MALAYSIAN GP: THRILLS UNDER THE RAIN

Two times a charm. That is how I would start off by describing the man on force now.

It was a race that is difficult to predict right from the start. The race became chaotic even from the first moment when all the 5 red lights gone off to mark to start of the race. Prior to the race, many expects rain to be pouring in but it was beyond anyone's imagination that the weather can really play such a key role in determining the outcome.

From starting point, the sky was dark and cloudy. The race starts but like what happen with Barrichello, Button was slow on the ignition, eventually passed down by Trulli, Alonso and Rosberg who sped up to lead the race. On the end of first lap, Button lost two places after managed a pass over Alonso. Barrichello also passed from ninth to fifth. By the oepning two laps, Kovalainen and Kubica were both retired from the race.

Rosberg pulled away substantially from Trulli while Button followed closely behind. On one point, Alonso's pace came under fire and held up the most of the drivers behind him including Raikkonen, Webber, Glock and Hamilton. With tactical moves, Button reclaimed his lead after pit stop round one.

Signs that rain will come down was very clear. The biggest gamble of the day was to put Raikkonen on the wet tyre on his 18th lap pit, but it proved to be disastrous as he lapped slow. Others still stayed on their soft dry tyre when the drops of water started to wet the track. On lap 22, Timo Glock put on his intermediate tyres while the rest on wet tyre. Glock's choices of tyres seems to suit well with the condition of the track. Some parts of the track were wetter than the other. Glock made much ground and even passing one car after another until he was at second place behind Button.

The heavy shower materialize on Lap 30, and came in all the field into the pit lane for a wet deeply grooved rubber tyres. Button was still in command after his fourth stops while Glock and Heidfeld battled it out on the second spot. Then, the race stewards found out the race condition was so bad that Fisichella, Hamilton and Vettel were spun out of the track even under the safety car.


The rain kept on pouring and the race was nevertheless been suspended, red-flagged on the end of Lap 32.

Now the Malaysian Grand Prix had been a cliffhanger. The rain eventually eased after 45 minutes of suspended period. At first, the chances of a restart seems likely but the evening sun was making its way for a set, the sky became dark and race directors finally called it off at 18:50 local time.

Button won but the decision was made to give out the race position at Lap 31 as the finalized race finishing order. Since the race has past half but not third quarter of the distance, half of the points were awarded.


The final result is on:


[source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/motorsport/formula_one/7984270.stm, http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/2009/4/9147.html, http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/motorsport/formula_one/results/7921143.stm, http://www.formula1.com/results/season/2009/806/6609/]