Malaysian GP - Sepang 18 March 2001

M. Schumacher started the Malaysian GP from pole position on the spare car, which was set up for Barrichello, after his race car had problems in the morning. Minutes before the start of the formation lap Ferrari mechanics were still put the finishing touches in place on M. Schumacher's car. Frentzen ended up trailing at the back of the pack during the formation lap due to an engine misfiring. Fisichella turned over to his grid slot too late and stopped halfway across the track and turned the engine off to avoid being disqualified for reversing, causing the start to be abolished. In the meantime the race officers were investigating problems with Verstappen and with Bernoldi, because the mechanics where still working on his Arrows 15 seconds before the start of the race. The delayed start allowed Frentzen to go back into his starting grid position, instead of having to start from the pits. The race restarted with another formation lap, one lap shorter down to 55 laps. Fisichella was kept on the grid to put him at the back of the pack but there were to be more problems as Montoya's car stalled on the grid and was pushed away from the track. Montoya ran back to the Williams pits to get into the spare car. The lights finally changed to start the Malaysian GP and M. Schumacher shot off to take the lead. His brother Ralf came in behind him but Barrichello, who had started from second, refused to give up and the two cars touched slightly, sending R. Schumacher spinning. Trulli took advantage of the struggle and took third place, while Coulthard came in from eighth place, overtook several cars including Häkkinen to take fourth place. Verstappen managed to come up to fifth place in front of Villeneuve. R. Schumacher had managed to keep his car running and stayed in the race, several positions down. Häkkinen was down to eighth place, having virtually swapped places with team mate Coulthard. Before race leader M. Schumacher could go past the finishing lane for the second time Panis went out with his engine in flames and retired. As soon as lap three started, the rain began to fall hard. Both Ferrari suddenly went out on the oil left by Panis' car. Both drivers kept the engines running and rejoined the race, Barrichello first. The rain was bucketing down by this stage and the safety car came out as cars started going into the pits for rain tyres. Heidfeld ended up on the gravel and could not get the back out, his wheels spinning freely. All cars were aquaplaning and several drivers went out, including Trulli and Montoya. Both Ferrari were in the pits, with Barrichello having his tyres put on and M. Schumacher waiting behind him. It took one minute and 12 seconds to put the intermediate tyres (M. Schumacher's tyres had been prepared, but Barrichello was called in first by mistake) on Barrichello's car and clean out the gravel, with M. Schumacher waiting patiently for his turn. Coulthard was in the lead at this stage, in front of Frentzen, Verstappen, Häkkinen, Trulli and Alesi. Barrichello went out to the side again, as the rain stopped raining. On lap six, with the safety car still out, half of the track was bone dry and the other half completely wet. In the carnage several drivers retired, including Villeneuve and Irvine. At the end of lap nine the safety car finally came in and the race restarted. Immediately Verstappen challenged Frentzen for second place. The two Ferrari were down in 13th and 14th place after the problems in the pits. On lap 11 Verstappen went into the inside of Frentzen at the hairpin and took second place from the German. In the meantime the two Ferrari were working their way up through the pack, having overtaken the two Benetton. R. Schumacher, who had moved into fifth place, and Häkkinen both overtook Frentzen, who was obviously having problems. The Ferrari swapped places as M. Schumacher, on a lighter fuel load, passed Barrichello, then moved up a few more places and just simply drove past Frentzen. M. Schumacher closed up on his younger brother as Barrichello too went past Frentzen. Jenson Button was having problems too and was coasting. On lap 13 M. Schumacher had gone past his brother and went right round the outside of Häkkinen, like he had done with Frentzen, and took third place. The current World Champion, who was probably on intermediate tyres, was lapping some three seconds faster than everybody else. Barrichello caught up with Häkkinen and easily went past the Finn, who was on wet tyres, on the inside. On lap 14 M. Schumacher was on Verstappen's tail, the Dutchman refusing to yield, as rain started to fall again. On turn nine the German finally got his chance on the drier outside of the track and went past the Arrows. M. Schumacher immediately went on the attack of Coulthard, who held back the first attempt, but then had to surrender the lead to the German on turn two. Almost immediately Barrichello stormed past Verstappen, showing that the time the Ferrari mechanics had taken in choosing the tyres had not been wasted, as the two drivers of the red cars were obviously the only ones out on intermediate tyres, the perfect choice for the changing conditions. On lap 16 Barrichello simply drove past Coulthard to put the two Ferrari in first and second places. Verstappen closed up on Coulthard and prepared to attack the McLaren, which was struggling on wrong tyres. Häkkinen, in fourth position, was eight seconds behind the Arrows and in no position to try and catch up. The rain stopped again and Coulthard, on full wet tyres, was obviously suffering. On lap 18 Häkkinen went into the pits (6.4 seconds) and