Wow, good thing for the track organization and for Formula 1 that it rained, that way nobody saw how dismal a place that circuit is ( at least in its present form) and how if it were dry there would have been zero passing opportunities. It even ended in the dark so nobody saw what kind of shape that swamp was. As it was though, it turned out to be quite and exciting race after all, once they actually got to race, seventeen laps and two safety car starts into the fifty five lap contest.
Key to the race was Alonso's and Ferrari's ability to manage tires while keeping a good pace and reliability. Red Bulls are faster but more fragile and Vettel paid a high price for that in Korea. Webber is probably the luckies driver out there, after a very bad unforced error he finds himself still ahead of Vettel in points and with the team that will, you would think, finally forced to get fully behind him. After watching his off over and over, I keep wondering why he did not lock his wheels to stop rolling across the track, did his brakes totally fail or was it just an "oh crap" moment? Too bad for Rosberg's race being ruined.
Mclaren are in the same boat and Red Bull now with Button having, for whatever reason made a complete mess of his race and being effectively out of the championship running, they need to get fully behind Hamilton for the last two races.
Hamilton will seriously regret his silly mistake on the restart from the second safety car period. He was gifted a second place because of an errant wheel nut in the Ferrari pit stop, a second place he might have easily nursed home, as it turned out, for a win. Instead he blew the very first braking zone after the restart and let Alonso back through. Hamilton also continued to have, along with Mclaren, an issue degrading tires under these conditions, shades of corded tires passed.
Alonso really did not put a wheel wrong all race, he kept the pressure on just enough and in the later stages set a pace Hamilton could not cope with. Brilliant, for a guy who was almost written off after Spa.
Best of all, with two races to go, it's still all quite open at least for the top three. Very cool.
