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BAR Honda Turned In An Impressive Race Finish@ Sepang Today.....

Nice job by J Button. Too bad about Sato's DNF, he could have
finished in the points at 8th place! It's been a while since Honda's
been on the F1 podium, brings tears to my eyes!
Hope they keep improving !
 
Here's another link.....

Schumacher wins in Malaysia
Malaysian GP Race





Jenson Button

World champion Michael Schumacher continued his ruthless domination of Formula One as he claimed his second win of the season and the 72nd of his career in Sunday's Malaysian Grand Prix.

Ferrari's Schumacher, who won the season-opening Australian Grand Prix two weeks ago, made the perfect start and was never seriously troubled as he led home Williams driver Juan Pablo Montoya.

The six-time world champion came home five seconds clear of Montoya in the 56-lap race to maintain his 100 percent start to the season and claim his third win at Sepang and his first in Malaysia since 2001.

Montoya made a flying start and benefited from a mistake by Ferrari's Rubens Barrichello to claim the runners-up spot, while Button was left in ecstasy after finishing in third.

BAR driver Button, who had finished fourth on five occasions, finally stood on the podium after an impressive drive to finish ahead of Barrichello.

Renault's Jarno Trulli won a battle with David Coulthard, of McLaren, for fifth place while Fernando Alonso, who started from the back of the grid, scored points in seventh with Sauber's Felipe Massa eighth.

Mark Webber, who had started second on the grid, endured a nightmare race and spun out while championship hopefuls Kimi Raikkonen and Ralf Schumacher retired because of mechanical problems.

With the circuit damp after the arrival of rain, Raikkonen spun on the formation lap while Jordan's Giorgio Pantano started from the pit- lane after changing an engine.

At the start, Schumacher got away perfectly but Webber, who had qualified in second, struggled to get off the line to leave Barrichello in second place.

Webber dropped to ninth by the end of the first lap, while from the back of the grid Alonso made up ground to run in 10th place.

But Barrichello outbraked himself on lap two and dropped to fourth place as Montoya and Raikkonen both moved ahead of him.

Webber, attempting to recover from his slow start, touched with Ralf Schumacher and the Jaguar driver was left with a puncture and forced to pit before being hit with stop-go penalty for speeding in the pit-lane.

Takuma Sato, who had moved up to 11th from the back row of the grid, spun on lap six but recovered to get out of the gravel trap at turn eight.

Schumacher pitted from the lead after nine laps, while Barrichello lost two places behind Trulli and Button after the frontrunners had all made their first stops.

Webber's miserable afternoon was made worse when he spun out of the race on lap 26 after locking his wheels heading into the final corner.

And after the second series of pit-stops, Raikkonen dropped down to fourth place after a slow get-away in the pit-lane with Button benefiting and moving into third.

Schumacher continued to lead the race comfortably from Montoya.

Williams driver Ralf Schumacher was forced out of the race after 28 laps when his BMW engine blew and he parked the car at the side of the track.

Jordan's Nick Heidfeld joined the list of retirements after 37 laps when he pitted for a fourth time and his ill-sounding car was wheel into the garage.

Raikkonen, last year's race winner at Sepang, pulled up at the side of the track with clutch problems as his disappointing start to the season extended.

Schumacher all but secured victory after the final pit-stop as he led Montoya by nine seconds, with Button in a comfortable third as he closed in on his maiden podium.

Button's team-mate Sato suffered an engine failure three laps from home when running eighth but the leaders came through the searing heat unscathed as Schumacher took the chequered flag.
 
This is the first podium for Honda since they returned to F1 that was NOT accomplished through attrition. They were actually competitive and really earned this one. I am so happy.
 
Maybe we can start working our way up the podium!! Great Stuff Honda :D
 
BAR did a great job with both cars and were incredibly competitive with all but Ferrari. I was pretty much shocked to see Button do so well and even more shocked to see him on the podium. What an awesome feeling! Even for a fan.

I'm going to go out on a limb here but I'm thinking they may actually legitimatally win a race.
 
Yeah, it's about time! Meanwhile, Honda did post a win in IRL
this past weekend.
 
awesome. just awesome. way to go Jenson

btw, F-1 Decade next wk? has the 1994 San Marino GP - the one in which Ayrton passed way.:(
 
Ponyboy said:
BAR did a great job with both cars and were incredibly competitive with all but Ferrari. I was pretty much shocked to see Button do so well and even more shocked to see him on the podium. What an awesome feeling! Even for a fan.

I'm going to go out on a limb here but I'm thinking they may actually legitimatally win a race.

when i saw button move up from 4th to 3rd.. i was just amazed. i actually just wanted them to have points.. but for jenson to make podium was very very exciting moment for me too.

what do you mean by legitimatally win a race? the low fuel thing everyone is talking about in winter training? the 1st race was a disappointment , but the 2nd race was very competitive. button was paced by trulli as well as barichello till the very end. also, the high temperatures of the course, the overall temperature of malaysia, the short rain fall in the beginning were all major challenges every driver/team had to overcome. and it was apparent the heat did a number on many teams, as well as BAR's. there were like 3-4 engine blows.

its great to see BAR back up all their words. also, i found it very amazing that button even said he would make podium in this race. =)
 
Kudos to BAR Honda. Last year seemed so promising; but with dissmal results, constant engine failure, and just plain bad luck, Honda went back to the drawing board.

I heard that Honda was made efforts to make the F1 engine as powerful yet lighter than the other competitors. Supposedly that caused alot of dynamic problems for the rest of the car/chassis. This seasons "longer life" engines may have played into BAR Honda's hands.

Either way, a great run by BAR Honda. I was at the edge of my seat the last few laps. When I saw smoke billowing out of one of the BAR Honda's I thought to myself "please not Button Please!!". When I found out it was Sato, I felt a simultaneous feeling of relief and dissapointment as Sato could have finished in the points scale.

One of the announcers mentioned that the engineer observing the realtime telemetry of the Honda was looking a bit nervous and suspected something was wrong with one or both Hondas.

Did you guys see how after Button came out of the pits behind MR. attitude Kimi Raikkonen, Button blasted forward leaving Kimi behind. What great power these new Honda's are providing!!

If these engines perform this well in the searing heat of Malaysia, I good hopes that the performance will be even better in less harsh conditions.

Did they ever mention what happened to Sato's engine?? I had to record this race and ran out of tape right before the podium showcase.

Still all in all, a great race.
 
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