Classic Malaysian Grand Prix: 2012

Kicking off Torque F1’s build-up to this weekend’s Malaysian Grand Prix is the second in the new Classic Grand Prix feature, which looks at the best races to have occurred at each circuit on the Formula One calendar.

Keeping firmly with tradition for this feature (although seeing as this has only been done once before I’m not sure tradition is the right word) it was the turn of the Malaysian Grand Prix to be put to Twitter for people to vote for their favourite race at the Sepang circuit.

Despite an extremely close run vote, which ended up with a tie between the 2001 and 2012 races, I honourably discounted my vote for 2001 to eliminate bias from the equation, making last year’s race the winner.

The sodden Sepang circuit served up a treat for F1 fans last year

Having dominated the opening round of the 2012 season in Australia, McLaren arrived in Sepang as firm favourites for victory in Malaysia. Jenson Button had taken a dominant victory in Melbourne, whilst teammate Lewis Hamilton had finished third having taken pole position on the Saturday.

It was a trend that continued throughout qualifying as Hamilton once again took pole from Button, making it the second all-McLaren front row in as many races. Michael Schumacher qualified his Mercedes third, while the Red Bulls of Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel rounded out the top five.

Further back, Fernando Alonso started eighth in a Ferrari that was quite clearly not up to the task, whilst Sauber’s Sergio Perez lined up an impressive ninth. Kimi Raikkonen had set the fifth fastest time in qualifying, but was forced to start in tenth after a mandatory five-place grid penalty for changing his gearbox.

The Sepang circuit has a reputation for inclement weather, so it was no surprise to anyone when rain hit the track ten minutes before the start, prompting the teams to begin the race on intermediate tyres. The circuit was deemed safe enough not to require a safety car start, so the field took their grid slots as usual.

And it was a clean start for most, as the McLarens got away well and led into the first corner, with Hamilton leading Button. With the first couple of corners navigated safely, it appeared as though the field were going to complete the first lap without incident.

Those hopes managed to survive as long as the next corner, as Romain Grosjean attempted to pass Schumacher into turn four, but in doing so the Lotus clipped the Mercedes and sent both spinning down the field.

The torrential rain caused the race to be stopped for nearly an hour

The rain began to intensify and Perez took the first gamble of the race, pitting for full wet tyres at the end of the opening lap. It was a move that was to prove inspired, as he gained a huge amount of time on the frontrunners, who quickly had to follow him in. As a result, when the rest of the field took the plunge for wets, the Sauber driver found himself in third place behind the McLarens.

The track was beginning to become undriveable, as shown by Grosjean spinning off on lap four and into retirement, and before too long the safety car was deployed. With the rain getting worse, the decision was made to stop the race on the ninth lap.

Nearly an hour later, and enter the 2012 Malaysian Grand Prix, take two. The safety car led the field around for four laps before it peeled off at the end of lap 13 and the race resumed. Alonso made the best of the restart, passing the Red Bull of Webber around the outside of turn one to take fourth place.

Button was the first to take the plunge and change to intermediates at the end of lap 14, and he was quickly followed by Hamilton and Alonso on the next lap. Hamilton had entered the pit lane as the leader, but an awful pit stop by the McLaren team enabled Alonso to get the jump on his former teammate and then leapfrog Button to take a net second place, a position that many had thought impossible for the Ferrari before the weekend.

But things got even better for Alonso when Perez pitted. With the track still damp, the Sauber had no grip when re-joining the track and his car squirmed whilst desperately trying to find traction. Alonso needed no invitation to take advantage, and on the exit of turn two drove clean past the Mexican to take the lead.

Button’s hopes of victory were destroyed when he collided with Narain Karthikeyan and damaged his front wing

But for everything that had gone right for Alonso, things had just gone disastrously wrong for Button. Attempting to pass the HRT of Narain Karthikeyan into turn nine, the Brit got his braking all wrong and clattered the back of the Indian’s car, damaging his front wing and forcing him to make another pitstop.

With the pitstops over, it was Alonso who had the lead, followed by Perez, Hamilton, Nico Rosberg and Vettel. On the damp track, the race began to settle down and the leading Ferrari began to pull away from Perez’s Sauber, with the advantage growing to almost eight seconds.

