Round 2 of the 2012 Formula 1 World Championship brought the action to the Sepang International Circuit for the Malaysian Grand Prix — a race remembered for its chaos, rain, and incredible driving skill.
A sudden tropical storm turned the event into a strategic thriller, forcing teams to make daring tire choices as the track conditions changed constantly. In the middle of it all, Fernando Alonso delivered one of the greatest drives of his career, taking a struggling Ferrari to a stunning victory. But the real surprise came from Sergio Pérez in the Sauber, who chased Alonso down and nearly claimed an unbelievable win for the underdog team.
Unpredictable weather, flawless racecraft, and pure tension from start to finish — this Grand Prix had everything that makes Formula 1 so special.
#F12012 #Formula1 #MalaysianGrandPrix #Sepang #Ferrari #FernandoAlonso #SergioPerez #Sauber #F1Classic #GrandPrix #F1History #Motorsport #F1Highlights
A sudden tropical storm turned the event into a strategic thriller, forcing teams to make daring tire choices as the track conditions changed constantly. In the middle of it all, Fernando Alonso delivered one of the greatest drives of his career, taking a struggling Ferrari to a stunning victory. But the real surprise came from Sergio Pérez in the Sauber, who chased Alonso down and nearly claimed an unbelievable win for the underdog team.
Unpredictable weather, flawless racecraft, and pure tension from start to finish — this Grand Prix had everything that makes Formula 1 so special.
#F12012 #Formula1 #MalaysianGrandPrix #Sepang #Ferrari #FernandoAlonso #SergioPerez #Sauber #F1Classic #GrandPrix #F1History #Motorsport #F1Highlights
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SportsTranscript
00:00:00So far this season, nothing has rained on the McLaren Parade.
00:00:04A pole, a win and a fastest lap in Melbourne for the 50th time in the team's history.
00:00:10But we have a shower five minutes before the start here in Malaysia
00:00:14as McLaren once again on the front row, but has the weather intervened
00:00:18to give the British team a major headache before the lights go out.
00:00:22It's round two of the 2012 World Championship.
00:00:26We're 53 kilometers outside of Kuala Lumpur on this magnificent 3.4 mile long track.
00:00:32Three sectors and interestingly for all those watching for overtaking today,
00:00:37from the main straight just after the hairpin down towards the first turn,
00:00:42a very long DRS activation zone.
00:00:45If you're within a second of the car in front, you can open that gap in your rear wing,
00:00:50get extra speed and try and beat the car in front into the first turn.
00:00:54That's it, Martin Brundle, it's not raining. What are they saying?
00:00:57OK, so it's still light rain at the moment.
00:00:59Probably consider just fitting inters if the race starts like this.
00:01:03Heavier rain is possibly around.
00:01:05And if it does get heavy, then Charlie would probably delay the start.
00:01:09So I'm happy to fit inters at the moment. I wouldn't fit drys in this condition.
00:01:15The fact that you can see the safety car trandling around and the medical vehicles means that at the moment it's a normal start.
00:01:23So it's entirely up to the teams to put on whichever tires they think are most suitable for what's going to happen in the next few minutes.
00:01:31But the teams have obviously also been told that Johnny Herbert is joining us at Sky Sports F1 a little bit later in the year, too.
00:01:40At the moment, the teams have got the free choice, but that may be interrupted by Charlie still delaying the start, putting the safety car back in place.
00:01:48I just wonder there, did I just see a little green flash on the markings on Roman Grosjean's front left tire?
00:01:54I wonder if that indicates he's already got the intermediate tires fitted to his Lotus car.
00:02:01Grosjean starting in sixth place, he'll know all about wet conditions having raced here before, of course, in GP2.
00:02:07This man will know all about wet conditions having won here in the race that was aborted.
00:02:13A red flag, meaning that Jenson Button declared winner for half points in 2009.
00:02:19And Michael Schumacher, victorious at this track before, he'll know about racing here in the wet as well.
00:02:24Well, there's a man you'd put your money on if it was a wet dry race.
00:02:27That's where he used to specialise.
00:02:29Very late onto the grid, got two or three rip-offs on his visor.
00:02:33He knows it's going to get pretty messy out there with oil, tyre, rubber, racetrack debris as they get ready.
00:02:40And some of them now, they use tinted rip-offs as well.
00:02:44And they do a mix and match with visors and rip-offs to get the tone they want out on the racetrack.
00:02:49But they would have imagined in this late afternoon start, they might have been facing a lot of low sun towards the end of the Grand Prix.
00:02:55But it's not making its way through that lot, is it?
00:02:58No, not at all. And plenty of activity still on the grid.
00:03:02McLaren, as I mentioned, locking out the front row for the 60th time in the team's history of a locked-out front row.
00:03:10Romain Grosjean, the lead of the Lotus driver, Sebastian Vettel, if it is dry, starting on the hard compound tyre.
00:03:17And a great qualifying performance from Fernando Alonso.
00:03:20His teammate Felipe Massa a few tenths back and once again Massa outside of the top ten.
00:03:26Paul DiResta and Nico Hülkenberg at Force India, they believe they've got better race pace.
00:03:31Daniel Ricciardo at Toro Rosso might be in for a spoiling afternoon for a points finish once again for him.
00:03:37And right towards the back now Vitaly Petrov ahead of his teammate Heike Kovalainen, who as we'll see starts right at the back after a five-place grid penalty.
00:03:46And starts at the back for the first time in his career.
00:03:50Let's quickly go down to Ted Kravitz.
00:03:52Where it's stopped raining down here in the pit lane, but the track is damp, not wet.
00:03:56So it's intermediates for everybody that I can see just peeking over the pit wall.
00:04:00But if they start the race, of course, on intermediates, that means they don't have to run both types of dry tyres if it dries out.
00:04:05Which is a shame. We'll never figure out whether Vettel's gamble on hard tyres was the right one, Martin.
00:04:10Intermediate tyres on Lewis Hamilton's car. We saw them on Michael Schumacher too.
00:04:15And there is absolute clarification of that with the light tread.
00:04:19Same for Sebastian Vettel. So it looks like every car we've seen so far gone for the same choice.
00:04:24Absolutely. And you wonder, in drying conditions, how long the intermediate tyres might last as well.
00:04:31Major strategic headache this for those that are on the pit wall.
00:04:36Of course, they have to have the tyres on with three minutes to go.
00:04:39So it's a difficult decision. And now it's drying out.
00:04:42You might even see some coming in at the end of the formation lap if the track's really bone dry.
00:04:46And away we go then. The green lights for the formation lap.
00:04:52And Owen Wilson getting a Hollywood-esque style snapshot from the side of the track as Lewis Hamilton leads them into Turn 1.
00:05:02Let's have a good look at the tyres then. Intermediates on everything I've seen.
00:05:06It just would be too much of a risk if it was continuing raining.
00:05:11We've got a yellow in Sector 18, so presumably some cars or a car not got away off the line.
00:05:17And there it is at the back of the field.
00:05:20Pedro de la Rosa in the HRT hoping for his first race of the season.
00:05:25And if he is to start racing, he'll have to do it from the pit lane.
00:05:29Long way away from the main action, as is really Fernando Alonso.
00:05:32No chance of pole for Fernando, but at least he's in the top ten this week.
00:05:37And that's no easy task in a Ferrari that's just not prancing at the moment.
00:05:41We knew that it was not possible to compete with the guys in front, so ninth is okay.
00:05:46Kimi's penalty will become eighth, so at the end of the day it's the best result possible.
00:05:52Once again, the pace in qualifying wasn't there for Sebastian Vethely.
00:05:56Went his own way on tyres, hoping for a better race.
00:06:00Whether that is an advantage tomorrow, because we are the only ones we hope it might be, but we'll see.
00:06:07Jenson Barton's search for a first McLaren pole continues.
00:06:11He's second again, but he won there last week.
00:06:14As a driver, you'd want to be on pole position, but Lewis did a better lap today, just like the last race.
00:06:22But I'm pretty happy to be second.
00:06:24And for Lewis Hamilton, so far so very good this week, but he's got to nail the start
00:06:29and keep ahead on that 660-metre run down to the first corner.
00:06:34Hopefully my start will be much better than it was in the last race.
00:06:37Hopefully we won't have any issues on the start.
00:06:39It's a long haul down to Turn 1, so there is a great chance for people to overtake them until Turn 1,
00:06:46but I have to make my car as wide as the track if I can in a safe way so that no one gets past.
