Fisichella Claims Victory in Sepang

Posted on March 19th, 2006 by Oliver White in 2006 Season

Giancarlo Fisichella has followed his pole in yesterdays qualifying with a convincing victory in the Malaysian Grand Prix. Fisichella led for the majority of the race, only coming under attack in the final stint as team mate Fernando Alonso started to gain some ground on the Italian. At the chequered flag though, Alonso had to settle for second place, finishing ahead of Jenson Button in the Honda.
Juan Pablo Montoya finished for McLaren in fourth place after a rather disappointing race. Montoya had a quiet afternoon and never really looked to be on-form, although he did fair better than his team mate. Kimi Raikkonen retired from the race on lap one after being clouted by Christian Klien in the Red Bull. Following Juan Pablo across the line were Ferrari drivers Felipe Massa and Michael Schumacher, the Brazilian leading the German home after starting from the back of the grid. Both Ferrari’s suffered heavily this weekend with engine changes, and this result from starting so far back was good for the squad.

Nick Heidfeld in the BMW Sauber was having a solid run in Malaysia after an electric start. The young German was hovering around in fifth before his engine finally let go. However, points were scored for BMW by Jacques Villeneuve who bought his car home in seventh. Eighth place was covered by Ralf Schumacher in the Toyota. Neither Toyota really looked to be a threat to the points-scorers, but after a miriad of retirements, Ralf was slowly promoted.
Unfortunately, both Williams drivers retired their cars due to engine troubles. Nico Rosberg, who stunned everybody yesterday with his qualifying pace had a spectacular blow-up, and Mark Webber pulled off the track a few laps later with smoke creeping out from the rear diffuser. Not the result Williams would have been hoping for, but the pace of the Cosworth-engined cars looked reasonably good, and Mark will be buoyed for his home Grand Prix in a fortnight.

A good race from the Sepang circuit in Malaysia, and whilst there wasn’t much awesome overtaking or daring pit work, it was good to see Renault sharing the top-step of the podium with each driver having won a race so far this season. It was also Renault’s first 1-2 since 1982 and Giancarlo dedicated his race victory to a friend who recently passed away.

Final Result

1. Fisichella – Renault
2. Alonso – Renault
3. Button – Honda
4. Montoya – McLaren
5. Massa – Ferrari
6. M Schumacher – Ferrari
7. Villeneuve – BMW Sauber
8. R Schumacher – Toyota
9. Trulli – Toyota
10. Barrichello – Honda
11. Liuzzi – Toro Rosso
12. Albers – Midland
13. Monteiro – Midland
14. Sato – Super Aguri
Ret. Heidfeld – BMW Sauber
Ret. Speed – Toro Rosso
Ret. Ide – Super Aguri
Ret. Klien – Red Bull
Ret. Webber – Williams
Ret. Coulthard – Red Bull
Ret. Rosberg – Williams
Ret. Raikkonen – McLaren

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9 Comments For This Post
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Ankit Sud

March 19th, 2006 - 12:15pm

Well i didnt like the race, ferrari shud have put schumi on a 1 pitstop strategy, that way he could have gotten a much better result.

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Oliver White

March 19th, 2006 - 9:42pm

And I think Renault should have left Alonso on a 1 stop strategy. I think he could have challenged Fisichella better had he only stopped the once.
Neeraj

March 20th, 2006 - 8:57am

Yes, I think Ferrari miscalculated in terms of Schumi’s pitstops. Single stop would have got him atleast 4th position.

Oliver, as per what I heard, Ranault messed up badly on saturday by putting more fuel in Alonso’s car than they intended, but not even that much that they could run on single-stop stratergy.

But taking nothing away from Fisichella, he drove amazinglyy. Specially his first 15 laps where he set 15 fastest-lap records, were just amazing. He was too good for Alonso to catch.
lyndonray

March 20th, 2006 - 9:45am

I think it was an eventful race in terms of the retirements, Rosberg’s being the most spectecular. At first I thought it was part of the additions to the package Williams had yapping on about the whole week. Then I quickly realised that the car was infact about to explode. Too bad for young Nico. Too bad for Kimi as well – being punted off the field by some idiotic Austrian! It was a good race for Fisi, but there weren’t any really interesting fights for position. Hopefully Australia will be great for Kimi!!
Oliver White

March 20th, 2006 - 7:23pm

Yes, a rather eventful race for retirements, but it did conform to me what a fantastic young driver that Nico Rosberg is. The next ‘Youngest Ever World Champion’? Well, if Williams continue to improve at their current rate then it’ll only be a couple of years…
koushik

March 21st, 2006 - 5:25pm

Too bad that both the stars of Bahrain (Kimi and Nico) had to exit unceremoniously.

Fernando had to start seventh for no fault of his.
http://www.itv-f1.com/News_Article.aspx?PO_ID=35314

I would really expect Schumacher and Ferrari to deliver from Imola onwards, where Bridgestone shods should work much better, the conditions being colder.

But yes, it was indeed heart-warming to see that Ferrari didn’t execute a team-order this time around
me

March 21st, 2006 - 11:28pm

koushik, i was amazed that ferrari never made that switch. i’m guessing mr. brawn wanted it to happen but mr. todt (who’s own son manages fillipe) would let him.

given that ferarri look like they may have to change their front and rear wings in time for the next race, they may not have the advantage they’re expecting come imola. williams could be in a good position though.
Oliver White

March 21st, 2006 - 11:51pm

“Williams could be in a good position though.”
If [fingers crossed] they can make that Cozzie last two races…
me

March 22nd, 2006 - 8:03am

fair point, given that williams spent all winter doing short runs to fix gear box issues, the engine hasn’t had a lot of high milage testing