Ferrari and Alonso rule Malaysian GP 2012

Last Sunday's rainy Malaysian thriller Grand Prix was won by Spanish Ferrari driver Fernando Alonso, while greenhorn Sergio Perez driving for Sauber finished second, and followed by Vodafone McLaren Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton, who stepped on the last podium place.

But actually it was a race composed of two different parts, with different leaders but a lot of action.

The sky was already dark and cloudy as the red light went out on to the grid. Rain came first sporadically then very heavy.

All cars started the race on intermediate tires with relatively light treads, with Vodafone McLaren Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton leading team mate Jenson Button off the line.

Lotus driver Romain Grosjean squeezed himself between the Mercedes of Michael Schumacher and the Red Bulls to grab third until he was repassed later on before shoving Michael Schumacher into a spin, thus destroying all hopes of the 7 times world champion to finally finish a race on the podium, after the astonishing performance of the driver in the qualifying sessions of the current 2012 Formula1 season.

Within a lap, Sergio Perez was in for wet tyres, followed by Ferrari’s Felipe Massa, Marussia’s Timo Glock and Charles Pic on lap three, then Jenson Button, Fernando Alonso, Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg, Caterham’s Heikki Kovalainen (who had made stunning progress from 23rd on Lap One to 17th on Lap Two) and team mate Vitaly Petrov.

Lewis Hamilton stayed ahead of the field until Lap Five, aquaplaning all over the circuit, and returned back out ahead of his team mate after his pitstop. Perez was up to a surprising third place after Sauber's great strategy, and even a huge off-course excursion did not affect him although it brought Australian Red Bull driver Mark Webber within close range.

By Lap Six conditions were so deteriorating that the race officials decided to deploy the safety car. The race continued behind the silver Mercedes SLS with Bernd Maylaender behind the steering wheel until lap nine, when the race was red flagged.

Vodafone McLaren Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton led his teammate Jenson Button to a halt on the start/finish line, followed by Sergio Perez, Mark Webber, Fernando Alonso, Sebastian Vettel, Toro Rosso’s Jean-Eric Vergne (who had yet to pit), Massa, Nico Rosberg the amazing Narain Karthikeyan, who had not stopped thanks to starting his HRT on the full wets and was running a fabulous 10th, Hulkenberg, Paul di Resta, Kimi Raikkonen, Williams’ Pastor Maldonado, Schumacher, Sauber’s Kamui Kobayashi, HRT’s Pedro de la Rosa (who like Karthikeyan had started on full wets), Daniel Ricciardo, Petrov, Glock, Kovalainen, Charles Pic and Bruno Senna. As a matter of fact, Roman Grosjean was thus far the only retirement, after leaving the race track into the gravel in Turn Six on Lap Four.

At 17.01 it was announced that the race would be resumed at 17.15 behind the safety car, with all cars to be running on Pirelli wet tires. There was still slight rain, but conditions had improved amply. The gamble now would be how soon to switch back to intermediate tires and eventually slicks, once the safety car will be called back in.

Vodafone McLaren Mercedes Jenson Button was the first to start the Russian roulette session on a change to intermediates at the end of Lap 13, even before the race had officially been resumed. Fernando Alonso, who was meanwhile fought by Red Bull duo Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel, pitted for inters on Lap 14 together with Vodafone McLaren Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton and Australian Red Bull driver Mark Webber.

Sauber brought their driver Sergio Perez in a lap later, when an impatient Vodafone McLaren Mercedes driver Jenson Button was forced to visit the pits again after colliding with Karthikeyan’s HRT thus clipping his front wing in Turn Nine. That was the end of the Formula 1 2012 championship leader's hopes to score another victory, following the one in Australia a week earlier. Sergio Perez started to emerge in the horizon, in what will be both an astonishing and breath taking race.

From the 17th lap until the finish, it was Perez against Alonso, the greenhorn against the experienced Formula 1 star, with both Lewis Hamilton and the two Red Bull drivers unable to do anything to challenge anyone of the leading duo.

