After the start in Melbourne where the two BMW drivers gently touched as Juan Pablo Montoya
tried to gain places, Ralf Schumacher has admitted that he would race his team mate to the
point of taking the pair of them off if there is a chance of a win. The off
track relationship however remained strong and it was only the competitive spirit
which got the better of them when points were at stake.

Fernando Alonso was feeling for his nation during this week given the tragedy of the Madrid
bombings on the 11^th, with a good track record of a pole position
in qualifying at Sepang the Spaniard has said he would 'dedicate the race to
his countrymen in memory of those who lost their lives' if he had won this weekend,
though he did acknowledge that this would not have been an easy task. He was wearing
the Spanish flag on his helmet and arm as a mark of respect to those who have
been touched by the event.

Two teams faced problems during the week running up to the race as Ferrari suffered a fire at
their Maranello headquarters destroying several prototype cars and Jordan admitted
to getting hate mail relating to their choice of new driver. Ferrari have stated
that no-one was injured in the fire and the damaged work has been moved to
another building so work can continue. Jordan on the other hand had not yet
solved the problem of death threats which had been arriving after they chose
to give the drive to Giorgio Pantano and not Jos Verstappen. The campaign was
kept quiet to begin with but as the mails got more menacing Eddie Jordan decided that
he had no choice but to make the comment public. Verstappen’s management
stated that they were trying to calm the situation so the Jordan team
were able to concentrate purely on race matters.

After its first week on the go the new qualifying format had already come under
fire by fans and teams alike mainly for the time it took, even the governing
body had changes it would like to see made. The suggestion that was put forward this
time round was that the second half starts at 2pm so that the TV companies can
schedule themselves to broadcast just the crucial second half. This minor
amendment was discussed with teams and when given the go-ahead came into
action at the Bahrain Grand Prix that year.

As with last year, tyres were predicted to play a large part in hot races such
as Sepang. If Bridgestone had made the advancements they claimed then Ferrari
would be unstoppable, if they still did not perform as well as the Michelins then
the race for the championship was well and truly on. Bridgestone had been testing
heavily over the winter and were confidant that they had produced a tyre suitable
of rivalling the previously dominant Michelins. Vasselon of the French tyre
manufacturer was more cautious saying that testing had been difficult since
most of it had been done in Europe due to tests in Malaysia being impractical.

The forecast for the weekend looked like rain which was unfortunate as it would
mean that Bridgestone’s advancements wouldn’t be seen. Though hopefully there
would be clear skies for the race itself though the temperature was forecast
to be 4 degrees lower than for qualifying at only 30 degrees Celsius.

Ferrari’s strongest competitor so far that year were BMW though Montoya
didn’t feel that even they would be able to throw down the gauntlet to them
this time round. He had said that the team would be stronger than they were
in Melbourne but knew there was still a long way to go. Though there was still
an element of doubt introduced by the tyres and that may just have given them the
edge to win.

McLaren also citied improvements made during testing in Valencia though
they have admitted that it would not be enough for Kimi Raikkonen to win as he did last
year for his first and only time. The team said that they were not
at the pace they had aimed for in Melbourne and were hoping to catch up quickly,
reminding us that the championship is about all 18 races and not just one.

Jordan were hoping to continue Nick Heidfeld’s luck with this track since he had
scored points here during the last two seasons. Though for his team mate it
was likely to be a little more daunting as it was his first time at Sepang.
Giorgio Pantano had already travelled to Kuala Lumpur in order to acclimatise himself
to the heat and the humidity.

Testing

Friday

The Ferrari team looked as strong as they did in Melbourne, dominating the
first practice and showing that Bridgestone have made the advancements they
had been boasting. With most of the other drivers a second off the pace it
was only the test drivers Davidson and Zonta who could get near them. McLaren
had to make do with Raikkonen in sixth which indicated there may be some chance
of finding a set up which would allow them to offer more of a challenge than
they did in Melbourne.

The Renaults were languishing in 10^th and 13^th this time
leaving Mark Webber and Jenson Button to show off for the middle ground teams with the
Jordans 19^th, 20^th and 21^st and Minardi taking
up the rear in 22^nd, 23^rd and 25^th sandwiching
the Sauber of Felipe Massa.

The second practice however seemed to play into the hands of McLaren as Raikkonen
managed to set the fastest time leaving Ferraris in 4^th and 10^th.
This may well have been due to the rise in track temperature which topped 50 degrees
Celsius, suggesting that Bridgestone still had a way to go before they could
fully claim to be at the same standard as the Michelins in the hotter climates.

It was noted the McLarens only completed 30 laps between them which indicated
they may have been trying to save their engines for qualifying and the race.

