McLaren
topple Ferrari at Sepang
Alonso supreme as Hamilton plays decisive supporting
role
McLaren went into the Malaysian Grand Prix in confident frame of
mind, but even Fernando Alonso said it was a surprise as he and
Lewis Hamilton turned on a crushing demonstration in which they
left Ferrari for dead in the opening stages and swept to the teams
first one-two result since Brazil 2005.
At the start Alonso sprinted alongside polesitter Felipe Massa and
was able to take the lead, but in another brilliant display
Hamilton dived inside Raikkonen to snatch third place before going
round the outside of Massa in Turn Two to move up to second.
The Englishman then contained the Ferrari challenge, earning his
spurs with a faultless drive, as his team leader went for the win.
Ferrari suddenly faced an afternoon of trying to salvage something
from what was beginning to look like a disaster, for Massa failed
on both occasions when he tried to oust Hamilton. Each time he was
repassed easily by the British driver, and on the second occasion
the Brazilian slid into the gravel on the exit to Turn Four and
lost a crucial place to Nick Heidfelds BMW Sauber.
As Alonso pulled out a 15.6s lead before stopping for fuel on lap
18, Hamilton built an advantage over Raikkonen, who stopped the
same lap as Alonso. Hamilton thus led a Grand Prix for the second
time in succession, until refuelling on lap 20.
The story was the same in the second stint, both McLaren and
Ferrari still running Bridgestones soft tyres. But this time
Hamilton had the gap down to less than eight seconds before the
stops, as he set the races fastest lap. He refuelled first, on lap
38, followed by Alonso on 40 and Raikkonen on 41. Now, however, all
three were on the harder tyre, and while that seemed to suit Alonso
and really suited Raikkonen, Hamilton was struggling for grip.
Alonsos 21+s lead was never going to be threatened, but lap by lap
the Finn was carving chunks out of the Englishmans second place
advantage. Going into the closing laps the race was really coming
alive again, but Hamilton kept his head and yet again never put a
wheel wrong. Alonso took the flag 17.5s ahead, to score a crucial
first victory for McLaren, and Hamilton hung on ahead of Raikkonen
by just 0.7s.
Heidfelds great day earned BMW Sauber an excellent fourth place in
front of an appreciative audience of Petronas representatives, as
he held off former team mate Massa all the way to the flag.
Nico Rosberg was headed for an excellent sixth for Williams when
his FW29 stopped on the 43rd lap with Toyota engine failure,
promoting a grateful Giancarlo Fisichella who thus salvaged three
points for Renault. The final points went to Jarno Trulli after a
strong run for Toyota, and Renault rookie Heikki Kovalainen. Alex
Wurz was ninth for Williams after an up and down run from 19th on
the grid, fending off Mark Webber who challenged him hard on soft
tyres in his final stint in the Red Bull RB3. They were the final
unlapped runners.
Rubens Barrichello headed Honda team mate Jenson Button home in
11th and 12th places, chased by Takuma Sato and Scott Speed who
battled all the way through. Ralf Schumacher was 16th, while 17th
placed Anthony Davidson had a delayed Tonio Liuzzi thirsting after
him all through the second half but held off the Toro Rosso to the
flag. Robert Kubica was the final finisher, having run in the top
six until his BMW Sauber developed a suspected transmission problem
and needed to make a pit stop for attention.
Besides Rosberg, the other non-finishers were the Spykers; Adrian
Sutil got shoved off on the outside of Turn 4 on the opening lap,
in an incident in which Button was also involved, and then
Christijan Alberss car lost its engine shortly afterwards.
A great race thus puts Fernando Alonso into the lead of the world
championship, with Kimi Raikkonen second from Lewis Hamilton. Roll
on Bahrain.
http://www.formula1.com/race/news/5911/771.html
