March had been full of Surprises for me & the Tickets for Malaysian GP was the biggest surprise!!

I had never dreamt of attending the Malaysian GP this year and TOURISM MALAYSIA Surprised me with a fantastic gift - a 2 day Grandstand Ticket!! A big thank you to them because this GP had it all and I had the Privilege to see it all !!

Saturday was a hot and humid day. Hamilton and Jenson Button locked the front row for Mclaren and Schumacher qualifying third ensured that the Mercedes Engines were in for a strong race. Kimi qualified 5th but a gear-box change demoted him to 10th.

Sunday showed similar weather conditons one hour prior to the race. However 15 minutes to the race and the sky had become overcast. A Straightforward dry race was definitely in jeopardy. HRTs were the exceptions as they opted for the Blue Banded wet tyres while the others considered Intermediates as the wiser option. The Five lights went out and what followed was one of the most amazing races I had ever seen!!

Grosjean starting from 7th, made a good start and was third into turn 1. Schumacher and Grosjean made contact at turn 4 and both spun, losing several postions in the process and Grosjean eventaully retired on lap 4 after spinning into a gravel trap. On the first lap, turn 9 to 11 was almost completely dry but the rest of the track was very wet. Perez stopped after the first lap to change to full wets in a move that would elevate him to an eventual podium scoring position. All drivers had pitted onto full wets by laps 5 as the pitwall radar showed "the intensity will increase to 4 from time to time" meaning heavy rain was still to come.

The race restarted under the safety car. 4 laps behind the safety car & majority of the drivers once again pitted to change to intermediate tyres. Vettel lost radio contact with the pits. On lap 15, Jenson Button clumsily locked up the rear wheels and made contact with Karthikeyan, forcing him to pit again to change the front wing, ending his podium chances. Subsequently he made up a few places but was unable to finish in the top 10.

Alonso emerged from this as the new leader when he overtook Sergio Perez on lap 16, a lead he only briefly relinquished with a lap 40 pit stop. Rosberg was in fourth on lap 23 but slowly slipped backwards when his tyres overheated and he consequently pitted early for more intermediates. As the track slowy dried further, the top five all had comfortable gaps between them.

The Heavier rain that was forecasted never came ( Lap 31 ). After being 8 seconds behind Alonso in 2nd, Perez begun to set consecutive fastest laps and was closing the gap to the leader. The rain forecast prevented most cars from changing to slicks when the track was dry.

Daniel Ricciardo was the first to take the gamble and change to dry tyres on lap 37. He set the fastest lap by some three seconds on Perez and that initiated the change from wet to dry tyres for everyone else.

Perez on the prime tyre consistently cut down on Alonso's (medium tyre) lead to within half a second. However Perez was told on the radio "Sergio, we need this position, I Repeat we need this position." referring to the 18 points on offer for 2nd place. On the same lap Perez took too much curb on turn 14 and ran wide! This cost him at least five seconds and ensured that Alonso retained his lead.

Commentators questioned whether Sauber - whose engine is supplied by Ferrari - gave a coded message to Perez asking him to allow the engine supplier to take victory. Sauber denied this emphatically after the race. Could the Factory Ferrari instruct the Customer Ferrari to back off and let the former win? Well the Speculation will go on...

Late in the race, Vettel received a puncture against the front wing of Narain Karthikeyan, and he pitted from 4th place, finishing 11th; Karthikeyan was given a 20 second post-race penalty for his part in the collision. Pastor Maldonado, who was running 10th, was forced to retire on the penultimate lap when his engine gave way, allowing Michael Schumacher his first points of the season.

The Hero of the Day though was clearly Fernando Alonso.The Ferraris were struggling and didn't seem to have any chance of winning. However the rain always brings surprises and Alonso deserved the Victory. Sergio Perez left everyone astonished with his performace and the Sauber Ferrari will not be a pushover this season. They have plenty in reserve! Hamilton salvaged some pride for McLaren in 3rd but Button's incident with Karthikeyan simply spoilt the Brit's race.

 

Webber finished a strong 4th and it seems his consistency is finally rewarding him. Kimi had quite an entertaining race as he wrestled up the order to finish a commendable 5th. Bruno Senna, Paul Di Resta, Jean Eric Vergne impressed everyone with their drives finishing 6th, 7th & 8th respectively. They are definite champions in the making! Hulkenburg and Schumacher completed the Top Ten, a good day for Force India with both drivers finishing in point scoring positions.

Vettel seems to be under pressure. The German's incident with Karthikeyan demoted him from 4th to 11th. His post-race outburst using Derogatory terms at the HRT driver didn't go down well. Vettel is not getting a walkover this time! Massa put in a very disappointing shift again and it seems that Ferrari will be searching the market for a better teammate for Alonso. Maldanonado suffered heartbreak as his engine gave up the ghost, the Venezuelan failing to finish again...

China is the next stop for Formula 1 and is yet another Herman Tilke designed track. This season is going to be a close contested one and Red Bull has work to do to dominate again.

I hope Kimi does well in China...