F1 News
April 5, 2009: The last time we saw half-points in F1
On April 5, 2009 we saw one of the most remarkable Grands Prix ever. The Malaysian GP was on the program and it turned out to be a bizarre race.
Start
The race, in which Jenson Button started with his Brawn on pole position, started well. With the exception of Kubica everyone came through the first lap without any problems. Button immediately lost his first place. However, he managed to regain these places fairly quickly.
The first pit stops were coming up and here it started to get weird. Kimi Raikkonen came in to change to rain tyres. While there was hardly any rain on the track at that moment. It turned out to be a clumsy action from Ferrari, because the bad weather came later than predicted.
Rain
In the nineteenth lap it started to rain heavily. Because there wasn't much water on the track yet, some drivers chose to ride on intermediate tyres. Glock was the first to do so. The drivers kept driving on the intermediates until lap 31, when the downpour finally came.
It was undrivable, Lewis Hamilton even called it 'the most dangerous conditions he had ever raced in'. The race was officially stopped on lap 33 and was not continued. The positions after 31 laps became the final result, which meant that Button and Brawn won the second race in a row.
Half-Points
Because only 31 laps of the 56 were completed, half points were awarded. This meant that the race did not reach 75% of the planned distance. This was the fifth and so far the last time this has happened in Formula 1.
