Fernando Alonso and McLaren win 40 degree race in Malaysia

"Formula 1"

The second round of the Formula 1 championship, the Malaysian Grand Prix, which took place yesterday, became McLaren's revenge for the defeat by Ferrari in the opening race of the season in Australia. Neither Kimi Raikkonen nor Felipe Massa at the Sepang Circuit were able to do anything against Fernando Alonso, who finished ahead of them, who took the lead in the overall standings, and Lewis Hamilton.

Yesterday, presumably, McLaren threw a good party for its employees. In any case, the occasion was appropriate. Maybe someone has already forgotten, but the great team has not won Formula 1 stages for a year and a half - since the Japanese victory in October 2005 of Kimi Raikkonen, who, contrary to forecasts, did not become its future. And after a long series of mediocre performances, success came. And, most importantly, what a success this was! Fernando Alonso called it fantastic. Maybe I went a little overboard with the epithet, but the content of the weekend really suggested an abundance of emotions.

No, of course, three weeks ago in Australia it became clear that the new McLaren Mercedes is competitive and certainly much better than last year’s McLaren. But it wasn't entirely clear how competitive it would be against Ferrari. Still, Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton fell behind Kimi Raikkonen in Melbourne. Moreover, they rather did not wage a fight with the Finn, but indicated it. It was felt that he was not driving at the limit. And the exciting Malaysian qualifying, won by Felipe Massa, raised doubts that McLaren would be able to perform so brilliantly already at Sepang.

The balance after it was in favor of Ferrari. And Fernando Alonso correctly said that the only chance to change it on this track, where overtaking is a big problem, was the start. How magnificently both McLaren drivers took advantage of this chance: Massa was overtaken not only by Alonso, but also by Hamilton, who managed to slip from fourth to second position - past both Ferraris.

It is not customary to draw clear conclusions based on one or even two races, but the events that took place on Saturday indicated that McLaren was ready to fight for victory in the championship. His drivers performed perfectly on the track. While Fernando Alonso, having won the start, was slowly moving forward, Lewis Hamilton was holding back Felipe Massa behind him. And no one after Malaysia would think to say that the Australian podium of the 22-year-old British newcomer was an accident. Massa attacked him for five laps. Non-stop, being clearly faster. But Hamilton fought off these attacks as creatively as if he had at least ten years of experience in the series. In the end, Massa, braking at the wrong time, made a mistake, flew onto the grass and lost two positions. And along with them, it seems, a taste for risk, since in the future he did not even attack Nick Heidfeld, who finished fourth in a BMW Sauber.

Ferrari still had Kimi Raikkonen. However, the Finn later did not hide how shocked he was by the confidence of his rivals and the quality of McLaren's work. The confidence of the riders was expressed in the complete absence of even the slightest mistakes. Which is actually surprising, considering how difficult it is to perform in conditions like Malaysia, with 40-degree heat. Lewis Hamilton later admitted that before the race he drank almost liters of water to avoid dehydration. But it did not help. At some point he felt as if he was dry to the bone. And Raikkonen’s car loomed in the rearview mirror. An ordinary novice might hesitate. However, Hamilton slowed down only at the very end, calculating everything so that the Finn would come close to him at the very finish, but not before.

Fernando Alonso said that the water from the “drinking bowl” in the middle of the race began to resemble tea - and we are not talking about the pleasant ice-tea in such weather, but about real tea, poured into a mug from a just boiling kettle. But I had to drink this too - otherwise I could lose consciousness. However, the world champion did not present any gifts to Ferrari, finishing the stage far ahead of his opponents.

The quality of McLaren's work is the obvious successful selection of all settings for a difficult race, and pit stops that were no worse than Ferrari's. For example, due to the first of them, Lewis Hamilton increased his advantage over Kimi Raikkonen by several seconds.

"To be honest, I'm surprised at how good our competitors were," mused Felipe Massa when asked about his impression of the McLaren an hour after the Malaysian Grand Prix ended. Ferrari will have to rack their brains to prevent history from repeating itself a week later in Bahrain.

Alexey Kommersant-Dospehov

The second one went well