00:06:51Not Pedro De La Rosa's lucky track. There's the DRS detection and activation zones for the race that cuts in at the end of lap two.
00:07:00De La Rosa also failed to start here in 2010 through a technical failure.
00:07:04So he has not started a racing lap around here in ten years.
00:07:08But as they finish the final corner of the formation lap, Lewis Hamilton backs the pack right up.
00:07:14They won't be doing the same number of burnouts, of course, on these intermediate tyres.
00:07:18We've had a change in climatic conditions.
00:07:20I don't think we're going to be long with these tyres. If it doesn't rain anymore, we're not going to be long.
00:07:26And maybe a gamble then for HRT. Both their drivers, De La Rosa and Carter Cain, on the wet tyres.
00:07:33So Carter Cain starting on the wet tyres, trying a gamble, hoping the rain gets heavier.
00:07:38Changing climatic conditions officially means they can change the blanking of the brake ducts and the radiators of the car for the conditions they're about to face.
00:07:47Charlie Whiting, the race director, from his perch by the start line, looking on.
00:07:52Nicole Scherzinger and Lewis Hamilton's mum here once again, hoping their man can convert pole into victories.
00:07:58He's only ever done it 45% of the time in Formula One.
00:08:01It's not a good pole to win conversion rate, and he's worried about the start.
00:08:06He's facing to the left there, trying to cut off Jenson Button.
00:08:10Five lights ahead of us.
00:08:12It's lights out in Malaysia, and away we go, and a decent start from Lewis Hamilton.
00:08:17Michael Schumacher's getting swallowed up a bit there by Mark Webber.
00:08:20Hamilton to the extreme inside of the track, ahead of Jenson Button, going into Turn 1 already.
00:08:26Rowan Grosjean goes into third place, ahead of Mark Webber.
00:08:29Around the outside, Fernando Alonso's getting caught out and bogged down a bit, but a super start from Lewis Hamilton.
00:08:35From Jenson Button, Grosjean and Schumacher, who we ride on board with now.
00:08:39Grosjean cuts Schumacher off beautifully to maintain that third, but they can't get full throttle in Turn 3 in these conditions.
00:08:46And it's a red bull then, and Mark Webber has gone right around the outside.
00:08:49Does he take third? Yes, he does.
00:08:51Grosjean's right back down to fifth place. There's plenty of rain on that straight.
00:08:55And Michael Schumacher going for a big spin on the exit of Turn 4.
00:09:00Very, very damp, very tricky conditions down there.
00:09:03Fernando Alonso making his move through the field.
00:09:05So much spray as the rain starts to get heavier here, and you wonder if it's getting a bit too heavy for the intermediate tyres.
00:09:12As there's the Williams in the background, I think they've passed him out.
00:09:15Bruno Senna taking a bit of a spin and losing places as well.
00:09:18And Michael Schumacher right down at the back of the pack behind Jean-Erik Byrne and Daniel Ricciardo at the moment.
00:09:24Well, what we were saying about Schumacher being the man for those conditions, he's the first one to drop it in the end.
00:09:29But I don't know if he got a little touch to help him round. We'll see a replay hopefully.
00:09:33But the two McLarens getting away beautifully at the front. Hamilton from Button.
00:09:37Have to say, Heike Kovalainen's made another fabulous start. He's up there scrapping away with the Force Indies at the moment.
00:09:43But here, Martin, doesn't seem to be quite as heavy, the rain, as they come towards the end of the lap as it is towards Turn 4 and Turn 5.
00:09:52Different conditions throughout the circuit.
00:09:54Yes, but what you've got to realise is this is the first lap they've done in these cars in these conditions at all.
00:10:00The first flying lap. So it's a guessing game as to how much grip there is.
00:10:04And that's why these guys are just so brilliant. That's what impressed me so much about their skills.
00:10:09Sergio Perez making a move and making it stick on Nico Rosberg.
00:10:13But then heading off into the pits as he makes his way round the hairpin.
00:10:16So Sauber deciding for a change of tyres already.
00:10:19As Hamilton completes the first lap, a second clear of Jenson Button for Weber, Vettel, Alonso and Rosberg.
00:10:25And we go down to Ted.
00:10:26Yeah, where Mercedes have wet tyres for both drivers ready.
00:10:30No sign of them yet, only Perez and the Sauber in.
00:10:33But this is such a delicate decision because it's raining, chucking it down the pit lane,
00:10:37but not seemingly in the back of the circuit.
00:10:39So they're going to leave it for one lap more and then see whether they need to bring them in or not.
00:10:44Well, let's see what they put on the Sauber then.
00:10:47Alonso up into fifth place.
00:10:49And here's Hamilton from Button.
00:10:52And Weber very close behind Vettel too.
00:10:54McLaren, McLaren, Red Bull, Red Bull.
00:10:56And there's Pasta Maldonado.
00:10:58Kimi Räikkönen had a great start.
00:11:00He's eight, but it's solid enough for two Force Indians.
00:11:03And that's Diresta going back around Hulkenberg.
00:11:06We ride on board now with Jenson Button.
00:11:09Okay, Jenson raining very hard in the pit lane, very hard in the pit lane.
00:11:12How are these tyres?
00:11:14Okay for now, okay for now.
00:11:17But how much longer can he stay out there in these conditions?
00:11:20Bruno Setter, by the way, into the pit lane minus his front wing.
00:11:24So when he went off the track, he sustained a bit of damage as well.
00:11:27And the man who referred to himself when I spoke to him the other day as a crash magnet
00:11:31is attracting more damage today.
00:11:33But what about the start, Martin?
00:11:34Well, Grosjean was the man into the first corner, taking third.
00:11:37The two McLaren so nearly hit each other.
00:11:40And the Red Bulls getting pretty aggressive too in there, making it work very well.
00:11:44So the track is, you'd have to say, mostly dry, isn't it, on the run down to the first corner.
00:11:49It was in turns three and four.
00:11:50They had such a massive shock about how wet it was as the rain moves in.
00:11:54So the two McLaren quite cautious on the brakes.
00:11:57The pack follow them in.
00:11:58That's where they nearly touched, at the front.
00:12:00And we've got Grosjean now right back down the field in 21st.
00:12:03I wonder if it was him and Michael Schumacher that got together.
00:12:06Here's the view from Kimi Räikkönen and Starr.
00:12:09Didn't get off the line.
00:12:10His launch wasn't particularly impressive, but hey, that's a bit of acreage of space he's got there.
00:12:14That's quite comfortable into the first corner to keep an eye on the rest of them.
00:12:18And he goes around the outside of Nico Rosberg.
00:12:22Remember, he had a five-place grid drop.
00:12:24And everybody, more or less, stops on the apex of turn three.
00:12:29This is from Mark Webber.
00:12:30Who got a better start, Mark Webber, than he has in recent races.
00:12:34Remember, he's the man that has been traditionally getting the slower starts,
00:12:37but still Grosjean managed to get alongside him going into turn one,
00:12:41doing what Nick Heinfeld did for that team last year, starting sixth
00:12:44and moving up into the podium spots by the first corner.
00:12:47But Grosjean way down in the pack now in 18th.
00:12:50And we can now see maybe what happened to Michael Schumacher.
00:12:52Grosjean threw the spray on the inside.
00:12:55And that's Mark Webber as well, squeezing out Michael Schumacher.
00:12:58And he got tapped from behind, didn't he?
00:13:00By Grosjean.
00:13:01Grosjean spun and I think walloped Michael Schumacher.
00:13:04And you're going to see it now.
00:13:05He spun after they touched.
00:13:07Did Michael Schumacher just cut across into Romain Grosjean?
00:13:10Who would have seen him coming, but couldn't get out of the way.
00:13:13And look at this.
00:13:14Two McLarens tiptoeing their way through the spray and the damp conditions at the moment.
00:13:20Hamilton leading Button, leading Mark Webber on this, the third lap.
00:13:24Perez is fast on the full wet tyre.
00:13:26We believe he's on.
00:13:27We'll keep an eye on that.
00:13:28And it looks as if DiResta fancies a set of those two.
00:13:31But unless they're standing water, these intermediate tyres are very impressive indeed.
00:13:37There's the amount of water they can actually clear.
00:13:39They bridge very well.
00:13:40Intermediate, they do exactly what they say on the tip.
00:13:43They bridge the difference between the slick tyre and the full wet.
