Driving against the odds, Fernando Alonso, in a rain-soaked Malaysian Formula 1 Grand Prix last Sunday, posted Ferrari’s first victory for the season. Alonso weathered the rain-affected re-start and a fast finishing challenge from Sergio Perez in the Sauber to win for Ferrari.
Perez was almost under the rear wing of the Ferrari and ready to overtake when, in the wet conditions, Perez lost control, running wide at a turn on lap 50 and effectively handing Alonso a thrilling victory.
The race was red-flagged on lap 9 because torrential rain reduced drivers visibility to almost zero. The teams that went in early to change intermediate tyres for full wets, fared the best.
Sauber were the first to recall their cars into the pits and reaped the rewards of great track positioning at the restart, presenting Sergio Perez every opportunity to chase down Alonso’s Ferrari.
McLaren’s Jenson Button, who won the Melbourne race was relegated down the field coming in 14th, after colliding with HRT’s Narain Karthikeyan. Pole sitter Lewis Hamilton, in the Mercedes McLaren, also had a nightmare of a time going through a number of slow pit stops, but hung on to come third, as Australia’s, Mark Webber in the leading Red Bull bore down on the McLaren to take fourth.
Former world champion Kimi Raikkonen in the Lotus finished in 5th spot, with seven times world champion Michael Schumacher who after a series of mishaps ended up in10th position.
Red Bull’s reigning world champion Sebastian Vettel also failed to impress for the second week in a row and finished 11th around 1.3 seconds ahead of young Australian Daniel Ricciardo in the Torro Rosso. With ten laps to go Ricciardo had unleashed some brilliant driving on the hard compound slick tyres coming from 20th to finish 12th.