Malaysian Grand Prix Review

The quite incredible thing about this year's event in Malaysia was the huge drop in lap times from last year (and the huge drop in crowds, but that's another story). In 1999, Michael Schumacher set pole at 1:39:688s, and was still a second ahead of Eddie Irvine in second. Irvine's 1999 time would have landed him 21st in Marc Gene territory this year. Schumacher's pole time tumbled by well over 2 seconds ­ not sure what to put it down to, whether it be Bridgestone's soft tyres, or just the fact that, a year on, the teams have got to grips (ahem...) with this tricky circuit.

But yet, it was the same man at the front. There are few really slow corners on this track, it's all fast and flowing stuff. When Johnny Herbert partnered the German in 1995, he observed that in the slow corners there was little difference between them, but it was in the faster turns that Michael was more committed, more aggressive, and that accounted for his superiority. Little surprise, then, that he took pole here by about 0.5s, well ahead of Hakkinen and David Coulthard, who were much more ragged than usual, just to prove the point.

Talking of coming out of the clouds, Eddie Irvine landed 7th on the grid, just like at Suzuka, showing that Jaguar is really making improvements. Johnny Herbert, in his final F1 drive before heading over to CART (despite not having finalised a deal yet), wasn't too far away either. Williams, though, would probably have been disappointed to see Ralf Schumacher only end up 9th on the grid, and Jenson Button a disastrous 16th. I never thought F1 was a cyclical thing, but after starting 21st in his first race at Albert Park, Button ends his season with another shocker, having for once failed to get "hooked up" (quote Martin Brundle) with a track.

It did reflect the season, though, to see a Benetton, a BAR, a Jaguar, a Jordan and a Williams follow the top 4 ­ that's five different teams in a season where midfield dominance has shifted race by race. It was also representative of the season that behind Button were both Saubers, both Prosts and both Minardis. The Saubers, thanks to their traditional lack of development, has wound up firmly in the bottom three, while Prost and Minardi were fighting it out for the wooden spoon, Prost needing a 7th place ahead of the yellow cars to avoid numbers 22 and 23 for 2001.

Not surprisingly, looking back on the season, he got the jump on Schumi, whose starts need much improvement next year. Maybe instead of trying to generate lateral movement to block the guy next to him he should concentrate on going straight! What's more, by Michael trying to tuck into Hakkinen's slipstream, that allowed the Finn to back him up sufficiently for Coulthard to drive around the outside into 2nd place. Meanwhile, Barrichello had also fluffed the start (but nowhere near as badly as Ricardo Zonta), which allowed Wurz past, with Jacques Villeneuve trying a move around the outside of the Benetton. As it turned out, Barrichello managed to brake late and retake 4th into turn one, and the grid order amongst these three remained the same.

I have rarely seen a messier first lap than this one. It felt more like a go-kart race. Firstly, at turn two, Pedro Diniz did his best NOT to get a drive with Prost next year by single-handedly destroying the Prost tilt at avoiding last place in the constructor's standings. Initially he touched Nick Heidfeld and lost a wheel, before tapping Jean Alesi into a spin. Heidfeld's suspension had been obliterated by the initial contact, and he in turn launched the innocent Pedro de la Rosa into a bit more airtime, although not as spectacular as his Monza effort.

The safety car need not have come out, but it made little difference. Almost as soon as it pulled off, Hakkinen let Coulthard through, fuel loads being the only obvious reason (and the right one). But on a rhythm track like Sepang, the Finn picked a poor place to let the Scot by, lost momentum, got hounded by Schumacher for the rest of the lap, and as a result saw both Ferraris barge past, and almost Wurz even. To add insult to injury he was called in for a stop-go penalty, and pretty much all hope of a McLaren constructor's title went out the window there and then.

From that point on the race got a bit confusing because a contradiction was being played out. Regardless of whether one was on a two-stop or one-stop strategy, excessive tyre wear early on forced two-stoppers in a bit earlier (although in Coulthard's case a brief off-road trip brought grass into his radiators causing overheating), and one-stoppers to change to a two-stop strategy. Yet both Fisichella and especially Hakkinen kept to their (late) one-stop schedules, and both were able to make up ground as a result, the McLaren setting blistering laps on what should have been worn tyres.

There was no championship on the line, therefore no Jerezgate repercussions. He could have gifted the win to Barrichello as he had seemed to promise, and, should Schumacher have braked suddenly on the straight such that Coulthard ran into him, that would be nice payback for Spa 1998. But that would be too much bad sportmanship and scandal - even for Schuey, methinks!

Rubens ended up running a pretty anonymous 3rd all race, a slow second stop leaving him even more out of touch. Funnily enough, like at Indianapolis Hakkinen found himself without sufficient straight-line grunt to blast past the Minardis as he tried to work his way back from his penalty. He disposed of Gaston Mazzacane well, but had an awful time getting past Marc Gene. After that, climbing through the rest of the field was relatively easy on his way up to an inevitable 4th. Sigh ­ if only the Minardis this year had a decent engine and more combative drivers!

Zonta was always on the fringes of the points, but his poor start did him no favours and eventually his blown Honda engine put paid to any chance he had. Verstappen couldn't get his one-stop strategy to work despite climbing his way up to a fantastic 5th at one stage, behind Herbert in a magnificent 4th. Of course, the outcome for the Englishman was less than wonderful, a fearful suspension failure launching the Jaguar into the tyre barriers near the end. To see Johnny lifted onto a stretcher was one of the saddest sights of the year, although thankfully there was no real damage. Still, it was a shame that a man whose career was blighted by his shattered legs in 1988 should end it on a stretcher.

A quiet race from Alesi ensured that Prost would be bottom of the pile, while Jordan and Williams both had races to forget. Both Jarno Trulli and Heinz-Harald Frentzen made more pit stops than Damon Hill on a bad day last year, and Frentzen's retirement for a power steering problem seemed Hill-esque to say the least. Meanwhile, in a season where the BMW engine has been impressive, despite having a long way to go still, it was a shame that both Button and Ralf Schumacher had to retire with engine problems.

And so the season ends, and we all go into withdrawal symptoms. Testing doesn't start until December, so unless the Maranello party goes that long, most of us will be left twiddling our thumbs, waiting for Juan Montoya to get into a Williams, for Renault to re-introduce their works engine, for Jordan to get their hands on a Honda, for Panis to sit in a BAR, for Jaguar to continue on the improve, for Michelin start another tyre war, for hopefully someone ­ anyone ­ to break the McLaren/Ferrari stranglehold.

Hmmm, there's a lot to look forward to, isn't there? Melbourne, here we come!