It has been an eventful weekend in Formula 1, as the teams headed to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, the second round of the Formula 1 Championship. Brawn GP were still on a high from their debut win last weekend, and this was seen in a strong practice and qualifying with Jenson Button qualifying on Pole and Rubens Barrichello qualifying in 4th, but with a 5 place penalty from a gearbox change he started the race in 9th. The biggest shock in qualifying came when Felipe Massa didn’t make it past the first round of qualifying. A mistake in his strategy meant he started the race in 16th. Jarno Trulli and
Timo Glock started for Toyota in 2nd and 3rd, with Nico Rosberg starting in a promising 4th.
There had been discussion before the race about the later race starting time of 5pm local time. There were concerns about the lack of light and the expected rain at this time of the day. The concerns were forgotten though as the race began, and there was a very eventful start, with Rosberg jumping up to 1st and Button falling back to 3rd, all before the first corner! The race was very exciting, with various battles going on all through the field. There was an almighty scrap going on between four cars, including
Mark Webber and Lewis Hamilton, on the edge of the point scoring positions.
On lap 20 however, the rain finally came down, resulting in a rush to the pits. Full wet tyres were put on by most drivers, with Glock breaking the pattern and putting on a set of intermediate wet tyres. This proved the right move as he shot up from the middle of the field to challenge the leaders, and with the advantage of more grip in his tyres, he ended taking the lead from Button, who had retaken the lead from Rosberg before the rain began. It was on lap 30 when the rain really began, with a tropical storm sweeping over the track. There was another rush for the pits, and some exhilarating driving left Button out in the lead followed by Heidfeld and Trulli.
As the track began to flood, conditions were deemed to dangerous to race, and it was given the red flag on lap 32. The cars then had to line up on the pit straight and wait for the stewards’ decision on whether to restart the race. Pit crews were tasked with keeping the cars race ready and began working in the torrential rain on the pit straight. The teams were kept waiting for 50 minutes before the stewards finally decided to abandon the race. Because the race had not been fully completed, half points were awarded to the point scorers. The results were taken from the last completed lap, which left the points scorers as:

1. Jenson Button Brawn GP 5 points
2. Nick Heidfeld BMW Sauber 4 points
3. Timo Glock Toyota 3 points
4. Jarno Trulli Toyota 2.5 points
5. Rubens Barrichello Brawn GP 2 points
6. Mark Webber Red Bull 1.5 points
7. Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1 points
8. Nico Rosberg Williams BMW 0.5 points