature around 1200 degrees. AND - the deceleration can get close to 5 g!

But the most impressive piece of “braking news” is this: A Formula 1 car can accelerate from a standstill to 200 km/h and then brake to a standstill in little more than seven seconds!

With this I put the brakes on the 2007 Malaysian Grand Prix but my preview for the Bahraini Grand Prix will be on-line within a few days.