Formula One teams travelled to the tropical setting of Kuala Lumpur this weekend for the second round of the world championship. Both Ferraris finished in the points in the Malaysian Grand Prix, which gave Renault another victory.
Giancarlo Fisichella's string of bad luck finally seemed to be over this weekend as he wheeled his Renault to victory. This, the Italian's third ever victory, came after a strong weekend having secured pole position before, leading his team mate and the rest of the field for the duration of the race.
Ferrari brought home both cars in the points, Felipe Massa claiming fifth and Michael Schumacher sixth.
Just one week after the new qualifying format was introduced in Bahrain, yesterday teams were still getting to grips with the strategy implications, particularly in terms of what fuel load to choose for the start of the race.
Several teams, including Ferrari, opted to change engines despite suffering grid-position penalties. In line with FIA rules, Ferrari and other competitors who changed engines would be automatically relegated ten positions on the grid.
Schumacher qualified fourth, ultimately starting the race 14th and Massa took grid spot 16, free to run any fuel load of Shell V-Power. Schumacher chose a strategy that would bring him into the pits twice for new tyres and fuel.
Massa was running a different fuel strategy. His team opted to fill his Ferrari 248 F1 with a heavy load of fuel to ensure he would only have to stop once during the race for new tyres and a top-up of Shell V-Power.
Lisa Lilley, Shell's Formula One Project Manager explains; 'the fuel and lubricant package we used worked well and in view of where we started on the grid we're really pleased with the result. We earned some good points today and we're in a strong position heading to Australia.'
The top 10 shootout contenders battled hard. Fisichella took pole followed closely by Button and Rosberg. However the grid positions were no firm indication of race performance, as fuel load varied from car to car. Renault had reportedly overfilled Alonso's car which saw him take seventh on the grid.
Expectations of the race changed before the cars funnelled into the first corner. The two Williams headed full throttle wheel to wheel towards turn one, with Webber squeezing past Rosberg. Alonso in seventh held back from the front runners momentarily before swerving around the Williams' battle into third position and setting his eyes on the lead.
From then on the race was dominated by the fight between the two Renault drivers with their differing pit stop strategy coming into play. Despite some threatening pace by Alonso, Fisichella pushed hard throughout holding off his team mate to take a strong victory.
Having started the race amongst the back markers and fellow relegated competitors who had changed engines, Scuderia Ferrari gave a solid performance claiming seven points in the Constructors' Championship.
As the lights went out Schumacher and Massa moved up the grid four and two places, respectively.
Both drivers stayed out of trouble sweeping through the field with excellent pace. Schumacher had led the Brazilian until his second pit stop and on exiting the pit lane was passed by Massa, who eventually crossed the line to take an impressive fifth place from 16th.
Honda's Jenson Button finished third just in front on Juan Pablo Montoya, who showed varying pace over the 56 laps.
Other teams who had big hopes at the eve of the 2006 season fared less well. Promises of a Raikkonen victory were immediately thwarted when touched by Klien in lap one and spun into a gravel trap, where he retired from competition. Klien nursed his car back to the pits but field repairs of front suspension failure from the crash were not enough to prevent his retirement a few laps later.
Team Red Bull Racing's fortunes continued to dim. With Klien out, it was then Coulthard's turn to find himself prematurely in the pits, eventually beaten by hydraulics and gear box problems.
The second leg of the 'one-engine-per-two-race rule' was inevitably going to claim its victims after a sandy Bahrain. This time it was Williams and BMW. After a promising season opener, it was not long before the engine of Nico Rosberg failed him followed shortly by that of his Australian team mate. Finally, not long before the flag was dropped, Nick Heidfeld was on his way to collecting some points until smoke poured out of the engine forcing him to retire.
The results put Schumacher in a draw for second place in the 2006 Drivers' Championship with 11 points behind Alonso's 18. Ferrari and McLaren are tied for second place in the Constructors' Championship after two rounds of the 18-race championship with 15 points each.
The third round in two weeks' time is in Melbourne, Australia, the final flyaway before the European season gets underway.
