Early Perez tyre change paves way for Sauber F1 podium

A first-lap stop for full wet tyres in the early driving rain of the Malaysian Grand Prix helped Sergio Perez and Bruno Senna to secure career-best positions, and valuable points for the Sauber and Williams teams, as Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso momentarily silenced the team’s critics with an important victory. Perez showed excellent pace on Pirelli’s hardest P Zero Silver compound, and could have challenged Alonso, who was around 1.5 seconds per lap slower on the medium compound P Zero White tyre than the 21-year old Mexican in the closing stages, but a mistake when in site of Alonso meant he had to follow his team’s instructions and play safe for second place.

Alonso, Perez and the rest of the field used three of Pirelli’s four tyre compounds – the Cinturato Blue wet, Cinturato Green intermediate and a choice of the P Zero White medium and the Silver hard – during the rain-affected Grand Prix at Sepang. A rain shower before the start of the race meant that all the drivers apart from the two HRTs started on Cinturato Green intermediates. After just one lap, Perez came into the pits to change to full wets as the rain fell harder – and this call turned out to be the foundation of his result.
 
His early stop meant that Perez was up to third when the race was suspended on lap eight because of torrential rain. The re-start took place behind the safety car, which obliged all the drivers to start on the full wet tyres, according to the rules. As the track dried, the leaders moved onto intermediates and Perez led a race for the first time, before being passed by Alonso.
 
Even before the red flag came out, there was already variety of tyre strategies in play. HRTs decision to start on the full wet tyre boosted Narain Karthikeyan to tenth overall when the race was suspended: the first time that the young Spanish team has finished a lap in the points. By contrast, Toro Rosso’s Jean-Eric Vergne remained on the intermediate tyre until the red flag, proving the adaptability of Pirelli’s Cinturato Green by hanging onto seventh place despite huge quantities of spray and standing water. Marussia also found itself running in the points, thanks to eighth place for rookie Charles Pic shortly after the re-start.
 
On lap 37 Toro Rosso driver Daniel Ricciardo was the first driver to move onto slicks, using the P Zero White medium, while Alonso’s switch to the medium slick three laps later was instrumental in ensuring his 28th career victory. The fastest lap of the race was set on the P Zero Silver hard tyre by Lotus driver Kimi Raikkonen with three laps to go. The longest stints of the race were all 27 laps on the Cinturato Green intermediate tyre, run by Lewis Hamilton (McLaren), Kimi Raikkonen (Lotus) and Kamui Kobayashi (Sauber).
 
Pirelli’s motorsport director Paul Hembery commented: “This race had echoes of Canada last year, which was also suspended due to rain. Once more, that created an intriguing set of circumstances and some stand-out performances, such as Alonso and Perez at the front, who were the class of the field.

“After the re-start, it was important for the drivers to look after the intermediates – which showed great versatility in very mixed conditions – in order to keep them within their operating temperature range. The top two finishers adopted a completely different tyre strategy, with Alonso on the medium tyre and Perez on the hard tyre in the final stint, which shows how our decision to close up the performance gaps between the compounds has led to even closer racing. We’d also like to congratulate Bruno Senna, who scores his best-ever grand prix result in sixth.”

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