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Melee
in Malaysia
The Malaysian Grand Prix Wrap-up
By Brian Stovall
Where
to start? The monsoon conditions? Both Schumacher’s supremacy?
A third of the field not finishing the race? Or the lack of
spectators in the stands?
The weekend
weather forecast indicated that heat and occasional downpours
would be present, but “when” and “how long” couldn’t be pinpointed.
With Malaysia being in the sweltering heat of its summer season,
drivers knew their race stamina and car’s durability would
be put to the test. This wasn’t such a factor last year because
the race was last on the schedule, which would fall roughly
during Malaysia’s spring. Now with the race bumped up to the
second competition of this season, weather and attendance
would be the two big stories going into the weekend.
© 2001 Brian Stovall |
With the
last race held less than six months ago, organizers were preparing
for a huge financial loss on this year’s event, due mainly
to fans having to purchase fairly expensive tickets in such
a short time frame. An attempt to persuade people to attend
was made in the form of delaying the live telecast of the
race, in the home country, until that evening. But anybody
whose chose not to go was going to miss quite a hectic, yet
exciting, race.
The Friday
practice session may have well been an endurance test just
to see how hard they could push the cars in the heat and humidity.
No big surprises like new track records, as was the case in
the Australia two weeks ago. This time it would be about the
drivers testing their physical limits in the jungle climate.
Everybody did pretty well, but not much can be said for the
vehicles. There were a number of engine failures throughout
the day of practice. And keep in mind that these guys don’t
run their cars all day. They are only allowed a couple practice
sessions about an hour each. During this time they will start
out with a reconnaissance lap to feel the car, then right
away they come in. After this they’ll take a couple laps at
a time, head toward the pits, shut the car down and adjustments
will be made. There is never really a good test for the hour
and a half race that will occur two days later. With this
in mind, the crews have to make educated guesses about what
will suit a car for the duration of that race. At the end
of Friday practice, it was the Jordan/Honda of Jarno Trulli
who had the best lap around the Sepang circuit with the Ferrari’s
of Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello right behind.
The qualification
session on Saturday would signal the beginning of the more
abnormal weekend. Due to Speedvision’s broadcast problems,
I was unable to see the actual qualifications until the last
ten minutes. The commentators were keeping up to par with
the action minus the visuals. Now imagine my shock when they
announced that the BMW/Williams of Ralf Schumacher just took
pole away from his older brother Michael. It was like a breath
of fresh air, not to slight the Ferraris in any way. But,
alas, the signal was restored right in time for me to see
Michael Schumacher making his way out of the pits, take his
warm-up lap and turn in the hottest time of the day, taking
the pole back. Shortly thereafter Rubens Barrichello took
out his #2 Ferrari and knocked poor Ralf down another notch.
This would be the extent of the pole shuffling for the day
as qualifications ended a few minutes later. More big news
came from the 4th and 8th positions where the McLarens found
themselves starting. The thought of this was a bit shocking,
seeing the two expected contenders not even able to land in
the top three. They would have to make the most of the race-day
morning practice.
Sunday
arrived and brought strong, isolated showers with it. The
drivers spent the morning warm-up practicing in the rain.
This gave them a chance to break in their wet tires in case
a downpour should arrive during the event. As expected, the
McLarens’ performance did improve but they still would have
to start from the less-than-desirable qualification positions
and they know the farther back you are at the start, the more
dangerous that first turn is.
Lined
up on the grid, the cars started off on their warm-up (or
what we, in the U.S., call a “Parade”) lap and made their
way around the track. While lining up for the standing-start
of the race, Giancarlo Fisichella overshot his starting spot
and ended up at an angle on the grid. Naturally this wasn’t
legal, so he had to move to the back of the grid and the race
had a five-minute delay, placing more strain on everybody’s
engines in the heat and humidity. When the go-ahead was given
for another warm-up lap, the BMW/Williams of Juan Pablo Montoya
stalled and he had to sprint clear back to his pit, in full
gear, and hop into his spare car. The field came back around
and took their positions. Once the lights went out, all the
drivers made it off their marks except for Kimi Raikkonen,
who seemed to completely lose power as soon as he gunned it,
then eventually rolled to a stop. His day was over.
As the
cars started into the first turn, Ralf Schumacher shot up
into second place. While making his way through the quasi-hairpin,
Barrichello tapped Ralf and sent him spinning around, which
would ultimately spin out the Jaguar of Eddie Irvine. Both
recovered and moved on losing many positions. This makes two
races in a row where the Rubens has bumped another car in
the first turn, costing them positions. It also occurred when
he and Heinz-Harold Frentzen got together in the first turn
at Melbourne a couple weeks ago. Some of the drivers are suggesting
he be penalized, which is not uncommon for such an action.
The next
batch of odd excitement would occur on lap three when Olivier
Panis’ BAR/Honda engine let go causing him to spin off into
a gravel pit and leave a trail of oil on the track. Right
after this incident the blinding, monsoon downpour started,
elevating the hazardous conditions by pulling the oil out
of the track surface. On the next lap around, both Ferraris
shot off the track at maximum speed, from the oil laid by
Panis’ car. Schumacher headed straight for the wall while
Barrichello was able to turn a bit. Both saved it when they
hit the grass patch after the gravel pit. This put them farther
back in the field though.
