Despite pre-race predictions to the contrary,
Fernando Alonso was the man to beat on a hot and humid afternoon at Sepang, the Spaniard dominating the Malaysian Grand Prix from start to finish.
After
Kimi Raikkonen's scintillating performance in Melbourne was followed by pole position for team-mate
Felipe Massa in Malaysia, most money was on
Ferrari to add a second win of the season, but Alonso,
McLaren and rookie team-mate
Lewis Hamilton had other ideas.
Right from the start, the silver machines took the fight to their scarlet rivals, Alonso positioning his car on the inside of poleman Massa on the run to turn one and braving it out to take the lead. Massa, perhaps pre-occupied with not hitting the back of the Mclaren, failed to notice the second MP4-22 nosing up his inside as they exited the turn, and Hamilton, having already despatched Raikkonen, stuck with the Brazilian around the outside of turn two to emerge in second place.
The Briton did not have the pace to run with Alonso, but his natural ability was enough to frustrate the two Ferraris, which became a permanent mirror-filler as they lapped at his heels.
Further back, the field escaped the usual turn 1-2 melee without anyone spearing off, but only had to wait until a couple of corners later, when
Adrian Sutil exited stage left. The Spyker team believed that the young German had made contact with another car in the first corner complex - most likely Tonio Liuzzi, as the Toro Rosso driver pitted soon after for a new front wing - and then suffered a mechanical failure under braking for turn four.
Jenson Button, struggling down the order with this year's recalcitrant
Honda, was lucky not to become embroiled in Sutil's off, the F8-VII cannoning off the side of its luridly-liveried opponent
en route to the gravel trap.