00:13:46And you hang on to them as long as you can.
00:13:48It's a pit lane that I think is getting busier already.
00:13:51Ted Kravitz.
00:13:52Indeed it is.
00:13:53And the information from the radar is that it's going to continue.
00:13:55The rain's going to continue at this intensity for another few minutes.
00:13:58So such a fine balancing act for the drivers and the teams because it's a quicker way to
00:14:03stay out and stay on the intermediate.
00:14:05But that's no good if you end up in the kitty litter.
00:14:08Lotus are now out with full wet tyres for one of their drivers.
00:14:10They're already lapping about 20 seconds slower than you might expect at the start of a normal dry race here in Sepang.
00:14:18As towards the end of the lap we come again now.
00:14:20Hamilton, Button and Webber.
00:14:22Webber looking to get a bit better visibility out of the spray.
00:14:25The spray's really hanging in the air, isn't it?
00:14:27So very little wind out there.
00:14:30And the spray's just not dispersing quickly.
00:14:32There's Kimi Räikkönen still running.
00:14:35Hey, interestingly a lot so starting to catch better as well.
00:14:37And look at that, Masa into the pits there, Martin.
00:14:39They're going to make a tyre change for Felipe Masa as the moisture, the humidity at 85% helping the spray just hang around in the air
00:14:48and are not dispersing in any way, shape or form.
00:14:51I think that was a Marussia that might have been coming into the pits as well.
00:14:54As Masa now makes his pit stop from intermediate tyres onto the blue markings are the full wet tyres.
00:15:00So Ferrari expecting this rain to either increase or stay around for a lot longer.
00:15:05Those on the full wets at the moment have only been faster in the middle sector when we see the heaviest rain.
00:15:11There's a 4.1 second pit stop there.
00:15:13The intensity will increase, it says, of the rain.
00:15:16So we may see others coming in for those wet tyres.
00:15:19But at the moment the Inters are working fine and Alonso continues to close down the world champion Sebastian Vettel.
00:15:26He's eight tenths of a second behind Sebastian Vettel at the last reading.
00:15:31Now make that a few car lengths between Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso.
00:15:36Both Marussias, by the way, we saw Timo Glopp, his teammate Charles Pig, coming in for a change of tyres
00:15:41and going straight onto the wets as well.
00:15:43So, uh, De La Rosa and Diresta and Deacon-Carter-Cayen and Perez and Glopp and Masa on the wet tyres at the moment.
00:15:51Yellow flags are up, somebody's had an adventure too many.
00:15:55And Lincoln Rosberg then closing up to back of the front.
00:15:57We're getting, have driven these tyres in wet conditions.
00:16:00Grosjean, again, an early casualty.
00:16:03And it was at three laps, two laps in Australia.
00:16:06Lap four for Romain Grosjean.
00:16:08And he's into the gravel trap as we go down to Ted Kravitz.
00:16:12Oh, and I told you that Lotus were out in the pit lane.
00:16:14It was for Grosjean, they had his wet tyres on.
00:16:16He just didn't make it back.
00:16:17I'm just going to take a look at Paul De Rester's lap times.
00:16:20He's going to be the bellwether.
00:16:21He's going to be the litmus test, the guinea pig for all the other drivers to see what the full wets are like.
00:16:28And it's not a bad first sector time, but not enough time gain, you'd say at the moment, David and Martin,
00:16:32to necessitate the change onto the full wets as McLaren come out into the pit lane now.
00:16:37Belt and braces for McLaren, perhaps.
00:16:39Yeah, absolutely.
00:16:40But for Lewis Hamilton, the leader, or for Jenson Button, the man in second place.
00:16:45Also out into the pit lane, the Ferrari crew.
00:16:48It is going to be Jenson Button who goes onto the wet tyres.
00:16:53So maybe an indication, Martin, as to how tricky these conditions are.
00:16:56The man who can cope in the wet weather and the intermediate tyres coming onto the full wets.
00:17:01And there's Fernando Alonso now coming into the pits as well.
00:17:04Well, it'd be interesting to see if Hamilton responds immediately to that.
00:17:07And they'll have to hold the Ferrari just momentarily until the Force India is out of the way.
00:17:12That was close enough, wasn't it?
00:17:13But well judged there by the Ferrari teams, who were the quickest pit stops in Australia a week ago.
00:17:21But that one was artificially delayed with traffic coming in.
00:17:24So Button's pitted, Sirs Alonso, Hulkenberg too.
00:17:27Michael Schumacher back up to 11th place now.
00:17:29Hamilton, Webber, Vettel, Rosberg and Maldonado chose not to come in that time.
00:17:34Still the Force India's are side by side.
00:17:36That's going to be a story season long.
00:17:38And they're side by side because Paul de Resta has been on the wet tyres for a while.
00:17:42But Nico Hulkenberg has just been in for a change of tyre.
00:17:45Came out onto the racetrack right side by side with his teammate.
00:17:50As Jenson Button on those wet weather tyres now chasing down Michael Schumacher.
00:17:57Schumacher getting very squirty, very squirmy indeed out of that turn.
00:18:01And Button's going to try and make a move on him here.
00:18:04And it's almost like watching Formula One in slow motion.
00:18:06But Jenson Button very careful to get past Schumacher on those intermediate tyres through into turn 7.
00:18:11Hamilton's lead up to 6.8 seconds. He was over 2 seconds faster than Webber.
00:18:20Starts the aqua plane.
00:18:22When you see Button passing Schumacher that easily you know it's time to be on the full wet tyres.
00:18:27I think they'll all be in at the end of this lap.
00:18:30Those that haven't yet pitted will have to be in.
00:18:33But at the moment Lewis is nursing a nice 6.8 second advantage over Webber.
00:18:37But where will that be for Button who's now out on the full wet tyre?
00:18:42Well you've got to look haven't you at the gap between Hamilton and Button here.
00:18:45One extra lap on the wet weather tyres for Jenson Button and I wonder if that's helped him.
00:18:50If you're at Sky Race Control you can follow the driver tracker as it shows the cars going round the circuit.
00:18:56And you can pick up Jenson Button at the moment out on the circuit as we look at Lewis Hamilton.
00:19:01And there's one of the Red Bulls, two of the Red Bulls coming into the pits as well.
00:19:05So both Vettel and Webber coming in for their pit stop as we watch Hamilton.
00:19:09Wet weather tyres going on and away.
00:19:11He goes 100km an hour down the pit lane as Jenson Button now makes his way down past our commentary box on the main straight here.
00:19:19Good work to get out Mark Webber and then Sebastian Vettel for the Red Bull team.
00:19:24Let's see where Hamilton and Button are. Where are the two McLarens as we watch Mark Webber coming out.
00:19:30I think Lewis Hamilton is ahead of Jenson Button.
00:19:33And I get that from the Sky Race Control driver tracker.
00:19:36Part of our Red Button action that you can follow in HD of course here on Sky Sports F1.
00:19:41So McLaren stacked their two cars up and that is a lot of spray there for Jenson Button.
00:19:46And so close to running into the back of Lewis Hamilton it was.
00:19:51But Button on warmer wet weather tyres here.
00:19:54And I wonder if that's going to make a difference as we see another yellow flag.
00:19:58But that's a little bit behind where the two McLarens are at the moment and quickly it goes away.
00:20:03Yeah Lewis had one lap less of experience on these tyres.
00:20:07And Jenson floored it through turn three and so nearly ran into the back of his teammate.
00:20:12But look at the, they clear about 60 litres of water per second at speed these tyres.
00:20:18And that is what you need now that the skies have really opened up.
00:20:23Hamilton continues then to lead Button.
00:20:26And they're quite a long way ahead of Webber.
00:20:28And it's Alonso then who's up now.
00:20:30And Perez is still out there too.
00:20:32Perez of course he came in very early for the wets didn't he?
00:20:36He did.
00:20:37Perez has got himself nicely into position too ahead of Webber.
00:20:40And as you say Sergio Perez doing a good job.
00:20:43Very unstable under braking going into the hairpin at turn nine there.
00:20:48Didn't look to have as much control as maybe he would like.
00:20:51But you're on the McLaren pit wall at the moment.
00:20:54What are you telling Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button?
00:20:56Are you saying guys race?
00:20:57Or are you saying guys be careful and don't try?
00:21:00Oh as Perez going off the track there.
00:21:02Just showing even on the full wets how tricky it is.
