Sepang F1 circuit, Malaysia...

Sepang F1 circuit, Kuala lumpur, Malaysia was where the action was this weekend. Known as the most technical circuit on the F1 calender we witnessed a lot of action.

Just as Lewis Hamilton had driven the perfect race in the opening round in Melbourne, so Kimi Raikkonen simply didn’t put a wheel wrong in the second round of the World Championship in Sepang. For me, Kimi’s entire approach to the race illustrated to me just how becoming World Champion in 2007 has made him an even stronger contender in 2008. Kimi fought back from his disappointing Australian Grand Prix by taking victory in Malaysia and closing to within three points of Lewis Hamilton in the drivers' championship. The Finn cruised home ahead of Robert Kubica and Heikki Kovalainen.

One of the highlights of the race was Trulli’s determined defense of fourth place from Lewis Hamilton’s McLaren. Hamilton fifth? Battling with a Toyota? It says it all about Lewis’s weekend!

There’s no doubt about it. Raikkonen’s Ferrari team-mate Felipe Massa is sensationally fast. The Brazilian’s pole position lap in Saturday qualifying was a joy to watch. But when it comes to planning and applying race strategy, Kimi has a clear edge. Even as Massa was claiming the pole position, Raikkonen had claimed second on the grid, half a second a lap slower than his team-mate.

As soon as the lights extinguished, Raikkonen was up alongside Massa, but the Brazilian wasn’t going to give way so easily and didn’t hesitate to move across and ‘close the door’. Not so long ago, Raikkonen’s determination would have meant a clash and a probable disaster. Not any more. Instead he backed off, sitting pretty in second place, knowing he was stopping one lap later. When that time came, Raikkonen’s laps while Massa was heading into and out of the pits were simply stunning. Kimi might not like me saying this, but his winning performance in Sepang was ‘Schumacheresque’.

Sadly Massa, who drives with his heart as much as his head seemed to let the pressure get to him for the second race in succession. A spin into the gravel trap on lap 31 meant another retirement. Massa had a heart-over-head moment that ended his race... when the hell is he going to learn? if he continues in the same way Ferrari are headed for a in-clashing between team mates Kimi & Massa.

A noteworthy result for Jarno Trulli and the Toyota team, with a strong fourth place after a massive dip in form.

Both McLaren drivers were penalised when they slowed prematurely at the end of qualifying. The race stewards found them guilty for staying on the racing line; they clearly impeded both Nick Heidfeld and Fernando Alonso. A five-place penalty thus, this meant Hamilton started down on row five of the starting grid.

A brilliant start moved Hamilton up to fifth by the end of the first lap, only for his efforts to be negated by a jammed wheel at his first pitstop. The McLaren was stuck in the pits for 20 seconds, dropping Hamilton down to 12th, before his fightback to claim four championship points.

No problems of self confidence for second place Robert Kubica or for Heikki Kovalainen too, upholding McLaren honours with a fine third place. There’s no doubt that BMW are building on their 2007 credentials as the ‘best of the rest’ behind Ferrari and McLaren. I reckon it is only a matter of time before we see either Kubica or Nick Heidfeld on the top step of the podium, claiming a maiden Grand Prix win.

Alonso was on the move and took advantage of a mistake from Heidfeld on lap two to take ninth while Nico Rosberg pitted to replace a damaged front wing, Timo Glock pulled into the pits to retire after being hit by the Williams and Sebastien Bourdais' race ended in the gravel.

Massa is going to have to dig deep into his reserves of self-confidence prior to the Bahrain Grand Prix. So saying we said that of him last year too, and he came through to win the Middle East race!

Another highlight of the race was battle between Heidfeld, Alonso & Coultard. It was fantastic racing with all 3 cars lining up the start-finish straight. Heidfeld found a way past both cars just as Alonso lined up a move on Coulthard to pass both the cars while Alonso too pulled off a move to dispatch the Red Bull in a wheel to wheel battle through turns one and two.

Lewis had a disastrous first pit stop which probably cost him his race to the podium. When he came out of the pits he found himself behind Mark Webber who drove pretty well & managed to keep the McLaren car behind him for more than 20 odd laps.

