2012 Malaysian Grand Prix (March 23-25)

[Wouter Melissen]

McLaren continued where they left off in Australia:

Pos Driver Team Time Laps
1. Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1m38.021s 19
2. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1m38.535s + 0.514 21
3. Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1m38.813s + 0.792 21
4. Michael Schumacher Mercedes 1m38.826s + 0.805 19
5. Romain Grosjean Lotus-Renault 1m38.919s + 0.898 17
6. Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault 1m39.092s + 1.071 20
7. Kimi Raikkonen Lotus-Renault 1m39.128s + 1.107 22
8. Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes 1m39.298s + 1.277 23
9. Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1m39.323s + 1.302 15
10. Nico Hulkenberg Force India-Mercedes 1m39.440s + 1.419 19
11. Valterri Bottas Williams-Renault 1m39.724s + 1.703 23
12. Pastor Maldonado Williams-Renault 1m39.783s + 1.762 23
13. Felipe Massa Ferrari 1m39.896s + 1.875 16
14. Kamui Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 1m39.910s + 1.889 21
15. Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1m39.980s + 1.959 23
16. Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m40.099s + 2.078 23
17. Heikki Kovalainen Caterham-Renault 1m40.247s + 2.226 19
18. Daniel Ricciardo Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m40.469s + 2.448 23
19. Vitaly Petrov Caterham-Renault 1m40.857s + 2.836 25
20. Sergio Perez Sauber-Ferrari 1m41.085s + 3.064 23
21. Timo Glock Marussia-Cosworth 1m43.170s + 5.149 18
22. Charles Pic Marussia-Cosworth 1m44.580s + 6.559 14
23. Narain Karthikeyan HRT-Cosworth 1m45.360s + 7.339 8
24. Pedro de la Rosa HRT-Cosworth 1m45.528s + 7.507 18

Lewis Hamilton maintains McLaren form with fastest time in first Sepang session - F1 news - AUTOSPORT.com

[Wouter Melissen]

More of the same in practice 2:

Pos Driver Team Time Laps
1. Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1m38.172 28
2. Michael Schumacher Mercedes 1m38.533s + 0.361 34
3. Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1m38.535s + 0.363 29
4. Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1m38.696s + 0.524 34
5. Daniel Ricciardo Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m38.853s + 0.681 33
6. Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1m38.891s + 0.719 27
7. Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault 1m39.133s + 0.961 29
8. Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m39.297s + 1.125 33
9. Romain Grosjean Lotus-Renault 1m39.311s + 1.139 22
10. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1m39.402s + 1.230 25
11. Pastor Maldonado Williams-Renault 1m39.444s + 1.272 35
12. Nico Hulkenberg Force India-Mercedes 1m39.464s + 1.292 26
13. Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes 1m39.625s + 1.453 20
14. Kamui Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 1m39.687s + 1.515 16
15. Kimi Raikkonen Lotus-Renault 1m39.696s + 1.524 29
16. Felipe Massa Ferrari 1m40.271s + 2.099 27
17. Bruno Senna Williams-Renault 1m40.678s + 2.506 34
18. Sergio Perez Sauber-Ferrari 1m40.947s + 2.775 33
19. Vitaly Petrov Caterham-Renault 1m41.464s + 3.292 25
20. Timo Glock Marussia-Cosworth 1m41.681s + 3.509 20
21. Heikki Kovalainen Caterham-Renault 1m42.594s + 4.422 18
22. Charles Pic Marussia-Cosworth 1m42.874s + 4.702 24
23. Narain Karthikeyan HRT-Cosworth 1m43.658s + 5.486 18
24. Pedro de la Rosa HRT-Cosworth 1m43.283s + 5.561 22

Lewis Hamilton stays on top in second practice for the Malaysian Grand Prix - F1 news - AUTOSPORT.com

[faksta]

I wanted Perez to win so much! Sigh...

[RacingManiac]

So Perez should win a Oscar for that "off"....

Bizarre result for the race, but good win for Alonso and great drive for Perez. Mercedes seems to have a really good qualifying car but is pretty garbage in the race.....Looks like another lackluster year for the retiree...

[pimento]

Merc's problem seems to be tyre wear.. to match their quali pace in a race they'd have to pit at least once extra compared to everyone else. Maybe they should talk to Sauber and Perez about it. It would've been fantastic to see Perez have a proper go at Alonso, but even without 'angering the engine supplier' issues I can see why they'd tell him not to take any risks about finishing. The cynic in me says that the outcome could've been different if there wasn't a Ferrari in front, but I want to believe the off was an accident and some act. For one thing, it's a lot safer to just be all 'oh, I couldn't pass due to reasons' than risking a DNF. Still, a great race, but it's still a dumb time to start it given that the rain was all but a certainty but having it stop in time to actually have a race wasn't. Remember what happened last time...

[csl177]

Malaysia is unfortunately the wrong time every year. Do they even have a dry season?

Luck and strategy worked for Alonso, and good on him. But Perez again had the best drive in the race... bet Ferrari wishes they had him in Massa's seat already. If the rumors are true, soon enough. I feel kinda bad for Massa but he's been a mess lately.

Kimi had a solid run. Button's run-in with Karthikeyan was sillier than Vettle's, but these guys really should know better. Coupled with sketchy strategy decisions, they were done already. As for Mercedes, hope they figure it out... it must suck to be Rosberg and Schumi.

[pimento]

It's only been the wrong time since they changed it to a late afternoon race. You can just about set your watch to the evening storm over there this time of year. I'm sure the Europeans for whom they changed it for would rather see a full delayed race than 8 laps before a red flag. At least this time they could restart it...

[RacingManiac]

Yeah having been to Indonesia many times when I was back in Taiwan, the rain storm runs like clockwork this time of the year for them. The old Malaysian time slot was not nearly as bad, but now they keep pushing the pacific rim races so late in the day(local time) that they can get favorable TV time for EU audience, they will keep run into these problem....GPDA should grow a pair and start demanding some changes, they've run into daylight problem for these races, eventually it'll be a safety issue, especially for places that are not meant to run twilight races...

I used to like these races, as in US/Canada it usually translate to late Saturday night, and you can have a reasonable time to have people over to watch the race live, now its 2-4am, just ridiculous....If for nothing else, this is the most directly impacted act on Eccelstone's money grabbing scheme...

[henk4]

It's only been the wrong time since they changed it to a late afternoon race. You can just about set your watch to the evening storm over there this time of year. I'm sure the Europeans for whom they changed it for would rather see a full delayed race than 8 laps before a red flag. At least this time they could restart it...

I actually did not care to get up early (it was also the weekend of the switch to summertime, so already an hour less sleep available), but at about 11.00 'o clock I discovered through teletext that the race was just it its 26th lap. (out of 56). Still I had no wish to see the remainder, the weather here was just too nice....

[Kitdy]

Teletext still exists?! Last time I was in Scotland, my Grandad didn't have it anymore.

[henk4]

Teletext still exists?! Last time I was in Scotland, my Grandad didn't have it anymore.

I have it on the laptop...very easy, and very factual news. (art least the Dutch version)

[kingofthering]

I only managed up until shortly after the post-rain restart before I was consumed by the fatigue of finals. haha

Still, good drive for Perez and it almost makes you wonder where he would be regarding points had last week's shunt not happened.

[f6fhellcat13]

What could have been...

One of the most entertaining races I've watched in a while. F1 is not as Eurocentric as it once was, I think it's only a matter of time before the races in the far East get their races moved back to an earlier timeslot.