Formula 1 Jam

Jenson Button showed exquisite skill in both dry and wet weather conditions to take the win in the shortened Malaysian Grand Prix. Nick Heidfeld who had made a late call to stay out a little longer in his almost destroyed extreme wet weather tyres took second and an almost psychic Timo Glock who made the perfect calls on tyres came home third.

With rain looming overhead, all the teams started the race the race expecting the rain showers to start as early as the 5th lap of the race. But the rain gods had better plans, they keep the rain away until lap 22 which saw a huge surge of drivers rushing to the pits. Ferrari was the first team to switch Kimi Raikkonen onto the wet weather tyres but the call was made too early, the Finn suffered by losing almost 20s every lap from the 18th lap all thanks to a gamble that didnt pay off.

At the start, it was a brilliant Rosberg and Alonso who gained the most places at the head of the field. The Williams driver was leading the race into turn one and the double world champion slotted himself at third behind Trulli. Button, Barrichello and then Kimi managed to find a way past the slow and heavy Spaniard, but it took them the better part of 15 laps to achieve it. The action remained focused with the Renault driver as Webber and Alonso produced one the best sequences of overtaking maneuvers in their fight. The duo fought each other over multiple race corners, overtaking and losing the position.

But it was the rain that would have the last laugh. With the first appearance of rain, almost all the drivers opted for the extreme wets. The rain was consistent but not strong enough to help drivers on extreme wets. It was Glock and Toyota who gambled on the intermediate tyres and soon were on top of the time sheets. At one time Timo was as much as 10s a lap faster than the race leader Jenson Button.

On lap 29 most of the other drivers including race leader Jenson Button made the call to switch to inters. About two laps later the heavy rain started. The drivers again diving in for extreme wets. Timo Glock again the first to make the call and benefit the most. The Toyota driver was soon fighting for the lead.

As the rain came down heavily the safety car was called. Then on lap 33 the race was red flagged after the visibility was clearly close to nil. The drivers waited on the start finish straight for the restart which seemed impossible. FIA finally made the call to suspend the race.

With only 33 laps finished the race wasnt 75% finished and hence the finishing order were awarded half points. Something that hasnt happened in F1 in almost 18 years!

RACE RESULTS

Pos  Driver        Team                      Time
 1.  Button        Brawn GP              (B)  1h10:59.092
 2.  Heidfeld      BMW Sauber            (B)  + 22.722
 3.  Glock         Toyota                (B)  + 23.513
 4.  Trulli        Toyota                (B)  + 46.173
 5.  Barrichello   Brawn GP              (B)  + 47.360
 6.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault      (B)  + 52.333
 7.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes      (B)  + 60.733
 8.  Rosberg       Williams-Toyota       (B)  + 71.576
 9.  Massa         Ferrari               (B)  + 76.932
10.  Bourdais      Toro Rosso-Ferrari    (B)  + 102.164
11.  Alonso        Renault               (B)  +  1 lap
12.  Nakajima      Williams-Toyota       (B)  +  1 lap
13.  Piquet        Renault               (B)  +  1 lap
14.  Raikkonen     Ferrari               (B)  +  1 lap
15.  Vettel        Red Bull-Renault      (B)  +  1 lap
16.  Buemi         Toro Rosso-Ferrari    (B)  +  1 lap
17.  Sutil         Force India-Mercedes  (B)  +  1 lap
18.  Fisichella    Force India-Mercedes  (B)  +  2 lap
Not classified/retirements
Kubica        BMW Sauber            (B)     1
Kovalainen    McLaren-Mercedes      (B)     0

Fastest lap: Button, 1:36.641

Race results thanks to Autosport.

Driver        Team                      On lap