The Temple of VTEC - Honda and Acura Enthusiasts Online - Articles - 2003 Malaysian GP Race Review: Race Reaction

The second round of the 2003 championship was an exciting affair for the viewing public! Fernando Alonso's Renault lead from pole with BAR's Jensen Button and Jacques Villeneuve lined up in 9th and 12th, respectively. Unfortunately for BAR, JV's car suffered a gearbox failure while on the grid. They pushed the car back into the pits and attempted to fix/repair the car. While they were doing that, JV ran up the pit lane looking to get into the spare car...however, the new regs for this season don't allow drivers to take the spare car unless the original is destroyed in an incident after 2 laps of racing. Jacques' race was over before it started.

Unfortunate DNS for Jacques...best luck next time, JV!

At the start, Fisichella did an amazing repeat of his Bennetton blunder and managed to get his Jordan parked into the wrong grid spot...he recovered by walking the car backwards down the inclined straightaway and then shimmying across the grid. It's too bad he had to do this, as the working and clutch work destroyed his clutch/differential, and broke his launch control. The BAR got a good getaway from the start! Alas, for the second race in a row, Michael Schumacher had an incident that took him out of the chase for the lead.

Hitting Jarno Trulli's Renault going from Turn 1 to Turn 2 on the first lap, Schumi started a chain reaction that slowed down his car, spun Trulli's car, and damaged the cars of Montoya, Pizzonia, and Verstappen. Afterwards, Schumacher was given a drive-through penalty and had to fight to finish 6th by race's end.

With JV out of commission, JB was the only BAR-Honda on track. He fought his way up the field into fifth by the end of the second round of pitstops. Utilizing his (TAKE NOTE DAVID HOBBS YOU IDIOT BASTARD) powerful Honda engine to overcome the major downforce levels he had to run, he was able to keep the much faster Jarno Trulli and Michael Schumacher behind him. This was TRULY (ha) exciting to watch..as lap on lap you could see that the Renault would close up through the second sector, but fall behind a little on the first and third sectors. All it would have taken for Jarno to get by Jenson was just a little mistake by the BAR driver.

Well, it happened, to my extreme dismay and chagrin!!! On the last damn corner of the race, Jenson was in 5th place and managed to fudge the badger on his braking. His rear wheels locked under braking and BOTH Jarno Trulli and the charging Michael Schumacher managed to slip past. THANKFULLY the FIA's new rules award points down to 8th place now...I'd have personally gone over and kicked Jenson in the broad side of his @$$ if he'd thrown away a points finish with that kind of amateurish stupidity! As it was, he put points on the board...so it wasn't a total loss. Still a waste, as he had the legs on the Renault and there was no reason to risk that kind of a late braking point IMO.

..and all you wanna do is ride around Jenson...RIDE BUTTON RIDE!!

Anyways, a very exciting race!!! Kimi Raikkonen, the young McLaren driver, took his first race win! He did it in style, too, rarely under pressure from anyone else. He looked eerily like Mika Hakkinen in his ability to get out in front and run away from everyone else. Lap on Lap he was much faster than anybody else! Fernando Alonso was another youngin who did a great job of landing himself on the podium! Having lead from pole on a lighter fuel load than either Rubens Barrichello (2nd place) or Kimi Raikkonen, Fernando nevertheless ran a very solid race and placed himself firmly upon the podium. He simply could not maintain the amazing pace of Kimi and, as such, fell out of contention.

BAR are testing this week in Barcelona in the lead up to the Brazilian GP. The times have been looking marginal, but the numbers of laps indicate that BAR are seriously working on tire selection. It was, quite frankly, a tire issue that made Jenson struggle so much during the race! His rear tires were shot by the time he got to the end of the GP...and he couldn't control the car well enough to keep it straight. Hopefully Bridgestone makes a BIG comeback, as this BAR seems to be capable of battling with traditionally faster opponents! GO BAR! :-)