00:21:05Is that grass that he's dislodged there or part of the car?
00:21:08Probably the turf.
00:21:09It was the turf but it can still be.
00:21:11Kimi Raikkonen had to change his gearbox and take a penalty.
00:21:14Because he got grass in the radiator ducts.
00:21:19And I think we've got a red flag situation now.
00:21:22Our lights have just gone out in our commentary box.
00:21:25There's maybe a bolt of lightning.
00:21:27But the safety car is coming out.
00:21:30And our monitors are showing a red flag being waved.
00:21:34So yes, safety car certainly coming out on that one.
00:21:40Bert Mylander now picking up the two drivers as we hear Jenson Button's radio.
00:21:45The last sector is like a lake.
00:21:47The last sector is like a lake.
00:21:52And we can go down to Ted Kravitz.
00:21:54The reason your lights went off is because there's a huge fork of lightning
00:21:57around the back of the circuit.
00:21:58There's another one.
00:21:59They're just going towards the back grandstand on the back straight.
00:22:02So safety car down here.
00:22:04Now you can hear the thunder I'm sure through your commentary box door.
00:22:07And just to say Noreen Karthikeyan who started the race on the full weds.
00:22:12He's up to 10th.
00:22:13And I'm not sure Verne has stopped at all.
00:22:15I think Jean-Erik Verne is still on the inters guys.
00:22:17Jean-Erik Verne is still on the intermediate tyres at the moment.
00:22:21And that was a gamble by the HRT team.
00:22:24And it's a gamble that has paid off.
00:22:26He's got the man up in the 10th place as now the safety car just backs everybody up.
00:22:32And we could be in for a bit of safety car running for a while.
00:22:35No red flag, say race control.
00:22:37But on our monitors it was showing red Martin.
00:22:40Right, so it's a safety car situation not a red flag situation.
00:22:44The power's gone out in the con box.
00:22:45We have to assume it's gone out in race control as well to an extent.
00:22:49And they've cancelled the red flag instruction to make it just to follow the safety car.
00:22:55If it is red flag they come back to the start finish line must not go in the pit.
00:22:59And they must line up in race order on the grid.
00:23:03But we think it's not a red flag situation.
00:23:06It looks like it's just safety car.
00:23:08And that gives us just a draw of breath Crofty.
00:23:11And just go through as another bolt of lightning hits the circuit.
00:23:16And let's have a look what's going on here.
00:23:18This is Sebastian Vettel versus.
00:23:21And that's in the lake.
00:23:23Must be Mark.
00:23:25No it's Toro Rosso.
00:23:26No it's Toro Rosso of Jean-Erik Verne.
00:23:29Going up through turn 11.
00:23:32And making the move stick.
00:23:34And only just sticking to the track there.
00:23:36Jean-Erik Verne down the seventh as a result of Sebastian Vettel getting past him.
00:23:41So Verne is still on the intermediates then.
00:23:43And Vettel's gone off on the full wets.
00:23:45How on earth is Verne getting round the racetrack on those?
00:23:48Slowly would be one answer but he's still there isn't he?
00:23:51And at the moment behind the safety car Verne lines up in seventh place.
00:23:57And what this also does is those that were a bit skinny on fuel they don't want to carry any more fuel for 56 laps than they have to.
00:24:04And it's fixed all of those problems because you use so much less fuel so much less full throttle.
00:24:14It's the first time we've had major rain here at the circuit since Thursday.
00:24:19When Verne Meyerlander was actually out in the safety car when the heavens absolutely opened.
00:24:25And I said to him could we have raced in those conditions?
00:24:28Not a chance. He said I couldn't see a thing out of my window.
00:24:31It was absolutely appalling and it's not as bad but it's still pretty bad here during the race.
00:24:37Let's go down to Natalie Pinkham now with a man who's already out of the race.
00:24:41Well Roman you had a great start then you dropped right the way back down the field. Can you tell us what happened?
00:24:48Well the start was fantastic that's a good point.
00:24:51I was there I was careful and unfortunately I think it's Schumacher come to hit me and turn four I spun.
00:24:57From that point the race was really bad and then the rain came but it came too hard.
00:25:03Kimi was pitting so we couldn't put both cars into the pits.
00:25:07And I had to stay out with interest but he was just couldn't drive it so.
00:25:11The rain is certainly causing chaos even when we hear thunder and lightning above.
00:25:15What was the visibility like out there?
00:25:17Well the visibility was there was no visibility. It was really difficult.
00:25:21We couldn't even go flat out in the straights.
00:25:23Well very disappointed because I think we could have a good result here.
00:25:28Very disappointed for you. Thank you.
00:25:30So Romain Grosjean out of this race.
00:25:33And Lewis Hamilton behind the safety car is our race leader.
00:25:38From Jenson Button, Sergio Perez and Mark Webber and Fernando Alonso completing the top five.
00:25:43Then Sebastian Vettel, Jean-Erik Verne who hasn't been into the pits yet.
00:25:47Felipe Massa up to eighth.
00:25:49Nico Rosberg in the rain.
00:25:50Carter Cain who hasn't pitted but has been out there on the wet weather tire from the outset.
00:25:55After him, Hulkenberg, Diresta, Raikkonen and Maldonado.
00:25:59Schumacher who was an early spinner down with Romain Grosjean at turn four.
00:26:04Kamui Kobayashi, Pedro De La Rosa who is racing.
00:26:07Daniel Ricciardo, Vitaly Petrov, Timo Glock, Heike Kovalainen, Bruno Senna and Charles P.
00:26:13We can head down to the pit lane again and Ted.
00:26:16Two things about Lewis Hamilton.
00:26:18First of all, massively impressive that he managed to keep the pace up on those intermediate tires.
00:26:23While Jenson Button was going around behind him on the full wet in order to keep his first place.
00:26:28So that is some supreme wet weather driving by Lewis Hamilton.
00:26:32Apparently, if you've been listening to the pits channel on the Sky Sports Interactive, the red button.
00:26:38You would have heard that Lewis Hamilton asked his team when they said, what do you want to do?
00:26:42He said, what is everybody else doing?
00:26:44What's everyone else doing and what's Vettel doing?
00:26:46Which I thought was particularly interesting.
00:26:48So we're also hearing now that Lewis Hamilton has been complaining about aqua planing.
00:26:52And we're expecting this level intensity rain for a few minutes more guys.
00:26:56Let's just rehearse this one more time Crofty.
00:26:59An HRT is running in the top ten in the early stages on lap eight of a Grand Prix.
00:27:06Good for him.
00:27:07He put him on the back, nothing to lose.
00:27:09And it's turned out, as you can see, to be exactly the right decision.
00:27:13It's just like the Nürburgring, isn't it, in 2007.
00:27:16Remember the European Grand Prix where Midland, or Spyker as they were then,
00:27:20put Markus Winkelhock on the wet tires.
00:27:22And in his only Grand Prix, he actually managed to be leading it when the safety car came along.
00:27:28Okay, Lewis, current estimation is that this weather could last for another 30 minutes.
00:27:35So we could be behind the safety car for a little bit longer then.
00:27:38I remember I said on the grid, the safety car's got about 125 kilometers of fuel.
00:27:43Probably more, probably 140 in full wet conditions.
00:27:46Have they got a spare?
00:27:47They have a spare.
00:27:48You won't mess into my track, my grid walk, Crofty.
00:27:52And they have a spare, and they will go in and change that.
00:27:55But I'm sure they'll stop the action before they need to see Ben Mylander jumping from one car to the other.
00:28:01But it may look like they're going quite steadily in Formula One terms.
00:28:04But inside that Merck SLS, it'll look pretty mighty fast, I'd imagine.
00:28:09And so that's the job they've got.
00:28:11And he said, I've got brand new tires on this in case it rains hard.
00:28:15And how smart was that?
00:28:16To be honest, I was listening intently to the grid walk,
00:28:19but I was still chuckling at your altercation with Owen Wilson down there,
00:28:22which has to be the shortest Hollywood interview ever.
00:28:24When he's treading on my toes, yeah.
00:28:27So Sean Eric Verne still out there on the intermediate tire
00:28:32and still hasn't come into the pit lane yet,
00:28:35even though we are behind the safety car.
00:28:37And the conditions, absolutely atrocious.
00:28:40Probably getting heavier as well.
00:28:42And obviously we did have a race aborted.
00:28:45Here's the red flag now.
