First of all I apologise for delay in posting this review. As you know, I was away for a while and it took me some time to resume normal activities. I’ll be posting pictures from my trip soon here at this website but for that you’ll have to wait. Coming back to the Malaysian Grand Prix 2007, it had everything in it to be exciting yet it turned out to be somewhat boring. The eventual race winner, Fernando Alonso drove a lonely and clinical race. He was well supported by his McLaren team mate, Lewis Hamilton. Lewis is fast turning into a young superstar and is the one to watch out for in near future.

The Qualifying stages were as expected without many surprises. Massa was ahead of Kimi Raikkonen for much of the weekend practice sessions and he finished it up with a pole position for Ferrari. This made it two out of two for Ferrari. With Kimi taking the third spot on the grid, things looked bright for the scarlet team. Alonso lined up next to Massa and Lewis next to Kimi which meant an exciting prospect at the start of the race. The rest of the grid followed to BMW and Williams in strong contention.

On race day, everyone was expecting Massa to repeat what Kimi did at Melbourne but he disappointed. He lost two places right at the start and in the process blocking Kimi which made sure that his team mate lost a place as well. After that moment, there was no stopping Alonso as he raced ahead, adding to his advantage each lap. Massa was in pursuit of Lewis from then on with Kimi right behind Massa. Massa made two attempts at overtaking Hamilton but he failed both times. On the second occasion, Massa out braked himself which allowed Kimi and Heidfeld to pass him easily.

Hamilton showed courage and skills in withstanding the immense pressure created first by Massa and later by Kimi. He produced one of the brilliant drives during the race and was cool, calm and collected through out. Rosberg and Wurz drove well for Williams but a hydraulic failure meant Rosberg was unable to finish the race. Fisichella was fine as he managed to gain quite a few spots during the race but that Renault needs to improve for him to challenge for any of the titles. Heikki showed an improvement over last race but has a long way to go before he can be compared with Lewis.

Kimi’s race was compromised heavily as his engine was running with limited revs and he failed to get the ideal set-up for his car through out the weekend. Kimi finished 3rd but was visibly annoyed due to the lack of pace. He drove intelligently with limited resources he had in his hands. Things are looking great for next race at Bahrain as it takes place right next week. There’s no gap in between and that means there will be no major changes for any of the teams. All front runners get a fresh engine and that will spice up things a bit more.

The final race results are as follows -

1 - Fernando Alonso - McLaren-Mercedes - 56 - 1:32:14.930
2 - Lewis Hamilton - McLaren-Mercedes - 56 - +17.5 secs
3 - Kimi Räikkönen - Ferrari - 56 - +18.3 secs
4 - Nick Heidfeld - BMW - 56 - +33.7 secs
5 - Felipe Massa - Ferrari - 56 - +36.7 secs
6 - Giancarlo Fisichella - Renault - 56 - +65.6 secs
7 - Jarno Trulli - Toyota - 56 - +70.1 secs
8 - Heikki Kovalainen - Renault - 56 - +72.0 secs

9 - Alexander Wurz - Williams-Toyota - 56 - +89.9 secs
10 - Mark Webber - Red Bull-Renault - 56 - +93.5 secs
11 - Rubens Barrichello - Honda - 55 - +1 Lap
12 - Jenson Button - Honda - 55 - +1 Lap
13 - Takuma Sato - Super Aguri-Honda - 55 - +1 Lap
14 - Scott Speed - STR-Ferrari - 55 - +1 Lap
15 - Ralf Schumacher - Toyota - 55 - +1 Lap
16 - Anthony Davidson - Super Aguri-Honda - 55 - +1 Lap
17 - Vitantonio Liuzzi - STR-Ferrari - 55 - +1 Lap
18 - Robert Kubica - BMW - 55 - +1 Lap

Ret - Nico Rosberg - Williams-Toyota - 42 - +14 Laps
Ret - David Coulthard - Red Bull-Renault - 36 - Brakes
Ret - Christijan Albers - Spyker-Ferrari - 7 - Engine
Ret - Adrian Sutil - Spyker-Ferrari - 0 - Accident

The top half of points table after Round 2 is as follows -

Drivers

F. Alonso - 18
K. Räikkönen - 16
L. Hamilton - 14

Constructors

McLaren-Mercedes - 32
Ferrari - 23
BMW - 10

Next race will take place in Bahrain on 15th of April 2007.