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2007 Malaysia GP
Team Quotes - Sunday 8 April
Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton claimed a one-two for the Vodafone McLaren Mercedes team today at the Malaysian Grand Prix. This was the team's first victory with Vodafone as a Title Partner and the team's 41st one-two. Today's result sees the team extending their lead in the Constructors' Championship with a total of 32 points and Fernando topping the drivers' battle with 18 points. Lewis is third with 14 points. Both drivers were on two-stop strategies with Fernando pitting on laps 18 (8.1 seconds) and 40 (7.2 seconds) whilst Lewis pitted on laps 20 (7.4 seconds) and 38 (7.8 seconds). Lewis did the fastest lap of the race with 1m36.701 on lap 22. The team is now going straight to Bahrain to prepare for the race next weekend.
Ron Dennis: I'm delighted for everybody in the team who have worked so hard to achieve this result. There is a new spirit within the team that I believe have been witnessed by anyone who watched us during the course of the weekend. Fernando delivers a wealth of experience and racing capability whilst Lewis
continues to demonstrate why he has warranted the enthusiasm of all of us who have worked with him over the years. Everybody throughout our entire organisation deserves to celebrate the success that they have achieved tonight, but of course our attention will quickly turn to the challenge of the next race in Bahrain. We are all looking forward to an exciting championship campaign.
Norbert Haug: What a first class race from Fernando and Lewis. Both drivers performed excellently supported by a well executed strategy from the team. All the hard work from everybody in Woking, Brixworth and Stuttgart has paid off. Well done guys and to the next Grand Prix next weekend.
The ING Renault F1 Team produced a solid, improved performance in this afternoon's Malaysian Grand Prix to take a double points finish at the Sepang Circuit.
In sweltering conditions with track temperatures hitting 50°C, the two R27s started from the sixth row of the grid – and then followed similar two-stop fuel strategies, making late first stops to take full advantage of the free fuel load afforded by their qualifying positions outside the top ten.
Both drivers used the same tyre strategy, running the soft tyre for the first two stints before fitting the hard compound for the final, shorter part of the race. After 56 punishing laps, Giancarlo Fisichella finished in sixth position (a gain of six places) while Heikki Kovalainen took his first ever Formula 1 point in only his second Grand Prix, with an eighth-place finish.
While the overall level of performance remains well below the team's expectations, this afternoon's performance represented a step forward relative to Melbourne – and the team will continue working hard on improvements in the coming weeks. After two rounds of the championship, the team sits in fourth position in the standings, with a total of 8 points.
Flavio Briatore, Managing Director: This is our level at the moment – and we got everything possible from the race this afternoon. I think our result was the one we deserved, and there is no other answer for us than to carry on working hard to climb back to the top. Fisico was perfect today, with a strong, consistent race, while Heikki got his first point, erased the memory of Melbourne and did an encouraging performance for himself and the team. We have achieved our maximum today, now we need to carry on working to improve our potential for the next races.
Pat Symonds, Executive Director of Engineering: This was the best result we could achieve with the car we have at the moment. Giancarlo drove a very impressive race, moving up six positions, which included four places gained with some incisive, aggressive driving at the start and in the first corners. Heikki was very unfortunate to get boxed in at the start, but after that he drove a good race, and came home with a well-deserved first point in his F1 career. It goes without saying that we cannot be satisfied with our level of performance, but I believe we raced well with what we had today.
Jean Todt: This is definitely a disappointing result. After a great qualifying yesterday, with Felipe on pole and Kimi third, we certainly expected better. Unfortunately, we have had to settle for a third and a fifth place from Kimi and Felipe respectively. The crucial points for getting a race win are grid position, the start, the strategy, reliability and obviously, the performance of the cars. Today, we did not manage a good start with Felipe, who later, in an effort to catch up, went off track and dropped to fifth place, thus compromising his race. Kimi was also overtaken at the start and from then on was unable to do anything about it. In the end, we got both cars home but the ten points we got are definitely cause for satisfaction. We know we are up against a very strong and battle ready opponent who did a better job than us today. Fortunately, in just one week's time we get the chance to make up for it at Sakhir. We will do all we can there to get the best possible result.
