Alonso storms to shock Ferrari win in rain-soaked Malaysia

Fernando Alonso skillfully exploited the wet conditions to earn a wholly unexpected victory for Ferrari at the second Grand Prix of the season in Malaysia on Sunday.

The Spaniard’s new F2012 car has been some way off the pace of the McLarens and Red Bulls so far this season. But his quality as a driver shined through at the Sepang circuit as he deftly turned the heavy rain to his advantage.

Second was the young Mexican driver Sergio Pérez in the Sauber who placed severe pressure on Alonso, but fell back after an error in the latter stages.

Lewis Hamilton was third in the McLaren in front of the Red Bull of Mark Webber and Kimi Raikkonen’s Lotus.

“It was an incredible race, a big surprise,” said Alonso. “We were competitive. It was a Sunday to remember.”

He also thanked the work of the Ferrari team in a “chaotic” race. “They were fantastic, as ever. They didn’t make any mistakes in the whole race.”

Alonso began the race eighth on the grid and had worked his way up to fifth place when torrential rain led to a 51-minute stoppage after eight laps.

As the teams dove into the pits to fit intermediate tires following the restart, Alonso found himself in second place and quickly passed Pérez on lap 17 to take a commanding 7.6-second lead.

But with the track drying, the 22-year-old Mexican came back and by the time Alonso pitted for dry tires on lap 41 of the 56-lap race, the gap was just 1.3 seconds. Pérez came in himself a lap later, but the extra time on intermediates returned Alonso his 7.1-second cushion, which the Sauber duly went about clawing back again.

But just six laps from the end, the youngster ran wide and found himself too far back to catch Alonso. Nevertheless, his first podium was the best result by a Mexican driver since Pedro Rodríguez won the 1970 Belgian Grand Prix.

“It was very difficult, I ran a bit wide at the end and lost the chance to catch Fernando,” he said. “[The team] did things very week, especially during the first stop, which was key. [...] I am very happy.”

Alonso now leads the driver’s championship on 35 points with Lewis Hamilton second on 30 and his McLaren teammate Jenson Button on 25.