Alonso edges Perez for win in Malaysia

SEPANG, Malaysia- At the beginning of the season, Ferrari assumed that they had a horrible race car and figured that it could improve throughout this season. But on Sunday afternoon at the Grand Prix of Malaysia after a 45 minute rain delay, Fernando Alonso took the lead on lap 17, and held off an aggressive Sergio Perez and his Sauber at the end to win his first race of the year by just over two seconds. Lewis Hamilton, who took the pole the day before, finished in third.

"It was an incredible race! I am very happy, for me and for the whole team”. Beamed an ecstatic Alonso. “I am proud of this fantastic group of people. While we have been going through this difficult time, no one gave up, in fact everyone has doubled their efforts to try and catch up. The strategy was perfect, the mechanics did an impeccable job, the engineers did their best in preparing the car and I drove at my maximum for all 56 laps of the race. I would never have bet on this win and I would think anyone who did so must have picked up a tidy sum! As I returned to the pit lane on the cool down lap I didn't even know where to park the car: to win with all the problems we have got is something quite extraordinary. In the wet, I was going very well, but then when the track dried out, our weaknesses showed themselves. Sergio got very close and I was trying to stay on the only dry line: if he wanted to pass me, he would have had to take a risk. Yesterday, he and I ended up ninth and tenth and today we found ourselves fighting for the win, which shows how unpredictable is this championship.”

But Perez on the other hand, felt he let the race get away from him.

"It is a great day for me. The team did a very good job and I feel very happy for them” remarked Perez. “It is a really nice feeling to have been on the podium here, but I think victory was also within reach. Twice in the race I was catching Fernando (Alonso). On the final stint, when I was on the hard tire compound, my tires had degraded quite a lot. It wasn't easy and I went wide and touched a curb. I actually was lucky not to go off. Before that Fernando had just pitted on the perfect lap for dry tires, just one lap before me, and I lost a bit of ground to him. It was very difficult to make the right calls today and I want to thank my team. They always called me in at the right time, the first stop after lap one was especially important and it was also good to take the hard compound in the end, as the medium compound was not working too well for us. It is only our second race in 2012 and I think we have a great season ahead of us. I knew we had potential to fight today, our car is not far away from the top cars and a good crew and a driver can also make a difference in such conditions."

All of the cars were on intermediate tires at the beginning of the race, when the rain was starting to come down. However, only minutes later, the rain came pouring down and with only a couple of laps in, Michael Schumacher touched the Lotus of Romain Grosjean, sending the Frenchman into the gravel and beaching him for the rest of the race. Just a few minutes later, most of the drivers flew into the pits for full wets, except for Hamilton, who waited a couple laps later to join the rest of the group. The Briton came out just ahead of Button and resumed the lead on the eighth lap.

But the rain increased even more, and by the end of the ninth lap, it was too much for the grid as most drivers could not control their machines, and race control finally decided to bring out the safety car until it was obvious that the rain would not let up. The red flag came out moments later and the race was delayed for less than an hour before the cars were back racing again.

As the race resumed once more, the safety car led the way for about four laps before it pulled off, resuming still with a wet track. But as the Safety car moved off, many cars pulled into the pits for the change for intermediate tires. One of them, HRT driver Pedro De La Rosa, had to not put on tires, but serve a drive through penalty because his crew did not leave the grid fast enough when the race restarted.

Hamilton, still in the lead came in for intermediates, but encountered a very slow pit stop, ruining his chances to maintain his lead. Perez assumed the lead, and only lost it to Alonso when the Mexican came in for tires on lap 17.

Jenson Button had trouble with his McLaren laps later when he struck the back of HRT’s Narain Karthekeyen, and lost his front wing. But considering the race winner a week ago in Australia had his damage repaired, he could not get a decent amount of grip and finished a disappointing 14th.

Perez had many chances to catch Alonso in the last few laps, but with six laps to go, Perez ran wide and could never catch up to the Spaniard, just missing a chance to give his Swiss team their first victory in formula one history. Nevertheless, it was the team’s first podium appearance as the lonely Sauber team since 2001, when Nick Heidfeld finished third in this same race.

Mark Webber took fourth, while Kimi Raikkonen finished a quiet fifth in his Lotus. Sixth was joyful Bruno Senna in the Williams, while Paul di Resta took seventh, Jean-Eric Vergne was eighth, and Germans Nico Hulkenberg and Michael Schumacher grabbed the last few points.

With their first win only in the second round of the season, Alonso felt it was a great moment for the team, but cautions that the team still has more work to do.

“Now we absolutely have to improve the performance starting right away with the races in China and Bahrain. We must get back to work immediately so as to find at least the two or three tenths that could put us back in the fight for the top places.” Remarked Alonso.

Photo courtesy of Sauber Motorsport