I cannot believe that result. Like Shree's Calculus teacher said, "If you've never seen Formula 1, that was the race to watch". I mean, Ferrari, the team with the least reliability and received the most flak for their car managed to get their driver to handle that once-uncontrollable car in the rain onto the podium! Not even just on the podium, but in first place!!
A shout-out to Romain Grosjean, who suffered bad luck yet again as he spun off in the rain and beached his car in the gravel trap.
Fernando Alonso
The man was World Champion in 2005 and 2006 for Renault. He's done 180 races, 28 race wins, 74 podiums, 20 Pole Positions, 19 fastest laps, and over 1,100 career points.
The man can now be considered a genius. Not only did he race in the wet and win, he raced in the F2012 and won. A brave man indeed! No one expected him to finish in the top 5 on Sunday, and definitely win the race. His win came as McLaren... (how should I put it?) ...cocked up their pit stops. Honestly, Button could have easily pulled podium if McLaren hadn't taken those slow stops, strategized during the Red Flag period instead of sipping tea, and felt the need to actually win. Yeah, you heard me, McLaren did not push their race pace at all. Don't tell me they did, 'cause they just didn't.
This race doesn't just belong to Alonso, however. The next finisher came as a shock to all of us.
Sergio Perez
Yes. The Mexican man with only his second year in F1 finished 2nd in the race, coming close to 1st place! Last year you may recall that Perez was the driver with the greatest ability to preserve his tires.
He pitted maybe once, at most twice during any race in 2011. His tire saving skill was also paired with his ability to be fast. Perez was a rookie, like Riccardo, di Resta, d'Ambrosio, and Maldonado, but he was quicker than the others. Perhaps it was his Ferrari Racing Academy experience or his team Sauber, but I know when I started watching F1 in 2011, I thought he was a 2nd or 3rd year because of his pace.
Now in 2012, his skill (and ridiculously large amount of luck), brought him, at one point, 2.2 seconds behind Alonso! 2.2 SECONDS!! Had he not gone wide at Turn 14 on the 2nd- or 3rd-to-last lap, he probably would've caught Alonso and won his first race.
I cannot rave about Perez enough. He's the first Mexican on the podium since Pedro Rodriguez in 1971, and he's been rumored to be taking Felipe Massa's spot at Ferrari sometime in the next year or so. I would like to go so far as to relate him Ayrton Senna at the heavily raining 1984 Monaco Grand Prix, Senna's 6th race in Formula 1. James Hunt, 1976 World Champion and BBC commentator, said these words during Senna's magnificent race:
"Well I think we are watching the arrival of Ayrton Senna, truly outstanding talent, he's catching Prost at something like 3 seconds a lap.... however he's not about to be world champion this year, but he will undoubtedly be world champion in the future if his career continues"
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Senna's race in 1984 was the mark of a genius. |
Lemme apply this to Perez by saying...
"Well I think we are watching the arrival of Sergio Perez, truly outstanding talent, he's behind Alonso at something like 2.2 seconds..... however he's not about to be world champion this year, but he will undoubtedly be world champion in the future if his career continues"
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Sergio's race was also the mark of a genius. |
See the relation? Senna finished second that day, yet it being his 6th race, while it was Perez's 21st. That Monaco Grand Prix was spookily similar to Sunday's Malaysian GP in multiple ways.... both experienced heavy downpours, both had Red Flags, both resulted in a rookie (or near-rookie) to come in second by a margin less than 5 seconds, and both could've had the chance to win the race if each lasted a few more laps.
And in third was Lewis Hamilton, who can't have been excited by that as he started in Pole Position. At least he did better than Button, who had an AWFUL race.
This season will not predictable. My bracket suffered losses this weekend, wrong Fastest Lap, wrong podium finishers (except for Hamilton, who I wanted to finish second)... comment with your bracket results so far, whether you're on the blog or FaceBook! Let's see how China goes in two weeks. See you all next time!
AV
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