Sauber deny instructing Perez to back off from chasing Alonso

The Swiss team missed out on a historic win by just 2.263secs as rising Mexican star Sergio Perez pushed Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso all the way to the line at the Sepang International Circuit.

At one stage on lap 40 Perez had closed to within 1.3secs, only for the team to not follow Ferrari’s lead and bring him in when the conditions demanded a change from intermediate to dry tyres.

Then on lap 50 Perez made an error of his own when he ran wide at turn 14 when he was poised to pass Alonso after again cutting the gap to 0.5secs.

The theory was, as Sauber are powered by Ferrari engines and Perez remains a product of the Maranello marque’s young driver academy, that the 22-year-old was called to file in behind Alonso.

Fuel has been added to the fire by the fact Perez’s engineer was heard over the team radio telling him “we need the position”.

Asked about the message, Sauber said: “He meant that we needed the result. It’s a misunderstanding.

“It was because that behind us, all the midfield teams, our main competitors, scored points.

“So it was important we kept the result and not the position.”

Pressed on whether Perez had been told to stay behind Alonso, Sauber said: “No. We told him ‘be careful, we need the result’.”

Sauber was then quizzed on whether there had been any discussion with Ferrari, but he said: “No. 100 per cent no, 100 per centy nothing.

“We had no discussion about Checo (Perez) nor the position.”

It took the gloss off what was a stunning drive from Perez as he achieved his finest result in F1 and Sauber’s highest position since the 2008 Belgian Grand Prix when Nick Heidfeld was runner-up, and at a time when the team were heavily backed by BMW.

Perez proved himself in very tough conditions as the race was suspended for 51 minutes after nine laps due to heavy rain.

In high humidity the track did not start to dry out until near the end, yet Perez managed to reel in Alonso on inters and dry tyres, only to fall short.

Extolling Perez’s virtues, Sauber said: “He drove an outstanding race and rose above our expectations.

“What surprised me most was the fact he was very competitive in all conditions and with all tyres.

“Whether they were wet, intermediate or dry tyres he was always one of the fastest drivers on track, if not the fastest.”

Perez knows it was an opportunity missed as he said: “I think I could have won it, definitely. I was catching Fernando toward the end of the race, but I ran wide enough to go on to the wet and I just lost control of the car, went straight and lost the fight for the victory.

“In the end second is a great result for the team. Many points.”

Perez has now scored more points than he managed in his rookie year last season, and the team have 30 overall, just 14 behind their total achievement in 2011.

For Ferrari, the result will lift them out of the doldrums, yet Alonso maintains the win “changes nothing” given the relative uncompetitiveness of their car.

“The win is a big surprise because we were not competitive in Australia, nor here,” said the Spaniard. “We are in a position we don’t want, fighting to get into Q3 and then fighting to score some points.

“We want to fight for poles, victories, because after the first two races of the championship we find ourselves off the pace.”

Britain’s Lewis Hamilton had to again settle for third from pole and trails Alonso in the championship by five points.

On this occasion, after being far from happy with third a week earlier in his McLaren, the tune had changed as he said: “We can be satisfied.

“We would have liked more points, but I guess I can’t complain. I’m on the podium for a second week in a row so I’m pretty happy.”

Winner Down Under eight days ago, team-mate Jenson Button finished 14th after a collision with HRT’s Narain Karthikeyan forced a front-wing change shortly after the restart.

Reigning champion Sebastian Vettel also missed out on points as he was 11th after his own clash with Karthikeyan late on that led to a left-rear puncture.

Other notable achievements saw Bruno Senna finish a career-high sixth, giving Williams eight points, three more than they scored in the whole of last season, while Force India’s Paul di Resta was seventh.

Button issued a humble apology to his team following a grand prix he described as “horrendous”.

He is normally the master of the changeable conditions, as he proved three years ago at the Sepang International Circuit when he won a rain-shortened race.

On this occasion, as Button put it, “anything that could have gone wrong really did”, with the McLaren ace finishing almost 80 seconds adrift of race winner Alonso.

Coming just a week after his near-perfect victory in Australia, a philosophical Button said: “I can’t do anything but laugh really.

“It was a tough afternoon when everything just spiralled out of control, although I didn’t do a very good job.

“I’m just sorry for the team because they did a great job all weekend, and we expected a lot more from the front row.”

From second on the grid, Button made a solid start, filing in behind team-mate Hamilton, but – shortly after the restart following the suspension of racing – the 32-year-old collided with Karthikeyan, losing the right end of his front wing.

“I just locked up the rears, couldn’t slow the car down and hit Karthikeyan, which was very frustrating,” said Button.

“Then I had to come in and change my nose which took a long time, and after that it was a tough afternoon.

“But a lot of the issues I suffered were because I wiped my front wing off shortly after the restart.”

Vettel’s broken link with pits team is costly

Sebastian Vettel blamed a loss of communication and what he claimed was carelessness on Narain Karthikeyan’s part for his Malaysian Grand Prix malaise.

For the first time in 27 races Vettel finished a grand prix without picking up a point as he trailed home 11th.

In rain-hit conditions as the race was suspended for 51 minutes after nine laps, Vettel was initially handicapped by the failure of his in-car radio.

“Crucially we lost radio communication and that makes it very difficult in these conditions to know what’s going on,” said the reigning double world champion.

“It was crucial to come in at the right time. Having no radio meant we were delayed getting the messages, and I didn’t hear anything from the team at the end.”

Nevertheless, Vettel was running fourth when he collided with Karthikeyan in his HRT, collecting a right-rear puncture that dropped him out of the top 10.

“We did our maximum to get up to fourth, but to then lose the race how I did is very frustrating,” added Vettel.

“Some people (Karthikeyan) need to look more where they are going.

“There were then problems with the car after the incident, but I wanted to see the chequered flag, even though there were no points for me. Before the incident with HRT the way the race unfolded was good for us, so it’s frustrating to lose it like that.”

Team principal Christian Horner revealed: “We wanted to stop the car before the end from a safety point of view, but Seb couldn’t hear us because of the loss of the radio and continued. Thankfully his car got to the end without failing.”