Alonso wins dominantly

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Just like his teammate at Mild Seven RenaultF1 did in Melbourne, Fernando Alonso has today won the Sepang Grand Prix in Malaysia with a brilliant performance without any errors. Next on the podium was Jarno Trulli bringing a first podium to Cologne for Toyota and third Nick Heidfeld.

Early in the race Trulli's Toyota seemed to be able to keep up with Fernando Alonso while the pair steadily pulled away from the pack. In all the fighting behind the leaders both Ferrari's did not gain any positions with one of them (Barrichello) even touching a McLaren.

As soon as lap five there were 3 cars out, as many as in the total Melbourne race. The Minardi of Friesacher came stuck when going out of corner one, while both BAR Honda's saw their engine go up in smoke. Strangely enough both these engines were new ones as they stopped in Melbourne just in front of the finish line to be allowed an engine switch without penalty.

Quickly though it was clear that Trulli would not be able to hold on to a speeding up Alonso, setting fastest laps one after the other. The gap would become approximately 8 seconds before the first pitstop around lap 19.

At that time, Webber was in 4th position closing in on Fisichella who obviously had problems with understeering (as adjusted but not solved in his pitstop later). Webber on his behalf was chased closely by Ralf Schumacher and a little further the McLaren of Kimi Raikkonen. Both McLarens only then came up to speed after they started the race with more fuel than their competitors. The Finn even set the fastest lap of the race just before he went in for his first stop after which he would have to come in again after suffering a puncture.

Both Ferrari's kept struggling during the complete race as Schumacher had all the trouble of the world to keep off Felipe Massa. Halfway the race Jacques Villeneuve in the other Sauber strangely came stuck in the gravel trap of corner one. The car appeared to be blocking the rear wheels when Jacques hit the brakes, after which he inevitably lost control.

Both Ralf Schumacher and Mark Webber found themselves held up by Fisico leading to the best fight yet of this season. Ralf attempted to pass Webber in the last corner of the circuit but slipped into the Australian. Webber was able to keep his position, however Ralf lost one to a closely following Heidfeld who profited from the manoeuvre. Places switched several times during the following lap but eventually the Williams got the upper hand. When Webber came back to Fisico, he attempted to pass the Renault too. He wasn't as lucky this time as with Ralf, as both men had to leave the race giving a podium away for Heidfeld.

Because of this incident, M Schumacher was able to get two points finishing 7th, while Rubens Barrichello drove into the pit garage 6 laps before the end of the race. He was driving the race on soft Bridgestones and suffered from serious oversteer likely because of that.

The end results are as follows:
1 F. Alonso Renault 1:31:33.736 10
2 J. Trulli Toyota + 24.327 8
3 N. Heidfeld Williams + 32.188 6
4 JP. Montoya McLaren + 41.631 5
5 R. Schumacher Toyota + 51.854 4
6 D. Coulthard Red Bull + 1:12.543 3
7 M. Schumacher Ferrari + 1:19.988 2
8 C. Klien Red Bull + 1:20.835 1
9 K. Räikkönen McLaren + 1:21.580 0
10 F. Massa Sauber + 1 laps 0
11 N. Karthikeyan Jordan + 2 laps 0
12 T. Monteiro Jordan + 3 laps 0
13 C. Albers Minardi + 4 laps 0
14 R. Barrichello Ferrari + 6 laps dnf
15 G. Fisichella Renault + 19 laps dnf
16 M. Webber Williams + 19 laps dnf
17 J. Villeneuve Sauber + 30 laps dnf
18 J. Button BAR + 54 laps dnf
19 A. Davidson BAR + 54 laps dnf
20 P. Friesacher Minardi + 54 laps dnf