McLarens One-Two in Malaysian Grand Prix
McLaren driver Fernando Alonso won Sunday’s Malaysian Grand Prix after a dominating performance from the first lap.
Teammate Lewis Hamilton crossed the line second with the Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen close on his tail after a nail biting run to the finish.
BMW Sauber’s Nick Heidfeld finished just off the podium in fourth with pole winning Felipe Massa could manage no better than fifth after skidding onto the grass at turn four while trying to pass Hamilton early in the race.
Alonso did a masterful job of pre-race bait-and-switch.
Just hours before the green flag fell the reigning World Champion was bemoaning the fact his McLaren Mercedes would be no match for the Ferrari’s of Raikkonen and Massa (bait tossed).
The “switch” came early as Alonzo won the drag race into turn one. By turn three Hamilton had passed Massa and that allowed Alonzo to stretch out a ten second lead by the tenth lap effectively ending the race early in the 56 lap event.
Defending race winner Giancarlo Fisichella rebounded from a 12th place starting position to finish sixth, while Toyota
Wow, that was Ferrari’s race to win & yet MM got them on the day. To my mind the star was Hamilton, he made a brilliant start, was heavier on fuel than his teammate & then fended of both Massa & Kimi while Alonso made hay at a rate of a second per lap.
Massa,with a visibly quicker car,showing impatience & sloppy racecraft in trying to pass Hamilton - in the opening laps of only his SECOND F1 outing - has confirmed my opinion that he is not worthy of a top team ride. Yeah, he can take a superior car to pole & win by leading at the front when unchallanged,however, lets see him win a race on outright merit. I’ve been one of his detractors since Todt jnr put him at Ferrari & remain so.
My God Factory teams!! Sato outqualified the Hondas & Webber put his Renault engine ahead of both works cars. Similarly, Toyota have nothing to brag about in comparision to Williams & Frank’s operating budget.
IMHO a BMW podium is just around the corner, Kubica was running well until some mechanical trouble & Nick H put in a solid performance.