00:28:47I was just about to say, conditions that were similar in 2009 here in Malaysia.
00:28:52We did have an aborted race and that red flag is out now,
00:28:55which means that the cars are going to come round to the start-finish straight
00:29:00and they are going to stop because that is the action on the track done for a while.
00:29:05And it could be for quite a while if the rain is going to continue in this intensity
00:29:10for another half an hour.
00:29:12A view that Fernando Alonso just hasn't got even behind the safety car.
00:29:17It's like driving down the M1 without your windscreen wipers on,
00:29:20which you should never, ever try.
00:29:22Race suspended then, so the clock has stopped.
00:29:24There's a new regulation in 2012.
00:29:26The race could last no longer than four hours,
00:29:28you'll be delighted to hear.
00:29:30It was four hours and four minutes in Canada last year
00:29:32when we had a similar situation really, didn't we?
00:29:35Didn't we just?
00:29:36Those four minutes could be crucial as we once again see Sergio Perez.
00:29:40And that was just after he'd come back onto the track again on the wet weather tyres, wasn't it?
00:29:46Let's go down to Ted.
00:29:47And Charlie Whiting obviously listening to the same radio messages as we're hearing on the Sky Pits channel.
00:29:54Sebastian Vettel was the last one we heard, I'm told, saying that there was just too much aqua planing
00:30:00and it really was getting slightly difficult.
00:30:02Also it was difficult to keep the heat into the tyres because the safety car was finding it difficult to go fast enough
00:30:08for the cars to actually generate some heat in their wet tyres.
00:30:11So it seems Charlie really had no choice in this matter this time.
00:30:14No, absolutely. Hence the mass exodus from the garages towards the gate that leads on to the pit straight.
00:30:22The cars will file round and stop in the order that they are currently in behind the safety car.
00:30:28The good news for Jean-Eric Byrne is he can now change his tyres without penalty.
00:30:33He's done a magnificent job, Martin, hasn't he?
00:30:36I don't know how he kept it on the road.
00:30:38To stay out there.
00:30:39How many cars have we seen flying off the road like Perez, Serena and co. on the full wet tyre?
00:30:45Former British Formula 3 champion, of course.
00:30:49Probably stood him in good stead, some of the conditions that the guy is racing in the British F3 Championship
00:30:55at the beginning and the end of the season.
00:30:58And he's out there at the moment, seventh on the grid.
00:31:02So, cars coming round, the final hairpin and stopping.
00:31:06And they will stop until the conditions get better.
00:31:10Charlie Whiting, the race director, decides we can start racing again.
00:31:14And who knows when that might happen.
00:31:17The situation we had in 2009 here, when the cars stopped after half-race distance,
00:31:24was that it got so wet and so dark that we never went racing again that particular afternoon.
00:31:30And it's got to be a worry and a concern for the teams, Martin, that not too much water gets into these cars
00:31:37whilst they're actually stood stationary on the grid in the rain.
00:31:40Well, I think they're reasonably sorted for that, the electronics.
00:31:43You get a surprising amount of water coming through the cockpit.
00:31:46Obviously, when you're out there in heavy rain, even if you're doing a couple of hundred miles an hour,
00:31:50when you go through the slow corners, it's a bit like being on a motorbike.
00:31:53When you're going slowly, you get very wet.
00:31:55But the drivers, then, are expecting to be exhausted and dehydrated.
00:32:01And it's turned out to be, whilst it's still pretty muggy out there, 82% humidity.
00:32:06Track temperature is down to just 26, air 25.
00:32:10And a very focused Lewis Hamilton, then, who currently leads the race.
00:32:16And the time has stopped.
00:32:20So, we have a four-hour window in which this race can be run.
00:32:27And for the moment, nothing happening at all, except all the mechanics and the boys and girls from the garages
00:32:34heading onto the grid to make sure that the tyres are put back into their blankets,
00:32:39the umbrellas are put over the cars as well, and that the drivers are OK down there.
00:32:46And I mentioned about getting water into the cars.
00:32:49I obviously had the situation of Kimi Räikkönen at Ferrari eating an ice cream
00:32:53whilst the race was technically still possible to be restarted.
00:32:56But a couple of the guys that particular afternoon said that there's no way with a restarted crofty
00:33:00that there was that much water coming into these cars.
00:33:03There is Jean-Eric Burns, Toro Rosso, with the proof that he was on the intermediate tyres
00:33:08when this race was red flagged.
00:33:10He has done himself a huge amount of good.
00:33:14And I probably earned more plaudits by his first nine laps here than he ever could have imagined.
00:33:21A lot of people think this guy is a very special talent.
00:33:23British F3 helps you get used to the wet conditions, that's for sure.
00:33:27So, this suspension time will be added.
00:33:30The race will still be limited.
00:33:32The race itself under green flag conditions is limited to two hours,
00:33:36but overall, including the stoppage time, is now limited to four hours to just expand on that a little bit.
00:33:43And if we look at that graphic there, Martin, 0.6 metres per second the wind,
00:33:48which is bad news because it means that the clouds are not moving very fast over this circuit.
00:33:53So, the rain that's coming down at the moment is just hanging around.
00:33:56There's nothing to blow it away.
00:33:58Daylight's always a problem here as well, isn't it?
00:34:00This is a late race start.
00:34:02It starts at 4pm locally, so that it's on at a more palatable time back in Europe.
00:34:08Some sets are about half past seven, I think.
00:34:11So, we've got until then, and then it might just need some headlights bolting onto the front of the cars.
00:34:19Right, let's have a look through then, who's sorted it and who's not.
00:34:23Perez then up into third place, went for those wets, didn't he, at the end of the first lap.
00:34:28He's good at choosing his tyres from the cockpit, isn't he, young Sergio Perez?
00:34:33Or hanging on to them at least.
00:34:35Not bad, he did have his foray obviously off to the runoff area.
00:34:40Vettel was under pressure from Alonso and then when they stopped,
00:34:44he's ended up behind him despite Alonso having been held in the pit lane momentarily for a Force India coming in.
00:34:49So, he looked like he was struggling a bit, did Sebastian Vettel.
00:34:53And he only just got ahead, didn't he, of Jean-Henri Verne before the safety car came out.
00:34:57Let's go back down to the pit lane of Ted.
00:34:59Yes, I'm getting slightly damp down here, guys.
00:35:02But the teams have their own ways to avoid getting damp.
00:35:05Particularly enterprising, I thought, was the Mercedes team who brought two gazebos.
00:35:09They look like the kind of gazebo that you're going to get in your common garden or garden warehouse.
00:35:15There's McLaren, they've got one too. Don't want to be outdone by Mercedes.
00:35:18And they've set these gazebos up over their cars, as you can see.
00:35:21I think this is a lesson they learnt. Everyone's got a gazebo. There we go.
00:35:25Everyone's learnt a lesson from Canada when everybody just got completely wet and it got in the computers and everything like that.
00:35:32So, there you go. You never know when your local DIY shop is going to become useful.
00:35:37Maybe a Malaysian one has done particularly good business this week, but just a quick word on the drivers.
00:35:42They're all calling for a change of helmets and visors.
00:35:45They all want their clear visors brought to them as they stay in the car, apart from Michael Schumacher,
00:35:51who I can now see walking down towards the pit lane towards me.
00:35:55The cars will be lined up. At the last point, it was able to determine the running order of the field.
00:36:03And I wonder if Vettel will actually, because he passed Verne, didn't he?
00:36:06He did. Just before the red flags were dropped.
00:36:08In fact, a red flag banner came up and there was no sign again for the second time.
00:36:12And then the red flags came out ten seconds later.
00:36:15So, it would be interesting to see if they put Verne back in front of Vettel,
00:36:18at which point they determined was the point where the red flag was stopped
00:36:23and how you can count who was where at the time.
00:36:26Do you know what? I've been racing for how many years? 40 years or something.
00:36:31And that count-back situation under the red flag, I've never really got my head around it.
00:36:36One thing is for certain though, the rain is pouring down.
00:36:40When we had that bolt of lightning that hit the roof of the stand
00:36:44and wiped out a lot of power in our commentary box,
00:36:47hit the feeling it's wiped out our air conditioning unit as well
00:36:50because Ted's complaining about being a bit wet down there.
00:36:52It's getting a bit sticky up there now as well.
00:36:54Yeah, it will be all right. We can cope with that. We haven't got a tent there, have we?
