Popeye

1. 2 FISICHELLA Renault
2. 1 ALONSO Renault
3. 12 BUTTON Honda
4. 4 MONTOYA McLaren Mercedes
5. 6 MASSA Ferrari
6. 5 M.SCHUMACHER Ferrari
7. 17 VILLENEUVE BMW Sauber
8. 7 R.SCHUMACHER Toyota
9. 8 TRULLI Toyota
10. 11 BARRICHELLO Honda
11. 20 LIUZZI Toro Rosso Cosw.
12. 19 ALBERS Midland Toyota
13. 18 MONTEIRO Midland Toyota
14. 22 SATO S. Aguri F1 Honda
15. 16 HEIDFELD BMW Sauber
16. 21 SPEED Toro Rosso Cosw.
17. 23 IDE S. Aguri F1 Honda
18. 15 KLIEN RedBull Ferrari
19. 9 WEBBER Williams Cosworth
20. 14 COULTHARD RedBull Ferrari
21. 10 ROSBERG Williams Cosworth
22. 3 RAIKKONEN McLaren Mercedes

matrix

Good race from Fisi and Alonso.

Button just needs that extra little help to get him on the top step...I think he might get it this year if he/BAR can step it up that little extra that seems to be missing.

Engine rule robbed of what could have been a really great race ...

Popeye

FIA Formula One Drivers' standings:

1) Alonso 18
2) M.Schumacher 11
3) Button 11
4) Fisichella 10
5) Montoya 9
6) Raikkonen 6
7) Massa 4
8) Webber 3
9) Rosberg 2
10) Villeneuve 2

s2ksimon

I remember saying "watch out for Fisi"

I hope he becomes a regular now

indeed M, the Honda's are missing something..

Marco

^^^^^ You are both right!!! IMO, JB is not the problem... I love how Speed TV Dolt anouncer says... "Now if JB wants it he has to go take it, he must get past JPM" How dickcheese??? JB Just left pits, with 22 laps worth of fule.. JPM has 2 laps til pit
I was DAMN exstatic to see FM beat the Roter Baron (alta vista translation!!)
NR looked great again
both BMW's looked good too til NH ka blamo

ytdlite

when will the fia start its investigation into renaults fantastic launch program? that thing has to be illegal and has been for several seasons. nasa should look at it also. i couldn't belive it, alonso blasted up to 3rd. your right marco, not possible for jb to get around jpm at that time. and yes rb is in wallowing mode, speeding in pitlane and massa got the points. nh almost got it home, out with 7 to go . who picked the cossies to blow?
not a good race for the scarlet-v picks.

Honda F1

From http://www.planet-f1.com

Malaysian GP: Winners + Losers
Sunday March 19 2006

Star of the Race
Takuma Sato, Super Aguri 14th
Takuma Sato may have started the race in a four-year-old Arrows with a Honda strapped in the back, but ten laps into the race he was in 15th place ahead of both Midland Cars and one of the Toro Rossos! And this wasn't thanks to a first lap mellee that had reshuffled the order, this was on a track with two, if not three, great places to overtake with fast corners that are a real test for an F1 car.

Sato's pace was fantastic for a team that has been thrown together at the last minute and Taku's drive was a superb reward for all the staff at Leafield who have put in monumental hours to get the cars to the grid.

Such was the Japanese driver's pace that various pursuing Midland and Toro Rosso drivers failed to look in their rear view mirrors for cars that were about to lap them. He may be wayward at times, but today Taku San, we salute you.

Overtaking Move of the Race
Fernando Alonso, Renault, Lap One
Though it would have been great to see the fast-starting DC whomp his Red Bull past six cars at the start, and then inherit two places when Raikkonen and Klien fell out, it ultimately counted for nothing.

Fernando Alonso's start was the stuff of Best Case GP Simulations. Renaults always used to have fantastic grunt off the line thanks to Tad Czpaski's electronic wizardry, but last year that edge seemed to have been blunted. In Sepang whatever button Fernando was able to press, he pressed it.

Passing four of the top cars before the first corner is a fantastic feat, made even better by the fact that Alonso had more fuel on board than any of the cars around him. Last week his opening sprint past Massa had proved decisive and this week his opening lao heroics were just as important.


WINNERS

Giancarlo Fisichella, Renault, 1st
It's amazing what you can do with a '****ing ***t' car, isn't it. After Renault 'accidentally' put double the fuel into Alonso's car for Qualifying, Fisi had a clear run at his first win of the 2006 season.

We say 'accidentally' because the phenomenon of the leaving-Renault-driver getting poor treatment from the team is legend. Cock-up theory suggests that it's probably a mistake, because it's just too early in the season. But Flav and Machiavelli are/were both Italian...

