Well I was right about one thing – rain or no rain, the Malaysian Grand Prix was eventful. Jenson Button summed it up in the press conference after the race, it was very confusing – who was where, who was on what tyres? But one thing is for sure, there was plenty of racing as drivers squabbled throughout the field. But one man once again seemed to be in his own race – from when the lights went out to the chequered flag, Sebastian Vettel was in control…
With the track temperature twice that of Melbourne two weeks ago, and the humidity 10% higher than qualifying, the race ahead was long, not just for the drivers, but for the teams and the tyres. As the race got underway, Vettel took an early lead, while the Renaults of Nick Heidfeld and Vitaly Petrov were straight up the pecking order, Heidfeld coming between Vettel and Lewis Hamilton, and Petrov fifth behind Button. Mark Webber, who had no KERS, had a poor getaway and was soon down in tenth as the Renaults and the Ferraris moved forwards. Before long, Webber was battling with Kamui Kobayashi for ninth, but it wasn’t long before it became clear that Webber would be pitting four times during the race, with his first stop on lap 12.
Hamilton was having his own squabble with Heidfeld, while Vettel pulled out a considerable lead. Even though McLaren had initially told Hamilton to preserve his tyres in case it began to rain, as they didn’t want to have to stop twice, they eventually pulled him in on lap 13 to get him out in some clear air. Red Bull brought Vettel in shortly after, with McLaren bringing in Button. Heidfeld followed, but he appeared to lose time, and Button exited ahead of the Renault.
Meanwhile on track, Hamilton and Sebastien Buemi were three abreast with Michael Schumacher as they raced the German into the final corner on lap 15, the seven-time champion clearly struggling for grip on his old tyres. Hamilton committed to the move, unaware that Schumacher was about to pit anyway, and it paid off, diving around the outside of Schumacher and Buemi he was first through the final turn. As the rest of the front-runners pitted, Vettel re-took the lead, with Hamilton up into second and closing down on Vettel considerably, while at the same time, Fernando Alonso, who was up into third after the stops, was closing down on both.
At the second stops, Hamilton came in slightly earlier than expected, and rejoined the track behind Petrov. Red Bull pitted Vettel shortly after to cover off the McLaren, but it looked costly as he rejoined behind Heidfeld and Felipe Massa. As Hamilton passed Petrov, Vettel passed the Ferrari. Things then got easier for Vettel as Heidfeld pitted. After the second stops Vettel lead from Hamilton, Button, Alonso, Petrov, Webber, Heidfeld and Massa, with Hamilton the only driver on the harder compound tyre.
Next came a radio transmission between Vettel and the team on the pitwall over whether he was allowed to use KERS – with the response a clear ‘no’, the team let everyone, including their rivals know he didn’t have his power boost – a button which had proved very important when Kobayashi coupled it with his DRS to pass Webber cleanly into turn one earlier in the race.
Hamilton pitted for the third time on lap 38, and after a slow stop, and switching to another set of the hard tyre, he began to struggle on track. Button was able to leapfrog his teammate a lap later at his own stop, switching to the hard tyre. Button immediately began to pull out a lead over Hamilton, and after setting the fastest lap, Red Bull pitted Vettel to cover him off. Ferrari pitted Alonso at the same time, but the Spaniard could only rejoin fifth behind Hamilton and Webber.
On lap 44, Webber made his fourth and final stop, proving his tyre wear was very high, and on lap 47, Alonso, who had been lining up Hamilton for the last lap, made contact with his former teammate, damaging his front wing.
In the closing laps, with Hamilton still third, with Heidfeld fourth and Webber fifth, Heidfeld managed to pass the struggling McLaren. With Webber next to pounce, Hamilton made a mistake and ran wide, gifting the position to Webber. Hamilton then pitted for another set of tyres, gifting fifth and sixth to Massa and Alonso, and seventh to Petrov. But Petrov was soon to retire as he bounced up into the air in the penultimate corner in the closing laps, breaking his steering column away from the steering rack.
