I’m placing these two races together as they were a week apart and I hadn’t got round to writing about Australia before Malaysia had started… my usual rubbish self. This draft has sat here for nearly a week now too… Anyway.
Statistics after these two races:
Australian Grand Prix, 18th March 2012
Jenson Button produced a dominant performance to win the first race of 2012. At the start, he took the lead from team mate Lewis Hamilton and never looked like losing the race. However, World Champion Sebastian Vettel benefited greatly from a safety car period and split the two McLaren drivers on the podium.
Throughout the race there was a lot of close action in the midfield, but at the front Button calmly carved out a lead.
From third on the grid, Romain Grosjean started slowly, finding trouble selecting second gear. Nico Rosberg, who started four places back, drew alongside him on the outside of the first corner. Rosberg braked later and made the turn, taking up fourth behind Michael Schumacher. Grosjean’s race didn’t last much a longer. Pastor Maldonado dived down the inside of him at turn 13 on the next lap, the pair made contact and the Lotus’ front suspension broke.
Vettel picked off Nico Rosberg on the second lap, sweeping around the outside of the Mercedes at turn nine. He set off after Michael Schumacher, but went off at turn one on lap six and briefly fell back into the clutches of Rosberg.
Having made another poor start – something that affected him throughout 20122 – Mark Webber suffered damage to his Red Bull in contact with Nico Hulkenberg. Felipe Massa had started well but within the first ten laps he was struggling with tyre wear.
Later in the race, after the pit stops, and after passing Perez, Hamilton initially made an impression on Button’s lead, bringing it down to under ten seconds. But by the time they were ready for their second pit stops the gap was back up to ten seconds and McLaren felt they could risk bringing both their drivers in on the same lap without losing any time. They were ill-rewarded for this risky move as the appearance of the safety car shortly afterwards ultimately cost Hamilton second place to Vettel.
Vettel believed he would have had a chance at passing the McLaren even without the safety car appearance, which was triggered by Vitaly Petrov’s Caterham stopping by the start/finish line. As always with these things, good follows bad and McLaren had found they were using fuel at a quicker rate than they expected and needed to back off to make sure they reached the finish. The safety car provided them a little breathing space.
Having let the lapped cars move out of the way – a revived yet fiddly procedure that not all the drivers in the queue seemed to be ready for – the safety car released the field for a 17-lap sprint to the finish.
Button pulled 1.9 seconds out on Vettel at the restart and Hamilton initially kept Vettel in range before slipping back. Maldonado was piling the pressure on Alonso for fifth place and as they headed into turn three he braked desperately lately, almost hitting the back of the Ferrari F2012. A few corners later he came completely unstuck, battering the barriers at turn seven. He had been on course for sixth place and would have scored more points for Williams than they managed last year.
Further back , Bruno Senna’s race had ended after contact with the Massa – he tried to take Massa on the outside of turn four and the pair collided, putting both out. Sergio Perez made contact with Rosberg while trying to pass, damaging one of Mercedes’ tyres and dropping Rosberg out of the top ten. The cars behind pounced and Kimi Raikkonen took three places in the final lap to clinch seventh, Perez hung on to eighth while Daniel Ricciardo and Paul di Resta passed Jean-Eric Vergne for the final points places.
McLaren’s win shows that this season may not feature the dominance from Red Bull this year. The whole grid appears to have closed up and I sense a few close races ahead.
Malaysian Grand Prix, 25th March 2012
It was the day that hell froze over as the previously impossible-to-drive Ferrari of Fernando Alonso carried him to his 28th and least expected victory in the rain, and with it take a five-point lead in the world championship as shown above. The people there were really excited to see his victory, the day was really rainy but the event had really good marquees.
It all sounds a little unbelievable, yet there’s more. The race really should have belonged to Sergio Pérez in his Sauber, who haven’t reached these dizzying heights since they ended their association with BMW. Of course, it was still the Mexican’s best finish, being his only podium so far in his F1 career (7th is his next best result now). Pérez, who had some flashes of brilliance last year, is one of the drivers being tipped for Felipe Massa’s seat at Ferrari next season – some say this.
Australia’s stars, McLaren and Red Bull, had poor weekends – only Lewis Hamilton finished on the podium in third. Red Bull’s Mark Webber was fourth but Jenson Button crashed and Sebastian Vettel suffered a rear left puncture towards the end of the race and retired as a result.
The race, held with thunder, lightning and torrential rain in the air created havoc for the teams as the rain began just as the red lights were due to go out. As the rain got steadily heavier, the drivers changed from intermediates to wets, with Pérez changing to wets as early as the second lap, ahead of most of his rivals. He was lapping three seconds quicker than the leaders by the fourth lap and was up to third before the others decided to change their rubber. But, as the rain fell heavier, the race was red flagged on the ninth lap creating a 51-minute delay.
At the restart, Alonso had carved out a seven second lead, impressive given the Australia’s form. Pérez began to cut into his lead on the drying circuit while Alonso was struggling with his tyres. When he came into the pits, Pérez did not follow him and that allowed the double world champion to pull out five seconds at the front. One wondered whether the Sauber should have gone in at the same time. However, Pérez started to close and looked capable of an astonishing victory.
There were cautious instructions from his team requesting that he consider the 18 points the team would gain for coming second. whether or not this caution caused him to run wide and lose a further five seconds, making victory impossible, will never be know. I can’t help but feel his team cost him a wonderful début victory.
