Ferrari's Fernando Alonso scored a dramatic victory in the Malaysian Grand Prix Sunday when the Spaniard denied Sauber's Sergio Perez a first Formula One triumph in a race turned on its head by the weather. The race started in torrential rain and was stopped for 51 minutes after eight laps but Alonso took charge on its resumption to register a shock 28th career victory in a car that had been outpaced in qualifying in the opening two rounds. Pole sitter Lewis Hamilton repeated his third place finish from the opening race of the season in Melbourne last weekend, with Red Bull's Mark Webber in fourth and 2007 world champion Kimi Raikkonen fifth in his Lotus. Williams' Bruno Senna finished sixth in his best F1 finish, Force India's Paul di Resta and Nico Hulkenberg were seventh and ninth, respectively, separated by Toro Rosso's Jules Vergne. Australia race winner Jenson Button and world champion Sebastian Vettel both suffered mid-race collisions with the HRT of Narain Karthikeyan and finished outside the points. Alonso started the race in eighth place but worked his way up to fifth by the red flag, passed Webber soon after the resumption and capitalized on a well-timed pit stop to get past Hamilton. The double world champion overtook Mexico's Perez on the 17th of the 56-lap race and after initially dropping back, the Sauber closed to within a second of the Ferrari in the late stages and was on course to secure an unlikely victory. His dreams of becoming the first Mexican to record a Formula One since 1970 were shattered with five laps remaining, however, when he ran wide on turn 13 and slipped too far behind Alonso to catch him before the checkered flag. Nevertheless it was Sauber's best result as an independent team as Perez scored more points in one race than he did in the whole of last season. The Mercedes duo of Michael Schumacher and Nico Rosberg flattered to deceive for a second race in a row, struggling all day in the conditions to finish 10th and 13th respectively after looking quick in qualification. The Ferrari team had been considered to be in crisis after a poor offseason and first race, but a superb display of wet-weather driving gave two-time world champion Alonso a memorable victory. Alonso moved to the top of the embryonic drivers' championship standings, with 35 points from two races, ahead of Hamilton on 30, and Australian GP winner Button on 25. Ferrari moved to 35 points in the constructors' championship, trailing leader McLaren on 55 and Red Bull on 42. The race finished in gathering gloom at 6:48 P.M. local time (1048 GMT) due to the long delay caused by a tropical downpour that started after just six laps. Light rain began falling again in the closing laps, but the heavy showers that could have caused another twist stayed away.
