SPOILER ALERT: Weathering the Storm at the 2009 Malaysian Grand Prix
2009 Malaysian Grand Prix – Click above for high-res image gallery
After last weekend's Australian Grand Prix resulting in a brand new team claiming a devastating 1-2 victory and the incumbent world champion retroactively disqualified from the race, we knew right off the bat that 2009 would be a stormy season in Formula One. But nobody could predict what would happen next.
The track was dry earlier this morning as the green flag waved over the starting grid at the Sepang circuit on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur, but dark clouds loomed ominously in the Malaysian skies as spectators, commentators and teams alike wondered if the notoriously temperate Southeast Asian weather would hold back long enough to complete the race distance. Follow the jump to find out.
Gallery: 2009 Malaysian Grand Prix
Even before the skies turned cloudy in Malaysia, the big question on everyone's mind was whether the erstwhile backmarkers could repeat their impressive performances from the season opener in Australia while the former frontrunners would be left out once again to dry. After varied results in Friday and Saturday test sessions at Sepang, it was Brawn GP and Toyota that outshone Ferrari and McLaren once again in qualifying for the starting grid: After winning last weekend's race from pole, Brawn's Jenson Button took pole position once again, with his team-mate Rubens Barrichello one row back in fourth, while Toyota's Jarno Trulli qualified second, with wingman Timo Glock in fifth.
Meanwhile Ferrari's former champion Kimi Raikkonen qualified best out of the former frontrunners in 9th, ahead of McLaren's Lewis Hamilton way back in 13th and Heikki Kovalainen in 14th as Ferrari's Felipe Massa suffered from poor strategy and qualified an embarrassing 16th. With the underdogs proving their mettle, the stage was set, but by the time the cars rounded the first corner on race day, all bets were off.
Once the starting lights flashed green, Williams' Nico Rosberg jumped up the grid to first place, pushing Button wide and into fourth place behind Trulli and two-time former champion Fernando Alonso's Renault, which surged up the field from the 10th spot on the starting grid. Button, running on a light fuel load, managed to pass Alonso again, whose car in turn held back the rest of the field around the opening laps. Ross Brawn's strategic expertise helped Button recapture the lead during the first round of pit stops, but with those storm clouds growing darker, tire strategy became the make-it-or-break-it for several key players in the race.
By lap 18, Ferrari took a gamble and put Raikkonen on extreme wet tires earlier than everyone else. That turned out to be premature, as Kimi lost as much as 20 seconds per dry lap against his competitors. A few laps later, Raikkonen was already hopelessly behind when the heavens opened up with a torrential downpour, leading the rest of the field to head into the pits for the extreme wet tires, too, with one exception: Toyota's Timo Glock opted for the intermediate rain tires, helping him gain ten seconds per lap on the rest of the field before they, too, switched to intermediates. By then Glock was already in the lead.
The rain proved to be an unpredictable element, prompting the field to switch back again to the extreme wet tires, but even though those rain tires can move as much as 61 liters of water per second at speed, they still weren't enough to cope with the rapidly flooding track. Cars spun out on the wet tarmac one after the other until, on lap 31, race officials had no choice but to wave the red flag and put the race on hold. The cars lined up on the grid in the order which they held by the last complete race lap, and there they waited for a full hour for conditions to clear up enough to resume racing. But they never did, and the race was called as it stood.
Jenson Button, who was in the lead when the race was stopped, was declared to have won, joined on the drenched podium by BMW's Nick Heidfeld and Toyota's Timo Glock, rounding out a proud day for German racing fans: Button powered by Mercedes, Heidfeld (himself a German) by BMW and Glock (also German) racing for Cologne-based Toyota.
Jarno Trulli (Toyota), Rubens Barrichello (Brawn), Mark Webber (Red Bull), Lewis Hamilton (McLaren) and Nico Rosberg (Williams) rounded out the points. However because the race was stopped halfway through, each was awarded only half the points. Neither Ferrari finished in the points and Hamilton's team-mate Kovalainen was knocked out before the end of the first lap, meaning that, after two races down, the Finn has yet to complete a single race lap this season.
Rain or shine, the race was a triumphant reaffirmation of the astonishing pace and competence of the Brawn GP outfit, which now holds a commanding lead of 25 points in the constructors' championship (ahead of Toyota's 16.5), and whose drivers hold first and second places (Button with 15 points and Barrichello with 10) in the drivers' standings. Tune in again in two weeks' time for the Chinese Grand Prix from Shanghai to see if Brawn GP can make it a hat trick and slay the giants once again.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
nico 8:41PM (4/05/2009)
What a fast report!
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James 9:01PM (4/05/2009)
"if the notoriously temperate Southeast Asian weather would hold back long enough.."
Malaysia apparently is located near the Equator/"tropics"...so it does not have "temperate" weather (4 seasons). Referring to it as 'tropical" is more appropriate.
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Pete 9:30PM (4/05/2009)
i think noah meant temperamental
Gabe 9:20PM (4/05/2009)
I can't get over the cars. They look ridiculous this year with the stubby rear wing and the hub-caps on the KERS cars. Are those really necessary? Just paint them black for crying out loud! Even a sponsor logo would be better! All that being said, it's nice to see passing in F1 again, even if it's the biggest three ring on wheels.
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Dustin 10:04PM (4/05/2009)
The "hub caps" were introduced before this year and aren't specific to KERS cars. However I agree that they're dumb and since nearly every team has them (meaning no one has an advantage), I think they should be banned so we can just see the wheels on all the cars again.
Sean Flanagan 10:32PM (4/05/2009)
After first being a bit put off by the wheel fairings, I'm now a fan of them. There's something mesmerizing about watching the car go around the track as if it's hovering.