Luca Baldisserri: There is no point in denying that we are disappointed. Our performance level was definitely lower than expected and lower than what we had seen in testing last week as well as on Friday and Saturday. We will have to take a very close look at what happened. Of course the start played a big part in the way the race evolved. Felipe did not make the most of pole and then he was unlucky when trying to pass Hamilton, going off the track, but more critically, losing vital position. The fact that the performance gap between the cars in the race was not as great as we had expected made the situation more complicated, also when taking into account our strategies. Both Kimi and Felipe spent a lot of time in traffic and were thus unable to get the most out of their cars. But we can be pleased about getting both cars to the finish, given the uncertainties the day before. But we now have to work on ensuring that all elements of the package are operating at their maximum.
Both RA107s ran faultlessly in the Malaysian GP, giving the team its second two-car finish of the year.
In extremely tough conditions, the Honda Racing F1 Team drivers drove textbook races in this afternoon's Malaysian Grand Prix to bring their cars home in 11th and 12th places. Rubens Barrichello, who started the race from the pitlane, finished just 0.7s ahead of Jenson Button.
At the start, Jenson lost traction away from his 15th position on the grid and dropped down to 19th place at the first corner. He was then hit by another car at Turn 4, yet he managed to fight his way back to 16th place by the end of the opening lap.
Rubens was released from the pitlane only once the entire field had passed, yet he managed to pass two cars by the end of the first lap, and he did the same again on lap two to be in 18th place.
On lap five Jenson lost a place to Alex Wurz, which left the Honda Racing F1 Team's cars running in formation for the next few laps. The drivers swapped places on lap six, when Rubens overtook Jenson, and that's how the situation remained until Rubens made his first pitstop on lap 12, from which he emerged in 18th place, just behind Jenson.
Jenson didn't make his first pitstop until lap 21, by which time he'd climbed up to 11th place. He emerged from that stop in 16th place, behind Ralf Schumacher, and he moved back onto Rubens' tail on lap 28 when Schumacher pitted.
Rubens peeled into the pitlane on lap 34 for his second stop, which moved Jenson up to 13th place. Four laps later he made his second stop, from which he emerged just 0.7s behind Rubens, which was exactly the gap between them when they passed the chequered flag after 56 laps.
The Honda Racing F1 Team now has less than a week to move its equipment to the Middle East for next weekend's Bahrain Grand Prix. Both Jenson and Rubens tested at the track during the winter, and they are hopeful of another tenacious and reliable performance there.
Jacky Eeckelaert, Engineering Director: Both cars were reliable through what is always a tough race here and finished with no mechanical problems. Rubens drove a very strong race considering the fact that he started from the pitlane, making up an impressive 11 places. Due to a first lap incident, Jenson had some damage to his car but with some adjustment at the final stop he was able to come back and finish less than a second behind his team-mate. Both Jenson and Rubens drive exceptionally well and achieved the maximum possible with the car we have for the moment.
The BMW Sauber F1 Team had mixed fortunes in the Malaysian Grand Prix with a strong performance from Nick Heidfeld putting him fourth for the second consecutive race. However, problems from the starting lights beset Robert Kubica who finished 18th.
Mario Theissen (BMW Motorsport Director): This was again a very strong performance. Nick had a trouble free race in which he moved from fifth on the grid to fourth, settled himself there and scored five points for us. With this we have managed to put ourselves among the top teams and confirmed our good performance at the home Grand Prix of Petronas. Robert, meanwhile, had bad luck. He damaged the aerodynamics of his car in the first corner crush and afterwards the car was difficult to drive. We have strengthened our third position in the Constructors' Championship and are looking forward to race number three in Bahrain next weekend.
Willy Rampf (Technical Director): Both drivers made good starts. Robert managed to overtake Nico Rosberg, but then our two drivers made contact in the first corner. Robert's lap times got worse and worse, therefore, we decided to bring him into the pits. However, because we had no radio communication with him, we didn't know what his problem was. We changed tyres and sent him out again. We then realised that the front wing was slightly damaged, so brought him in again and changed the nose. Obviously, his race was ruined. Nick drove an excellent race and he was ready to take an advantage when Felipe Massa went wide. Nick drove a quick and consistent race, and also benefited from the strategy with two long stints. Compliments for a very good performance!
