Perez shines at Sepang

The Malaysian GP delivered a shocking upset result at the end of a race, which saw the red flag come out due to a spectacular electrical storm that flooded the Sepang Int'l Circuit in the early stages of the race.

Strategy would play a big role as the teams tried to figure out which way to go regarding tire choice. Early front runners Hamilton and Button suffered a couple of mishaps, but Hamilton fought back to finish third. Rookie and Sauber driver Sergio Perez (Mexico) found himself in the lead due to a different tyre strategy but was passed by Fernando Alonso who kept the Mexican at bay to win the race.

Newspaper headlines around the World read: "Alonso wins, Perez shines in Malaysia upset".

Sergio Perez was the first Mexican to lead a GP since Pedro Rodriguez led the Dutch GP in 1971. Towards the end of the race Perez picked up the pace and put a lot of pressure on two-time World Champion Alonso, but ran wide in a corner just six laps from the finish and was ordered to maintain position to secure as many points as possible.

Kimi Raikkonen had to start from tenth place (qualified P5 plus a five spot penalty for changing a gearbox that was overheating a bit in Albert Park) and hadn't raced on wet weather Pirellis. Not did he know how the intermediate or wet weather tyres would react, but he still managed to finish in fifth place.

Schumi was delighted to start from P3. However, soon after the start of the race he was touched from behind and spun around. This caused him to drop to 16th place and eventually climbed his way back to finish tenth.

Sebastian Vettel lost radio communication with the pits after the long red flag period. Normally that would not be that much of a problem, but a punctured left rear tire caused by a slight contact when lapping Karthikeyan's HRT caused him to drive outside of the points, and on the final lap was ordered by Red Bull team principal Christian Horner to park the car. Vettel on the incident with Karthikeyan: "As in real life, there are a few cucumbers on the road." Too bad that the reigning Champion got emotional after a poor start to his season. He was clearly at fault here. To see a video this racing accident, please click here.

The F1 circus will be going to Shanghai next, for the Chinese Grand Prix on April 15.

Thanks for reading.

Source: Crash.net, Mercedes AMG F1