Webber improved on his morning performance to become the third fastest on the
track, Montoya followed Michael Schumacher’s Ferrari to become 5^th fastest
and this time the Renaults were up in the top ten.

The results did not seem to disturb Rubens Barrichello who still felt that Ferrari
had an edge over the other teams on the track since they had been running
in race configuration, his team mate and technical director spoke slightly
more cautiously stating that they had come a long way since last year but that
the signs were that it would be close competition throughout the weekend.

McLaren’s Kimi was delighted to be back in the game after topping the afternoon
but was still wary about the rest of the weekend. David Coulthard in 9^th
at the end of the afternoon had been struggling with an accelerator pedal problem
which impacted on his lap times according to Ron Dennis.

Webber was glad to be able to impress, stating that it wasn’t fluke and that
his R5 “feels very well balanced and gives a great feeling of confidence, allowing
you to really push.” He was particularly pleased with the consistency of the
lap times he was achieving during the afternoon.

Button was sure that he could get more from his BAR 005 than was shown during
this practice session and is not worried about the times today but felt that
there was still a lot of work to be done.

Friday Results

Saturday

The first practice returned M.Schumacher to top of the time board almost half
a second ahead of second place man Alonso. As the drivers limited the number
of laps they cover to preserve their engines for the rest of the weekend the
Ferrari driver only completed 7 laps.

Webber slipped down the sheets to a slot in 8^th and Button
climbed up to the top 10. Cristiano Da Matta spun his car in to the gravel on turn 8
making him quit the session, a continuation of what had already been a bad
week. Pantano also lost control of his Jaguar EJ14 at turn 9.

Michael continued to top the sheets in the 2^nd practice session
though this time the competition was fiercer as Montoya was just 3 hundredths
of a second off the German's pace followed by his team mate Ralf in 3^rd.
Jarno Trulli found his way up to 4^th after a relatively calm first session
and was followed by the other Ferrari which was half a second behind its team
mate.

Button made good of comments and managed to get himself up to 6^th
ahead of the McLarens. Alonso and Webber completed the top ten closely, all
within a second of the leading driver.

Saturday Results

Qualifying

First qualifying was dominated by the Renaults who filled the top two slots,
and Raikkonen who was last out was fastest in the first two sectors only to lose
time in the final part of the lap leaving him in third. The Ferraris came
in next sandwiching Webber between them.

Although the Williams looked challenging in Practice they were only able to
manage 9^th and 11^th during the first session. Coulthard
and Button filled the gap between them while Pantano continued his bad weekend
when his car wasn’t ready for his run so he was left timeless meaning he was out first in the second session.

Michael fought back in the second session to grab the pole position by more
than 6 tenths of a second, his main competition came from Webber in
his Jaguar who forced the other Ferrari into 3^rd position.

The Renaults who had promised so much ended with only Trulli in 8^th
after Alonso spun off leaving him at the back of the grid for Sunday’s race.

Takuma Sato managed to spin his car off at turn 11 making Montoya abandon his out
lap while the car was cleared away, though the Columbian didn’t seem to lose
too much from it and he took 4^th place on the grid.

Heidfeld came in 25^th and after him there was a 2 second gap to
the Minardis and the second Jordan.

Alonso admitted that it was an under braking mistake which made him lose
it at turn 14 and Trulli knew that his lap was marred by several minor mistakes
though both were optimistic for the race which would be “an aggressive, attacking
race” according to Alonso.

Ferrari’s Schumacher described his pole winning lap as “perfect” and “mind-blowing”
saying that there was much more grip during the second session than in the
first. Barrichello was happy that they had worked hard for the race though
was disappointed at the gap between himself and his team mate.

Button had wanted to be higher up the grid but suffered from over steer during
the final sector making him loose two tenths from his fastest practice time,
though he was surely glad not to be starting with his team mate at the back
of the grid.

The Renault team had decided that since Alonso will be starting from the back
of the grid that they would replace his engine for the one that is currently
in the spare car. This would normally involve dropping 10 places on the grid
but due to the situation it wouldn’t make any difference. Jordan’s Pantano would
also be at the back of the grid since he used his T-car to qualify.

Results

The Race

This race seemed to offer more hope that Ferrari weren’t going to steal the
season since although M.Schumacher finished comfortably in first he was followed
by Montoya and Button who both offered a good race.

Webber however failed to make good use of his starting position leaving the
Ferraris to make a clean getaway and get a good distance in the first few laps,
the rain set in though and although not much it altered the running enough
to make life interesting. Michael wasn’t troubled too much by the water
since it cooled the track but Barrichello who was on the harder tyre compound
dropped quickly to fourth after handling problems.

