Renaults finish 1-2 at Malaysian Grand Prix

There were only words of congratulations and elation coming out of Giancarlo Fisichella’s radio after the Renault driver’s victory at the Malaysian Grand Prix on Sunday.

That was in sharp contrast to last week in Bahrain, when Fisichella began swearing into the team radio when he dropped out after 21 laps with engine problems as teammate Fernando Alonso sped on to the win.

This time it was Fisichella ahead of Alonso as the pair gave Renault only its second 1-2 finish, with the last coming 24 years ago at the 1982 French Grand Prix.

Fisichella was ahead of Alonso by 4.5 seconds at the finish and controlled the race throughout.

Honda’s Jenson Button took third in the 56-lap race at the 3.4-mile Sepang International Circuit. Juan Pablo Montoya in a McLaren-Mercedes was fourth.

“It was important for me to do my best,” Fisichella said. “It was really hot. In the middle of the race you are tired. It’s important to concentrate.”

•Angelle Sampey won the Pro Stock Motorcycle event in the ACDelco Gatornationals in Gainesville, Fla., and two other female drivers advanced to the finals at Gainesville Raceway.

Dave Grubnic beat Melanie Troxel in the Top Fuel final and Tom Martino edged Erica Enders in the Pro Stock championship in the $1.8 million event.

In Funny Car, Ron Capps beat John Force to remain the season leader. Force’s daughter, Ashley, won the Top Alcohol Dragster sportsman title.

Winter sports

Austria edges U.S.

Austria won the team event at the World Cup Finals in Are, Sweden, holding off the United States when Olympic combined champion Ted Ligety performed poorly in the slalom.

Eight teams entered the event that had spectators unsure which nation had won because of its complicated points-ranking system. Six skiers from each nation combined to race eight times – two men and two women in a super-G and two men and two women in a slalom.

On the final slalom leg, Reinfried Herbst of Austria had a disappointing run and finished sixth. But the Austrians were able to preserve the top spot when Ligety had the worst time of the round.

“We had everything on the line the last run, and that’s the exciting thing,” U.S. alpine director Jesse Hunt said. “We were a couple points behind the Austrians, and it could have gone either way.”

•U.S. skier Daron Rahlves competed at the last World Cup race of his career at the World Cup Finals.

Rahlves will officially end his career at the U.S. national championships later this month in Maine. The 32-year-old Californian earned 12 World Cup victories, a super-G world championship gold medal in 2001 and two medals at the 2005 worlds.

•Olympic silver medalist Shani Davis set a world record in the men’s 1,500 meters at the ISU world all-around speedskating championships in Calgary, Alberta.

Davis finished in 1 minute, 42.68 seconds, breaking the mark of 1:42.78 set in 2005 by U.S. teammate and rival Chad Hedrick, with whom Davis feuded publicly at the Turin Games.

Canada’s Cindy Klassen easily won the allround crown, completing a season in which she won five medals at the Turin Olympics.

Miscellany

Federer beats Blake

Roger Federer thought James Blake’s play early in their match looked familiar.

“He played aggressively, took the ball early, put away his forehands when he could, didn’t miss on the backhand, made me run around,” Federer said. “That’s usually what I do. He gave me a little bit of my own medicine.”

Only a small dose, as it turned out.

After falling behind 4-1 in the opening set, the top-ranked Federer came back to beat Blake 7-5, 6-3, 6-0 in Indian Wells, Calif., for his unprecedented third consecutive Pacific Life Open championship.

Blake, No. 14 and assured of moving into the top 10 for the first time when the rankings come out this week, said Federer simply turned it on after he fell behind.

•Russian Lidiya Grigoryeva pulled away from Ethiopia’s Gete Wami in the final stretch and staved off a challenge from men’s champion Benson Cherono to win the Los Angeles Marathon.

Grigoryeva, who set a course record in the women’s division, earned a $100,000 bonus for the winning time of 2 hours, 25 minutes, 10 seconds as part of “The Challenge,” a battle-of-the-sexes format that allows women to start ahead of the men.

Race organizers gave the top women a 16:46 head start in hopes of creating a close finish with the top men. Last year’s time differential was 15:50.