Malaysian Grand Prix Review

Put it simply, Ferrari were in a class of their own. That is not unusual at Sepang, where the flowing, high-speed nature of the circuit suits their aerodynamic advantage. The only question was whether Raikkonen or Felipe Massa would prevail. Even taking fuel-corrected times into account, the Brazilian's qualifying laps, especially in Q2 and Q3, were nothing short of breathtaking, but now having scored ten pole positions but only five wins, that pole-to-victory conversion rate is starting to look not so crash-hot.

Without taking anything away from a classy performance, it was Kimi's stunning in-lap at the first stops that did the business. He didn't even bother to wait until the second stops. The race for the win was over, and it was a silent statement from the Finn as to who is going to be Ferrari's main title hope. Massa's self-induced spin into a retirement was also a statement - of why his title credentials are shaky. That's two errors in two races that you can put down to him not adjusting to life without traction control.

From a constructors' championship perspective, Ferrari needed Massa's points in a dominant 1-2 to capitalise on a poor weekend for McLaren. Compared to Melbourne, the roles were entirely reversed; now it was the Ferrari looking like it was on rails, and the McLarens suffering from set-up issues, in particular causing excessive oversteer, which left both drivers and Lewis Hamilton especially having to work much harder. And that's before both Lewis and Heikki Kovalainen incurred their qualifying penalties.

Melbourne had already exposed the danger of dawdling cars on their in-lap in Q3 whilst others were still on screamers, and it was only a matter of time before someone got caught out. The five-place grid penalties for Hamilton and Kovalainen were completely deserved, especially when Robert Kubica and Mark Webber had shown it was possible to get right off the racing line. Heikki then tried to cross the track with Fernando Alonso bearing down. This was real granny-crossing-the-highway stuff.

In truth, the McLarens' race pace was not that terrible. Kovalainen was able to leapfrog Webber at the first stops and come out a whopping ten seconds up the road despite only pitting four laps later, and the Finn was able to overtake Jarno Trulli in that sequence as well. But for Hamilton, it was a case of damage limitation after his slow first stop and the failure of his drink bottle. It was unusual, though, to see him not make more of an effort to pass Webber on track before the second round of stops.

Kubica was left to run a most lonely race to 2nd place after the shenanigans between team-mate Nick Heidfeld and Trulli at the first corner, and after Massa's demise, but it was an excellent result nonetheless, and two consecutive 2nds in a row for BMW prove that they are once again the third-best team, but with genuine pretensions of challenging the top two. But as far as the team goes, of greater interest was Heidfeld's afternoon antics.

Although you can't blame Nick for trying to hold the outside of Trulli around turn one in order to get the inside line for turn 2, there was always the risk of Jarno doing what he did, i.e. understeer wide and taking the German with him. That set back Heidfeld's entire afternoon, and despite that awesome move on both Alonso and David Coulthard in one swoop, which is an early candidate for passing move of the year, he spent the rest of the race behind Hamilton without ever really challenging the McLaren.

But then, right at the death, he collects his first ever fastest lap in the 134th Grand Prix of his career. Where did that pace come from? Had he been driving at ten-tenths all race? Those were the kinds of questions the team would have been asking after the race. Is it further vindication that Heidfeld remains a points-collector rather than an out-and-out racer? In terms of speed and results, Kubica has started the 2008 season very strongly. There won't be a 21-point gap between them in '08 as there was last season.

REJECT OF THE RACE
Nico Rosberg
Melbourne Hero to Speang Zero

His Toyota team-mate Timo Glock was luckless yet again. He did well to get into Q3 for the second race in succession, but then he got knocked into retirement on the first lap by Nico Rosberg. Although that was completely not Timo's fault, he is already gaining something of a reputation for having to do things the hard way, and in F1 that's a bad omen. His career has already been like that, and according to autosport.com, his trip from Melbourne to Kuala Lumpur was equally arduous!

Glock can take lessons from Webber for whom, even on a weekend when he scored points for a fighting 7th, things did not go according to plan. For a while there were question marks over whether Red Bull would even be allowed to compete given the apparent fragility of the RB4's suspension after Coulthard's Friday incident, and in the race fuel feed problems meant that they had to overfill the Aussie's car at both stops, which gave him no chance against the McLarens, Trulli and Heidfeld.

Once again, the single-lap speed is there, but perhaps the race pace can't make Red Bull anything more than a nuisance for the frontrunners rather than a genuine challenger. At least there was improved reliability this time around, with Coulthard finishing but making little impression in coming home 9th, and the team have opened their 2008 account. They can also take heart from the fact that they are ahead of their engine suppliers Renault, which again struggled for pace in Malaysia.

Alonso drove his heart out for, um, 8th place and a single point on an as-heavy-as-we-dare two-stop strategy. Fernando has never been in this position in his F1 career, fighting for minor points. Either he was at the back of the field with Minardi in 2001, or from 2003 to 2007 he was battling for mid-range points or wins, but he has never had to scrap for leftovers. His motivation behind the wheel has been fine so far, but he's already making noises in the press and one wonders how long he can keep up the effort.

It was another professional effort from Button and Rubens Barrichello, despite yet another penalty for the Brazilian, this time for pit lane speeding, but there was little to write home about apart from Button setting a time late in the race which was enough to put him fourth in the fastest lap rankings. Honda are expecting an upgrade in time for the Spanish GP, and under Ross Brawn's guidance you can be sure it will have an effect. The bad news is that everyone else is also planning upgrades for Barcelona ...

After the joy of a double-points finish in Australia, it was back to earth with a thud for Williams. They got it all wrong in qualifying, Rosberg starting 16th and Kazuki Nakajima qualifying 18th but relegated to the back for his Melbourne indiscretions. And while the Japanese driver was feisty early, putting on several commendable passing manoeuvres, he faded badly and suffered a puncture and spin to finish last. The errant driving remains, and perhaps there are question marks over his stamina.

Rosberg's story was even sorrier. Even if the team lost its way on set-up, as lead driver he needed to take some of the responsibility. And he certainly needed to take the blame for the lazy first lap clash with Glock, the repairs for which left him essentially on an ineffectual one-stop strategy. It was hero to zero stuff for Keke's son, for which we award him 'Reject of the Race'. Williams are yet to show the same speed as in pre-season testing to suggest that they will be challenging BMW for 3rd position.

The same applies to Force India, whose genuine pre-season gains appear to have been offset by everyone else already. Giancarlo Fisichella against threatened to punch above his weight, but one suspects that 17th on the grid and 12th in the race could become familiar territory. At least he's showing the way to Adrian Sutil, whose lack of race time is hurting him. It was a second consecutive hydraulics failure, this time after an eye-catching opening when he got up as high as 14th.

Which leaves Super Aguri, battling gamely as usual, causing flutters of embarrassment for rivals, as Takuma Sato did by out-qualifying Sutil, and as Anthony Davidson did by finishing 15th ahead of Sato and Nakajima. But there's little hope on the horizon for anything more, with a budget in a transition and a car with limited development potential. For the time being, they will have to content themselves with little moral victories rather than a repeat of some of last year's giant-killing performances.