00:36:58Don't need a gazebo. More like a sponge, to be honest.
00:37:01Meanwhile, down in the McLaren hospitality unit,
00:37:04Team Hamilton will be fairly happy with the way it's gone so far,
00:37:09but he's not going to score any points unless we go racing again.
00:37:12Now, we're not going to be talking to too many disappointed drivers.
00:37:15There's only one of them fallen out of the Grand Prix, Grosjean,
00:37:18and we've already door-stepped him. So we can't hear from them.
00:37:21But Schumacher's not going to be overly chuffed, is he?
00:37:24Down in 15th with his first few laps.
00:37:26Räikkönen 2 has lost places on there.
00:37:30I mean, HRT, they'll be getting altitude sickness,
00:37:34given that Karthikeyan's running 10th and Dolorosa's running 17th.
00:37:38Yeah, both in the Grand Prix. So that's good news.
00:37:41Ferrari...
00:37:42They found a gazebo.
00:37:43A little bit slow with the gazebo.
00:37:45A bit like the car this year, unfortunately.
00:37:47Johnson Bratton. The drivers can leave the grid.
00:37:50There will be a 10-minute signal, followed by...
00:37:54Then we're going to effectively start the procedure in terms of timing.
00:37:59So they get plenty of warning before they have to jump back in.
00:38:02What work are you allowed to do on the car as well?
00:38:05I don't think you're allowed to do anything other than change the tyres.
00:38:07We had this, didn't we?
00:38:08Do you remember in the Monaco Grand Prix where Vettel was...
00:38:11Two years ago, that would be, wouldn't it?
00:38:13Two seasons ago, where Vettel was allowed to change his tyres.
00:38:16Well, they all change the tyres on the grip.
00:38:18But, I mean, if you've got damage, obviously you're allowed to fix that.
00:38:21I wonder if in these conditions you're allowed to maybe add a little bit more wing or something,
00:38:26because it's now very much a wet race?
00:38:28Well, you're out of part of Ferme conditions.
00:38:30As soon as the race starts, you can do what you like to the car,
00:38:33because as long as it's within the regulations, you're not putting illegal pieces on the car.
00:38:36So, yeah, they can make adjustments if they want to.
00:38:40But they won't be able to refuel, that's for sure, nor do they really need to.
00:38:44I hazard a guess the last time Noreen Carter came, was running anywhere near a top ten,
00:38:48was Indianapolis 2005, when there were only six cars on the grid that day.
00:38:54Might well be.
00:38:55I wonder if we're facing a half-point situation again, like in 2009,
00:38:59because it makes the points table really messy for the rest of the year.
00:39:02I don't like all those half-points.
00:39:03Well, it does.
00:39:04To get full points, you've got to complete three-quarters race distance,
00:39:10so after 42 laps.
00:39:12Yeah.
00:39:13So do you get half points up to 42 laps?
00:39:17Yes.
00:39:18So in which case Lewis Hamilton will be, I'll do my maths quickly, 12 and a half points for a race win if it stays like this.
00:39:31It's odd, isn't it? We've barely seen any rain, have we, since we arrived here.
00:39:34It's been glorious.
00:39:35And it's so unusual.
00:39:36And it saved it all up for race day.
00:39:39It was dry once at the start of the race, or dry-ish, as the cars got away.
00:39:45Grosjean, fabulous start.
00:39:47I mean, he did what Heidfeld did last year for the same team, starting sixth, muscling his way up past those in front.
00:39:55When he passed three cars, it really impresses me with Grosjean there that he didn't lift the throttle.
00:40:00It was getting pretty tight.
00:40:01And if it looked tight for him up in the helicad, you can imagine what it looked like down there.
00:40:05And good bravery, good skill there from Grosjean.
00:40:08We're on board here with Jenson Button.
00:40:10He had a bit of a go around the outside of Lewis Hamilton.
00:40:14And this, then, is, I still think that's Grosjean's fault, personally.
00:40:19Far behind.
00:40:21Yeah, I don't think Michael was doing anything other than, let's rumble with Michael.
00:40:25I think Michael was, you know, it's a 100-degree corner.
00:40:28So, look, he wasn't, he hadn't got his tyres anywhere near, even, because it'd be so slippery.
00:40:35The kerb.
00:40:36And I don't, I can't see that that's Michael Schumacher's fault.
00:40:39It cost Roman Grosjean.
00:40:41It cost Michael Schumacher.
00:40:42Grosjean out of the race.
00:40:44Schumacher down in 15th.
00:40:47And there was Bruno Senna.
00:40:49Well, making contact, I think, with Pastor Maldonado, his teammate there, and losing his front wing.
00:40:55We maybe see it from, well, can't see it, from Kimi Raikkonen's cockpit.
00:40:59Great reactions from Kimi Raikkonen to get out of the way of that little coming together.
00:41:04You're living on your wits when you can't really see out the front of the car.
00:41:08It's like passing a truck on the motorway when your wipers have failed,
00:41:11and you just, your windscreens obliterated.
00:41:14And what happens is you start listening for the car in front.
00:41:16You get, your peripheral vision heightens, and you start finding new reference points.
00:41:21That was a classic shot, wasn't it?
00:41:23Stefania and Felipe Massa's dad with a cardboard cutout of Felipe Massa, wasn't it?
00:41:28Was it?
00:41:29It wasn't the real thing, was it?
00:41:31I mean, he caught it out of the corner of my eye.
00:41:33They do have that peripheral vision.
00:41:34Yeah, they do have those cardboard cutouts.
00:41:36There's one of Fernando Alonso complete with silly beard as well, trust me.
00:41:39Pit stops, lots of them as the intermediate tyres just proved a little bit useless in the conditions.
00:41:45And that's Nico Rosberg coming in for the wets.
00:41:48Asked his teammate, Michael Schumacher, who's still out on inters.
00:41:51We can go down once again to Ted down in the pit lane.
00:41:54Hello, yes, and you join me, I should say ahoy, Jonathan Neal, in the McLaren garage.
00:41:59First of all, Jonathan, tell us what your radar is saying.
00:42:02Well, what everyone's radar is saying.
00:42:04Everybody's radar shows a large green and blue splodge right in the middle of your screen.
00:42:07It's been there for the last half an hour, and it makes it incredibly difficult to predict what's actually going to happen.
00:42:13Unfortunately, the drivers are giving us lots of feedback, and the last sector of the circuit just became a lake.
00:42:19And so the race has now been suspended, and we sit here wondering what's going to happen next.
00:42:24I think probably a minimum of 20 minutes like this, as you can see out there now, it's absolutely throwing it down.
00:42:30Yeah, well, as we continue to watch some highlights of the race so far, tell us about Lewis, because that was,
00:42:36we said that was amazing driving by him. Lewis came in, Jenson came in first.
00:42:40Tell us about the process that happened.
00:42:42Well, in situations like this, forecasting is nigh on impossible.
00:42:46And the circuit conditions are changeable from corner to corner.
00:42:50One side of the circuit can be very different to the other.
00:42:52So we're hugely reliant on the drivers themselves.
00:42:54And in terms of this, you're glad you've got two number one drivers like we have.
00:42:58Jenson wanted to come in for the wets.
00:43:01We could see that Felipe Massa had come in and was going quicker.
00:43:05It was a punt, you know, bring him in and get him onto the wets and go.
00:43:09Lewis was happy. And I think that, you know, he was happy to do another lap.
00:43:12But then he started aquaplaning. And at that point, it was just time to call it a day and bring it in.
00:43:16But Lewis is very calm in these situations, calmer than everybody here in the garage, I think.
00:43:20But it was impressive the way he was able to continue and maintain his position to Jenson, albeit on the intermediate tyres Hamilton.
00:43:28I think Lewis has always had a really good feel for where there's grip and where there isn't.
00:43:32I think that's one of the things that marks drivers of that quality.
00:43:36But again, Jenson reads the situation very well. He made a good call. But, yeah, it was impressive driving by Lewis.
00:43:41OK, two more questions for me. First of all, what are you being told in terms of warning?
00:43:46Are the drivers going to get, what, five minutes warning, ten minutes warning before we restart?
00:43:49Usually, they do. But we're looking at this rain in a way to settle at the moment.
00:43:53We just said to the drivers, if you want to hop out for five minutes, do so.
00:43:56But be on standby. We'd like you back at the grid fairly quickly.
00:43:59OK, and as we can see there, Vettel's got a gazebo. You've got a gazebo.
