March 19, 2006

Fisichella leads Renault 1-2 at Sepang: Renault driver Giancarlo Fisichella leads a 1-2 finish at the Grand Prix of Malaysia for the first time in 24 years. By Mark Gero

SEPANG, Malaysia- After the first race of the year in 2005, Giancarlo Fisichella was on top of the world. He had just won the first race of the year, and was leading the world championship. But the rest of that year went downhill. In last week’s race, the 32 year old Italian thought that it would begin again with the bad luck following a hydraulic problem. But Sunday in Malaysia, it all changed. Fisichella led from pole position and won his third race of his career, leading a Renault 1-2 ahead of his teammate and current world champion Fernando Alonso at the Grand Prix of Malaysia at Sepang. It was the first time since 1982 that the manufacture had this kind of a result when Rene Arnoux and Alain Prost did the same at the French Grand Prix at Paul Ricard, France. Fisichalla shot out of the grid right from the start of the race ahead of Honda driver Jenson Button and kept the lead well enough to maintain a five second lead by the twelfth lap. The Italian led this way until he came in for fuel six laps later. After a series of pit stops throughout the race, Alonso then took the lead with 19 laps to go, but had to make an important pit stop, which worked to perfection, putting the Spaniard ahead of Button for second position. But the world champion could not overtake his teammate, who had enough speed to overtake Alonso, considering that the time differential was getting lass every lap in favor of the Renault number one. While the Renault team drivers were having a field day, some others were not. Kimi Raikkonen, who started his McLaren Mercedes from the third row, was struck by Red Bull driver Christian Klien on the opening lap and spun out moments later. Both Williams’s drivers Nico Rosberg and his Australian teammate Mark Webber went home early with engine and hydraulic failures respectively. Another team which lost both drivers was Red Bull. David Coulthard encountered hydraulics on lap 11 and only after getting his car out again after striking Raikkonen, Klien finally pulled in his car with his suspension too badly damaged to continue. American Scott Speed started from the middle of the grid but was another victim of hydraulics. Fisichella finally crossed the line with an 8.1 second winning gap over Alonso, with Button a distant third. Juan Pablo Montoya kept McLaren’s hopes alive with a fourth place finish, while the Ferrari duo of Felipe Massa and Michael Schumacher took the next two spots. Jacques Villeneuve and Ralf Schumacher took the last two point positions for BMW and Toyota respectively. Dedicating his race to his late friend who passed away last week, Fisichella commented: “It was a tough race, but it was no problem, except for the pit stops. It was very hot and you can get very tired in the middle of the race, but you have to go on and concentrate. ”said Fisichella.

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