Jenson Button wins in soggy Sepang
Jenson Button won a shortened 31 lap Malaysian Grand Prix from Nick Heidfeld and Timo Glock on a day when heavy rain forced the race to be halted well ahead of the scheduled 56 laps.
Monsoon rains are common-place late in the afternoon and it was therefore of little surprise that the weather created problems and much confusion for the Formula One circus.
Until the very heavy rain began to fall, the second round of the championship proved to be a thriller with Nico Rosberg storming into the lead from fourth position on the grid at the start and controlling the race in his Williams Toyota from Jarno Trulli�s Toyota until the first round of pitstops.
Button meanwhile bided his time during the first stint well aware he had more fuel on board than his rivals and as the others pitted, picked up the pace to ensure he exited the puts following his first stop in the lead.
Light rain began to fall on lap 22 with Kimi Raikkonen already having gambled and switched to full wet tyres some three laps earlier. The gamble did not pay off for Raikkonen as he burned through the tyres on the dry circuit, but all of the front runners soon began to pit as light rain started to fall.
Timo Glock had not made the best start to the race and had dropped towards the bottom of the top ten but he and the Toyota team opted to switch to intermediate tyres and not the full wets.
This decision paid off as he carved his way through the field to run third when the really heavy rain fell.
While Glock made progress through the field the other drivers opted to change from full wet tyres to intermediate tyres but the switch was only suitable for a few laps as by lap 28 the heavy rain forced them all back onto the full wet tyres, shuffling the race order behind Button yet again.
Conditions then deteriorated significantly forcing first the safety car out and then the red flags bringing a halt to proceedings for over 50 minutes before the result was declared.
As the FIA fumbled around before making a decision to declare the race, it became clear that Nick Heidfeld had worked his way up to second position in his BMW Sauber having made just the one pitstop compared to the three or four made by the rest of the field. A gamble from the team certainly paid dividends after a difficult weekend to date.
Jarno Trulli finished fourth in the second Toyota losing time in the wet conditions, while Rubens Barrichello was fifth when the race came to its premature conclusion.
Mark Webber and Lewis Hamilton had a fantastic battle ahead of the red flag with Webber much faster in the twisty mid-field and Hamilton leaning on KERS heavily to retake the position on the long Sepang straights on at least three occasions. Webber finished in sixth position ahead of the defending champion.
After his fast start Nico Rosberg lost ground in the pit stop shuffle and finished eighth for Williams while Ferrari leave the second round of the championship still without any points with Massa ninth and Raikkonen parking his F60 when the red flags came out with an unidentified KERS issue.
Sebastien Bourdais like Raikkonen was early to switch to wet tyres and he finished tenth in his Toro Rosso ahead of Fernando Alonso who had a spin in the wet and dropped out of the points. Kazuki Nakajima finished 12th in the second Williams ahead of Nelson Piquet in the second R29.
Kimi Raikkonen was classified 14th ahead of Sebastian Vettel who spun out of the points in his Red Bull Renault. Sebastien Buemi was 16th in the second Toro Rosso ahead of the Force India Mercedes duo of Adrian Sutil and Giancarlo Fisichella.
Robert Kubica retired his BMW Sauber almost as soon as the race began with an engine problem while Heikki Kovalainen�s rotten start to the season continued as he lost control of his McLaren Mercedes and spun out of the race on the first lap.
And so after a thrilling 30 laps of action, the Malaysian Grand Prix ended in confusion with even the drivers unsure of where they had finished.
Formula One lacked any real sense of communication leaving fans world-wide unsure of if the race would start again or not and even after 50 minutes of waiting, the results were uncertain until the top three took to the podium.
Heading to Shanghai for the Chinese Grand Prix, Button�s perfect start to the season remains intact as he leads the championship with 15 points, courtesy of half points awarded from this race, from Barrichello on 10, Trulli on 8.5, Glock on 8 and Alonso on 4.
Earl ALEXANDER
� CAPSIS International