But as the track dried, Perez got quicker. The Mexican, whose best finish in F1 prior to this race was a seventh place, began to close in on Alonso’s Ferrari, and do so quickly. The Sauber driver began to take huge chunks out of the Spaniard’s lead, and by lap 40 the gap had come down to just 1.3 seconds, with Perez just three tenths of a second away from being able to deploy the DRS and challenge for an incredible lead.

Ferrari realised they needed to react quickly, and did so by bringing in Alonso for dry tyres at the end of that lap. However, Perez decided to stay out for another lap and in doing so, lost several seconds to the Spaniard.

As a relatively inexperienced driver with no history of fighting it out at the front, Perez could have been forgiven for giving up on the chance to win and coasting home for what would have been an incredible second place. But the Sauber man wasn’t finished, and in an exact replica of the laps before the pitstops, began to eat into Alonso’s lead once again.

The gap was 7.7 seconds at the end of lap 44, but Perez’s pace was blinding. He took two seconds out of the Ferrari on the next lap, nine tenths the lap after that, seven tenths the lap after that and the gap to Alonso was being evaporated. By lap 50 it was under a second and the Sauber now had the advantage of the DRS for the first time. With six laps to make a move on a vastly inferior Ferrari, a history win was in sight.

But then it all went wrong. Perez, looking for a good run onto the back straight to enable him to get closer to Alonso before the DRS zone, ran wide at the penultimate corner and slid off the track. Alonso had scampered away, the gap had increased to more than five seconds, and with it had gone any chance of Perez claiming an astonishing victory.

Two unlikely contenders in Alonso and Perez fought out a thrilling battle for the win

Behind the leaders, Hamilton still held third with Vettel, Webber and Raikkonen behind him. Vettel had run fourth for the whole of the second half of the race, but in his haste to lap Karthikeyan pulled in too fast after lapping the HRT driver, becoming the second frontrunner of the afternoon to collide with the Indian driver and sustaining a puncture in the process. As a result, the world champion had to pit for repairs and dropped out of the points.

Ferrari had been written off by many before the start of the season. Their car had spectacularly failed to perform throughout testing and the first race, and many gave the Scuderia little chance of finishing in the points, yet alone challenging for race wins.

But incredibly, Alonso had delivered an incredible performance in the Sepang rain and came home to take probably the most unlikely victory of his career, followed by the magnificent Perez and Hamilton.

Webber and Raikkonen completed the top five, whilst a highly impressive Bruno Senna took sixth, ahead of Paul di Resta, Jean-Eric Vergne, Nico Hulkenberg and Michael Schumacher, who took home the final point. Following their game of Karthikeyan-bashing, Vettel finished 11^th and Button a disappointing 14^th.

As a result, Alonso left Sepang as the world championship leader, five points ahead of Hamilton, with Button a further five back.

Alonso could barely contain his excitement at clinching one of the unlikeliest wins of his career

Classification (after 56 laps)
1) Fernando Alonso (Esp) Ferrari
2) Sergio Perez (Mex) Sauber-Ferrari
3) Lewis Hamilton (GB) McLaren-Mercedes
4) Mark Webber (Aus) Red Bull-Renault
5) Kimi Raikkonen (Fin) Lotus-Renault
6) Bruno Senna (Bra) Williams-Renault
7) Paul di Resta (GB) Force India-Mercedes
8) Jean-Eric Vergne (Fra) Toro Rosso-Ferrari
9) Nico Hulkenberg (Ger) Sauber-Ferrari
10) Michael Schumacher (Ger) Mercedes
11) Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Red Bull-Renault
12) Daniel Ricciardo (Aus) Toro Rosso-Ferrari
13) Nico Rosberg (Ger) Mercedes
14) Jenson Button (GB) McLaren-Mercedes
15) Felipe Massa (Bra) Ferrari
16) Vitaly Petrov (Rus) Caterham-Renault
17) Timo Glock (Ger) Marussia-Cosworth
18) Heikki Kovalainen (Fin) Caterham-Renault
19) Pastor Maldonado (Ven) Williams-Renault
20) Charles Pic (Fra) Marussia-Cosworth
21) Pedro de la Rosa (Esp) HRT-Cosworth
22) Narain Karthikeyan (Ind) HRT-Cosworth

Not Classified
23) Kamui Kobayashi (Jpn) Sauber-Ferrari
24) Romain Grosjean (Fra) Lotus-Renault

Stephen D’Albiac

The top ten of 2012: Part Two

With the first part of the top ten yesterday revealing the drivers who ranked from sixth to tenth over the 2012 season, here is the second and final part which reveals the top five drivers over the course of the year.