Panasonic Toyota Racing will leave Kuala Lumpur with two points following Jarno Trulli's 7th place finish at today's Malaysian Grand Prix. After the mixed weather of the previous few days, the race took place on a sunny day of typically oppressive Malaysian heat. Track temperatures topped 50 degrees Celsius, making for a hard day's work for all the drivers. Following yesterday's strong performance in qualifying, Jarno and team-mate Ralf Schumacher lined up in 8th and 9th on the grid. Unfortunately both lost ground at the start and from there it was a long, hard race for both drivers. Jarno stayed in the top ten all race on his way to the points. Ralf was less fortunate and lost further ground when he suffered a slow puncture shortly after his first pit stop and had to fuel until the end of the race, eventually taking 15th place. After starting the year with two successive points finishes, Toyota will now begin its journey to Bahrain for the third round of the championship next Sunday, April 15.
Tsutomu Tomita - Team Principal: "We have to be satisfied with this result because we have made some progress here compared to Melbourne, especially in terms of race pace. The weekend started quite well as we again got both cars into the top ten. But the starts were a problem for both cars so we lost a number of places and both cars were blocked behind slower cars for the first stint, losing over 10 seconds. Passing is extremely difficult here as we saw throughout the field. But Jarno had a strong race today in extreme conditions with very high temperatures. We made a good decision to put him on the harder tyres for the first stint but he couldn't take advantage because of the traffic. Ralf was less fortunate and soon after his first pit stop he suffered a slow puncture. That's why he had to come into the pits at the worst possible time for his strategy. He was due to have his last stint on the harder tyre but because we had to fill him up until the end, that put him out of contention. In the heat of Sepang it is not good to run on a full tank of fuel but he still raced well and brought the car home. We took 8th and 9th places in Melbourne whereas here it was 7th and 15th but the actual performance was better here. In Melbourne we were quite far away in terms of pace. The good news here is that during Jarno's second and third stints his lap times were not far off the front-runners. If we had made better starts he could have kept the Renaults behind. So if we continue developing I hope that we can get even closer to the front."
Christian Horner: Ultimately a disappointing race. Mark started in a good position, but lost a place on the first lap and, running on a different tyre at the beginning, seemed to pay a penalty compared to our immediate opponents who were on the soft tyre. Mark ran the soft tyre in his last sector and was able to close to within half a second to Wurz, but unfortunately couldn't get close enough to pass him. The problem with David's car meant he had no choice but to retire on safety grounds. As a precaution we obviously need to quarantine the brake pedal and look into what happened.
Fabrice Lom, Renault Principal Engineer, Track Support: The result of this second Grand Prix is pretty encouraging for us. The team had a good strategy and the engine worked without any problem which is very satisfying owing to the extreme conditions we had to face today. We are of course a little bit disappointed for David, but Mark did a strong race and the car is where it is supposed to be given our current competitiveness. We still made encouraging progress for this race and we now look forward the next Grand Prix in Bahrain.
The AT&T Williams team performed strongly in today's Malaysian Grand Prix until a technical failure intervened terminating Nico Rosberg's race 13 laps from the end of the race. Alex Wurz, starting from the back of the grid, fought through the field from 19th place to finish inside the top ten, in ninth place at the flag.
Sam Michael, Technical Director: It was obviously disappointing to stop with Nico while he was in sixth place. We're not clear what the problem is at the moment and need to get the car back to look at it. Alex had a good race from where he came from, unfortunately he just missed out on points. Overall, our race pace was good.
Franz Tost: Tonio had quite a good race, but unfortunately, a collision meant he had to pit for a new front wing. After that, his lap times were quite promising and he performed very well in the first two stints. In the final stint, he was behind Davidson and was unable to get past. Scott had some understeering problems in the first stint and after the settings were changed at his first stop, he went a bit quicker, but he was not able to match Tonio's pace. Both cars saw the chequered flag, which is encouraging but there is still a lot of work to do.
