Analysis: Williams Leave Malaysia on a High

Ralf Schumacher's stirring victory in a Williams one-two finish in Malaysia at the weekend leaves World Champions Ferrari with a real battle on their hands.

The bubble of supremacy, built up after Michael Schumacher's win in last year's revised Ferrari F2001 in Melbourne two weeks ago, has been pricked and the Italians now have some catching up to do.

Michael Schumacher qualified on pole position in Malaysia once again, but his first corner brush with Colombian Juan Pablo Montoya in the Williams sent him to the back of the field after a pitstop for repairs.

His fightback to third place was impressive, but Williams leave Malaysia with nobody doubting their Championship challenge is genuine.

All the signs are pointing back to the team's glory years, with Ferrari pushed from the top of the Constructors' standings after two races.

Williams have now amassed 22 points, eight more than Ferrari and 18 clear of troubled McLaren in third place, and lead the constructors' title race for the first time since 1997, when they were Champions.

Sunday's one-two with Ralf leading Montoya was the first for BMW engines in Formula One history and Williams's first since Portugal in 1996, when Jacques Villeneuve led Damon Hill home.

"This is a sensational result as it is the first one-two victory for BMW engines in the history of Formula One," enthused BMW Motorsport Director Mario Theissen.

"Even on our way to the Championship title in 1983 this did not happen," he added, referring to Brazilian Nelson Piquet's success with Brabham-BMW that year.

Last season, when Williams finished third overall with new engine partner BMW, they had to wait until the fourth race of the campaign at Imola for Ralf to produce their first win since 1997.

This year, they have swept the top two steps of the podium already and can expect big things from the next two races as well.

Ferrari Confident

Montoya, second in Australia and Malaysia this season, led last year's Brazilian Grand Prix until Dutchman Jos Verstappen drove into the back of him.

"Last year we were stronger than Ferrari there," said Ralf of the Interlagos circuit. "So I think we can be confident of being on the podium again and to give Michael and Rubens (Barrichello) a hard time there."

Four times World Champion Michael Schumacher still leads the drivers' standings with 14 points to Montoya's 12 and Ralf's 10.

But there is a real possibility that the German will lose the lead before he arrives for what amounts to be Ferrari's home race at Imola in April.

Williams got their strategy right but their Michelin tyres also worked in their favour, leaving the French company's motorsport boss Pierre Dupasquier in confident mood.

"The current Ferrari is a well developed and very fast car but even if we aren't ultimately able to pip them to the world title, I'd like to think our teams are going to give them a very hard time every weekend," he said.

Ferrari, still to be convinced about the new F2002's reliability, have yet to decide whether to continue with the old F2001 for Brazil.

"All you can say is that we came with the old car to the first two races and we weren't expecting to have 14 points in our account," said the World Champion.

"The season is 17 races long and even if the car is not ready for Brazil, we are going to take points from Brazil for sure and the Championship is not going to be decided after the first three races."

McLaren, and particularly Briton David Coulthard, will be hoping for big improvements after the Scot failed to finish for the second race in a row with car problems.

"It's been a terrible weekend and I'm very disappointed," he said. "It's frustrating because the car was running very reliably during winter testing.

"We've got a lot of work to do."