Michael Schumacher won his second consecutive race of the season yesterday, taking the Malaysian Grand Prix with his Ferrari again easily ahead of the field.
It was the 72nd career victory for the six-time world champion, finishing 5 seconds ahead of Juan-Pablo Montoya in a Williams-BMW, but slowing down markedly at the end.
"In the moments when we needed to be quick, we were just quick enough," Schumacher said.
PHOTO: AFP
BAR-Honda's Jenson Button of Britain was third, his first time on the podium, ending up 11.5 seconds behind Schumacher.
"Amazing," Button said. "I'm ecstatic."
He came in sixth in the Australian Grand Prix and now has a third.
PHOTO: AP
"It is not the pinnacle of what we want but a good step in the right direction," Button said.
Rubens Barrichello ran fourth. The chance for another 1-2 Ferrari finish after the season-opening Australian Grand Prix evaporated on the second lap when Barrichello missed a turn and ran wide dropping into fourth.
Malaysian prime minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi presented the trophies, coinciding with the close in polls for general elections that were held the same day as the race.
Jarno Trulli was fifth in a Renault, and David Coulthard trailed sixth in a McLaren-Mercedes.
Renault's rising star Fernando Alonso of Spain ended seventh, more than 1 minute behind, but a strong showing after starting in the last row. He wore Spanish flags on his helmet and uniform in honor of the victims of the March 11 terrorist bombings at Madrid.
It was a bad day for the two previous winners of the race here on the 5.543km Sepang International Circuit. Ralf Schumacher, the winner in 2002, barely lasted half of the 56-lap race when the engine of his Williams-BMW blew up.
Kimi Raikkonen of McLaren-Mercedes, who won last year, went out on the 41st lap, his second non-finish this season for the 2003 season runner-up to Michael Schumacher.
After running practice in hot weather for the past two days, the tropical skies opened up with rain eight minutes before the scheduled start of the race. The rain lasted a few minutes, but wet the track before evaporating.
Raikkonen had a scare on the formation lap when he spun, but recovered in time.
Jaguar's Mark Webber of Australia, who was the surprise second in qualifying behind Schumacher, mistimed his start and allowed Barrichello to overtake him, sending the Ferraris into a 1-2 on the first corner to go easily ahead.
But on the second lap, Barrichello went wide on a turn and allowed Montoya and Raikkonen to pass him.
Schumacher now has the maximum 20 points after two races -- quite a change from last year when he had a fourth and sixth after two races.
Australian Mark Webber followed up an extraordinary qualifying run that put him on the front row at the Malaysian Grand Prix with a huge dose of bad luck in his Jaguar once the race started yesterday.
Webber, 27, got off to a bad start, with six-time world champion Michael Schumacher flying out from his 57th pole and Rubens Barrichello overtaking him from third as both Ferraris established a 1-2 lead on the first corner.
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