Alonso wins in Malaysiaposted in F125 | 03 | 2012
FERRARI'S FERNANDO ALONSO pulled off a surprise win in the Malaysian Grand Prix, holding off the fast-charging Sauber of Sergio Perez. Scotland's Paul di Resta bagged seventh for Sahara Force India in a rain-hit race which included a long red flag period.
The race on the 3.4-mile Sepang circuit near Kuala Lumpar was stopped after just nine laps as the circuit was hit by a deluge, and thunder and lightning hovered over the track.
Once the race restarted, with all cars instructed to use wet tyres, Jenson Button was first to pit for intermediates, and emerged ahead of his team-mate Lewis hamilton. Alonso also leapfrogged the Englishman who had started from pole/
Button though wrecked his race when he clipped the HRT of Narain Karthikeyan, damaging his front wing. Button struggled throughout the rest of the race to finish a distant 14th.
At the front though, Alonso and Perez pulled away from the field and after the final pitstop, the Mexican was hauling in the Prancing Horse at almost a second a lap.
But with just five laps remaining, and the gap down to under a second — and shortly after he'd received message from his team instructing him not to risk losing the 18 world championship points for second — Perez made a mistake.
The Sauber driver ran wide and dropped five second: race over. The Mexican cruised back behind the Ferrari towards the end but Alonso cruised across the line 2.263secs ahead to clinch his first win since Silverstone last year, and the 28th grand prix victory of his career.
"A big surprise today," Alonso, whose Ferrari team has struggled through pre-season testing and the opener in Melbourne, said. "I think we were not competitive in Australia and not competitive here. The goal was to score as many points as possible, and today it was 25 — so an unbelievable result.
"A great result for the team – good result in Q3, and today keeping calm in extreme conditions. Congratulations to team, who deserve this victory. This is a tough time at the moment, but for sure we will remember this Sunday."
Asked if the win would give Ferrari fresh motivation for its fightback, Alonso, who now leads Hamilton by five points in the championship race, replied: "It changes nothing, to be honest.
"We are in a position that we don't want to be: fighting to get into Q3 and fighting to score some points. We want to fight for poles and victories so definitely in these first two races we found ourselves off the pace.
"The aim was to not lose too many points, and we didn't lose any points. This is positive news about these first two races, but coming to China, Bahrain and Barcelona there is a lot of stuff coming, the team is putting in a lot of effort."
Perez meanwhile admitted the race had been there for him to win.
"I think the win today was really possible," the Mexican, who is now fifth in the championship with 22 points, said afterwards.
"Obviously the team did very good work to call me in at the right time. We lost time at the end of the second pitstop, which didn't go well with the clutch, but then I managed to catch Alonso lap by lap.
"Unfortunately I lost control of the car and lost the fight for the victory. Even so, it has been a great day for the team.
"They called me at the right time. The conditions were difficult to keep the car on track, and it has been incredible. They were focused as well, calling me at the right time, which was crucial."
Hamilton recovered to finish third, albeit 12secs behind Perez, with Mark Webber's Red Bull fourth ahead of the Lotus of Kimi Raikkonen.
Bruno Senna produced an excellent race to bring his Williams home sixth, just ahead of Di Resta in seventh.
It was another disappointing outing though for double world champ Sebastian Vettel. The Red Bull driver, running fourth with just eight laps remaining, like Button clipped Karthikeyan's car and punctured his rear left tyre. He eventually finished 11th, and out of the points.
Malaysian Grand Prix — Result (Provisional):
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
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Jim McGill