Sunday, April 5, 2009

F1 race - Malaysian Grand Prix

What a race today and there is no other words that can best described today's race than a 'Wet Thunder Race'! It was an awesome drive by few drivers and the condition today was the one that will be most talked about and lots of other surprises was seen today. I will go through the story step by step.

First, the race started with Jenson Button(Brawn) leading the starting grid followed by Jarno Trulli(Toyota), Timo Glock(Toyota), Nico Rosberg(Williams), Mark Webber(Red Bull) and Robert Kubica(BMW Sauber). The starting point started quite fantastic when Rosberg started the race with some quite excitement when he cut through beside Trulli who started later than Rosberg himself. Button at that time who was busy defending his place from Trulli finally realize that the one person that he should have looked out would be Rosberg rather than Trulli.

Then the race continued as usual but not for Kubica who was having problem himself with the car when it was left out at the starting grid due to some engine problem which he had complained even before the race started. His teammate however manage to continue with the race without having any problems. What Kubica worried about actually came true when he has to stop as his engine was caught on fire and he ended his race during the second round. It was not after all the race that Kubica was willing to look into.

Rosberg eventually take the lead from Button who was now behind Trulli on the third place. The pace of the car was getting quicker and quicker as at the same time all the team was running away and was hoping that the storm would not eventually hit the circuit but was expecting it to come as the dark clouds were moving towards Sepang circuit.

Along the race we could see stratergy from different team when it comes to pitstop. During half of the race, all the engineer had already warned their drivers that heavy rain will be coming ahead and they will now need to prepare to pit at any time. Ferrari took a very courageous or daring move when they become the first team that ever put on the super wet tyre on their vehicles. It was after all not a smart move and eventually it effects the performance of the team and the tyre was worned out faster than they had thought. The rain that was expected had not poured yet and along the way we can see the other team had already started to put on their wet tyres. Among all the team, there was only one more team that was still using their inter tyres rather than changing to wet tyres and that team would be Toyota and to be more specific it would be Timo Glock who was still running with the inter tyres rather than wet tyres.

After seeing that the weather was not in favour with the wet tyres but rather siding more toward the inter tyres which was used by Timo, Button quickly make a move by changing his inter tyres back for him to beat Timo and to re-collect his first position and to allow him to speed faster. His move comes in handy as it works and he manage to stay on a good pace ensuring his first position. But not long after Button change his tyres, the rain started to pour and Heidfeld who was instructed by his engineer to pit and change the tyres refused to do that as he was willing to take the risk by sticking with the almost worned out wet tyres and his move was a brilliant move. It was after that that the rain started to pour heavily and eventually the race had to be stopped due to safety reason.

At the end,it was Jenson Button who won the race, second place goes to Nick Heidfeld and the third goes to Timo Glock who was hoping that his third position will not be taken off by the FIA. At first Timo's engineer has told him that he was on P1 so he decided to go easy on the tyres but then he saw Jenson coming out in front of him and after that he realised that he was P2. Then, after he got out from the car and headed to the podium dock he was told that he was now P3. Timo said during the post press conference that he hoped and pray that he will still be in P3 the time he goes back to the garage.

Cant wait for the next race in Shanghai!!!!

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