The pitting began early and it was soon evident that many of the drivers were
on 3 stoppers, it was after this first round of stops that Montoya tried to
close in on the German but had problems with his tyres over heating and Michael’s
lead was once again drawn out. There followed a game of catch up with every
time Montoya began to close the gap Michael pushed harder, this was all ended
when the Columbian's final pit stop let him out behind Barrichello who was not
to pit for another few laps.

Webber tried to claw his way back from his dismal start but his day was finished
when Ralf touched him puncturing his right rear tyre. Raikkonen
appeared to be holding onto 3^rd place fairly firmly fighting off
Barrichello and then Trulli, but Button got the better of them all with a late
pit stop that brought him out in 3^rd. Things went from bad to worse
for the Fin and he ground to a halt on lap 40 his car spewing smoke. Coulthard
managed to get some points for the team by finishing 6^th but it
was a sad day for McLaren.

Alonso made his way from the back of the field to 8^th place in just
a few laps but misjudged tactics were to limit him to 7^th and his
team mate to 5^th. Had Sato not had engine trouble 4 laps from the
finish it is likely he would have taken 8^th, instead this went to
Massa who had outshone his team mate Giancarlo Fisichella all weekend.

Much praise was given to the Bridgestone tyres that weekend, not least
by Michael who said that they had done a fantastic job helping the
team win in such conditions. Barrichello had the harder compound and found he had
a less successful race, when the gap for the podium place was narrowed down
to just 2 seconds he had to overtake Zsolt Baumgartner and it was lost. Though he
was still satisfied with the car and although he would have liked to win he
was happy to be bringing in the points.

The Jaguar team were understandably disappointed with their results, after
both drivers had bad starts the team said that they would be thoroughly
investigating before the next Grand Prix in Bahrain. Webber’s race went from
bad to worse when he passed the Williams of Ralf only to have it driven into the
back of him and suffer a puncture causing him to pit. That would have been
bad enough but then he was caught speeding in the pit lane and was given the
standard drive through penalty.

Montoya said that the Williams team need to target consistency in order
to rival the Ferrari supremacy. He felt he would have been closer to the leader
at the end of the race had he not left the pits to find himself behind Barrichello,
since he had been slowly closing the gap between them. After Ralf’s shunt
when trying to overtake Webber where he sustained front wing damage, he suffered
a technical fault which ended his race on only lap 28.

Raikkonen tried to look on the bright side of the weekend even though he failed
to finish and said that he felt the team had made a step in the right direction
and that he knew that the efforts would continue to improve further. Coulthard
echoed his team mate’s sentiments saying that satisfaction could be taken from
the improvements even though he felt 6^th place was not where they
should be.

Olivier Panis blamed an unscheduled pit stop on a radio communication problem;
his disgust was made clear by a series of gestures towards the team bosses
on the pit wall, like Webber his race just got worse when he too was caught
speeding and penalised.

Minardi were pleased to have both cars finish especially since Baumgartner
suffered from a chassis imbalance all race and Gianmaria Bruni lost power steering whilst
there were still 30 laps to go. Team Boss Paul Stoddart felt that 14^th
and 16^th didn’t do justice to his drivers’ efforts but that it was
the best possible when competing against more reliable teams.

Results

Post Race-Weekend Fall Out

After 4 years Button managed to get his first podium and was obviously aiming
for more. Having missed out on the podium 5 times and settled for 4^th
as well as running in 3^rd place in Sepang last year only to have
his suspension fail, this year has finally given him the chance to shine. He
said that the finish was as much the team’s as his and that it was really a
step in the right direction but that they would always be aiming for more.

The team had worried that when Sato went out with an engine failure that a
similar end might befall Button, however the young Briton escaped to take 3^rd
place. Boss David Richards was delighted with the result, it being the first
podium the team had seen since 2001.

Montoya accused Barrichello of blocking him after his final pit stop. The
pair had an amicable relationship off track but as always when racing the
team and the championship come first and what Rubens did was what any other
driver would have done in the same position. Montoya said that once he
realised the situation he backed off and waited for Barrichello to pit since it
was better to take home the 8 points than to go off trying to pass the Ferrari.

Michelin boss Pierre Dupasquier said that there will only be a chance of
victory for the other teams if Ferrari make a mistake. He still believed that
the Michelin tyres were better than the Bridgestones and that it is Ferrari
that had the strengths saying that if they were Michelin shod there would
no longer be a championship. However Bridgestone were overjoyed to see Michael
on top of the podium saying that it showed they had produced a tyre that was
competitive even in these tough conditions.