Alonso still not convinced

SINGING IN THE RAIN: Alonso (centre), Perez and Hamilton (right) pose on the podium yesterday

SEPANG: It was an unexpected Ferrari one-two at the Malaysian GP in Sepang yesterday.

While not many gave Scuderia Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso a chance of victory, even more unexpected was the Ferrari-powered Sauber driven by Sergio Perez coming in second.

The young Spaniard could have well won the race, had he not lost control of his car during the final laps of the race.

While Perez received all the plaudits for his heroics, the Ferrari academy product was quick to point out the team made the right decisions during the race.

“A win was possible today but I lost several seconds while pushing Alonso hard and also during pit stops where I had a problem with the clutch,” said Perez.

So determined was Perez to win the race that he was told over the team radio not push too hard and risk losing points.

Meanwhile, Alonso was quick to admit the win at Sepang does not change anything for the Italian carmakers.

“The win was a surprise … but the car is still not competitive. We struggled in Melbourne last week and here during the qualifying and even the race.

“But it was perfect decisions on tyres and pit stops that won us the race,” said Alonso.

The former double world champion added that Ferrari was not in the position they want to be, citing that they should be fighting for race wins and pole positions instead of struggling to make it into Q3 in qualifying.

“The team is trying their best. We trust each other and Ferrari has been producing top quality race cars for over 60 years and we will improve the car,” he added.

“We need to find consistency now and pick up as many points as possible until we improve our car.”

The win in Sepang was Alonso’s first since the British GP last year. That was his only win in the 2011 season.

The race was marred by heavy downpour that forced the race to be suspended on the ninth lap for close to an hour.

Lewis Hamilton of McLaren finished third while Red Bull’s Mark Webber came in fourth ahead of Kimi Raikkonen of Lotus Renault.

Meanwhile, last year’s world champion Sebastian Vettel finished 11th behind crowd favourite and Formula One legend Michael Schumacher.