Tears in Sepang

When the chequered flag came down in Malaysia, both Ferrari and Sauber were shedding tears. This was because Fernando Alonso secured a shock victory and Sergio Perez secured second, the highest finish for a Sauber driver and the best finish for a Mexican in 41-years.

As typical in Sepang, the race was hampered by rain and it caused the usual havoc amongst the drivers. Lewis Hamilton managed to get away strongly this time around as Romain Grosjean squeezed into third going into the firs corner. But his dream start soon became a nightmare as he contacted Michael Schumacher during the next straight to send them both spinning. Schumacher continued but Grosjean had to retire on the next lap to make it two retirements from two races.

Then the rain came down heavier and the Safety Car was forced to emerge on lap seven before a red flag just two laps later. 50-minutes later and the race could resume under the Safety Car until lap-13 when normal racing resumed. A lap into the restart and the major drivers wanted to get onto the intermediate tyres. Lewis Hamilton slightly overshot his mark in the pits and was then released late due to the entering Felipe Massa. This ultimately cost him dear as it allowed Button and Alonso to get ahead with the other McLaren having pitted a lap earlier.

Next, it was Button's race to get hampered. He over-cooked an attempted overtake on Narain Karthikeyan, who hadn't pitted so was racing for position, the Briton came in too early and slice his front wing. This caused him to once again come into the pits and, with the pack being so tightly bunched due to the Safety Car, he resumed the race in 22nd.

There became a sense of deja vu when Sebastian Vettel suffered the same fate on the same HRT. Instead of losing his front wing, Vettel received a left-rear puncture which the German had to nurse back to the pits before continuing the race well out of the points.

This left Alonso and Perez to battle it out for the win as Mark Webber was hunting down Hamilton in the battle for third. The Sauber was constantly catching the Ferrari but a mistake on a corner cost Perez in the end. By the last lap, the Mexican had regained the lost and if the race had lasted a few more laps, the Sauber would have definitely won the race. The resurgent Williams team was dealt another devastating blow with Pastor Maldonado once again looking to be firmly in the points. But an engine failure caused the Venezuelan to once again retire on the final lap. Race result:

1.Alonso (Ferrari), 2.Perez (Sauber), 3.Hamilton (McLaren), 4.Webber (Red Bull), 5.Raikkonen (Lotus), 6.Senna (Williams), 7.Di Resta (Force India), 8.Vergne (Toro Rosso), 9.Hulkenberg (Force India), 10.Schumacher (Mercedes), 11.Vettel (Red Bull), 12.Ricciardo (Toro Rosso), 13.Rosberg (Mercedes), 14.Button (McLaren), 15.Massa (Ferrari), 16.Petrov (Caterham), 17.Glock (Marussia), 18.Kovalainen (Caterham), 19.Maldonado (Williams), 20.Pic (Marussia), 21.De La Rosa (HRT), 22.Karthikeyan (HRT) DNF: Kobayashi (Sauber), Grosjean (Lotus)