After a race that took over three hours in monsoon-like conditions, Fernando Alonso won the Malaysian Grand Prix after withstanding a late challenge from the unlikely figure of Sergio Perez.
The Sauber driver very nearly caught Alonso’s Ferrari, but a crucial mistake with seven laps to go meant that he had to settle for second and Alonso claimed his 28th career victory, which places him behind only Michael Schumacher, Alain Prost, Ayrton Senna and Nigel Mansell in list of all-time career wins.
After the race was delayed after the sixth lap because of a monumental downpour, Alonso passed Perez on the 16th lap and held onto the lead for the rest of the race, claiming a vital victory for a Ferrari team who have seemed out of sorts and building a five-point lead over Lewis Hamilton at the top of the driver’s standings in the process.
Hamilton himself finished behind Alonso and Perez in third, ahead of Red Bull’s Mark Webber and Lotus driver Kimi Raikkonen.
Speaking after the race, Alonso said that the win was “a big surprise” and added: “We were not competitive in Australia or here. Our goal was to score as many points as possible and we did the job.
“(It’s) An unbelievable result, a great job from the team. We maximised the potential in our hands, keeping calm in some strange conditions at the beginning with inters and the switching to dry tyres.”
If you weren’t up in time to catch the race this morning … you should be ashamed of yourself, it was only 9am after all.
We’re joking of course, you can catch highlights on BBC 1 at midnight tonight or tune into Sky’s new F1 channel.
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