Canadian F1 Star Jacques Villeneuve in the Hot Seat

In Malaysia Massa narrowly beat Villeneuve in Saturday qualifying, eking out a time of 1:34.151 finish compared to JV's 1:34.887

Compared to the front runners, the difference in times and placement of each Sauber driver was nominal. (Photo: Sauber Petronas)

run, which put him in 13th position, 3 ahead of Jacques. Despite Massa's lengthy testing and number-one driver advantage, his speed was marginally quicker than Jacques in his second race weekend, but almost two seconds behind provisional pole sitter Fernando Alonso who scored a 1:32.582.

Sunday qualifying saw Alonso, now the pole sitter, managing an aggregated time of 3:07.672, while Massa placed 14th with a time of 3:11.884 and Villeneuve in 16th at 3:12.995. Again, the difference in times and placement of each Sauber driver was nominal.

On race day, Massa managed a 10th place finish, but only because most of his front running competition had fallen victim to accidents or mechanical failures. The list of DNFs included Barrichello's Ferrari, Fisichella's

If it wasn't for Coulthard, JV would have scored points for Sauber and finished one place behind his teammate in Bahrain. (Photo: Sauber Petronas)

Renault, Webber's Williams, Villeneuve's Sauber, Button's BAR Honda, and stand-in Ant Davidson's BAR Honda. Jacques exited the race on lap 28, problematic brakes being the cause.

In Bahrain, two weeks later, JV came closer to Massa's time with each practice, nearly matching him on Saturday's second outing with a lap time of 1:31.126 compared to Massa's 1:31.001, showing that all he needs is more time behind the wheel. While during Saturday qualifying he came up short with a 16th place finish compared to Massa's respectable 10th ranking, Sunday qualifying was more respectable, with the gap narrowing to 12th place for Massa and 16th for JV.