The F1 Season So Far: Australia & Malaysia Round Up


by Tony Deegan - Date: 2007-04-12 - Word Count: 783 Share This!

In Australia, Ferrari had a mixed race, with Raikkonen leading from pole to checkered flag very comfortably, while his team mate, Felipe Massa, managed to battle his way from the back of the grid up to a very respectable sixth position. Imagine, we all thought, how he might have done if he had started in the top six. Meanwhile, Alonso had qualified just behind Raikkonen, and the not completely unexpected presence of Nick Heidfeld separated him from team mate Lewis Hamilton, so the McLarens were looking strong. Strong enough for team boss Ron Dennis to instruct his drivers to take no chances in the first lap, just get around safely. While Alonso seemed content to follow, Hamilton (in his first ever F1 race) pushed Heidfeld for third, and in the process ended up overtaking Alonso and moving into 2nd place. There he remained, comfortably, until losing time in the pits at which point Alonso moved back to second.
The BMWs performed well, with Heidfeld holding 4th until the flag and Kubica also cruising until he was forced to retire due to gearbox failure. Fisichella managed a creditable 6th in the under-performing Renault, while his rookie team mate, Heikki Kovalainen, had a debut to forget, managing to get home in 10th. Perhaps the best surprise was seeing Nico Rosberg bringing his Williams home in 7th, having started from 12th on the grid. Ralf Schumacher, one of the three best drivers in Formula 1 according to Ralf Schumacher, picked up the last point.

And so to Sepang, where Ferrari looked very strong and the McLarens just a little behind. This was the race Ferrari should have won, but it was not to be. Like Australia before it, almost all the decisive action was over by the end of the first lap. Alonso started alongside Massa, and pushed him off his line by outbraking him at the first corner, allowing Hamilton to slide up into 2nd. With Hamilton as his protective cushion, Alonso quickly opened up a gap on the following cars, getting further ahead with every lap. Behind him, Hamilton played a deadly cat and mouse game with Massa, allowing Massa to slip by only to retake him on the next corner. Until he fooled Massa into braking too late, and as the Brazilian slid past him and out into the gravel Hamilton roared past and that was that. Worse was to come for Massa, as he watched Heidfeld go past. He would spend the rest of his race trying to get past the BMW, and it is a mark of their progress that he found it impossible. Up ahead, things got interesting after the second pit stop. The first had been more than a little unkind to Raikkonen, his stop was almost 3 seconds longer than Hamiltons and saw him exit snug between the Renaults of Fisichella and Kovalainen, where he quickly lost time on his rival in 2nd. However, after the second pit it seemed that the hard compound was suiting the Ferrari, and Raikkonen quickly began to chase down Hamilton, knocking over half a second a lap off the gap between them. Too little, too late. Hamilton crossed the line in second, and ice-man had to settle for third, and for second position over all in the title race.

As we near race three in the calendar, Bahrain, what can we expect? It seems obvious that the reliability problems that plagued McLaren for the last two seasons seem to have been sorted out. Ferrari continues to appear to be the quickest, but they have their own problems at the moment with grip. BMW Sauber are looking the most improved team, having managed to get 4th place in both races despite having bad luck. Likewise Williams; Rosberg managed 7th in Australia and was looking good in Sepang until the engine went, while his team mate, Wurz, was doing fine in Australia until Coulthard launched his car over him. In Sepang, Wurz narrowly missed out on a point when he couldn't hold off the challenge of Kovalainen in the Renault. Fisichella has managed to finish 5th and 6th in his Renault, while his rookie team mate picked up his first point of the season with his 8th place in Malaysia, but it looks like Renault have an uphill battle ahead, and their best hope of finishing third in the constructors will depend a lot on how well the BMW Sauber team continues to do and whether or not Williams can get their reliability issues in order. Beyond those three will be the battle among Honda, Toyota, and perhaps Red Bull, and filling up the places will be the Super Aguri, Toro Rosso and Spyker teams.

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Tony Deegan is a freelance writer currently living in Barcelona. He writes regular Formula 1 news reports for www.thebestial.com/ a Formula 1 shop for official merchandise and accessories. He also maintains www.barcelonarocks.com/ an online resource for all live music events in Barcelona.

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