Ferrari had looked set for a miserable campaign in 2012, grappling with persistent handling issues which had seen both cars crash out in Q2 at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix, but Fernando Alonso was able to capitalise on a vintage Sepang downpour and a number of incidents to claim a stunning victory and set the wheels in motion for a remarkable title challenge.
Sauber driver Sergio Perez was on the Spaniard’s tail for much of the race, but an untimely, albeit forgivable, error denied him a maiden win, though his superb podium finish emphatically announced his potential, attracting interest from a number of top teams and paving the way for his switch to McLaren in 2013.
The 2012 Formula One season was among the finest in the sport’s history, with seven different winners in the first seven races and a number of Grands Prix which will live long in the memory. Indeed, the epic Malaysia GP proved a precursor for the unforgettable, unpredictable and ultimately downright chaotic campaign which was to follow.
Few people remember that, for much of the 2012 season, McLaren sat atop the pecking order, with unreliability ultimately costing them a championship challenge, in spite of their impressive tally of seven victories – which neither Red Bull nor Ferrari, the chief protagonists of the title duel, could eclipse. A 1-2 in qualifying, led by Lewis Hamilton, represented a continuation of their strong early season form, while eventual victor Fernando Alonso could only manage ninth, sharing the fifth row with Perez.
The Woking outfit were, therefore, the hot favourites for a second consecutive win after Jenson Button’s Melbourne victory, but rain in the minutes before the race threatened to spoil their party, with 22 of the 24 drivers – all except the two HRTs – opting for the intermediates at the start.
Hamilton and Button held station into the first corner, but Romain Grosjean surged into third place, only to be sent tumbling down the order after contact with Michael Schumacher at Turn 4, one of a flurry of first-lap incidents which long hung over for the Frenchman and damaged his reputation. As the rain intensified, meanwhile, Perez dived into the pits for the full wets and the rest of the field followed suit before Lap 5. Two laps later, the safety car was deployed as the rivers began to form across the tarmac, and the red flags were flying by Lap 9.
Following a frustrating 50-minute delay, the action resumed, albeit behind the safety car, and within four laps, the field had once again switched to the intermediates, with the changeable conditions spicing things up nicely. Jenson Button was the first of the contenders to fall as he clumsily made contact with Narain Karthikeyan and was forced to pit for repairs, ultimately coming home in 14th. A lap later, Alonso, who had climbed to 2nd following a sluggish pit-stop for the then race leader Hamilton, snatched the lead as he passed Perez, but there would be yet another twist to the tale as the track began to dry out.
A warning of a torrential downpour delayed the switch to slicks, even with the circuit virtually bone-dry, and it was Daniel Ricciardo who gambled first, triggering a flurry of pit stops after proceeding to light up the timing screens. Perez had been gaining on Alonso before the switch to the dry tyres, slashing the Spaniard’s advantage to just 1.3 seconds, and though he fell seven seconds adrift in the pit-stop phase, his pace was even more impressive on the medium rubber, meaning he was within half a second as the race entered its closing stages.
As the battle for victory raged on, there was drama further down the field, as Karthikeyan and Sebastian Vettel came to blows, costing the defending champion fourth place and a vital twelve points, with the German branding the HRT driver an “idiot” in the resulting war of words.
On lap 50, Sauber delivered a controversial radio message: “Be careful, we need this position”. There were rumours that Ferrari, the Swiss outfit’s engine suppliers, had instructed the team to call off the battle, claims which Sauber would vehemently deny. Nonetheless, Perez’s hopes of victory evaporated on that same lap as he slid agonisingly wide at the penultimate corner and the Ferrari became merely a speck in the distance.
The race, then, ended with a relative whimper after it so long kept fans on the edge of their seats, but it was a memorable victory for Fernando Alonso and the Scuderia, arguably one of the double world champion’s finest. At the end of the marathon race, he stood atop the podium, as surprised as he was ecstatic, with a delighted Perez to his right and the pole-sitter Hamilton to his left.
Alonso would not grace the top step again until the European Grand Prix nearly three months later, but his win in Malaysia saw him snatch an unprecedented championship lead and restored belief to a Ferrari team which had seen an 11-race victory drought come to an end. Overall, then, the Malaysian Grand Prix encapsulated everything that was great about the 2012 season: superhuman performances, headline-grabbing results and incidents aplenty.
Ferrari head to Malaysia, where they brilliantly won last year, this weekend on a 21-race winless streak. Given their current struggles, they will need Sepang to throw up yet more drama if they are to emulate their 2012 heroics.