For a while, Alonso opened the gap; it was as much as 7.7s on the 28th lap, half the race distance. But Sergio Perez started to eliminate the difference between him and the leading Ferrari driven by Fernando Alonso. As more rain was expected, it was now the strategy for all of the drivers to make their intermediate tires last as long as possible. It was apparent and clear to everyone, that the Sauber was kind to its tires.

Perez began to cut the gap to Alonso: 6.7s on Lap 33, 4.9s by Lap 35, 1.3s by Lap 39. The atmosphere and the race became heated, with adrenalin flushing through the nervous system of the TV audience and spectators, in a similar fashion to the drivers participating in the race itself.

Spanish Ferrari driver Fernando Alonso went for a pit stop on the 40th lap for a set of medium slick tires, followed a lap later by Sauber driver Sergio Perez who opted for the harder tires, while his team crucially added more downforce on the front during the pitstop. By Lap 42 the gap was 7.1s again, and the fairy tale seemed to be over and out, but apparently nobody told Perez about that. Lap by lap he reduced the gap to the Ferrari; by Lap 49 he was only half a second behind and it seemed only to be a matter of time until the Sauber team was about to score its second Formula 1 victory since their only GP victory at the Canadian GP back in 2008. But then he ran wide in Turn 14 leading on to the back straight, and this time the dream was really over. He recovered, and by the finishing line on Lap 56 the gap was down from 5.3s to 2.2s, but the iron steeled Fernando Alonso stayed cool till the end, and proving that the Ferrari is force to count on in the 2012 season, despite all the negative predictions of the experts.

It was one of the best drives of the season thus far from the Spanish Ferrari driver, but though he thoroughly deserved all the praises going for grabbing the chance when he got it, Perez was the star of the afternoon after a truly head turning performance.

Vodafone McLaren Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton had an untroubled race finishing third on the podium, while Australian Red Bull driver Mark Webber came through to fourth after Vettel had hit an innocent Karthikeyan on the 48th lap, thus tearing up his left-rear Pirelli. Sebastian Vettel was lucky that it happened on the back straight and he was able to pit quickly, but he dropped to 12th, which eventually became 11th when Pastor Maldonado 10th place ended with an apparent Renault engine failure on Lap 54.

Behind Webber, Raikkonen drove an exciting race to fifth for Lotus, while Bruno Senna was another star as he ploughed through the field from 22nd on the opening lap to an excellent sixth. Paul di Resta was another driver to put in an excellent drive in the hugely tricky race conditions, finishing seventh for Force India after being unable to keep Senna behind him. The Scot was clear of a huge skirmish between Vergne’s Toro Rosso and his own team mate Nico Hulkenberg, which Maldonado had been a part of until his engine gave up the ghost. Apparently the Renault engine of Maldonado's car was not able to cope with the continuous demands and pressure his driver was putting on.

The engine failure of Maldonado's car elevated Michael Schumacher to the final points scoring position, on another very disappointing day for Mercedes, after a thrilling qualifying performance, with Vettel 11th ahead of Ricciardo’s Toro Rosso, which kept Nico Rosberg’s Mercedes and Jenson Button’s delayed Vodafone McLaren Mercedes at a distance to the flag. Felipe Massa had another terrible day, made even worse by Perez’s performance, to finish 15th, ahead of Petrov who brought his Caterham home 16th ahead of Glock’s Marussia, team mate Kovalainen, Maldonado and Glock’s partner, Pic.

After his great early run HRT driver Karthikeyan inevitably fell back, to finish the race in 21st position, with team mate De la Rosa finishing in 22nd place after getting a drive-through penalty after the restart as his team members were late leaving the grid. The fact that Kamui Kobayashi did not finish the race went almost unnoticed due to hilarious performance of his team mate Sergio Perez.

Fernando Alonso’s hard earned victory puts him into the lead of the world championship with 35 points ahead of Lewis Hamilton’s 30 and Jenson Button’s 25, with Mark Webber fourth on 24, Sergio Perez fifth on 22 and Sebastian Vettel on 18. Vodafone McLaren Mercedes still lead the constructors’ world championship, with 55 points, with Red Bull in second place on 42 from Ferrari on 35 and Sauber on 30. Lotus has 16, Force India 9, Williams 8 and Toro Rosso 6.