Fissi sizzles at Sepang

"Fantastico! Bravo!" cackled Flavio Briatore when Fissi crossed the chequered flag ahead of his team mate Fernando to win the Malaysian GP. A perfect Renault 1-2, followed by Button who must be dissapointed, considering that his battle cries were the loudest before the race. Montoya had an anonymous race, and the two Ferrari's came in next, albiet in reverse order. Villeneuve had a fantastic race, coming in seventh. The Toyota's were next, and they clearly don't do justice to the wads or rather truck loads of cash that they are pouring into this game. Overall, a great race which only could have been better had the two stars of the previous race, Raikkonen and Rosberg not been struck by bad luck and bad driving.

Qualifying started with a bang. I mean, a bang of engines. Schumacher, Massa & David Coulthard would all have to change engines before the session. This would add to the "confusion" that's called qualifying. In the end, one would have to wait for the FIA to "sort" the grid positions after all those engine busts and whatever else.

Without much ado, here's the qualifying result.

Fissichella, Button, Rosberg, Webber, Montoya, Raikkonen,Alonso, Klein, Toms, Dick's Schumacher and Harries. There was talk of rain and hurricane Schumi hitting the track, but then, in the end, neither event happened.
The Renault's, known for their acceleration, got off to a good start. Rosberg forced his team-mate off track for reasons totally unknown to himself. First lap was eventful with Kimi losing control after being scratched by Klein, who then went into the pits for a "missing" left front suspension. Patrick head must'nt have been amused to see "Rookie Rosberg" nailed Nick Heidfeld after a poor start. Seventh lap saw a spectacular blow-up of Rosberg's engine. Did the youngster rev it up a bit too much? A few laps later, Webber too had to go with yet another Cosworth failure.

Fissi was told after his pit-stop that he had to be "blinding quick" but then, could it be possible that the radio's were switched? Alonso responded with a blistering 1:35:980, about half a second faster than Fisi, who was loitering around the kerbs. Alonso then made a pitstop on lap 26, making the onlooker wonder if it was a one-stop strategy. However, 7.3 seconds later, those thoughts were put to rest. Way too fast, if that had to be a one-off stop.

The rest of the race was two blue blur's and Button trying to stay as close to them as possible. At one point, Alonso showed his class by lapping almost a second and a half quicker than his team mate. Renault look all set to repeat 2005's performance with a string of brilliant performances.

The Woking team would have to start working, for Montoya did not show the pace, and Raikkonen exited even before his race had begun. Would Ron Dennis be interested in playing 'catch-me-if-you-can' with Briatore again?! I hope not.

Button did well, but Barrichello had problems. And if HONDA hopes to win, they can put their money on Barrichello rather than on Button who can be quick and get to the podium but can never win a race. Race 102 for Button, without a single win.

Ferrari's must be lauded, for the ugly-game of team orders did not happen at Malaysia. And ofcourse, they could do without the engine changes too. They finished sixth and seventh, and Michael said he was 'delighted'. Is he actually getting old?! And hope the Ferrari front-wing legality issue gets solved, or the Maranello outfit might find itself stripped off race results.

Red Bull and Williams were on the backfoot, all four cars retiring. Since Melbourne would be a "first-race" for many engines, I hope to see these teams do much better there. This way, they could do well in 'one half of the season'. Very encouraging outlook, I must say.

Villeneuve had some good timein his BMW-Sauber, showing us that he still could, if he wanted. It would have been a double-points finish for the German team had it not been for Heidfeld's demise just seven laps before the chequered flag.

Toyota's game seems to have gone horribly wrong. Perhaps they are spending too much money on 'Corporate Hospitality' and tracks in Fuji rather than on their car and engines?

Monteiro drove his taxi home, and so did his team mate Albers. But so did Super Aguri who have to be lauded for the finish! The Japanese team is indeed impressing.

Over to Melbourne!