At 11am, Dr Mahathir officiated the opening ceremony of the F1 race before he went on a flying lap of the circuit in a vintage Mercedes Silver Arrow. Half an hour before the race, and with the stands already full with spectators, the teams positioned their equipment and cars at the starting grid with the Petronas Pit Girls, dressed in traditional costumes, holding up the drivers' car numbers and national flags. At 2pm, the signal lights went off at the starting grid and the cars roared away to the first corner and into the history books. No doubt, the first Petronas Malaysian Grand Prix will be remembered more for what happened on the track than off it. But Malaysia had stamped its mark on the world motorsports scene and left an indelible mark on the memories of the F1 fans who came.
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