Force India had a mixed weekend. Adrian Sutil didn't finish the race. The other car of Fisichella finished a good 12th. This meant that Force India had a good mid field race & more importantly a finish. They would like to have more of these and prefer a double finish by the end of the season.

Renault had a very good field day. Alonso had a good race finishing 8th and his teammate Nelson Piquet Jr. finishing 11th. A surprising thing is that like his father Nelson's career also seems to head in the same way. First 2 races of father-son have been pretty similar results...

Jarno Trulli fended off a late challenge from Lewis Hamilton to take a strong fourth place for Toyota, while Hamilton's fifth place kept him the lead in the drivers' championship. Nick Heidfeld finished sixth ahead of Mark Webber and Fernando Alonso taking the final point for Renault.

All these points mean that Hamilton leads Raikkonen in the Drivers Championship by 14 to 11 as the teams head for round three in Bahrain. With a win apiece, honours are even so far. The question is which team might make a break though? Answers to this in 2 weeks time.

Till then Drive safely…

Albert Park, Australia...

An action packed racing weekend in Albert Park, Australia. Didn't miss a split second of it. Out of 22 cars only 6 managed to finish. Cars flying, tumbling, crashing into each other… Wow nothing can get better for a season starter.

Reliability again hit Ferrari. Unfortunate incident saw curtains down on Massa’s chances, rash & irresponsible driving by Kimi. Ferrari's performance w/o Todd & Schumi will be scrutinized. Probably we could see some in clashing develop in the team. got to wait & watch.

A bad day for most teams, guess this will be the pattern in which the season will progress.

Nico Rosberg was fantastic. Now not many will call him son of great Keke Rosberg but Williams Team Leader Nico Rosberg. Excellent driving, wonderful pressure handling. Nick Heidfeld also drove a wonderful race. Robert Kubica drove beautifully soaking all the pressure from Hekki, until a freak incident ended his race. These guys are the ones who have grownup without driver aids like traction control & all they will be the flavor of the F1 2008.

Super smooth driving by Lewis... he is going to be more than a handful for Ferrari & all the other teams this season. Lewis has a super smooth driving style developed as a result of GP2 series where there is no traction control but both Ferrari drivers have grown on traction control & driver aids so it is going to take some mistakes by Lewis & lot of luck for Ferrari to come out winning...

Kimi did all the good work on soft compound tyres to get up to P3 & then he undid himself by trying a Maverick on Hekki result P9 at end of race had he waited just another lap he could have reached podium. Alonso did well, kept his cool unlike Kimi & came out flying experience telling him to do so. Renault has had reality check last year & seems to have made some progress or is it just the brilliance of Alonso will be answered in few months time.

Force India hope to revive but can't see them going anywhere now... all the investments made by Mallya till date have been great runaway success so got to wait & see where he will take the team... they have a good experienced driver in Fisichella. Their main aim this season would probably be to complete as many races as possible... Fisi came up with some superb performances last year in Renault... hope to see the same with Force India. If they manage to score a couple of points then it will be great...Fisi is one of the right choices Mallya has done…. I would think he could get just not couple of points but he can pose a lot of questions to the other teams to put thinking cap on the other teams permitted the Force India team delivers him a quite a descent car. A lot is said in Indian media about this team. Got to wait & watch... lets see what they come up with...

With the number of cars crashing out & the new rules & regulations guess the teams will not be able to bear the financial burden if Australian GP was an indicator of anything in store for the year ahead. We could see the return of driver aids. Ferrari will be a team that will welcome this change with open arms.

I would rate Nico’s effort as No.1, Kubica No.2, Alonso No.3. & finally Kimi No.4. (till the time he got a rush of blood & did the Maverick maneuver to loose out his position). Alonso tiff with Hekki was the highlight for me, the entire maneuvering was excellent and that few secs when he moved from 4-5-4 were superb… Handling pressure has to be learnt from him. If the reaction from the pit wall of McLaren was an indicator of anything that had happened last year during these few seconds then it would be an understatement. The moment Hekki overtook Alonso, Ron Dennis jumped with the joy of a school kid being handed a handful of Ice-cream.

An overall wonderful weekend at Albert Park, Australia, Lets wait & watch what is in store for us in less than 5 days time at the Sepang circuit, Malaysia.

Till then Drive safely.