The Supporting Cast Steps Up

If the 2006 season opener at Bahrain had provided early confirmation that Fernando Alonso, Michael Schumacher and Kimi Raikkonen would start as favourites for this year's title, then Sunday's Malaysian Grand Prix showed that the supporting cast - Giancarlo Fisichella, Juan Pablo Montoya and Felipe Massa - had other ideas.

In a neat switcheroo, each of the stellar team leaders suffered the frustration of watching their less-fancied stablemates outscore them, in a championship where a single point could be vital.

For Alonso and Schumacher, there was at least the consolation that they took some points from the weekend. For Raikkonen, there was just the bitter and by now familiar helplessness of watching from the pitlane as his rivals, including teammate Montoya, opened up championship daylight between themselves and the Finn.

Of the three leading contenders, Alonso had most reason to feel satisfied with the race outcome. Not just because he finished higher than his main rivals, but because of the way he did it. A rare fuelling gaffe by his team on Saturday afternoon left the Spaniard having to qualify and race the first stint with the equivalent of the weight handicap applied in other racing formulae.

Unperturbed, Alonso allowed himself one flash of brilliance - a breathtaking pass around the outside of both Williams cars at the first corner - before settling into a characteristically mature and tactical race to increase his championship lead to seven points.

In the other Renault garage, Giancarlo Fisichella had every reason to feel jubilant at only his second win for Renault. In his maiden win at Brazil 2003 and his Renault debut victory at Australia 2005, Fisichella was largely gifted the win through the problems of others. At Sepang, Fisichella had a more convincing win - although he still benefited from Raikkonen's early retirement and Alonso's extra fuel load.

By contrast, Alonso has won several races with all his rivals intact - which might cause the Spaniard to raise a substantial bushy eyebrow at team boss Flavio Briatore's post-race comments that "I'd like very much the idea of Giancarlo winning the championship, he deserves it" and that he is "completely on par with Fernando."

It's one thing for a team boss to talk up a driver's talent and prospects after a GP win, quite another for him to do it via direct comparison to his team leader and reigning world champion.

For all its hyper-professionalism and cold technical proficiency, Formula One remains a human sport. World champions and their employers rarely part ways without bruised egos on one side of the relationship. If Alonso fails to deliver another compelling championship win, he may find Briatore's comments becoming increasingly pointed as the season develops.

Over at Ferrari, the disappointment of a 5-6 finish was handled in typical style - by pointing out that Sepang is not their favourite circuit, backed up by the routine assurances that technical problems are being resolved, Bridgestone is developing faster tyres, and better days lie ahead.

In some quarters, Michael Schumacher's failure to beat his teammate is being heralded as proof that the German has shot his bolt, exhausted his reserves of racing passion, and might as well pack it in right now. Schumacher may justifiably retort, in Mark Twain style, that reports of his demise have been greatly exaggerated.

Kimi Raikkonen and others have proved Massa's one-stop strategy, racing from the rear of the grid, effective, and Schumacher himself had a poor seventh row starting position due to an engine change penalty. Schumacher, as good and consistent as he is, cannot deliver at every single race. There were times during 2003 when he seemed like a spent force, yet he rebounded the next season to record a crushingly dominant title win.

It is possible that Schumacher has lost a crucial few tenths - it happens to the best of them over time. But we'll need more than the anecdotal evidence of a single GP to declare that the Schumacher era is over. If Imola 2005 taught us one thing, it's that Schumacher revels in rebounding when people least expect him to. There's life in the old pro just yet.

McLaren-Mercedes teammates Juan Pablo Montoya and Kimi Raikkonen on the formation lap of the 2006 Malaysian Grand Prix © LAT

And so to McLaren, where team chief Ron Dennis must be simultaneously thrilled that the pre-season engine unreliability has been sorted, while forlorn that (despite better reliability) the team has made the same poor start that they did in 2005.

Just as he did last season, Montoya has opened up a small lead over Raikkonen in the championship. Yet, just like last year, that's no cause for celebration on the Colombian's part.

Montoya is in the same grey zone, neither failing nor succeeding, as he was early in 2005. He's bringing the car home and racking up points, but Raikkonen again looks the hungrier and faster of the McLaren pair. When Montoya does snap out of it and come good, it will probably again be a case of 'too little, too late'.

Raikkonen, too, is in the same zone as last year - already facing a 12-point championship deficit only two races into the season. This time, he can't blame McLaren unreliability, and there's no point in blaming Red Bull's Christian Klien for the contact that broke the McLaren's rear suspension and pitched Raikkonen into first-lap retirement.

McLaren routinely follow the strategy of fuelling heavier and qualifying lower down the grid than the other front-runners. It gives them the advantage of running a crucial few hot-laps on low fuel, right at the time when their rivals are fat with fuel after their first pitstop.

The flipside is that, the lower down the grid they start, the greater the odds of getting involved in first-corner or first-lap incidents.

Starting on the front row does not guarantee immunity from first-lap collisions. At Germany 2000, Fisichella's Benetton took out Michael Schumacher from behind after starting from second.

At the same Grand Prix, three years later, Ralf Schumacher, Rubens Barrichello and Raikkonen all crashed into retirement at the first corner after they'd started from second, third and fifth respectively on the grid. Still, the odds of avoiding early collisions favour the front row starters.

McLaren and Raikkonen shouldn't change their winning strategy based on the marginal risk of collisions. But they had to know that, some day, they would pay the toll for that strategy. Sunday was that day.

There is no argument that Klien was at fault. Alas, there are no compensation points awarded for the other driver being at fault, and no honorary world championship titles awarded to the unluckiest driver. The only thing that matters is that Raikkonen failed to finish, in a race where all his rivals scored points.

Of the four front-running teams, only Honda stayed true to driver form, with Jenson Button once again finishing well ahead of Rubens Barrichello. Although, considering Barrichello's bemused inability to adapt to the characteristics of the Honda, it wasn't a surprising outcome.

The problem must be baffling and irking Honda even more than Barrichello. The second most experienced driver in the field would be expected to adapt his style to the characteristics of the car with relative ease. Perhaps the design is just too biased towards Button's unique driving style, perhaps Barrichello's powers of adaptation have been dulled by six seasons in Rory Byrne's notoriously easy-to-drive Ferraris.

Jenson Button in parc ferme after finishing third for Honda in the 2006 Malaysian Grand Prix © XPB/LAT

The result is that, once again, the team is essentially a one-man show, with Button's championship points total also representing the constructors' championship effort.

Thus far, the impact hasn't been great, and Button has kept Honda within four points of both McLaren and Ferrari. But, if Honda want to challenge the big three over the course of the season, Barrichello will need to master the Honda and rediscover his form of late 2003.

As the teams head to Australia, there is also the pleasing prospect that Williams are returning to their true place among the elite. Engine failure and a hydraulic problem cost them dearly in Malaysia, but the car is living up to the speed potential shown in pre-season testing.

A resurgent Williams, with two talented and hungry drivers in Mark Webber and Nico Rosberg, could soon be mixing it up with the championship protagonists and taking points and wins away from them.

It's unclear how that will affect Schumacher and Raikkonen. With his consistency, Renault's reliability and already a small but significant championship lead, Fernando Alonso must feel that the dice are once again falling in his favour.