here's something i just posted up in another site. lists some of
the highlights of the race 
Oh it was another exciting race! Alonso led almost the whole race.
In a way, it was a lights to flag victory, with nobody else ever
looking like they were threatening his lead the whole race. Trulli
put in a wonderful performance to give Toyota their 1st ever podium
finish, although it remains to be seen if the pace of Toyota would
hold throughout the year. With Ralf Schumacher finishing in 5th,
Toyota has jumped to 2nd in the constructor's championship. A
magnificent 3rd place for Nick, who drove some exciting and awesome
stints during the race, when he, teammate Mark and Ralf diced for
4th place.
In one of the exciting moments of the race, Mark Webber of Williams
caught a twitchy Giancarlo Fisichella in 3rd place who was fighting
with unwanted oversteer. Fisi was finding it hard to commit in the
corners, thus allowing Mark, Ralf and Nick in that order to come up
behind him. Mark then tried to overtake around turns 13 and 14, but
was too far back to make it work. This put him slightly out of
shape exiting turn 14, which gave Ralf a shot down the inside of
the back straight into turn 15. Ralf locked up slightly and the 2
of them touched in turn 15, but were otherwise unscathed. This
allowed Nick back in 6th to catch up with both of them and have a
go at his team mate out of Turn 15 and down the main straight. Mark
got the better of Nick into turn 1 and as they fought a recovered
Ralf sneaked down the inside of turn 1 and was side by side with
Nick into turn 2, but ultimately conceded the place. What an
incredible piece of driving from all 3 men.
In another exciting moment, Mark and Nick, having recovered from
the earlier excitement, set about hunting Fisi down again, who'd
gained a brief respite when the 2 Williams diced with the Toyota.
Once again Mark got the better of Fisi somewhere between Turns 11
to 14, and Nick was looking for a gap when Fisi ran down the inside
of Mark as they blasted down the back straight. Fisi dived into
turn 15, Mark went around the outside and put the squeeze on him as
they entered turn 15. Fisi being on the dirty side of the track,
was unable to brake and locked up into a 4 wheel drift. Mark
suddenly realised that he wasn't leaving Fisi enough space and
started to go wide but it was too late. They touched and Mark
started sliding, b4 Fisi collected him, and then bounced right over
the front of the Williams when the rear wheels of the Renault
slammed into the front wheels of Mark's car. Pieces shattered off
Fisi's Renault as it slammed back onto the ground, as Mark's
Williams lay in the grass off turn 15 with both front suspensions
broken. A gleeful Nick then slipped past to take 3rd.
Kimi was one of the people who drove excellently today, but was
rewarded with no points after a right rear puncture on his outlap
after his 1st pitstop put paid to his chances of a podium. At that
point he was running 3rd, having started 6th with a much heavier
fuel load. There is no doubt, that had the right rear not blown,
the McLaren would have easily passed the problematic Renault of
Fisichella for 3rd. Kimi nursed the stricken McLaren back to pits
for a new right rear and rejoined in 14th, where he fought back up
to 9th, less than 2 seconds behind the 7th and 8th place finishers.
Meanwhile Montoya started from 11th and somehow sneaked his way up
to finish 4th, helped along the way by a good fuel strategy and a
few moments of inspired driving. Perhaps if he had qualified
higher, a podium might have been on the cards, but there is no
hiding the fact that Kimi thus far retains the upper hand where
pace is concerned.
David Coulthard finished 6th for Red Bull Racing, while Klien
brought the other RBR car home in 8th. Yet another double points
finish for the team, who are currently lying in a surprise 3rd in
the constructor's table. This is growing to be one of my favored
teams. I was cheering when David overtook Michael in his Ferrari.
Michael finished in a lowly 7th, and looked lacklustre the whole
weekend. His points position finish was largely due to the
misfortunes that befell several of the front runners. Had Fisi and
Mark not had their accident, and Kimi's tyre did not blow, MS would
have finished 10th. As it is, his teammate Rubens didn't finish the
race at all, retiring 7 laps from the end with excessive tyre
blistering. Seems the Bridgestones are crap again this year.
Bringing up the rear of the finishers were the Saubers of Massa,
the Jordans of Karthikeyan and Monteiro and the Minardi of
Christijan Albers. An observation: Karthikeyan finished the race a
whole lap ahead of his teammate. I do believe he has significantly
outpaced his teammate considering they were both in the same
machinery. And Friesacher in Minardi also outpaced his teammate
Albers by over a second a lap. Thus it was a real pity he slid off
on Button's oil.
AH YES. BAR. dual engine failures 3 laps into the race. Jenson's
Honda engine let gol, spewing its oil everywhere on the racing
line. Anthony Davidson who was sub-ing for a feverish Takuma Sato
had a more dramatic failure, with his engine bursting into flames.
Seems ironic considering the fact that BAR was the only team to
exploit the loophole in the rules to allow them to skirt around the
"2 weekend engine" rule. Anyways it seems that everything in the
team that is Japanese was laid low by the Sepang heat, from the
driver to the engine... LOL. Poor Anthony, a chance to shine
squandered.
Finally. Jacques... the 97 world champion. Spent most of the race
driving behind MS and finally had a spin at turn 1 and retired b4
he had run half the race. It does seem funny, that the only 2
former world champions on the grid all performed terribly the whole
afternoon. It would seem that the balance of power in F1 is finally
shifting.
