Perez shines in unpredictable Malaysian GP

By Joshua Nicholas

In interviews before the race, drivers and team leaders predicted a gruelling Grand Prix, citing complexities in race setup, high temperatures and humidity, a likelihood of rain and unusually high tyre degradation.

“It’s one of the toughest circuits on the calendar because there’s a real range of corners, cambers, a couple of blind apexes and a little bit of gradient. If the car’s working against you, then it becomes painful, but when it’s all switched on, it’s just a great, great circuit to drive” said McLaren driver Jenson Button, former world champion and winner of last week’s Australian GP.

“This is the longest race in terms of distance, but above all, it’s the most tiring from the physical point of view,” said Ferrari driver Fernando Alonso, a former world champion.

Car setup is all-important in Malaysia, as two straights of almost a kilometre each, and a number of slow corners, make finding the right car balance vital. Too much emphasis on down force can leave the car vulnerable on the straights; too much emphasis on top speed and the car may get taken in the corners.

From the start of weekend, McLaren were leading the way, with Lewis Hamilton posting the fastest times in practice 1 and 2 on Friday, and taking pole position in qualifying, with teammate Button in p2 and Schumacher of Mercedes in p3.

Hamilton was able to keep his lead going into the first corner, however it was not long before the unpredictable Malaysian weather struck, and the race was suspended on lap 9.

After a 40-minute interlude, the race was restarted behind the safety car, with Hamilton still in the lead. From then, however, pit lane and strategy missteps cost Hamilton the top spot, allowing Alonso to sneak in front; and a slippery tracked combined with tenuous weather forecasts affected the strategies of all the teams.  The middle part of the race was marked by Button attempting to fight back from 22nd position, and Sergio Perez of Sauber, normally a back-marker, attempting to cling on to second position, with Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull running close behind. Felipe Massa, teammate of race leader Alonso, was also notable for dropping slowly out of point’s contention and into the back markers. By the 41st lap the race turned into a weather forecasting competitionas different drivers and different teams gambled on whether or not it would rain. The teams that chose to put on softer tyres immediately found purchase, with Daniel Ricciardo of Toro Rosso going a full five seconds faster than the race leader. On the 48th lap Sebastian Vettel hit Karthikeyan and punctured a tyre, forcing him to pit and fall back into twelfth place. By the 49th lap Perez was less than a second behind Alonso and lapping considerably faster. However, the pure speed of the Ferrari in a straight line allowed Alonso to hold him off, despite Perez’s DRS and younger tyres. On the 50th lap Perez put a tyre wrong and lost more than four seconds, effectively ending his prospects to top the podium.  Alonso crossed the line in first, giving Ferrari an extraordinary and unexpected win, with Perez in second and Hamilton in third. However, the story of the day was Perez giving Sauber, a team without a major sponsor, an unexpected but well deserved 18 championship points.