Sunday's rain-shortened Grand Prix may have been the first and the last 'twilight' race in Malaysia.

The country's new Prime Minister, and also the boss of the Sepang circuit, said an earlier start time for next year and beyond might be negotiated, given the atrocious weather and the fading light in 2009.

"In the future, we may allocate a different time, perhaps earlier," PM Najib Razak told reporters at Sepang.

"There are also suggestions to do a night race but we need to look at the cost," he said.

Like in Australia a week ago, Malaysia adopted the 'twilight' concept for this season, installing a 5pm start to better serve the bulk European television audience.

But it has been the talk of the paddock this weekend that late afternoon near Kuala Lumpur often coincides with torrential rain, while sunset is also quite early in the evening in this region.

"I had a talk with Bernie just now and we will review it," Sepang track boss Mokhzani Mahathir said after the Malaysian Grand Prix was abandoned on Sunday due to the rain and fading light.

"As to exactly what time we will start next year, we are not sure but we will review the timing for next year's race," he admitted.

Source: GMM
© CAPSIS International

 

They ought to just drop that race and move it to back to Canada...

Then we could have a teamspeed road trip.... How cool would that be...

 

+1. Malaysia is a cool track, but the conditions don't suit the race well at all. The decision for a "twilight race" was poor as well.

 

Let's not kid ourselves, this "fail," while not EPIC like Indy a few years back, was pretty embarrassing.