Renault made it two-in-a-row today as Fernando Alonso won a very hot Malaysian Grand Prix. Following team mate Fisichella's win in Australia, he drove to the win in searing heat and high humidity without a drink bottle to give him 16 points at the head of the Drivers' table. Trulli's Toyota took second place ahead of Heidfeld's Williams. Ferrari had a less successful weekend but do come back to Europe with world championship points following Michael Schumacher's recovery drive to seventh place from 13th on the grid. Rubens Barrichello retired his car in the closing stages of the race, suffering from, as Ferrari subsequently discovered, a piece of rubber that was wedged in the rear wing and upset the balance of the car and destroying his rear tyres.
'Today is all about looking for positives and we have a lot to take away from Malaysia,' said Mike Copson of Shell Global Solutions. 'Both F2004M's coped well with the heat from a mechanical point of view so we are pleased with our performance in that regard. From a sporting point of view, the championship is already looking very close, something that fans will all be happy to see. Of course this raises the bar for us and we will come back fighting. We are all returning to Europe now and look forward to continuing the good work on developing the new Ferrari F2005.' At least both qualifying sessions in Malaysia were dry, a marked improvement on Saturday's downpour in Australia two weeks ago, but there was still a blue car on pole even if the weather was different. This time, it was Fernando Alonso who set the fastest lap though. Trulli was second again in the Toyota, ahead of Australia pole-sitter Fisichella. Webber and Ralf Schumacher were behind them, ahead of Raikkonen and the Red Bull Racing cars. For Ferrari, the result was not quite as good with Barrichello in 12th and Michael Schumacher 13th but with a long race ahead of them and questions over everyone's engine reliability anything was possible.
Just as in Australia the start was clean. The top six or seven held station around the first few corners as behind them, cars jostled for position around the wide Malaysian track. The drivers were very obedient and reasonably civil however and the hard racing yielded no casualties.
Incidents were not far away however. Having changed the engines in both cars before the weekend, both BAR cars retired lap three. Button pulled aside as smoke began to appear from the back of his engine whilst Anthony Davidson, covering for the sick Sato, was sidelined with smoke and flames coming from the back of his machine moments later.
Barrichello and Schumacher held position further down the order, fighting to find grip in the Malaysian heat and humidity. At the sharp end, Alonso was forging a lead for himself. Fastest laps on lap 10 and 13 did his cause no harm at all. Trulli stayed in contention though and in turn put some clear air between himself and Fisichella in third.
Pit stops for most runners began around 20 laps into the race. Ralf Schumacher was the first of the leaders in, many of whom opted to change front wing settings and rear tyre pressures in an effort to compensate for the heavy tyre wear.
Raikkonen suffered a puncture shortly after his stop, forcing him to limp around back to the pit lane for a new tyre and Villeneuve lost his Sauber into the gravel at Turn One completing a wretched two races for the Canadian.
There was still racing to be done though. Behind the top three, the two Williams cars and Ralf Schumacher's Toyota bunched up and enjoyed a phenomenal scrap for position, including an exciting moment when Webber's Williams banged wheels with the Toyota. The eventual outcome following several corners of wheel to wheel racing and plenty of position changes saw Webber lead Heidfeld and Schumacher into the next lap.
That was not the end of Webber's busy afternoon. A few laps later he had caught Fisichella for third and passed him coming onto the back straight. The previous race winner was not to be outdone though and as both braked late, the Renault passed down the inside into the last corner. The cars clashed however and as the hot tyres touched, the Renault was vaulted into the air and around, taking both cars out of the race.
Most leaders had pitted again by two-thirds race distance and Alonso still led Trulli. Schumacher passed Barrichello who was suffering with oversteer brought on by this debris in his rear wing the team chose to retire him from this 200th race with Ferrari in the closing stages.
With Fisichella out, Alonso's win was all the more precious and added to Renault's excellent start to the season. Delirium further down the pit lane as Trulli's second place brought Toyota its first-ever podium finish ahead of Heidfeld who's third place owed as much to keeping out of trouble as to speed. Montoya finished a quiet race by his standards ahead of Ralf Schumacher and David Coulthard. Michael Schumacher's seventh place yielded possibly the hardest-earned points of his career with Klien rounded out the places for another point for Red Bull Racing.Â
