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After the chaotic events and mere handful of finishers at Melbourne, most of the teams and drivers who failed in Australia would have arrived in Malaysia with one minimum requirement for the weekend - to fix their problems, make it to the finish and get on to the championship leaderboard.
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Kimi Raikkonen distances himself from the rest of the field in Sepang © LAT |
Almost predictably in this hyper-professional era of Formula One, that is exactly what Sunday's Malaysian Grand Prix delivered. Even in possibly the harshest conditions on the calender, the stifling equatorial heat and dust claimed only two mechanical retirements - hydraulic problems ending the race of Force India's Adrian Sutil early, while the luckless Sebastian Vettel succumbed to another Ferrari engine failure in his Toro Rosso, just as he had in Australia.
For most of the rest, it was a case of mission accomplished, as they finally got a full Grand Prix racing distance under their belts in their 2008 cars. Malaysia also served to shuffle the championship deck thoroughly, with a new set of top finishers claiming their place in the title charge.
Six different podium finishers in the first two Grands Prix of the year is as equitable a points split as is possible. Yet, even compared to last year when the same three drivers (Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen and McLaren's Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso) finished on the podium for both of the first two races, the 2008 championship is already looking more settled and predictable.