00:44:04Did you buy this locally or bring it out from Woking?
00:44:06No, I don't know whether you remember. I think it might have been Nürburgring or even here in 2009.
00:44:11One or two of the teams had these pop-up tents.
00:44:14And there was a lot of conversation between the FIA and FOM in terms of was there in keeping with the sport.
00:44:21And the technical guys have met and agreed with Charlie that provided that they don't have sides
00:44:26and therefore we don't spoil the show, we can actually keep the rain out of all the instrumentation.
00:44:30We were saying to Lewis when he stopped and popped the steering wheel off,
00:44:34please remember, don't put the steering wheel with the connector side up in the rain when you get out.
00:44:38Things like that can have you over so easily.
00:44:40OK, Jonathan, thank you very much. And David and Martin, don't you love that?
00:44:43So, Formula One, there's even a technical discussion between the teams and the FIA as to whether they're allowed a tent on the grid.
00:44:50Yes, we had one person tweet us at Sky Sports F1 with the hashtag Sky F1 saying,
00:44:57is this now the most expensive car boot sale in history?
00:45:00I think it would be if a few more of them had run into each other,
00:45:03but impressively there's not too much carbon fibre laying around, is there, to sell off cheaply.
00:45:09Philippe Massa, Penny for your thoughts. Eighth place, got up into the points, been struggling a touch this weekend,
00:45:19but no more so than he did in Australia. Brand new chassis for him.
00:45:24Just hoping, I think, that he can come to a racetrack one day and everything just go nice and smoothly for him.
00:45:30If you want to watch on Sky Race Control, our interactive service, we're on board with Philippe Massa at the moment.
00:45:39We're like voyeurs looking in to the cockpit as he sits in that cockpit going absolutely nowhere,
00:45:46but Race Control features onboard cameras, driver tracker and also the pit lane channel as well,
00:45:52and there's plenty of activity.
00:45:54I'm not sure how far we're going to follow Hakey Kilwell Island on his walk there.
00:45:57Probably a good idea we've broken away.
00:45:59I'm surprised the drivers haven't got galoshes on you,
00:46:01the little rubber boots to stop your race boots soaking up the water.
00:46:05You don't want that when you jump back in the car.
00:46:07And it's really odd when your driver and the red flag comes out and the race has stopped
00:46:14because all the adrenaline is still pumping.
00:46:16And they're all doing the same, aren't they? Just calmly.
00:46:19Inside, it's still kicking off. It's still going through the veins.
00:46:24And they've just got to find a way to measure that, but not let it fall away too much.
00:46:28There's still a race to be done, we hope.
00:46:30Well, if you look up to the skies, you think, I'm not getting much of a race at the moment.
00:46:34You know, this rain might be hanging around for a while, albeit the wind has picked up a bit,
00:46:39which is good news, 2.1 meters per second now to blow this rain away.
00:46:43But how do you keep a focus? Is it best just to wander off by yourself,
00:46:48or is it best to stay in with the intensity with the rest of the team?
00:46:52I think you stay within yourself a little bit and just focus on the job as you do when you're on the grid.
00:46:59And all the drivers we've seen so far have been exactly the same.
00:47:03Not too many people around them, nobody really wanted to talk to them.
00:47:06They just want to stay in the zone and remain as calm as possible.
00:47:11Paul Henry, the motorsport director for Pirelli, smiling because his intermediates did a fairly decent job,
00:47:21and so did the wet weather tyres as well.
00:47:23Lewis Hamilton left the cockpit, ladies and gentlemen.
00:47:28As Ted reminded us before the start of the race, if you use a wet tyre of any type,
00:47:33you no longer have the obligation to use both types of dry tyres.
00:47:36Not that that's exactly an issue at the moment.
00:47:38Looking through the stats, the Canadian Grand Prix was two hours and four minutes.
00:47:43Now, this we didn't see during the course of the live action.
00:47:47We were focusing on the Red Bull pit stop,
00:47:50but this is how close it was between Hamilton and Button as Lewis Hamilton made his pit stop.
00:47:55Button had been out for an extra lap on the wet weather tyres.
00:47:59Just about did enough, Hamilton, didn't he?
00:48:01Yes, I want to see it in Turn 3 because it got very, very close indeed.
00:48:06But, yeah, I was starting to say, it was the two hours and four minutes for the Canadian Grand Prix,
00:48:10the red flag, last year.
00:48:11It was an hour, do you remember, in Korea where we waited for the start?
00:48:15Yep.
00:48:16And Lewis Hamilton, amongst others, was saying, we should be getting on with this.
00:48:19So, um, and of course this was the last half points race.
00:48:24I just remind you've got to do more than 42 laps to get full points back in 2009.
00:48:29There's, er, there's only been five, five.
00:48:31OK, so you can hear me, it's Rocky.
00:48:33The thinking behind this is that I'm thinking the core of the race,
00:48:39the important part of the race, will be done in a dry weather, if not on a dry track.
00:48:43And I think you need to have the gears and the rear wing for these solutions.
00:48:47Did he say the gears in the rear wing?
00:48:51Yeah.
00:48:52He, he thinks he will have, did he say?
00:48:56I think he needs to have.
00:48:57Yeah.
00:48:58OK, so what he's saying, I think he's saying the ratio,
00:49:01could you not be changing gear ratios on the start line?
00:49:03Uh, that's an absolute fact.
00:49:05And, er, I suspect that's Rocky Guillaume telling him that, er,
00:49:11he thinks the setup they had for the race will come into its own later on.
00:49:16But, er, I just had to say five, er, half points races in history.
00:49:21Er, two in 1975, er, five, Spain and Austria, 84 in Monaco.
00:49:26It was a race I watched because I'd crashed heavily in qualifying,
00:49:29and that was the one where Senna was going to beat Prost, wasn't it?
00:49:32That's right.
00:49:33And they, er, they stopped the race a little bit early,
00:49:35and they had Stephen Bellof chasing them as well.
00:49:38I think he would have won it, frankly, in the Tyrrell.
00:49:40In Australia, 91, oh, that's another race I was in,
00:49:43where I spun down the back straight just by myself five times,
00:49:47put it in first gear, drove off,
00:49:49and didn't know whether I was going against the traffic.
00:49:51It was so little visibility.
00:49:52All with the traffic, absolutely terrifying.
00:49:55It was bringing back a lot of bad memories reading that list out.
00:49:58Right.
00:49:59We'll come back to the present and hope that this might be a good memory
00:50:03and we can actually get some racing at a latter stage this afternoon.
00:50:07They've completed two laps, which they have to complete for at least half points to count here.
00:50:13But if we can't get more than 42 laps in, it will be just those half points.
00:50:18Anything more than 42 laps, you get the full Monty.
00:50:21And at the moment, it's Lewis Hamilton from Jenson Button and Sergio Perez, the top three,
00:50:25if you're just joining us on Sky Sports F1 HD.
00:50:28Let's go down to Ted Kravitz as Nico Rosberg puts on some new and hopefully drier boots down there, Ted.
00:50:35Yeah, but no sign of any galoshes down there.
00:50:37And there's Sam Michael, the McLaren sporting director,
00:50:41looking around at what other cars are doing.
00:50:43And that was, I thought, especially interesting radio message from Sebastian Vettel
00:50:47because they're learning from something Mercedes did during a wet race a couple of years ago.
00:50:53And they put on extra wing and I believe they changed the ride height a little as well.
00:50:59They went towards a wet downforce level and a wet setup on the grid.
00:51:05And they were going great guns, actually.
00:51:07And I think both cars broke down, if my memory serves me.
00:51:11Otherwise, they thought they could have scored particularly well.
00:51:14No, it's Korea. It was that wet Korea, wasn't it, David,
00:51:16when Rosberg was taken out by Mark Webber's spinning Red Bull.
00:51:22But all the teams will be looking at doing that.
00:51:25But the radar, as I can see down here at McLaren, at the moment shows that when the rain does stop,
00:51:32in sort of, well, I think it's saying about 15 minutes, 10 minutes time,
00:51:36it's going to stop and then it's going to dry out very quickly.
00:51:39So that would explain why Guillaume Roquelin, Rocky Vettel's engineer, is saying,
00:51:43well, let's not change the setup too much because it dries out very quickly here.
00:51:47And then we want to be as quick as we can in dry conditions during the rest of the race.
