F1 Preview: Sepang, a different kind of race

Lewis Hamilton driving a majestic McLaren MP4/23 dominated the season opening grand prix in Australia last Sunday. Nick Heidfeld in the BMW Sauber profited as Ferrari faltered and Nico Rosberg made his first appearance on the podium .

It was a season opener which Ferrari and the teams powered by Ferrari engines would like to forget as soon as possible.

Malaysia, this Sunday, could be a different story. This is a proper circuit as compared to the sreet circuit last Sunday. And the weather will be very different, with high humidity, heat and a possible thunder storm.

This will be the tenth grand prix in Sepang. The first one will be remembered for Michael Schumacher's return after having crashed and broken one of his feet in Silverstone. It was a race which demonstrated Schumacher's skill, showing he had lost none of his speed during his forced absence.

The winners at Sepang so far have been Irvine (1999), Schumacher M (2000), Schumacher M (2001), Schumacher R (2002), Raikkonen (2003), Schumacher M (2004), Alonso (2005), Fisichella (2006). Alonso won last year, leading a McLaren 1-2.

It is still early to assess the state of the teams so far. But McLaren, clearly, have a strong car. Ferrari have suffered reliability problems, resulting in last Sunday's double retirement, the first for many years, but their car was fast in clear air last Sunday.

BMW Sauber are stronger than they made themselves to be in testing, and Toyota-powered Williams have certainly made progress. Renault have not recovered enough from last year's disappointing performance but Honda seem to have improved. Could they be worse than last year?

Hopefully the carnage we saw last Sunday, particularly at the first corner, will not repeat itself. The race start is at 8 a.m.

Picture: F1 champion Kimi Raikkonen of Ferrari arrives at the Sepang circuit. (Reuters)