Malaysian F1 - Renault wins again, Toyota shines through

A second win in two races for the Mild Seven Renault F1 Team at the Malaysian Grand Prix was the major news, but close behind Renault’s win at Sepang was the performance of Toyota, which finally appears to have arrived as a force in Formula One. Panasonic Toyota Racing scored its debut podium position after a "Trulli" outstanding drive from Jarno ensured he comfortably ended the grueling 56-lap race in 2nd position. A determined drive from Ralf Schumacher made it two cars in the top five for toyota, a total of 12 world championship points and second place in the constructors' championship.

Renault’s Fernando Alonso led the race from lights to flag, having started from pole on a two stop strategy that saw him visit the pits on laps 21 and 40. He managed skilfully his Michelin tyres over the race distance, and made full use of the performance of the R25 and its RS25 engine, which suffered no problems during the second race of its life cycle.

Alonso’s team-mate Giancarlo Fisichella started third on the grid, a position he held during the first two stints of the race. However, after his first stop, damage to the front of his car saw him lose a significant amount of downforce, which caused high levels of understeer and slowed him by up to two seconds a lap. On lap 37, his race ended at turn 15 following a collision with Mark Webber’s Williams which cost one of them the third podium position and gifted Webber’s young team-mate Nick Heidefeld his first podium position.

The Mild Seven Renault F1 Team currently leads the world championship with 26 points. Fernando Alonso becomes the first Spaniard to lead the drivers’ world championship, on 16 points, while Giancarlo Fisichella now lies second on 10 points and Jarno trulli third.

Jarno Trulli drove a competitive race to secure Panasonic Toyota Racing's first visit to the podium in 53 races. Trulli's qualifying time was only bettered by Fernando Alonso, who stopped one lap before the Toyota driver, underlining the sheer competitiveness of the TF105 package this weekend.

Ralf Schumacher helped make it a day to remember for Toyota after bringing his TF105 home in fifth position and picking up four championship points in a difficult race for the German.

Toyota is one of only two teams (Ferrari is the other) on the grid to have built its entire car from scratch in the same factory, and was very pleased to inform that all four of its engines successfully completed the rigors of two race weekends. To underline the achievement, the total distances attained by each RVX-05 unit on the grid were Trulli, 1244.4km, Ralf Schumacher, 1171.1km, Narain Karthikeyan, Jordan-Toyota, 1263.7km and Tiago Monteiro, Jordan-Toyota, 1302.3km.

For Michael Schumacher, the race was one he would like to forget. It was his first point scoring finish of the year but the long odds-on favoritism he enjoyed before the weekend for a successful championship defence has a significant cloud hanging over it due to reliability doubts over the team's Bridestone tyres. His team-mate Rubens Barricchelo retired after minor damage to his rear wing caused his machine to lose significant rear grip.

The big loser for the weekend was the BAR Honda team, which saw both drivers retire within a few laps of the start, both with engine failures. As Jenson Button said after the race, "we've made a huge step backwards, and I don't think it's going to change straight away."

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