Sepang 2008: Petrov out of the chaos.

Saturday, 22nd March 2008

Russian defies madness around him to give Campos success at Sepang.

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With Valles and Buemi almost in another postcode, The battle for third had been raging for some time, with Tung initially looking more racy than Fauzy, but then being reined in by the attentions of Petrov. Despite feints and looks here and there, the scrapped was only halted when Tung spun. Petrov then latched on to, and passed, Fauzy at the final hairpin, only to see the local favourite head to the pits.

The rain, by this time, had abated, allowing lap times to tumble, but the debate about when to switch to slicks was still ongoing. Fauzy, and Valsecchi who pitted behind him, both opted to take on the dry weather rubber, but the decision appeared to be the wrong one as the Malaysian, especially, struggled for grip on his return to the track.

Four laps later, Buemi made his stop and also opted for slicks, prompting a rash of similar decisions as the rest of the field made their mandatory stops. By the time Valles made his stop a couple of laps later, the entire field had moved onto the faster rubber.

Sadly for the long-time leader, he was never to find out how much faster he could go, for Buemi, having closed what had been a two-second gap by pitting first, tried to take advantage of the difference in pace between hot and cold tyres, only to clatter into the side of Valles and take both off - and out.

That opened the door for an unexpected winner, but Grosjean's chances of converting his nightmare start into a remarkable comeback was dented by damage to a track rod, probably caused by contact as he worked his way through the field. The ART Grand Prix driver returned to the pits for a cursory check-over before being sent back into action in the search for points among a depleted field.

Grosjean resumed in eleventh, behind the two Indians Ebrahim and Chandhok, but didn't have to wait long before being elevated to the fringe of the points as the pair clashed at the final hairpin, promoting the ART car to ninth.