gambled on slick tyres. As the track kept on drying, R. Schumacher did the same (9.6 seconds). Minardi decided to go for intermediate on Alonso's car instead. Out on slick tyres, Häkkinen did the fastest section time on the dry part of the track, but lost time on the wet part. Fisichella went into the pits and put slick tyres on (13 seconds). Barrichello went onto the pits (13.7 seconds) and put slick tyres on. The mechanics had to clean debris from the side pods and wasted some time. Frentzen had his pit stop too (8.2 seconds) from sixth place. On the following lap Trulli had his pit stop too (6.7 seconds) and came out just behind a closely fought battle between R. Schumacher and Frentzen. After running almost alongside each other for a good while and trying to steal the racing line form each other, the German finally went ahead. Häkkinen, on slick tyres, had moved his way up to fifth place. On lap 25 Coulthard went into the pits for tyres (8.8 seconds) and lost second place to Barrichello, settling in third place behind Verstappen, who was having problems holding the car but still refused to yield to the Finn. On lap 27 the rain started falling again, with M. Schumacher, who had not had his pit stop yet, over one minute ahead of team mate Barrichello in second place. On lap 29 R. Schumacher saw an opening on the straight and went past Häkkinen for fifth place. The German immediately closed on Verstappen, who was preparing to lap Alonso's Minardi. Alonso made way and Verstappen and R. Schumacher went past. On lap 30 the Ferrari mechanics prepared to receive a car and sure enough, M. Schumacher had his pit stop (12.8 seconds) and put in enough fuel to finish the race, retaining his lead. On the same lap Marques lost a tyre due to a puncture and had to go to the pits for new tyres. R. Schumacher kept on trying to attack Verstappen, to kept him at bay. Finally the German attacked late on a corner and forced the Dutchman to brake to avoid a collision, taking the position off him. With just over 20 laps to go Fisichella dropped out of the race with mechanical problems, leaving only 14 cars out. R. Schumacher, having a free track in front of him, sped away showing off the power of the new BMW engine and catching up with Coulthard. Häkkinen went past Verstappen, but the Arrows driver fought back and managed to go past the Finn again, who lost composure and gave Frentzen the chance to go past too for sixth place. R. Schumacher had his last pit stop. On lap 42 Barrichello had a third pit stop (8.4 seconds) and rejoined the race retaining his second position in front of Coulthard. On lap 43 Verstappen went into the pits for his last stop (7.0 seconds), giving fourth place to Frentzen. Häkkinen, on new tyres and back into the points thanks for Verstappen's pit stop, set a new fastest lap time, then did so again on lap 45. Coulthard, on the other McLaren, found new grip too and started catching up with Barrichello. With only three laps to go Häkkinen caught up with R. Schumacher, who was suffering from brake problems, and started looking for an opening to go past. Coulthard realised that he could not catch up the Ferrari and relaxed, settling into third position. M. Schumacher went on to win the Malaysian GP, scoring six consecutive wins since Ascari managed nine in a row in 1952-53. Barrichello on the other Ferrari finished in second place ahead of Coulthard, Frentzen and R. Schumacher who had managed to fend off Häkkinen until the end. The Malaysian GP offered emotion throughout the whole race, from the happenings in the formation lap to the final duel between R. Schumacher and twice-World Champion Häkkinen. Ferrari started the race as the favourite, appeared to have lost all on lap three when both cars slid off into the gravel on oil and water and then wasted precious minutes in the pits, then overturned the situation and dominated the race. Ferrari again proved that they are not scared to take risks when they decided to mount intermediate tyres instead of rain tyres, going against the decision taken by almost all other teams. With his victory M. Schumacher has achieved six victories in a row from pole, the first driver ever to do so, though in 1952-53 Ascari had managed nine wins in a row, though not all straight from pole. McLaren never seemed to be there, battling it off with, and losing to, cars that the Woking team would not even have bothered to look at last season. R. Schumacher held up Williams' honour with a great race in which he showed off his worth, though Montoya, who had qualified very well, disappeared from the race at the start. The real star of the race was Verstappen, who fought all his battles to the very end, always refusing to give up and would have deserved to finish in the points. Perhaps today's performance will remove that "gravel-master" label that he has been carrying for most of his Formula 1 career. Jordan put on a fair show, despite Trulli's problems. Frentzen seemed to be in a better shape than last season, when he did not finish 11 of the races. Benetton were a big disappointment, with Fisichella first trying to go into the wrong side of the starting grid and then never really doing anything worth noting and Button finishing 11th after a mistake at the start. All in all, it seems at the moment that Ferrari are seriously superior to everybody else, but it also seems that other teams are coming back into the picture, notably Williams and Arrows, though things are bound to change when electronic aids are introduced in the Spanish GP. Next appointment is in Brazil on 1 April.

Images from La Gazzetta dello Sport Online and Il Corriere della Sera