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Renault bounce back

Certainties are few and far between in the complex world of Formula One, but there is one we can count on today: barring mechanical failure, Ferrari will win the Malaysian Grand Prix on Sunday.

Of course, there will be those who disagree with the above statement, but the ease with which Felipe Massa asserted the advantage his mount carries in today’s practice sessions points to a positive Sunday for the Brazilian.

Indeed, Massa held the upper hand not just over rival teams, but over his greatest rival – team mate Kimi Raikkonen. Time and again the Finn attacked the Sepang circuit in the F2007; time and again he lost out to Massa in the final sector of the race track.

After 90 minutes the gap between the pair measured less than four tenths of a second, but it was enough to give Massa the confidence boost he needed after the mishaps he suffered at Melbourne. Few, though, doubt Raikkonens ability to turn it on exactly when it is needed, and it could just be that the ‘Ice Man’ will, as he did at the last round, pull out all the stops in final practice tomorrow, once again deflating his team mates ego. We will have to wait and see.

Those four tenths of a second covered first to fourth and within them came a surprise – a pair of Renault R27s.

Renault had made noises about finding an improvement and gaining a better understanding of the Bridgestone tyres in testing last week, but this morning had looked little short of ordinary, mixing it with the Honda’s and Aguri’s. The second session proved different.

Having been somewhat anonymous for the best part of 90 minutes the two garishly coloured cars emerged on track with just minutes to spare, following a red flag raised to remove debris from a punctured Spyker tyre.

Suddenly, there they were in second and third places – Giancarlo Fisichella just over a tenth slower than Massa and team mate Heikki Kovalainen half that time ahead of Raikkonen. They could be the dark-horses of this race, if this performance is anything to go by.

Continuing the two-by-two into the ark theme, fifth and sixth places went to the Williams duo of Nico Rosberg and Alex Wurz. Both drivers looked to have the car well set up, and set times within a tenth of each other, the quickest some seven tenths slower than the fastest man. Williams have been working hard on their single lap pace, and this may well help them to qualify where they deserve to be rather than the lowly spots they occupied in Australia. Points finishes should be in store for these two.

BMW-Sauber has a fine racing car in the F1.07, but it did not look as impressive today as at the last round. Robert Kubica set the pace early on, but it was a given that he would be eclipsed when the faster men came out. He was and, from there on, could not improve. He finished just under one second slower than Massa, and just over one tenth quicker than tenth placed team mate Nick Heidfeld.

Ralf Schumacher has been saying nice things about the Toyota TF107 in recent days, but will be disappointed to finish this session in eighth, almost a full second off the pace of the front men. Equally disappointed will be team mate Jarno Trulli, whose best time was a second slower than his team mate. It may be the opinion of some that these men are in the twilight of their F1 careers, but both are better than this – much better.

You may be interested to know that I have written 615 words before mentioning McLaren.

On the other hand you may not, but it has come as something of a surprise. Following this mornings showing I expected, as I’m sure many did, the silver and red cars to be the main – the only – challengers to the Ferrari pair.

It is possible that Mclaren opted not to go for outright times this afternoon – in fact, it is likely, as ninth (Lewis Hamilton) and 12th for the World Champion Fernando Alonso are certainly not the positions I expected to be listing them in. Their times were all but identical, and both a full second slower than that set by Massa. I would expect them to be back towards the front tomorrow, as we know they can go quicker than this.

Mark Webber and David Coulthard suffered the usual Red Bull maladies – niggling problems shielding genuine speed. DC got the worst of it out of the way this morning, and finished the session 13th, three places and three tenths slower than Webber. Webber, for the record, brought out the yellow flags when his RB3 broke down.

Takuma Sato and the Super Aguri team again upset the applecart, but not in such style as that shown by Anthony Davidson in Australia. The Japanese finished in 14th position – his team mate Davidson 18th and a second down – ahead of both Toro Rossos, and both Spykers, teams that must be considered their ‘natural’ direct opposition.

That he finished – again – ahead of both Hondas may be a bonus for the little team from Leafield and the fine bunch of men and women who work wonders to get it there, but it is anything but a bonus, and a definite disaster, for the mighty works Honda team.

Prior to the session Jenson Button was quoted as saying the RA107 needed a ‘big change’. He is absolutely right. That, really, is all there is to say about Honda.

Toro Rosso were the usual invisible presence, with Tonio Liuzzi in 17th and a full two seconds from the pace, and Scott Speed almost a second slower again, and Spyker battle gamely on to beat the Toro Rosso pair and take on the men from Aguri.

And a word is due there, too, for young Adrian Sutil took 19th spot, ahead of both Barrichello and Scott Speed, and ahead of his team mate Christijan Albers by a whopping one and a half seconds. That is an eye opening performance from the German, a star of the future if things go on as they are.

So there we have it – Ferrari all the way, but I have a sneaking suspicion that Raikkonen will assert his superiority over Massa come tomorrow. If not, credit to the Brazilian indeed.

Written: Fri, 06 Apr 2007 08:21:53