The team's PR people always say a frown is just an upside down smile, but there wasn't a lot to convince the Etihad Aldar Spyker Formula One Team this was the case in the Malaysian Grand Prix as both Adrian Sutil and Christijan Albers retired from the race before the seventh lap.
Adrian Sutil had made a good start to his second-ever Formula One event, however a suspension problem before the fourth corner caused him to make contact with one of the Hondas. The impact sent the German into the gravel trap and into retirement.
Christijan Albers also started well, passing Toro Rosso's Vitantonio Liuzzi on the second lap to move into 19th position. The Dutchman kept pace with the back of the field and put in some competitive lap times until his car got stuck in first gear at the start of the sixth lap. Forced to run at extremely high revs to get back to the pits, the car overheated and caught fire on entry to the pit lane. Quickly extinguished by Spyker technicians, Christijan's race was nonetheless brought to a close.
It was a frustrating end to a productive weekend, in which the team had gathered valuable data on its new aero package, but Bahrain can only be better…
Mike Gascoyne, chief technical officer: A miserable end to a tough weekend. Adrian had a problem at the rear of the car, which caused him to have contact with a Honda through the fourth corner, while Christijan's car got stuck in first gear. We're yet to ascertain the reason for the failure, but as he ran at very high revs for a long time to get back to the pits, the exhaust got hot and the bodywork caught alight. We've now got to move onto Bahrain next weekend and hope we have a much better result.
Colin Kolles, team principal and managing director: I am disappointed we didn't get the chance to show the progress we had made with the car this weekend. We knew over the longer runs we were confident of showing an improvement in pace. We'll carry the developments onto Bahrain, where we'll hopefully be able to demonstrate how far we've come.
In the searing heat and extreme humidity at the Sepang International Circuit today, Super Aguri drivers Takuma Sato and Anthony Davidson both took the chequered flag to complete the 2007 Malaysian Grand Prix. After an extremely demanding race, Takuma came home in 13th position, whilst team-mate Anthony crossed the finish line in 16th place.
Aguri Suzuki, Team Principal: It was a very difficult race for the team. The SA07's reliability is very good, but not our race pace. Unfortunately Taku lost several places during the first lap, but Anthony made a very good start. I am happy to have both cars finish the race with no issues, however we made one pitstop mistake with Taku. The drivers did a good job today and now we shall work on our performance next Friday for the Bahrain Grand Prix.
Fernando Alonso has won the Petronas Malaysian Grand Prix registering his first win for McLaren Mercedes and the team's first win in over a year. He led team-mate Lewis Hamilton across the line with Australian Grand Prix winner Kimi Raikkonen taking third.
Alonso took the lead from the start, displacing pole-sitter Felipe Massa. Both Massa and Raikkonen were overtaken by Hamilton on the first lap leaving the McLarens at the head of the field, a position they did not relinquish until their first pit stops.
The win is Alonso's sixteenth and he now leads the Drivers' Championship with 18 points from Raikkonen on 16. It is Hamilton's second podium finish in as many races in his F1 career. Nick Heidfeld finished fourth for BMW Sauber with Massa taking fifth.
Sixth went to 2006 race winner Giancarlo Fisichella (Renault) with Toyota's Jarno Trulli taking seventh. The final points scoring position went to Heikki Kovalainen. McLaren Mercedes lead the Constructors' Championship with 32 points to Ferrari's 23.
Kees van de Grint, Bridgestone Motorsport Head of Track Engineering Operations: Both specifications of Bridgestone Potenza tyres withstood the heat very well. Degradation of the medium specification, although higher than the hard specification, was actually lower today than we have seen in testing and we saw no mechanical failures. As we expected, the medium compound was the faster of the two by a similar amount to that experienced in practice when you account for factors such as fuel load. Bringing the hard and medium compounds to this race was certainly the correct choice. Some drivers experienced an amount of graining, but they quickly learnt how to get better performance from their tyres. Half of the points scoring cars were from constructors that we did not supply previously and it was an exciting race. The white groove marking was a success. Watching pit stops in the pit lane and the cars on track on television it was clear to see which tyre each driver was on.
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