00:51:52It certainly dries out, Martin, very quickly when the sun comes out and we're in sort of mid-afternoon.
00:51:58But we're ticking now towards five o'clock at the moment here.
00:52:01There's a huge amount of standing water around on this track.
00:52:04Yes, but it's still 26 degrees on the track.
00:52:06And when I came off the grid and it started to rain, it smells like steam.
00:52:10It smells like an old kettle, isn't it?
00:52:12The initial water that hits the surface that was up well into the 40 degrees, wasn't it,
00:52:17just boils off, but eventually it gets overwhelmed, as we've seen.
00:52:22Kimi Raikkonen there, up in only 13th at the moment.
00:52:27He looked a little bit cautious, you'd have to say, in the first splashy laps.
00:52:31He'd have thought it was perfect conditions for a man who'd done rallying for the past couple of years.
00:52:35Still there side by side.
00:52:37Can't separate Hülkenberg or Diresta.
00:52:42There's a bit of shaking of heads going on, a bit of a nod there, a bit of a Gallic nod.
00:52:46And that's the scene here in Sepang.
00:53:01Hot, sticky, steamy, and very, very wet.
00:53:06Impressive facility, first race here back in 1999.
00:53:11Herman Tilke's first Grand Prix circuit for Formula One.
00:53:17And down in the very long pit lane, about 430 metres of it, I think. Ted Kravitz.
00:53:23Hello, just another quick one. Just, by the way, we're not allowed on the grid.
00:53:26That's why we're not hearing from any of the drivers or some of the team bosses who are down there,
00:53:31although Martin Whitmarsh has just passed me, I might have a word with him, in a moment.
00:53:35So we're not able to bring you that, because they don't allow people on the grid for the red flag restart.
00:53:41But just a quick word for Pedro de la Rosa, as his wife Maria de la Rosa has just passed me down here in the pit lane on her way back to the HRT garage.
00:53:50Absolutely gutting for him, because had his car not conked out on the grid, he was also on the full wet tyres,
00:53:57along with his team mate Noreen Kartikeyan, so the gamble would have worked for him as well.
00:54:02The HRT's put both of their cars on, and it was only because his car conked out, couldn't get started.
00:54:07When they fired it up in the pit lane, he fired up perfectly well, so a disappointment for de la Rosa.
00:54:11He's 17th at the moment, but he could have been, and possibly would have been, right up there with his team mate Kartikeyan in around 10th place.
00:54:18Getting that nosebleed on the fringes of the top 10.
00:54:22I don't think they've got a gazebo either down at HRT, which is a bit of a blow for them, they're having to brave the elements.
00:54:30Just looking Martin, just very quickly, we had a question at Sky Sports F1, with the hashtag SkyF1, about drivers helmets,
00:54:39and how they stop them de-misting in these sort of conditions.
00:54:43They have heated elements in their visors, but if the whole thing gets wet, it's nearly impossible to fix it.
00:54:50And that's presumably why it looked a bit like a Brigham bike sale, didn't it?
00:54:53But there was another helmet laying on the front of the Ferrari in a plastic bag, so that they can probably put that on.
00:55:00But if you're sweating and you've got wet hair as well, that soon turns into mist on the inside of your visor.
00:55:06But these days in F1, they're double glazed as well, the visors, so it shouldn't really be a big issue.
00:55:13That is, though, standing water, and plenty of it.
00:55:17I mean, Canada, they had the sweepers out, they had the machines out last year, trying to clear away the track.
00:55:24There's no sign of sweepers here at the moment, so go back down to Ted.
00:55:29It stopped raining in the pit.
00:55:31Well, it's easing up, really. It's just a little sprinkle of water now down here.
00:55:36And, oh, this is interesting. There's a Lotus coming towards me.
00:55:40Why is that?
00:55:41OK, so Lotus are pulling a car off the grid.
00:55:44They're going to bring it into the garage, unless it's conked out and we're looking at a failure.
00:55:50Or is it Romain Grosjean's Lotus?
00:55:52Oh, it's number 10. I apologise for Romain Grosjean's.
00:55:55I think that's Romain Grosjean's. There's a blanket over at Ted.
00:55:57I'm sorry. I got excited for nothing.
00:55:59It actually had all four small four wheels on it.
00:56:02I thought Romain Grosjean's car was in worse shape.
00:56:05But no, it is the defunct Lotus, so they're not doing that.
00:56:09But possibly a team might do that, although you are allowed to change everything on the grid.
00:56:12So just forget everything I said in the last 20 seconds.
00:56:14What I was going to say was that it's eased up down here in the pit lane.
00:56:19And so the process now is that they'll wait for the water to drain off the track a little and then give the drivers a 10-minute warning.
00:56:26I'm just checking the radar. Yes, there are no more blue splodges coming our way.
00:56:29So keep the faith, everybody. Stay with us. And should have a race within the next 15 minutes or so. Hopefully.
00:56:35Thank you for qualifying that at the end there, Ted.
00:56:39But Wincy Willis of Formula One.
00:56:41Yes, if they go into the pit lane, they'll take a penalty. You're not allowed.
00:56:45And if a car happened to be in the pit lane when the red flags were thrown,
00:56:49it's allowed to be put back out into position in the line-up.
00:56:53But you're not allowed into the pit lane under red flag conditions.
00:56:57So if we're looking at the rain stopping and things brightening up,
00:57:04how long before this track dries has got to be the question that the teams are going to be asking themselves,
00:57:10especially in the mid-grid, you know, what do you go back out of again?
00:57:14Well, if it starts behind the safety car, they have to have full wets and it will start.
00:57:19It does restart behind the safety car. So I believe at that point they've got to have full wet tires on.
00:57:25So it's a question really of when the standing water becomes acceptable rather than looking for a dry track.
00:57:32And some rain coming down there, isn't it?
00:57:35But it's a sort of say Canada. It's quite an old style surface parkland and around the casino.
00:57:43There are lots of dips and bumps and strange cambers.
00:57:46This track is more consistent in the way that it will drain.
00:57:49And given the, you know, we're in a tropical rainforest, the drainage here should be significantly better.
00:57:58And I think you can see already it's getting a little bit better, isn't it?
00:58:01Yeah.
00:58:02The rain's lighter.
00:58:03It's a track. We'd started talking about the track a few moments ago that I think more and more people within Formula One,
00:58:09the fans, drivers, the teams are starting to like it more and more.
00:58:13Now we're into what, the 14th Malaysian Grand Prix.
00:58:16And it's certainly a lot of people do look forward to coming here and racing here as well.
00:58:21So we can go back down to the pit lane again now and join Natalie Pinkham with Norbert Hauck at Mercedes-Benz.
00:58:27So I actually think it's getting a bit lighter down here. What do you think?
00:58:31Yeah, it looks like, but still very wet. But, well, hopefully in a while there will be a restart behind the safety car.
00:58:39So what have you been told? Have you got any inside information for us?
00:58:43Not really. I think we all have to wait and I'm sure as soon as it is possible the race will restart.
00:58:50I would have thought a man of your stature would have a direct contact with God.
00:58:53If I would have a direct contact with God, then Michael would not have been spun around in the first lap.
00:58:59This is very true. Now what about your drivers? What do you do at this stage to keep them calm?
00:59:03I mean, Michael's got all the experience in the world, but it must be hard to maintain a focus.
00:59:07Well, they're used to it. Remember, Canada last year was a perfect example and they stayed focused.
00:59:13And Michael performed very well after the restart and hopefully we can do that again today.
00:59:17OK, good luck. Thank you very much.
00:59:19He certainly did. Michael Schumacher was running in the top three after the restarts in Canada.
00:59:24Eventually finished just outside the podium placings. That race won by Jenson Button, of course.
00:59:31If you're just joining us, he's exactly where he started this race at the moment.
00:59:35Behind his teammates, Lewis Hamilton. We've completed eight laps of this Malaysian Grand Prix.
00:59:42And the hope is that it will soon stop raining and we can get racing once again.
00:59:46I just noticed, Martin, some of the teams starting to sweep the water away from their pit aprons,
00:59:51readying themselves maybe for a few stops to come.
00:59:54And Felipe Massa is out of the cockpit now with his race engineer, Rob Smedley.
00:59:58His manager, Nicolas Tot, the son of Jean Tot, president of the FIA.
01:00:05And Rob looks decidedly unimpressed, doesn't he, with this weather?
01:00:11He said that this was Middlesbrough, but carry on.
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