5) Nico Hulkenberg

Nico Hulkenberg showed everyone what he was made of in 2012 with a series of good drives and performances that marked him out as one of the stars of the future. Having been forced to sit 2011 out, the Force India driver was both fast and consistent all year and comfortably got the better of teammate Paul di Resta.

Hulkenberg drove well all year, with fourth at Spa being his best result. But it was the German’s end to the season that really caught the eye, with five points finishes in the last six races, including possibly the overtake of the season when he passed both Romain Grosjean and Lewis Hamilton in Korea, and a stunning drive in Brazil where he challenged for victory before colliding with Hamilton and putting himself out of contention.

With a move to Sauber on the cards in 2013, Hulkenberg will be looking to repeat his impressive season as he looks to secure a top drive in the future.

4) Sebastian Vettel

Sebastian Vettel became a triple world champion in 2012, but there is no doubting that he took advantage of a vastly improved Red Bull to achieve the feat. When his car wasn’t as strong at the beginning of the year Vettel struggled, winning only one of the first 13 races, although he did lose almost certain victory in Valencia when his alternator failed.

It was only when Red Bull’s upgrades made it the class of the field that Vettel truly began to shine. He inherited victory from Lewis Hamilton in Singapore, before wins in Japan, Korea and India put him in control of the championship. Vettel then produced arguably the best drive of his career to come from last to third in Abu Dhabi, before another recovery drive to sixth in Brazil sealed the title.

Although Vettel became only the third driver in F1 history to win three straight titles, the question still remains as to how good he is when not in the fastest car.

3) Kimi Raikkonen

There were fears before the start of the season as to whether Kimi Raikkonen would be the same driver that wowed the sport in his first career. We needn’t have worried, as the Finn proved to be just as good as before, with great race pace and remarkable consistency helping the Lotus driver to an impressive third in the championship.

After the first couple of races were spent getting back up to speed, Raikkonen looked as though he’d never been away as he challenged Sebastian Vettel for victory in Bahrain, before further podiums throughout the year followed. Although the Lotus lost some pace towards the end of the year, Raikkonen continued to push hard and then produced a phenomenal drive to take his first win in three years at Abu Dhabi.

With the Iceman showing to everyone that he did ‘know what he was doing’ by returning to the sport, hopes will be high in 2013 as Raikkonen looks to build on a strong first year back.

2) Lewis Hamilton

Although he only came fourth in the championship, Lewis Hamilton drove as well as he ever has in 2012, with a series of team errors and mechanical failures preventing him from challenging for the title. After a disappointing 2011, the Hamilton of old was back with a vengeance, taking four victories and more pole positions than anyone else.

With a huge amount of bad luck hitting him throughout the season, costing him likely wins in Singapore, Abu Dhabi and Brazil and probable podiums in Valencia and Spa, it would’ve been easy for Hamilton to let his head drop. But fighting wins in Montreal and Austin, as well as dominant triumphs in Hungary and Monza showed the McLaren driver was back to his best, reaffirming his status amongst the sport’s elite.

With Hamilton moving to Mercedes in 2013, the Englishman has a chance to show he can build a team around him and become one of the best of his generation.

1) Fernando Alonso

In a Ferrari that started the season over a second off the pace, 2012 should have been a write-off for Fernando Alonso. But not only did the Spaniard launch a title challenge, he incredibly sustained it until the final race and lost out to Sebastian Vettel by just three points.

Alonso confirmed his status as the most complete driver on the grid with brilliant wins in Malaysia, Valencia and Hockenheim, and when the car wasn’t quick enough for him to challenge for victory he was always there picking up the points and keeping the pressure on. Had it not been for first lap retirements in Belgium and Japan, neither of which were his fault, it could well have been Alonso rather than Vettel celebrating his third title.

