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Fernando Alonso put firmly to one side weeks
of difficulties Ferrari has suffered with
the problematic new F2012 single-seater as
the Spaniard pulled off a stunning win in
the rain-hit conditions of the Malaysian
Grand Prix this afternoon. |
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Fernando
Alonso put to one side weeks of difficulties Ferrari has
suffered with the problematic new F2012 single-seater as
the Spaniard pulled off a stunning win in the rain-hit
conditions of the Malaysian Grand Prix this afternoon.
“Magico” was
the word displayed on Alonso’s pit board as he crossed
the line and he now leads the Drivers’ World
Championship after two rounds, while Scuderia Ferrari is
in third place behind leaders McLaren and Red Bull in
the Constructors' race. “If it’s a crazy race, maybe
with rain, then maybe we can finish in front,” said
Fernando on Thursday in the FIA Press Conference and it
seems that, apart from a talent for driving, perhaps he
also has the talent to predict the future!
Having had a mainly dry weekend since Thursday, somehow
the rain chose the moments leading up to the start to
arrive over the Sepang circuit. It was light enough for
everyone to fit the Pirelli intermediate tyres, but
heavy enough to cause plenty of spray off the
open-wheeled cars. As the lights went out, Hamilton and
Button maintained their first and second grid positions,
followed by Webber, Grosjean briefly, Vettel with
Fernando up one to seventh. Having started third,
Schumacher spun, while Felipe went up two places to
tenth.
Fernando was fifth on the second lap and on lap
3, as the rain intensified, Felipe was the first to pit
for Extreme rain tyres and on the following lap,
Grosjean parked his Lotus in the gravel in the
treacherous conditions. Lap 4 and Fernando, Button,
Hulkenberg, Ricciardo, Petrov and Kovalainen switched to
the rain tyre. On lap 5 it was the turn of Hamilton,
Webber and Vettel doing a double stop, Rosberg,
Maldonaldo, Raikkonen, Kobayashi and Schumacher.
The conditions were getting worse and at first the
information on the monitor said the race had been red
flagged. However, a few seconds later the red band came
off to be replaced with the message that the Safety Car
was deployed. But as the track was virtually a river,
the red flag did come out on lap 9. The cars formed up
on the grid in the order, Hamilton and Button first and
second for McLaren, then Perez (Sauber,) Webber (Red
Bull) Fernando fifth for Ferrari, Vettel (Red Bull)
Vergne (Toro Rosso) the only one of the lead group not
to have changed to extreme tyres, then Felipe eighth in
the second F2012, with Rosberg ninth for Mercedes,
followed by another non-stopper Karthikeyan who had
moved up 13 places in the Hispania!
As the restart took place behind the Safety Car, after a
stop of almost an hour, the rules demanded that all cars
had to be on Extreme rain tyres. Button pitted
immediately for Intermediates and that saw him get ahead
of his team-mate, who was also passed by Fernando and
although Perez, who had made up a lot of ground when
Sauber were the first to put him on extremes after the
first start, got ahead of the Ferrari man, Fernando
immediately got ahead of him again. With Button having
dropped back after a collision with Karthikeyan,
Fernando was now leading, with a comfortable margin of
around six seconds over Perez. However, the situation
changed when the track became dry enough for slicks to
be fitted for the first time in the race. The Sauber
proved to be much faster than the F2012 and the Mexican
was able to close right up to Fernando. However, the
pressure eased when Perez ran wide onto the back
straight, the gap growing to at last five seconds again.
The Mexican did fight back, but by this stage there were
not enough laps remaining for him to get ahead, so a
delighted Fernando punched the air as he crossed the
line to take a brilliant and frankly unexpected victory;
a victory that puts him in the lead in the Drivers’
World Championship, 5 points ahead of Hamilton and 10 in
front of Button.
Felipe’s afternoon was less successful: after an early
stop for extreme tyres, he had moved up from twelfth on
the grid to eighth at the restart. He battled with
Vergne in the Toro Rosso but then ran wide losing
several places, dropping as low as eighteenth at one
point before eventually taking the chequered flag in
fifteenth place.
Stefano Domenicali:
“An incredible win, absolutely unexpected, but that does
not make it any less wonderful and emotional! Once
again, Fernando was amazing, driving with a cool head
and determination, managing to get the very best out of
this car and of the very changeable weather conditions.
Today’s victory does not change a jot in terms of our
situation: we know that, at the moment, we do not have a
car competitive enough to fight for the win under normal
conditions and that we have a lot of work to do to catch
up. Clearly this win gives us even more motivation,
because it shows that this championship is not at all
clear cut and anything can happen. A slight improvement
in performance can result in a good step forward
compared to other teams. Felipe suffered too much with
degradation on his front tyres, which led to him making
one more stop than his team-mate: this is a particularly
difficult moment for him, because he cannot get the most
out of a car that, objectively, is very difficult to
drive. We have an obligation to stay close to him, which
is as it should be in such a closely knit team. Now we
will enjoy this moment for a few hours, but tomorrow we
must be back in the factory again pushing on the
development of this F2012. Finally I want to
congratulate Sauber, who today secured their best ever
result and congratulations also to Sergio Perez, a
youngster from the Ferrari Driver Academy, who today
confirmed his great talent.”
Fernando Alonso: “It was an incredible
race! I am very happy, for me and for the whole team: 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. Our aim was damage limitation for these
early races of the championship and now we even find
ourselves leading the classification. 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.”
Felipe Massa: “First of all, I want to
congratulate Fernando on this great win, which came
thanks to him driving a fantastic race. It is a very
important victory for the team, although it must not let
us forget that our car is not yet at the level of the
best. Obviously I am disappointed with my result. Things
were going well at the start and I was able to fight
with the drivers directly ahead of me. When the track
was drying, I suffered more and more with tyre
degradation and I could not maintain a good pace. We
opted to follow what Rosberg was doing ahead of me, as
he too was apparently struggling with his tyres, but it
did not work out and we lost a lot of time with this
extra stop, given also that the others stayed on track
for around a dozen laps more before switching to the dry
tyres. It is important for us to try and understand why
there is such a strong difference in the way our cars
perform, but ultimately, our aim is to have a more
competitive car in as short a time as possible.”
Pat Fry: “This win is a wonderful
reward for all the efforts we are making here at the
track and back home at the factory to try and turn
around a season that immediately saw us facing an uphill
struggle. However, this result must not be seen as a
case of all our problems having unexpectedly solved
themselves: that’s not the case and everyone is aware of
it. Fernando drove a fantastic race, pushing throughout
the entire time, always being very careful but never
overdoing it. The F2012 seemed to behave very
differently depending on the conditions in which it was
running: today, there were moments when it was
absolutely competitive, others when it struggled. We had
already seen in Melbourne on Friday that on a damp
track, the situation was not bad and today it went even
better. Towards the end, Perez was very quick, partly
because his Hards were working better in these
conditions than Fernando’s mediums. Another decisive
factor in today’s win was the work in the pits and on
the pit wall: at every pit stop, Fernando managed either
to make up places or to stay ahead of his pursuers.
Felipe made a good start but suffered quite badly with
the front tyres as the track was drying. We tried to
remedy the situation, bringing him for an extra stop and
clearly that cost him valuable time. We must try and
understand why, for him, the car ends up being even more
unstable in terms of its handling compared to the way it
works for his team-mate: it is one of our tasks for
these coming days along with obviously trying to find
the tenths in performance terms that we are still
lacking.”
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