Alonso Wins Malaysian Grand Prix

Fernando Alonso withstood an astonishing charge from Sauber’s Sergio Perez to give embattled Ferrari the most unlikely of victories in an enthralling rain-affected Malaysian Grand Prix.

In an amazing 56-lap race that finished almost three hours after it started after a characteristic Sepang storm prompted an early red flag period, Alonso stealthily moved to the head of the field as the front-row starting McLarens ran into trouble during the pit stop phase as the field switched back to intermediate tyres.

This also allowed Perez through to second – the Mexican having started ninth on the grid but opting to

change to wet tyres at the end of the opening lap as rain started to fall – and from there the young ace delivered a drive which seemed destined for a fairtayle maiden victory before a mistake with six laps to go killed his momentum and allowed Alonso to ease to Ferrari’s first win since last July’s British GP.

Perez still finished an astonishing second – given Sauber its best ever result as an independent entity – but will no doubt be left to wonder just what might had been had he now made the slip at turn 13.

Lewis Hamilton led early on but a slow pit stop following the re-start lost him time and he slipped steadily adrift of Alonso and Perez to finish third, just ahead of Red Bull’s Mark Webber.

It turned into a dismal afternoon, however, for last weekend’s top two of Jenson Button and Sebastian Vettel who both failed to score points.

While Button was forced into an unscheduled pit stop following contact with Narain Karthikeyan’s HRT, Vettel suffered a late puncture while chasing down Hamilton and eventually retired with resultant damage.