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Jenson Button managed to keep his Brawn GP at the top, out of untoward incident, and claim his second consecutive victory this season in a Malaysian Grand Prix, brought to an abrupt end by a torrential downpour. The un-drivable conditions borne out of one of the thunderstorms that Malaysia is well known for, forced the Race Stewards to first bring out the safety car and then the Red Flag on Lap32. Button was at the head of the field when the safety car came out and thus in the lead at the Red Flag, picking up the victory. 'Quick Nick' Heidfeld in the BMW Sauber had time to spin in the rain and recover as he took the second step on the podium. He somehow seems to make the right choices in these situations as evinced by Silverstone & Spa last year where he made up positions in such changing conditions. Timo Glock in the Toyota, who had an eventful race, found himself in third place. He was squeezed out at the start as he went back to 10th from his starting position of three on the grid. He fought from there to finish right where he started - a deserving 3rd.

Jarno Trulli and Rubens Barrichello both got somewhat caught out in a quite chaotic race and finished 4th & 5th respectively. Mark Webber in the Red Bull looked good, especially in the rain. He had a couple of battles mid race and finished 6th. Lewis Hamilton must have been thanking his lucky stars as he finished in 7th place. Just like in Australia he managed to get his underperforming car in the right position at the right time, even in the mayhem around him. Nico Rosberg in the Williams would feel slightly aggrieved as he led at the start but lost out in the confusion caused by the rain and took the last points scoring position in 8th.

Once again, the biggest losers were the Ferraris. Kimi Raikkonen had a moment of madness as he put on wet weather tyres too early in anticipation of imminent rain in a huge gamble that certainly didn't come off as he finished 14th. The TV shot of him in a pair of shorts, licking on an ice-cream stick in the pits clearly showed that this was a day he wanted to forget. Felipe Massa had an indeterminate race from 16th and went all the way to 9th; just missed out on what could have been an extremely fortuitous point.

The Force India cars failed to deliver. Adrian Sutil finished as the last of the classified finishers in 15th, unfortunate to get caught in the pits when the safety car came out. Giancarlo Fisichella did get some TV time but for all the wrong reasons as his spinning out marked the beginning of the end of the race for him.

The Start
Early expectations of rain within the first 10 laps of the start made most teams start out on the softer compound tyres. It also made for a very exciting prospect, as by the time the field settled down post start it would be time for pit stops and rain. A blistering start by Rosberg catapulted him from 4th into the race lead. He took full advantage of the traction his Williams afforded him in that start.. Stonking start for Kimi, Rubens & Alonso as well - into 6th, 5th and 3rd respectively. Button dropped to 4th.

Kubica suffered problems on the warmup lap - "strange noise from the engine" was his message to the pit crew - and he was the biggest loser as he went out on lap2 even as his car refused to get going initially, at the start. Timo Glock also lost out massively as he fell behind to 10th.

The superiority of the BrawnGP cars and how the reduced weight (as a result of the fuel difference) improved performance was evident as first Button, then Barichello overtook Alonso by lap 4. Penalized Sebastien Vettel overtook Hamilton for 10th place on lap 6. A 4 car train with Alonso, Kimi, Webber & Glock fighting for positions 5-8 was formed by lap 10 as the threat of rain loomed large. Alonso clearly bottled them up as they lost heavy ground to the race leaders. Kimi finally got ahead and then a dingdong battle between Webber & Alonso ensued, with multiple exchanges of lead, before Webber finally moved ahead into 6th place.

The first round of pitstops was kicked off with Vettel coming in from 9th place on lap 13. Race leader Rosberg pit on lap 14 before the rain fell. Button smoothly hauled in Trulli and then looked to get past by lap 17. Trulli pit, giving Button the provisional race lead. Button - In and out - ahead of Rosberg left him in the effective race lead. In a huge gamble Kimi came out with wet weather tyres after his pit stop in anticipation of imminent rain and promptly lost 20sec on his next lap on a dry track. Barichello rejoined in 4th place. Drops of rain began to fall...for the Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen - a lap too late.

The Rain
The rain finally fell, severely overdue - about 15 minutes post predicted. Alonso was its first victim as he spun out at the double right hander but recovered well to rejoin in 10th. Forced pitstops were the order of the day as most of the drivers came in for the necessary tyre change. To add to the complication - parts of the track were bone dry. The setting sun added to the environmental mix to really give the teams and drivers plenty to think about. Hamilton really gained and he had a nice old battle with Webber for 6th place.

Webber pulled off yet another blistering overtaking maneouvre going past Heidfeld for 5th. Some of the cars moved to intermediates at the midway point in the race as the rain showed signs of fading.

The order at lap 28-> Button, Barichello, Trulli, Webber, Glock, Rosberg, Heidfeld, Massa, Hamilton, Piquet

Torrential Rain!!! Fisichella was claimed as a victim as he spun out on lap 30. Vettel too went off. Heidfeld had a moment as well. The safety car was called out and it picked up Button in the race lead.

Order behind the Safety Car -> Button, Glock, Webber, Heidfeld, Massa, Rosberg, Barichello, Trulli.

RED FLAG
The race was halted. The cars all came to a stop on the start finish straight on lap 32. Not surprising - The track really got treacherous at this time with near zero visibility and enough water on track to sail a reasonably sized barge. As Nico Rosberg put it - "I was going at 30kph on full wets and I couldn't keep the car on the road. It was ridiculous."
The rules state that if the race is called off by the FIA race director then the order on the penultimate lap is taken. Also since less than 75% of the race is completed, only half the points would be given. As things stood, the point scorers were -

Podium - Button, Heidfeld & Glock
Other points scorers - Trulli, Barrichello, Webber, Hamilton, Rosberg

The late race start made it tougher to restart due to the darkness that enveloped the track due to the setting sun. The FIA regulation that requires that a Grand Prix not last more than 2 hours only distanced the possibility of the restart that as it turned out - never materialized. The race was finally declared officially over about 10 minutes from the two hour time limit.

Drives of the Race:
1) Nico Rosberg - For a blistering start and leading all the way till the rain came.
2) Timo Glock - For a superb comeback drive after a disastrous start.
3) Mark Webber - for his dingdong battles with Hamilton & Alonso.

Ciao for now, folks !! See you in a couple of weeks for the next race, hopefully in sunny Shanghai.

Photograph Copyright: Coldtrackdays.com (Race pic),  Hannah Crick (Button pic)

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