The rest
of the drivers were now feeling the effects of staying on
slicks for that one extra lap. Jaques Villeneuve first spun
off into a gravel trap, followed by the Red Bull/Sauber of
Nick Heidfeld then the Arrows/Orange car of Enrique Bernoldi;
all in the same turn, in sequential order. The day would be
over for all three. Later that lap, the first place car of
Jarno Trulli spun out of control into a gravel pit with the
second place of David Coulthard almost mimicking his exact
movements. Both made their way back onto the track and headed
directly for the pits. The final spin of the lap would come
from Jean Alesi who left the track and but immediately recovered.
All the action brought out the Safety Car for the second race
in a row. An odd occurrence because it’s very rare to have
a full course yellow even once a season. Now they’re two for
two. You’ll most commonly see this only when there is a restart
at the beginning of a race due to a malfunction or first lap
pile-up.
With a
majority of the cars in the pits and no real indication of
how long the rain would last, it was time for the teams to
decide which rain tire to go with; full wets or intermediates?
Ferrari would be the only team to make the decision of intermediates,
coming to this conclusion because it had only rained over
a section of the track. This move would prove key to the ending
of the race. At first I thought Rubens and Michael were finished
because they did something I had never seen before; the two
vehicles were lined up in the pits. This means that while
the crew was scrambling to find Rubens Barrichello’s intermediate
wet tires and clean the gravel out of his intakes, Michael
Schumacher was sitting right behind him. By the time Barrichello
made it out, he had been there 1 minute and 12 seconds, about
1 minute too long. This meant that Schumacher still had to
be serviced. He was taken care of in 8 seconds. This delay
put the Ferraris in 10th and 11th position.
David
Coulthard had pretty much taken off with the lead, but there
was a great battle for the 4th, 5th and 6th positions throughout
the rest of the race. After all of the chaos Mika Hakkinen
had ended up in the middle of the points and he was trying
to catch up with the Arrows car of Jos Verstappen in fourth.
Eventually Ralf Schumacher made his way into this battle,
and for a couple laps you would’ve thought these guys were
fighting for 1st place. Frentzen caught up with this group
which further distracted from the lead. The four cars shuffled,
while the Ferraris where gaining in the background.
Schumacher
and Barrichello seemed to just dance around the other teams
as they approached. This is where the intermediate tire selection
made the difference. They ended up averaging five-second faster
lap times than the other cars. Within no time both Ferraris
had passed Coulthard and taken 1st and 2nd.
Once the
halfway point pit stops began, everyone switched back to slicks
and the finishing order took shape. The Ferraris held 1st
and 2nd, Coulthard hung on to 3rd and Frentzen moved into
4th, separating himself from the heated battle between Ralf
Schumacher and Mika Hakkinen for the final two point positions.
Unfortunately, Verstappen’s battle for points was over once
the path was clear during the pit stops. Hakkinen kicked it
old-school and took off. There were speculations that Mika’s
car actually handled better with more fuel in it. This would
make sense since there were reports that both the McLarens
have been suffering from understeer problems. Hakkinen was
also placing an enormous amount of pressure on Ralf for 5th
place the last couple laps of the race. So much so that you
could see the brake-dust pouring out of Ralf’s tires as he
broke hard in corners; a sign that the brake discs might explode
in a matter of time. But R. Schumacher held him off to claim
his first points of the season for BMW/Williams, and team
Ferrari once again proved that they are planning to dominate
the 2001 season with a 1 & 2 finish.
They’ll
get a chance to continue their reign in two weeks in Brazil
as they race at Interlagos. This will be the “home court”
race for Ferrari’s Rubens Barrichello, Arrow’s Enrique Bernoldi,
Jaguar’s Luciano Burti, and Minardi’s Tarso Marques; although
Juan Pablo Montoya should be a crowd favorite due to his CART
success and Columbian heritage. Be sure to watch the race
on Speedvision if you live in the States, as it is a mid-day
race and that only happens a couple times this season. And
we need to show the Hilljacks there’s more to racing than
going in circles and “tradin’ paint.”
STANDINGS:
Malaysian
Race Order (Season Points):
- Michael
Schumacher……….(20 pts.)
- Rubens
Barrichello…………(10 pts.)
- David
Coulthard……………(10 pts.)
- Heinz-Harold
Frentzen………(5 pts.)
- Ralf
Schumacher…………….(2 pts.)
- Mika
Hakkinen……………….(1 pt.)
- Jos
Verstappen
- Jarno
Trulli
- Jean
Alesi
- Luciano
Burti
- Jenson
Button
- Gaston
Mazzacane
- Fernando
Alonso
- Tarso
Marques
DNF Giancarlo
Fisichella
DNF Jaques Villeneuve
DNF Nick Heidfeld………………(3 pts.)
DNF Enrique Bernoldi
DNF Juan Pablo Montoya
DNF Eddie Irvine
DNF Olivier Panis
DNF Kimi Raikkonen……………..(1 pt.)
Brian
Stovall's email address is brianstovall@hotmail.com.
He braved sunburn (Day 1), windburn (Day 2) and frostbite
(Day 3) to see his favorite sport, Formula One, make its debut
in his hometown of Indy.
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