Raikkonen's Maiden Win
(23 Mar 03)

Qualifying Report

Kimi Raikkonen won his first F1 race - and became World Championship leader after two rounds of the 2003 season - by surviving a Malaysian GP that was entertaining if you were watching it but brutal if you actually had to take part.

The previous round in Australia had been a cracker, largely because of variable weather conditions. At Sepang, the random factor was introduced by, of all people, Michael Schumacher. Third on the grid behind the Renaults of Fernando Alonso (pictured below) and Jarno Trulli, Schumacher quickly found himself in danger of losing another place as David Coulthard's McLaren blasted through on the approach to the first corner. With the second corner following very shortly afterwards, Schumacher did his best to keep alongside Coulthard so that he could regain position at the next apex.

The only problem with all this was that it neglected the presence of Trulli immediately ahead. The front right wheel of the Ferrari tagged the left rear of the Renault, which spun to a halt, causing a moment of intense interest for everyone behind.

It was bad news for a lot of people, not least Antonio Pizzonia, who was left with a face full of Juan Pablo Montoya, and indeed Montoya himself, the rear wing of whose Williams was sent into orbit by Pizzonia's Jaguar. It took three laps to fit a replacement, and Montoya spent the rest of the race trundling round to finish 12th, a process made no easier by the fact that his drink bottle stopped working after about twenty minutes. Trulli's car was undamaged, but Schumacher (who apologised after the race) had to come into the pits for a new front wing, and was hauled back in by the stewards a few laps later to take a drive-through penalty.

On the other hand, the incident was just the job for Alonso, who found himself with a 2.5s lead at the end of the opening lap. Coulthard had managed to avoid being hit by anyone and was now second, followed by Nick Heidfeld's Sauber (which had gained three places), Raikkonen's McLaren (likewise), Jenson Button's BAR (four places), Barrichello, Olivier Panis's Toyota and - saints preserve us - the Minardi of Justin Wilson, no fewer than eleven places up on his qualifying position.

McLaren was to enjoy very mixed fortunes over the next few minutes. Raikkonen muscled past Heidfeld to take third, and then inherited second when Coulthard's car expired with electrical problems. "Time and time again we have to park the car, and it's just not good enough," Coulthard grumbled later, just before complimenting those Ferrari chaps on what a splendid job they make of building reliable race cars. Team boss Ron Dennis publicly apologised, and went on to say that despite Raikkonen's win he was "under no illusions about the competitiveness of our principal rivals".

Barrichello was meanwhile playing catch-up, having been delayed while trying to avoid being hit by anyone at the first corner. By the end of lap 9 he had worked his way up to second, and now that we had a representative top three there was time to wonder who was running with a decent race strategy and who had forced themselves into an early first pit stop by qualifying on low fuel.

It seemed fairly obvious that Renaults mechanics would be at work some time before those of McLaren or Ferrari. In fact, there wasn't much in it, but Alonso did indeed come in first, followed by Raikkonen and Barrichello. Raikkonen's stop was the slowest, but he also put in some very quick laps during this period, and once all the crews were back in the garages it was the McLaren which led the race. Alonso was second, but as well as having a fever he was now beginning to have problems with his transmission (he had to change gear manually in the closing laps), handling (the front wing was adjusted during his second stop) and engine (a misfire). Inevitably, Barrichello got past him.

There were more pit stops to come, but the order of the top three never changed. Raikkonen had driven superbly, though it's perhaps unfortunate that his first win came in a race in which so many of his potential rivals either retired or were hobbled in some way. Barrichello did a decent damage limitation job for Ferrari, and Alonso deserved a lot of praise for getting to the finish at all, never mind earning a place on the podium. It was, he said, "the best day of my life".

The only other driver to finish on the same lap as Raikkonen was Ralf Schumacher, who had a relatively uneventful race but benefitted from other people's misfortunes to finish fourth in a race he had started in 17th. Jenson Button was fifth for a very long time, despite having to defend his position from Trulli while also coping with a BAR which was oversteering wildly.

When Trulli spun during one of many attempts to apply pressure under braking, Button tried to maximise the opportunity by opening up as large a gap as possible, but all this did was destroy what life was left in his tyres, leaving him a sitting duck for both Trulli and Michael Schumacher (pictured) to aim at on the final lap.

At least he was in the race. Jacques Villeneuve's BAR had an electrical problem which led to gearbox failure on the formation lap, and he retired before reaching the grid.

Nick Heidfeld scored the last point, having beaten Sauber team-mate Heinz-Harald Frentzen by one place. It wasn't quite the result the team had been hoping for, given that its main sponsor and engine supplier Petronas is Malaysian and was also the sponsor of the event. But fuel evaporation was a problem on both cars, causing havoc in the pit stops, and both also suffered transmission problems which in particular prevented Frentzen from selecting a gear at the start (though he admitted this did at least mean he wasn't caught up in the aftermath of the Schumacher/Trulli collision).

Once he was properly in the race, Frentzen became involved in a tough battle for ninth which also involved British newcomer Ralph Firman's Jordan and Cristiano da Matta's Toyota. Firman (pictured) was at the head of this group and might have stayed there but for the fact that on his only scheduled pit stop the fuel delivery system failed to supply enough juice. In the last few laps he had to opt for a lean mixture and low revs, and in the end it was an easy matter for Frentzen to get past.

The Jordan team was impressed with Firman's performance ("he'll never get a more hostile environment in his racing career than a Grand Prix in this heat," Eddie Jordan commented afterwards), and he certainly scored more brownie points, if not World Championship ones, than team-mate Giancarlo Fisichella, who aimed for the wrong grid slot, overshot the correct one and had to reverse into position. This is the sort of thing a highly-stressed F1 car would object to even on a cold test day at Silverstone, and in the heat at Sepang it led to problems with the clutch and launch control which put Fisichella out of the race within the next two laps.

Da Matta's presence in this group was caused by the fact that he had to switch to the T-car moments before the race started. The T-car proved to have difficulty generating enough fuel pressure on a light load, so da Matta had to carry as much fuel as possible throughout the race, and it put paid to his chances of overtaking anyone.

Olivier Panis should have been able to compensate for this by finishing in the points (he was dicing with Heidfeld and Barrichello for third at one stage), but he had fuel pressure problems too, and they brought his car to a standstill three corners after his first scheduled pit stop.

Last man home was Jos Verstappen, who - like Montoya - had lost his rear wing in the first-lap kerfuffle. Minardi team-mate Justin Wilson couldn't capitalise on his incredible leap up the order during this incident because he began to suffer from a trapped nerve in his shoulder. Obviously keen to continue as long as possible, he probably stayed out too long, and the team had to remove him very gently from the car when he finally brought it into the pits. He was airlifted to hospital in Kuala Lumpur, a sad end to a race in which he had driven very well and showed incredible determination.

Jaguar started the weekend with a fuel pick-up glitch which prevented its cars finding the last 20 litres worth in the tank, and ended it with a double non-finish. Mark Webber was called in by the team while showing signs of achieveing a points-scoring result when a potentially engine-destroying oil supply failure became apparent, while Antonio Pizzonia, who had had to pit at the end of the opening lap after his collision with Montoya, subsequently landed in the gravel when a brake problem hurled the car tail-first into the final hairpin.

Qualifying Report

2003 F1 World Championship Standings
2003 F1 World Championship Calendar
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