A real surprise today when Fernando Alonso won a very wet Malaysian Grand Prix in his Ferrari. The Ferrari had been off the pace during testing and at the first race in Australia, but another gritty, typical Alonso drive saw him take the lead after a rain delay and finish ahead of future star Perez in the Ferrari engined Sauber. In fact Perez was reeling in Alonso at quite a rate during the last few laps and looked like he had the possibility of taking the lead, but he slid wide on a very slippery track with 9 laps to go and lost a few seconds which he could not quite make up.

The McLarens of Hamilton and Button occupied the front row of the grid again and led until heavy rain stopped play after ten laps. At the restart, Mclaren were out smarted at the tyre stops and Button damaged his front wing when he ran into the back of the Force India car. His subsequent pitstop dropped him completely out of contention and Hamilton’s car seemed to be unsuited to the intermediate tyres. The best he could do was third place. Alonso’s Ferrari looked much more at home in the adverse conditions and he managed to stay ahead of the hard charging Perez to record his first win of the year and take the lead in the Championship.

Despite this win, Ferrari have a long way to catch up in dry conditions. Surprise of the year so far has been the lack of pace of Vettel and the Red Bull compared to McLaren. The banning of the exhaust blown diffusers has removed Red Bull’s aero advantage and illustrates that even a double World Champion cannot win races without the right car. There is no doubt that now more than ever, the car now plays a bigger part than the driver. There are probably five or six drivers who are very equal and the one with the right car in the right conditions is the one who will win. And today it was Alonso.

Final Race Positions
1. Alonso Ferrari 2h44:51.812
2. Perez Sauber-Ferrari + 2.263
3. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes + 14.591
4. Webber Red Bull-Renault + 17.688
5. Raikkonen Lotus-Renault + 29.456
6. Senna Williams-Renault + 37.667
7. Di Resta Force India-Mercedes + 44.412
8. Vergne Toro Rosso-Ferrari + 46.985
9. Hulkenberg Force India-Mercedes + 47.892
10. Schumacher Mercedes + 49.996
11. Vettel Red Bull-Renault + 1:15.527
12. Ricciardo Toro Rosso-Ferrari + 1:16.826
13. Rosberg Mercedes + 1:18.593
14. Button McLaren-Mercedes + 1:19.719
15. Massa Ferrari + 1:37.319
16. Petrov Caterham-Renault + 1 lap
17. Glock Marussia-Cosworth + 1 lap
18. Kovalainen Caterham-Renault + 1 lap
19. Maldonado Williams-Renault + 2 laps
20. Pic Marussia-Cosworth + 2 laps
21. Karthikeyan HRT-Cosworth + 2 laps
22. De la Rosa HRT-Cosworth + 2 laps

Fastest lap: Raikkonen, 1:40.722

Drivers Championship
1 Fernando Alonso 35
2 Lewis Hamilton 30
3 Jenson Button 25
4 Mark Webber 24
5 Sergio Pérez 22
6 Sebastian Vettel 18
7 Kimi Räikkönen 16
8 Bruno Senna 8

Next Race is China, April 15th

Share