F1 News
Date: 25/March/2012
While the pre-race favourites for Sunday’s Malaysian F1 Grand Prix saw their hopes washed away by a torrential storm, Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso was left to fend off a surprise attack from Sauber’s Sergio Perez to take his first win of 2012.
Starting just eighth on the grid, Alonso had little chance of racing the McLaren, Mercedes and Red Bull drivers in the dry - but a rain storm just before the start threw the established Sepang formbook out of the window.
The rain was so intense that the decision was taken to red flag the race and it took almost an hour for the restart.
When it did Alonso, whose Ferrari team has been under immense pressure after an uncompetitive start to the year, and young Mexican Perez - starting only his second F1 season - took full advantage of the new playing field on offer.
Perez had already made great gains by a smart switch to extreme wets early on, allowing him to reach third place (from ninth on the grid) within six laps.
Alonso was two places behind, but passed pole sitter Lewis Hamilton during the change from wets to intermediates, while race and world championship leader Jenson Button lost part of his wing after tangling with a backmarker.
Alonso and Perez were one-two from lap 16 of 56 onwards - Alonso’s speedy pit stops getting him ahead - but despite holding a debut podium, Perez proved he has plenty of fire in his belly by chasing down Alonso after the final tyre change, to slicks on the now dry track.
Perez’s dream victory hopes ended when he ran wide with just a handful of laps to go, allowing a relieved Alonso to confirm his first win since last year’s Silverstone round by two seconds.
“Definitely, a big surprise with the win,” said Alonso. “We were not competitive in Australia, we were not competitive here and our goal was just to score as many points as possible. Today we scored 25. It’s an unbelievable result.
“I think we maximised the potential we have in our hands at the moment. Keeping calm in some extreme conditions. We started with inters and switched to extreme tyres because the aquaplaning was very bad and we overtook Vettel in that pit stop because we anticipated (it by) one lap.
“Then we came in with Lewis to change for inters after the restart. I exited in front, so it was just the pit stop itself that was quicker. I was making positions little by little with perfect calls from the team, so this victory is definitely for them. It’s a tough time for us at the moment but this Sunday we will remember.”
Despite the excitement of his first podium, Perez may have a few sleepless nights about the win that got away.
“I think the win today was really possible,” confirmed Perez, who didn’t finish high than seventh in his rookie F1 season. “When I caught Fernando I knew I would have to be quick to overtake him because I was having a lot of degradation in my front tyres.
“So I went looking for a way to get him and then I just ran a bit wide and touched the kerb. It was completely wet and that was the end of the win, probably. It was very difficult obviously to get Fernando but I think the win was possible.
“I have to say the team has done an incredible job. They called me always on the right time, especially the first pitstop.”
Adding spice to the Perez result is speculation that he might be called up by Ferrari to replace the struggling Felipe Massa, who crossed the line 15th on Sunday.
“It’s only rumours… I will stay with Sauber for the whole season,” Perez insisted.
Hamilton completed the podium, followed by Mark Webber (Red Bull), Kimi Raikkonen (Lotus) and Bruno Senna (Williams).
Michael Schumacher (Mercedes) and Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull) joined Button in sinking down the order due to racing incidents. Alonso now leads the championship by five points from Hamilton, with Button ten points from the top in third.
No comments:
Post a Comment