Fisi drove a competent if inconsistent race to win. While the pursuing Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso consistently reduced their lap times, Fisi's lap times were up and down, despite having no serious traffic in front of him in the early stages. One lap he'd be very quick, the next, half a second away.
Interesting to hear the Renault team nagging him all the way through the race to keep his race pace up. Sometimes drivers need the occasional PUSH message, but Fisi seems to need it all the time.

You get the impression that Fernando, Kimi and Michael wouldn't need to be nagged to go faster.

Fernando Alonso, Renault, 2nd
Fernando drove another brilliant race, and had it not been for Sato's heroic efforts would have picked up the PF1 Star of the Race. With a race engine that had gone double the distance (and hence slightly down on horsepower) than Fisi's, the wrong strategy and a 4th row grid start he almost won the race.

They had to tell him to slow down after the final pit-stops to ensure he finished. Pat Symmonds revealed afterwards that the team had had concerns over his fuel pump and a few errant electrics on the car and that despite putting in 1:36 laps to the finish, Fernando was in nursey mode.

Jenson Button, Honda, 3rd
It might not have looked like it, but Button worked hard for his third place,
pressing when he could, being patient when he couldn't. It was a fine performance, which given a bit more luck in traffic could have got him second.

Juan Montoya, McLaren, 4th
Another lonely, problem-free trundle from Montoya -unchallenged and unchallenging. The team were low on downforce thanks to all the venting and cooling they had to do on their engine - in two weeks' time, it'll be a different story in Melbourne.

Felipe Massa, Ferrari, 5th
A great drive from the Brazilian who made amends for last week. Despite his errant, wheel-locking style he got ahead of Michael Schumacher on what was not the optimum strategy. It would have been interesting to know just how tempted Monsieur Todt was to making that "move over" call.

Ferrari house style since 2002 has been to keep positions after the final pit-stops. That's why Rubens got so annoyed when Michael Schumacher nicked a place off him at Monaco last year. Let's see if it changes in 2006.

Michael Schumacher, Ferrari, 6th
Given the number of engine changes the team have suffered in just two races, Schumi is doing mighty fine to be 2nd in the drivers' championship. Today Michael drove well, though his lap times were quite variable in the middle section of the race. It was difficult to know if that was caused by traffic or he was driving round a problem. This engine will need to last around Albert Park.

BMW-Sauber, 7th and DNF
Jacques Villeneuve scored two points, though Nick Heidfeld's retirement handed them one of them

LOSERS

Williams, DNF and DNF
Rosberg did brilliantly well to put his car P3 on the grid, but his start was wayward. Trying to push Webbo onto the grass may be the way you start in GP2, but in F1 it can bring tears. As it was, it lost him places. Rest assured, Frank and Patrick will be having a quiet word.

Mark Webber did everything right until his engine failed.

Rubens Barrichello, Honda, 10th
Rubens has diagnosed his problem as being "a little too polite" with his throttle pedal - i.e. the Ferrari could stand go-kart treatment of putting his right foot down and letting the traction control sort it all out.

Before the race he said: "It was sad yesterday, but it's okay we've renovated." A nasty case of Blundell-it is catching on.

But then the race started and he got to 10th, while Felipe Massa who was with him at the back of the grid, took 5th.

Kimi Raikkonen, McLaren, DNF
This race needed Raikkonen or Schumacher on a charge to bring some life into it - as it was the two Renaults were allowed to battle it out at the front without challenge in the closing laps of the race.

It was shades of the 2002 season, but with the colour blue instead of red.

Though Raikkonen was the innocent party in his accident, Ron Dennis may well be asking both his drivers questions about the line they took into Turn 4.

Christian Klien, Red Bull, DNF
Not wishing to be mean on Christian Klien but why wasn't he investigated by the stewards for causing an avoidable accident? When you shunt into someone's rear and end their race that's a clear investigation.
Michael was investigated for spinning Jarno Trulli round one year under similar circumstances, so why not Klien?

David Coulthard, Red Bull, DNF
Great start, rubbish hydraulics.

Popeye

I dont know what they are paying Rubino but I'm wondering now only two races into the 06 season ;what if they went with Davidson instead ?

Could there have been two Honda poles?

.....we'll never know.

s2ksimon

forgot to mention, so far in the past 2 races who's scored points and podiums for Honda.. Hmmm ?? big surprise there..

Jenson Button - 2 Rubinho - 0

Marco

^^^^^ True Simon, and It IS also fact that RB trails the ENTIRE Toyota F1 team by 1 point