Then again, chances are that once Brawn gets a primary sponsor, those fairings are going to be painted very differently.
Gabe 10:44PM (4/05/2009)
Dustin... busted... I haven't watched F1 in a few years (I far prefer MotoGP and Le Mans/ALMS) but have started watching F1 again this year in the hopes that the new regs lead to better racing. That's why I missed the wheel fairing's intro in years past. I agree, however, that we should see the wheels. Kinda takes away from the "open wheel" part of open wheel racing, right?
zard 12:32AM (4/06/2009)
Not most cars are using KERS. Only 1/3 teams are using the technology. Funny thing is the teams using KERS( Ferrari, McLaren, Renault and BMW) are struggling so much and the teams not using the tech are doing good(too good for Brawn)
Noidor 7:41AM (4/06/2009)
I hope that FIA won't cave to Ferrari and ban the diffusers. Even if they were going to do so I doubt it would help Ferrari too much...as Massa said - before they were slow, now they are slow and stupid...the latter obviously being the reference to poor pit stop strategy. I think Brawn not only has the best car, but also the best management and it obviously shows in harmony. I'm also really happy for Jarno Trulli and Rubens, these two guys have always worked their asses off and rarely ever got enough credit.
Tom Winch 9:22PM (4/05/2009)
It's really too bad that this race ended due to rain because the racing was great up until the point the rains came. Lot's of dicing and and overtaking all through the pack and the fight that was shaping up between Rosberg, Button, and Trulli in the early going was looking to be epic if it would have stayed dry. Oh well, let's hope for dry weather in Shangai.
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Caz 11:07AM (4/08/2009)
Finally a comment about the race & not the cars!
Was a good race but they should have re-started... rain was letting up. At least try and run a few more laps before calling it a day.
hyundaifans.com 11:26PM (4/05/2009)
We need to go back to the bigger rear wing. The cars twitch too much for my liking these days.
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Fodder650 11:46PM (4/05/2009)
Once everyone gets the same diffuser you will see far less twitching from the back of the cars. Of course it could be the twitchyness of when they hit KERS to.
Marc 8:57AM (4/06/2009)
This is what Bernie deserves for taking races away from proper cities. I used to enjoy F1 but this year I honestly feel happy when bad things happen. Seriously, what do you expect when going to Malaysia (and don't forget Singabore!) in monsoon season? If it doesn't rain, it's guaranteed to be unbearably hot and humid. No drivers enjoy these races and fan attendance is pathetic in comparison to the traditional countries. Bernie is killing the heritage and prestige of F1 by accepting bribes from these 3rd world dictatorships and ditching countries where the races are supported by fans (France, USA, Canada). I hope the series collapses and I hope Bernie goes bankrupt.
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frossonice 11:05AM (4/06/2009)
Yeah, right. We, the 3rd world nations bribed Bernie for F1 races in our country . You racist!
why not the LS2LS7? 11:51AM (4/06/2009)
frossnice:
In a way they did.
I'm not saying anything against the 3rd world nations when I say that, either.
But the fact is Bernie is moving the races to far-flung places because he gets higher sanctioning fees (payments the tracks make to host the races) from these far-flung places.
In general, the longer a race has been at a track, the less the track is willing to pay in sanctioning fees. This is why many series (like Champ Car) would never have a race at a track more than 4 years in a row. After 3 or 4 years the crowds drop and the race organizers aren't willing to pay as much to have the race there.
I personally think F1 shouldn't be chasing €1 notes around the world, and instead working on keeping their fan base strong where it already is strong.
why not the LS2LS7? 3:29AM (4/06/2009)
I was impressed. There was a lot of good passing, we pretty much saw all the passing we were going to see, the cars had sorted themselves out by speed. Then, a few laps later the rain came and made it a crapshoot.
I'm not quite certain what the teams were thinking gambling with tires. The announcers made it out like not having to stop an additional time was a big deal, but as we saw, the time to pit and change tires was about 24 seconds, and at worst, 3 places. Button ended up winning having stopped 4 times, when one of the cars in the top 4 only stopped once. Clearly the penalty for stopping extra times was overstated.
The teams shouldn't have gambled, just gone with the flow. Put on drys until it was raining, then inters until it was really raining and then to monsoons. If you save 12 seconds on each of two laps, you make the time needed to change again. As as mentioned, Raikonnen was losing 30 seconds per lap having taken a chance on tires.
It's too bad about the ending.
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Brad 8:14AM (4/06/2009)
Thanks Bernie, you moron. Your demand that these races start later in the day just for European TV meant that there was no chance of getting in the full race before it got too dark.
Shame too because it was shaping up to be a nice race. If it would have stayed dry you could have seen Nico Rosberg possibly winning his first race.
Ferrari was totally lost this weekend. Not sending out Massa for more laps in Q1 and then putting Kimi on full wets way too early.
The Brawn is a very good car but then again they have been working on it since around halfway last year so it's had more development time than any of the other '09 cars.
What a strange look to the Constructor's standings: Brawn GP 25pts, McLaren 2pts and Ferrari 0pts.
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Metar 8:47AM (4/06/2009)
It annoys me that everyone keeps calling BrawnGP a "brand new team", while, as you pointed out, they're Honda under a different name and engine - and invested a massive $350m last year, most of which going towards the 2009 car exclusively.
If it was still under the Honda name, nobody would remark it as something special: They're a big, experienced team that had more time and resources going towards the 2009 car than anyone else on the grid.
why not the LS2LS7? 11:54AM (4/06/2009)
Button had the fastest lap and greatest distance driven when the race ended. It's difficult to say it was unjust that he won.