Vettel crossed the line ahead of Button, with Heidfeld third and Webber fourth. Massa, Alonso and Hamilton finished in fifth down to seventh, with Kobayashi, Schumacher and Paul di Resta in the last of the points-scoring positions.
So that’s what happened as it happened, but let’s get down to the nitty gritty…
Tyres were clearly more of an issue in Malaysia than they were in Australia, with more pitstops for everyone. Webber certainly seemed to be struggling more than the rest of the front-runners, while Hamilton, although struggling on the harder compound to get up to speed with Vettel and Button, has certainly shown he can adapt his driving style to suit the Pirelli tyres, and he seems to be managing his tyres better than ever before.
Where Hamilton’s problems in the race were concerned, there seems to be a fine line between the wrong tyre choice and the timing of his stops. Did McLaren pit him too early, or did they just put him on the harder compound a stint too soon? It seems like the biggest error was using the harder compound twice, and if McLaren had held off like they did with Button, it’s possible Lewis wouldn’t have struggled so much and lost so much time to Vettel in the third stint on the first set of the harder compound.
KERS proved its place in Malaysia, with Webber and Kobayashi battling for ninth early on in the race. With Webber having passed the Sauber into the final corner, Kobayashi was able to regain the position by pressing his power boost button at the same time as enabling his DRS. With Webber KERS-less, the Sauber driver was able to pass the Red Bull with apparent ease. With the longest straight in F1 coming up in China next week, Red Bull will be wanting to work on their KERS system, otherwise they could be left behind. Whatever your opinion of KERS and DRS, both certainly played a part in the manoeuvres made in today’s race.
Next up for discussion is Alonso and Hamilton’s collision, and their post-race penalties. The Ferrari was clearly faster than the McLaren, and Hamilton had done well to keep Alonso behind him, but when Alonso eventually saw a clear path through and went to make his move, he caused a collision, which hindered his own race as he was forced to pit for a new wing, but it also made things a bit more difficult for Hamilton. After the race, the stewards issued 20 second post-race penalties to both, demoting Hamilton to eighth, with Alonso managing to retain sixth. Alonso’s penalty was for causing a collision, Hamilton’s for weaving more than once, although later clarification shows this was for the lap before the contact. Uproar on Twitter clearly shows the fans think the penalties were both unfair – it was a racing incident, and Hamilton weaved no more on either lap than some of the other drivers did, and they didn’t get the book thrown at them.
The biggest point though is how this affects the drivers’ standings, as already, Vettel has a clear lead having won two races. With 50 points, he nearly has twice the amount as second-placed Button on 26. Hamilton and Webber are tied in third with 22 following Hamilton’s post-race penalty, with Alonso fifth on 20.
So that was the Malaysian Grand Prix. I’ll see you in a week for the Chinese Grand Prix…
Pos Driver Team Time
1. Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1h37:39.832
2. Button McLaren-Mercedes + 3.261
3. Heidfeld Renault + 25.075
4. Webber Red Bull-Renault + 26.384
5. Massa Ferrari + 36.958
6. Alonso Ferrari + 37.248
7. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes + 49.957
8. Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari + 1:07.239
9. Schumacher Mercedes + 1:24.896
10. Di Resta Force India-Mercedes + 1:31.563
11. Sutil Force India-Mercedes + 1:41.379
12. Rosberg Mercedes + 1 lap
13. Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari + 1 lap
14. Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari + 1 lap
15. Kovalainen Lotus-Renault + 1 lap
16. Glock Virgin-Cosworth + 2 laps
17. Petrov Renault + 4 laps
Fastest lap: Webber, 1:40.571
Not classified/retirements:
Driver Team On lap
Liuzzi HRT-Cosworth 47
D'Ambrosio Virgin-Cosworth 43
Trulli Lotus-Renault 32
Perez Sauber-Ferrari 24
Barrichello Williams-Cosworth 23
Karthikeyan HRT-Cosworth 15
Maldonado Williams-Cosworth 9