With Alonso producing probably the best season for a non-champion since Ayrton Senna in 1993, he will be right in the hunt in 2013, and if Ferrari give him a quicker car next year it will be difficult to bet against him winning his third world championship.

Stephen D’Albiac

The top ten of 2012: Part One

The 2012 Formula One season was one of the most competitive seasons the sport has ever seen, with more drivers fighting for wins and podiums than at any time over the past few years.

With so many standout performances over the year, it was incredibly hard to come up with the top ten drivers. In the first of two parts, here are the drivers who ranked between sixth and tenth over the 2012 season.

10) Felipe Massa

The first half of 2012 was a nightmare for Felipe Massa. The Ferrari was uncompetitive and difficult to drive at the start of the year, and while his teammate Fernando Alonso led the championship going into the summer break, Massa had only a fourth and a sixth place to show for his efforts, with his seat at Ferrari coming under serious threat.

However, Massa returned from holiday a changed man. A solid fifth place at Spa was followed by a front row start and fourth place at Monza, and a superb drive to second place in Suzuka sealed the Brazilian’s first podium finish in two years and confirmed his return to form.

A succession of consistent points finishes then followed, with Massa regularly matching the pace of Alonso, and a tremendous third place on home soil in Brazil after he selflessly backed his teammate’s title challenge put the lid on a fine second half of the season, with Massa fully earning a new one-year contract with the Ferrari team.

9) Kamui Kobayashi

Kamui Kobayashi had the strongest year of his career at Sauber. Despite being edged in the points battle by teammate Sergio Perez, the likeable Japanese driver showed his talent with some impressive performances.

Some of Kobayashi’s qualifying results were particularly strong, with a third place in China and a front row start in Spa impressing hugely. He backed this up with some good race performances, with fourth in Hockenheim and fifth in Barcelona giving himself crucial points. But the undoubted highlight was his stunning drive Suzuka when he held off the much quicker Jenson Button to claim his first podium finish in Formula One in front of his adoring home fans.

Despite this, Sauber have decided not to retain Kobayashi for next year, leaving him with the possibility of not having a drive next year. If Kamui is unable to find a seat it would be a massive shame, as he has shown himself to be worthy of a place in Formula One.

8) Mark Webber

After a difficult 2011 in which he was comprehensively beaten by Sebastian Vettel, Mark Webber had a better time of it in 2012. Despite having to drive a Red Bull that was built around Vettel, Webber was much closer to his teammate, especially in qualifying where there was little to choose between the two drivers.

Two brilliant wins in Monaco and Silverstone gave the Australian a genuine chance of challenging for the title, but some difficult races, notably in Monza and Suzuka, saw him fall out of contention for the championship and slip down the standings.

Despite ending the year only sixth in the points, Webber can be pleased with his overall performances after a year in which he proved himself to be much closer to Vettel than in previous years.

7) Sergio Perez

If this list had been compiled after Monza, Sergio Perez would have been in contention for the top spot. The Mexican driver was incredible in the first part of the season, demonstrating an uncanny ability to make his tyres last longer than his rivals, with brilliant podiums in Malaysia, Canada and Italy making him stand out as a star of the future.

They were performances that convinced McLaren to sign him up to replace Lewis Hamilton next year, but the announcement that he was to join the Woking-based team in 2013 coincided with a downturn in form for Perez, with the Sauber driver making a series of mistakes and failing to register a single point in the final six races.

With his move to McLaren on the horizon, Perez will need to perform the same way he did in the first half of the season as opposed to the second half as he looks to cement a reputation as a potential title challenger in the future.

6) Jenson Button

Although in some ways this year was a disappointment for Jenson Button, the Englishman still showed how good he was with some top drives. Button began the year in fine style with victory in Australia, but things went downhill for the McLaren driver soon after, with tyre warming issues blighting his first half of the season.

A return to form came with second at Hockenheim, before a first pole in three years and dominant victory at Spa put him back on track. Although he never seriously challenged for the title, Button produced a series of consistent points finishes towards the end of the year, culminating in a brilliant win in difficult conditions in Brazil.

With Button entering 2013 as the team leader at McLaren, he will be confident of mounting a challenge for the championship as he looks to win a second world championship.

Stephen D’Albiac