McLaren take first and second as Alonso dominates
Posted by Hamish McBrearty on April 8th, 2007
McLaren have picked up a one-two finish in the Malaysian Grand Prix with Fernando Alonso first and rookie Louis Hamilton second, leaving the rest of the field in their dust.
Pole sitter Felipe Massa will be left wondering what happened as both McLarens got past him before turn two of the the Grand Prix and never looked back. While Alonso was running away with the race, Hamilton was left to fight off a spirited challenge from Ferrari’s Kimmi Raikkonen.
Alonso finished a whopping 17 seconds ahead of Hamilton, an age in Formula 1, with Raikkonen just 0.8s behind Hamilton. Ferrari also claimed fifth place through Massa who was unable to hold off the challenge of BMW’s Nick Heidfeld.
The rotten luck that plagued Honda in Australia seems to have followed them to Malaysia with finishing outside the points in 11th and 12th places despite excellent drives from Jenson Button and Reubens Barrichello. Button started 15th on the grid and managed to climb up to 12th, while Barrichello had a terrible qualifying session before electing to change engines one race day and incur a ten place penalty. Starting from the pit lane, effectively last on the grid, Barrichello fought his way though the pack for a respectable 11th place.
There was speculation after qualifying that Red Bull’s David Coulthard would also suffer a ten place penalty for an engine change, but after further clarification the change was ruled to be legal as it was done before practice and Coulthard did not finish the Australian Grand Prix.
With the total domination of McLaren today and the comparative struggles of Ferrari, particularly Massa, it is difficult to see anyone but Alonso winning next weekend in Bahrain.
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The McLaren take first and second as Alonso dominates by Hamish McBrearty, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
