That the Spaniard won was testament not only to his extraordinary grit and
ability to wrestle the maximum from a skittish car, but to the heart-rending
failure of Sauber’s Sergio Pérez to overhaul him and provide the race with
the fairy-tale ending — the David and Goliath moment — every neutral was
willing to happen.
The race began in damp conditions, with Lewis Hamilton holding off McLaren
team-mate Jenson Button to lead into the first corner. But by lap six the
suffocating heat and humidity had conspired to produce a storm, which
brought out the safety car and then the red flags as cars began to aquaplane
dangerously. Still, as the drivers returned to the grid and sat in their
machines under special marquee-like structures to keep the rain off, things
were looking good for McLaren.
They began to go awry soon after the race restarted behind a safety car 51
minutes later.
As the drivers dived in to switch to intermediate tyres on lap 14, Hamilton
was followed into the pits by Alonso and Felipe Massa, Ferrari opting to
“double shuffle” their drivers.
It meant Hamilton was held in his pit box rather than collide with the
Brazilian and he emerged not only behind Alonso, but behind Button as well,
the 2009 champion having pitted one lap earlier.
Button then crashed into the back of HRT’s Narain Karthikeyan, who had not yet
stopped, and his race was as good as over. Hamilton, meanwhile, found he was
unable to catch up to Alonso and Pérez, who had come out ahead of them both
having done an extra lap on full wets.
Alonso swiftly reclaimed the lead, building a lead of 7.7 seconds before Pérez
began to come back at him. The Mexican hunted down the two-time world
champion in relentless fashion, sometimes by a second per lap or more.
Even when Sauber, overly cautious, made the mistake of pitting Pérez one lap
after Alonso as everyone switched to slicks on the fast-drying surface, and
he dropped from one second to seven seconds behind, Perez just kept on
coming.
By lap 50, with six laps of the race left, he had caught back up to the
Spaniard. It seemed inevitable he would pass him and claim a famous victory.
Alas, he ran wide and on to the wet part of the track at T14, losing his
hard-won gains. He would have to be content with second, although he still
finished a good 12 seconds in front of Hamilton in third.
It was unclear to what extent the Mexican’s concentration had been disturbed
by a radio message on the preceding lap from his team, no doubt in agony at
the tension of it all. “Checo, be careful,” was the instruction. “We need
this position.”
Pérez insisted afterwards that he had been unaffected. “I was going quite fast
in difficult conditions so I fully understood the call,” he said. “It was
not a distraction. I’m still very happy and very proud with the second
place.” Ah, but what a victory it would have been.
It escaped no one’s notice that Pérez gave Alonso a hug afterwards. What
chance the two of them pairing up by mid-season? Already a member of
Ferrari’s young driver academy, the odds of the Scuderia poaching Pérez from
Sauber — whom they supply with engines — shortened on Sunday.
Massa had another shocker. The Brazilian had risen to eighth by the time the
red flag dropped but he went backwards quickly after the restart, eventually
finishing 15th, 97 seconds behind his team-mate.
What had Pérez said to Alonso at the end? “I just congratulated him on a great
job,” Pérez said. “My full commitment is with my team. They are only
rumours [linking him to Ferrari]. I will stay at Sauber for the whole
season.”
Perhaps. In any case this was a proud moment for the Swiss team and their
owner Peter Sauber. One of the most softly spoken men in the sport, he was
in tears on the pitwall by the time Pérez crossed the line. “Thank you.
Thank you very much,” was all he could manage.
It was an emotional day all round; a brilliant, unpredictable day, in keeping
with the start to the 2012 season.
Nine different teams occupied the top 10 places; a Sauber finished second;
world champion Sebastian Vettel, like Button, finished out of the points
after a collision with Karthikeyan; Mercedes had another abysmal race with
Michael Schumacher nicking their solitary point thanks to the late
retirement (again) of Williams’ Pastor Maldonado; and Ferrari, Formula
One’s fallen heavyweights, got up off the canvas.