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| Jenson Button wins in heavy raining Sepang | 
Top 3, Malaysian GP
Jenson Button won a shortened 31 lap Malaysian Grand Prix on a day when heavy rain forced the race to be halted well ahead of the scheduled 56 laps. Monsoon rains are common-place late in the afternoon and it was therefore of little surprise that the weather created problems and much confusion for the Formula One circus.
Until the very heavy rain began to fall, the second round of the championship proved to be a thriller with Nico Rosberg storming into the lead from fourth position on the grid at the start and controlling the race in his Williams Toyota from Jarno Trulli until the first round of pitstops.
Button meanwhile bided his time during the first stint well aware he had more fuel on board than his rivals and as the others pitted, picked up the pace to ensure he exited the puts following his first stop in the lead.
Light rain began to fall on lap 22 with Kimi Raikkonen already having gambled and switched to full wet three laps earlier. The gamble did not pay off for Raikkonen as he burned through the tyres on the dry circuit but all of the front runners began to pit soon after for the wet rubber.
Timo Glock had not made the best start to the race and had dropped towards the bottom of the top ten but he and the Toyota team opted to switch to intermediate tyres and not the full wets. This decision paid off as he carved his way through the field to run third when the really heavy rain fell.
While Glock made progress through the field the other drivers opted to change from full wet tyres to intermediate tyres but the switch was only suitable for a few laps as by lap 28 the heavy rain forced all back onto the full wet tyres, shuffling the race order once again.
Conditions then deteriorated significantly forcing first the safety car out and then the red flags bringing a halt to proceedings to over 50 minutes before the result was declared. As Formula One Management fumbled around before making a decision to declare the race it became clear that Nick Heidfeld had worked his way up to second position in his BMW Sauber having made just the one pitstop compared to the three or four by the rest of the field. A gamble from the team certainly paid dividends.
Jarno Trulli finished fourth in the second Toyota losing time in the wet conditions while Rubens Barrichello was fifth when the race came to its premature conclusion.
Mark Webber and Lewis Hamilton had a fantastic battle ahead of the red flag with Webber much faster in the twisty mid-field and Hamilton leaning on KERS heavily to retake the position on the straights on at least three occasions. Webber finished in sixth position ahead of the defending champion.
| | Placed by Johan de Vries on Sunday, 5 April, 07:12 AM |
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