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"  Renault followed up its win in the opening round in Australia with a dominant win in the Malaysian GP on Sunday. This time, honors went not to Giancarlo Fisichella but to his teammate Fernando Alonso, who recorded his second career success. However, the most intriguing aspects of the weekend were a first podium finish for Toyota and a dismal performance from Ferrari, which saw World Champion Michael Schumacher fortunate to scrape home 7th.   Extremely hot and humid conditions make Malaysia a major challenge for both drivers and machinery. With no rain all weekend, it was also the first proper test of the new aggregate qualifying session, the Australian event having been upset by rain in the first session. The Renaults showed their pace throughout the weekend. Alonso took a comfortable pole position, while Fisichella was less happy with his handling and had to settle for 3rd. They were split by the Toyota of Jarno Trulli, who showed that his 2nd-place qualifying spot in Melbourne \u2014 which was assisted by the weather \u2014 was no fluke.           The Ferraris of Rubens Barrichello and Michael Schumacher were down in 12th and 14th, after it became apparent early in the weekend that Bridgestone (Ferrari is the only major user) was in trouble. The tires suffered in particular from a lack of speed on their first lap, an obvious handicap in qualifying. Of course all drivers used race fuel in the crucial second session, and the outcome of the race depended on how late one was going to make his pitstop.   Alonso held onto his lead into Turn 1, and despite pressure from Trulli in the opening laps, he put in a faultless performance, eventually opening up a margin that allowed him to make his pitstop without any threat from behind. Thereafter it was a question of reliability as he and most of the other drivers were into the second race of a two-race stint with their engines, as required by the new rules.   Trulli came under pressure from Fisichella in the opening laps, but when the second Renault dropped away, the Toyota driver controlled his revs and pace and settled for 2nd. It was a hugely important result for Toyota, the team having failed to come anywhere near a podium finish in the past. It also silenced critics after Trulli faded out of the points with a tire problem in Australia.           The battle for 3rd proved to be more interesting. In the middle of the race Fisichella suffered some damage to his car, which affected the balance and damaged his rear tires. That dropped him back from Trulli into the pursuing group. He was eventually passed by Mark Webber, but immediately fought back only to slide into the side of the Williams at the last corner of the lap. Both cars bounced to a halt with suspension damage.   Third went instead to the second Williams of Nick Heidfeld, who put in a solid performance, while Juan Pablo Montoya made a late surge up the order to take 4th for McLaren, ahead of the second Toyota of Ralf Schumacher. Red Bull again surprised with a solid performance that saw David Coulthard and Christian Klien take 6th and 8th places.   They were split by the Ferrari of Michael Schumacher, who benefited from the retirements of three others to finish 7th. Teammate Barrichello retired with excessive tire wear after debris caught on his rear wing and upset the handling balance.           All parties admitted that the tires were not good enough, but nevertheless this was a shockingly poor performance all around. Ferrari&amp;#039;s new car has been testing in Italy and could be seen as early as the next race in Bahrain.   It was a disastrous weekend too for BAR. Takuma Sato was taken ill and replaced by test driver Anthony Davidson, but both he and teammate Jenson Button suffered identical Honda engine failures on the third lap. Ironically both cars were using new engines for this weekend, while every other team survived the two-race challenge without problems. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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