McLaren Mercedes go into the third round of the Formula One championship with heads held high following the 1-2 victory in Sepang last Sunday.
It was a victory which was as sweet as it is unexpected, coming just three weeks after a dominant performance by Ferrari at the season opener in Melbourne.
For the Woking team the victory, and a 1-2 at that, finally consigned one of its longest win-less periods to history. The team did not win a single race last year after topping the podium in the majority of races the year before.
The Vodeafone-partnered team now leads the constructors’ table by nine points, with 32 to Ferrari’s 23.
Fernando Alonso, now clearly satisfied that he made the right career move from Renault to McLaren, leads the drivers’ table with 18 points, two up on Kimi Raikkonen and four on Lewis Hamilton.
Hamilton has been the sensation of the championship so far, taking third in Melbourne and second last Sunday. He overtook Alonso at the start of the Melbourne race and led the champion for much of the race. And he did even better on Sunday at Sepang, passing the two Ferraris at the start. He set the fastest lap of the race, and he did not wilt under pressure from Felipe Massa in the first part of the race, or a charging Raikkonen at the end.
But while the limelight is on Hamilton, Alonso also drove a perfect, if untroubled race (if one excludes radio failure in the first stint). . His consistency was impressive, and he recorded 16 of the 20 fastest laps of the race.
The team handed out personalised bright orange 'race victory' t-shirts to every member of the squad as they returned to the garage from the podium ceremony on Sunday. The apparel, even worn by team boss Ron Dennis instead of his usual white shirt, will be handed out as a memento only after race wins in 2007. But however high morale has now soared to, Bahrain is expected to be a reality check. Alonso made it clear even at the height of last Sunday’s celebrations that McLaren were still a little behind Ferrari.
"I think, to be honest, we still need to work a little bit, especially on the race pace," he told reporters. Had Felipe Massa had a good start and kept his first position it might have been extremely difficult to follow their pace in the race, he acknowledged.
So was it a case of McLaren winning the race, or Ferrari losing it? Did Massa's early mistake effectively hand over the honours to McLaren? Were compromises really made with Kimi Raikkonen's engine following its coolant leak in the first race? Did modifications to the floors of the cars hurt the Scuderia?
To their credit, however, McLaren worked extremely hard for this result, as evidenced by the way Alonso went straight to Woking after the Melbourne race. But obviously questions remain, especially with regard to the car's performance on the harder tyres near the end of the race last Sunday.
"But we are much, much closer than Australia. We have some developments on the car and some improvements coming very shortly, so we should be alright then, very, very shortly and I think it will be a very close fight but I think our team has the potential to do it and I have 100 per cent confidence we can do it," Alonso said.
Not that Ferrari are going to stand still. "Hopefully in the next race we can have all the right things in the car and be 100 per cent again like in the first race. We learned a lesson and we will do things better in the next race," Raikkonen said. Who said Formula One is boring?
It was a victory which was as sweet as it is unexpected, coming just three weeks after a dominant performance by Ferrari at the season opener in Melbourne.
For the Woking team the victory, and a 1-2 at that, finally consigned one of its longest win-less periods to history. The team did not win a single race last year after topping the podium in the majority of races the year before.
The Vodeafone-partnered team now leads the constructors’ table by nine points, with 32 to Ferrari’s 23.
Fernando Alonso, now clearly satisfied that he made the right career move from Renault to McLaren, leads the drivers’ table with 18 points, two up on Kimi Raikkonen and four on Lewis Hamilton.
Hamilton has been the sensation of the championship so far, taking third in Melbourne and second last Sunday. He overtook Alonso at the start of the Melbourne race and led the champion for much of the race. And he did even better on Sunday at Sepang, passing the two Ferraris at the start. He set the fastest lap of the race, and he did not wilt under pressure from Felipe Massa in the first part of the race, or a charging Raikkonen at the end.
But while the limelight is on Hamilton, Alonso also drove a perfect, if untroubled race (if one excludes radio failure in the first stint). . His consistency was impressive, and he recorded 16 of the 20 fastest laps of the race.
The team handed out personalised bright orange 'race victory' t-shirts to every member of the squad as they returned to the garage from the podium ceremony on Sunday. The apparel, even worn by team boss Ron Dennis instead of his usual white shirt, will be handed out as a memento only after race wins in 2007. But however high morale has now soared to, Bahrain is expected to be a reality check. Alonso made it clear even at the height of last Sunday’s celebrations that McLaren were still a little behind Ferrari.
"I think, to be honest, we still need to work a little bit, especially on the race pace," he told reporters. Had Felipe Massa had a good start and kept his first position it might have been extremely difficult to follow their pace in the race, he acknowledged.
So was it a case of McLaren winning the race, or Ferrari losing it? Did Massa's early mistake effectively hand over the honours to McLaren? Were compromises really made with Kimi Raikkonen's engine following its coolant leak in the first race? Did modifications to the floors of the cars hurt the Scuderia?
To their credit, however, McLaren worked extremely hard for this result, as evidenced by the way Alonso went straight to Woking after the Melbourne race. But obviously questions remain, especially with regard to the car's performance on the harder tyres near the end of the race last Sunday.
"But we are much, much closer than Australia. We have some developments on the car and some improvements coming very shortly, so we should be alright then, very, very shortly and I think it will be a very close fight but I think our team has the potential to do it and I have 100 per cent confidence we can do it," Alonso said.
Not that Ferrari are going to stand still. "Hopefully in the next race we can have all the right things in the car and be 100 per cent again like in the first race. We learned a lesson and we will do things better in the next race," Raikkonen said. Who said Formula One is boring?