Fernando Alonso claimed his 28th career victory at the Malaysian Grand Prix this Sunday. The young Mexican, Checo Perez driving the Sauber Ferrari came home an unexpected second place, while Lewis Hamilton who started the race in Pole Position came home third.
Sauber had another reason to celebrate as their third driver, Esteban Gutierrez from Mexico reached the podium for the first time this season by finishing second on the sprint race at Sepang International Circuit in the GP2 series.
Sergio Perez was delighted to have claimed his first ever podium although the Swiss team almost had a historic win as Perez pushed Ferrari's Fernando Alonso all the way to the line at the Sepang International Circuit. Perez closed to within 1.3 seconds when he had a slight off although rejoined the race.
Peter Sauber the team boss was full of praise saying it was a "miracle" they managed to stay in second place.
Red Bull’s Mark Webber beat his team mate to fourth place, Kimi Raikkonen continues his amazing comeback with fifth and Bruno Senna took some much needed points home for the William’s team in sixth.
The current World champion Sebastian Vettel finished out of the points after a small crash with a back-marker that caused a puncture. Jenson Button in the other McLaren also finished out of the points after running into the back of the HRT. There was disappointment for Michael Schumacher who could only finish tenth after being hit by the Lotus of Romain Grosjean on lap one.
The chief engineer of Sauber said: “we needed the result. It was because that behind us, all the midfield teams, our main competitors, scored points so it was important we kept the result and not the position.”
While Alonso's victory took him to the top of the driver's championship there are many issues with the 2012 car. The Ferrari team are still considering their options for the next race in China although they will have a major boost by this victory.
