Schumacher wins second GP in row

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F1 Grand Prix, GP Malaysia, Sepang International Circuitmy

Michael Schumacher won his second successive race of the season this afternoon, the 72nd of his F1 career, the Ferrari ace taking the chequered flag ahead of BMW Williams driver Juan Pablo Montoya and British American Racing driver Jenson Button, who finally, after years of trying, made it to the podium with a third placed finish!

Rain at the start of the event threw the race into chaos momentarily as cars slid all over the Sepang circuit. Kimi Raikkonen actually spun on the parade lap, however the Finn fought back gallantly with some brilliant passing manoeuvres.

The McLaren wasn’t the only one putting moves on his rivals however as Mark Webber, who lost a lot of places at the start of the race, climbed back up the field, even forcing the BMW Williams of Ralf Schumacher onto the grass at one stage. However, the German fights back and reclaims the position, and it looks like Webber has a puncture. What a shame for the Aussie driver who had done so well to qualify second. He is forced to pit, losing a lap to the leaders and then hit by a penalty for pit lane speeding! What a disaster.

While Webber’s race was collapsing in front of his eyes, there was a brilliant battle at the front, as well as a fantastic drive a little further back as Fernando Alonso was on a charge, up to eighth place by lap 4, all the way from the back of the grid! Fantastic driving by the Spaniard!

Michael Schumacher was still showing he was the man to beat, pulling out fastest lap after fastest lap in the early stages, over four seconds ahead of second placed man Juan Pablo Montoya after just six laps. Takuma Sato spun into the gravel but the BAR driver rejoined safely.

By lap seven the track was dry once again and by lap 12 every driver apart from Pantano and Sato, had stopped at least once. The next twelve laps were fairly uneventful with Montoya closing the gap on Schumacher, only to have the German open it back up again. Then, Fernando Alonso pulls off a brilliant move to take P7 from David Coulthard then both men pit for the second time and Alonso loses the position after a lengthy stop. Mark Webber’s woeful race came to a close when he beached his R5 in the gravel after a massive lock up into the final turn.

Button managed to find his way past Kimi Raikkonen’s McLaren in the second round of stops for third place and Ralf Schumacher becomes the first casualty of the race due to engine failure, his BMW giving up the fight on lap 28 when he was lying in fourth place.

Nick Heidfeld’s woes continued when after a very slow lap he pits his very sick sounding EJ14 in from two laps down and retires. He is soon joined by Kimi Raikkonen, who after some brilliant racing, is forced to retire just after his third and final pit stop, his MP4-19 coming to halt on track.

Olivier Panis came in for a pit stop, but his team was not ready for him so the Frenchman drove straight through and was then handed a penalty for pit lane speeding!

The results are as follows:
1. 1 M.SCHUMACHER Ferrari B 1h31'07"490 204.384 Km/h 3 2. 3 MONTOYA Williams BMW M + 0'05"022 204.197 Km/h 3 3. 9 BUTTON BAR Honda M + 0'11"568 203.953 Km/h 3 4. 2 BARRICHELLO Ferrari B + 0'13"616 203.877 Km/h 3 5. 7 TRULLI Renault M + 0'37"360 202.997 Km/h 3 6. 5 COULTHARD McLaren Mercedes M + 0'53"098 202.418 Km/h 3 7. 8 ALONSO Renault M + 1'07"877 201.878 Km/h 2 8. 12 MASSA Sauber Petronas B 1 lap(s) 2 9. 16 DA MATTA Toyota M 1 lap(s) 3 10. 15 KLIEN Jaguar Cosworth M 1 lap(s) 3 11. 11 FISICHELLA Sauber Petronas B 1 lap(s) 3 12. 17 PANIS Toyota M 1 lap(s) 5 13. 19 PANTANO Jordan Ford B 2 lap(s) 2 14. 20 BRUNI Minardi Cosworth B 3 lap(s) 3 15. 10 SATO BAR Honda M 4 lap(s) 2 16. 21 BAUMGARTNER Minardi Cosworth B 4 lap(s) 3 17. 6 RAIKKONEN McLaren Mercedes M 16 lap(s) 3 18. 18 HEIDFELD Jordan Ford B 22 lap(s) 4 19. 4 R.SCHUMACHER Williams BMW M 29 lap(s) 1 20. 14 WEBBER Jaguar Cosworth M 33 lap(s) 2