Last Sunday the Sepang race was completely CRAZY! Lewis Hamilton and Button started again from the front of the grid but this is pretty much everything that the Malaysian GP weekend had in common with the Australian Grand Prix from the previous week. The huge difference - the TROPICAL RAIN.
The Winners
Fernando Alonso
Image Copyrights: Daily Mail
After starting from P8 on the grid in an unlikely turn of events Fernando Alonso won the Malaysian Grand Prix. My post qualification talk was full of praise for Mercedes but the BIG surprise is Ferrari. The uncompetitive in qualifying car behaves pretty well when it counts - during the race. The great applause for this victory, however, goes to the pit crew of Ferrari. Their brilliant decision to get Felipe and Fernando inside the pit at the same time prevented Lewis Hamilton from leaving the pit lane ahead of Alonso. Alonso took the lead after that glorious pit and after that his experience allowed him to bring the win home.
Regretfully, Massa is still more than a second slower than his teammate. There is something going on there - lack of motivation, fear, discontent, you name it. Alonso called the first two races "damage limitation" as the red team was trying to lose as little points as possible. It turned out, however, that after two races Alonso is the championship leader with 35 points (5 ahead of Lewis). The season promises to be heated.
Sergio Perez
Image Copyrights: Daily Mail
Perez managed to claim an impressive career-best performance by finishing second at Sepang. Besides Alonso there were five other former champions on the grid but it was only the brave Mexican that poised a challenge to the Spaniard. The tire management work of Perez was so amazing that some pundits claimed that the young Cico was supposed to pay from his own pocket for every pair of used tires. If it was not for an accident a couple of laps before the end of the race, Sauber's young star could have captured the victory as the car was obviously faster than Ferrari in the last third of the race. The rumors that connect Perez with a Ferrari move after the (seemingly inevitable) departure of Felipe just got a little more heated after Sergio's terrific performance in Malaysia.
The Losers
Red Bull
Image Copyrights: Daily Mail
Two races into the championship Red Bull are still without a win. They were not even close to fighting for one either during both races. And as if starting from P5 and P6 was not miserable enough, Vettel punctured a tire when lapping Karthikeyan HRT and managed to finish in the dismal 11 place after running at fourth for the most of the race. He also was without radio communication for most of the race. During the meeting with the press after the race Vettel managed to make a fool of himself by calling Karthikeyan "an idiot" and "a cucumber."
Mercedes
Image Copyrights: Motorsport@Petronas
Despite a great position on the grid at P3, Michael Schumacher could finish only tenth, while Rosberg was outside the top ten. Therefore, the F-duct powered speed in the qualification still does not translate to a stable race performance for the German giants. They should get back to the drawing board as one point from two races does not compare well even against teams like Force India, Williams, Toro Rosso, and Sauber.
