Sebastien Vettel won his first race of the 2010 season with a dominant performance for Red Bull Racing. Team-mate Mark Webber finished in second despite starting from pole position while Nico Rosberg rewarded the Mercedes GP team with its first podium in third. A great result for the Silver Arrows in only its third race in Formula One.
That first corner move on his Red Bull team-mate was crucial as Vettel made a perfect start from third on the grid. He simply took the opportunity on the first lap as Webber left the space leading into Turn 1. In that moment, the Australian handed the Malaysian Grand Prix to his German rival and Vettel never looked back. Finally a win for Sebastian and his Luscious Liz!
Robert Kubica continued Renault’s strong form with fourth while the impressive Adrian Sutil taking fifth for Force India. The McLaren of Lewis Hamilton – who drove an aggressive race following a mistake in qualifying – was sixth, ahead of Felipe Massa’s Ferrari and Australian Grand Prix winner Jenson Button in the other McLaren.
As for Fernando Alonso, who was driving well despite a downshift problem with the F10’s gearbox, the Spaniard suffered a late failure which promoted fellow countryman Jaime Alguersuari into ninth – taking his first points of the season for Toro Rosso, a great reward thanks to his bold overtaking moves on Nico Hulkenberg and Vitaly Petrov. The former taking the final points position for Williams.
Sebastien Buemi was P11 for Toro Rosso with Rubens Barrichello’s Williams in P12. Even though Fernando Alonso was forced to retire with an engine failure, the double world champion was classified in P13 but that late retirement means Ferrari team-mate Felipe Massa now leads the drivers’ championship by two points.
Virgin Racing’s Lucas di Grassi was the best of Formula One’s so called ‘division two’ with P14 – nursing its inadequate fuel level to the flag – finishing ahead of the Hispanias pair of Karun Chandhok and Bruno Senna respectively.
Jarno Trulli was the last remaining classified runner with P17 though he suffered hydraulic problems at the end – with similar issues forcing Lotus team-mate Heikki Kovalainen to lose several laps in the pits.
Also hitting trouble were Petrov, Force India’s Tonio Liuzzi, Michael Schumacher’s Mercedes, Timo Glock’s Virgin Racing and both Saubers – with Pedro de la Rosa not even making the start following engine problems on his way from the garage to the grid.
So that much-talked about rain never arrived, as the race remained dry throughout. Finally Red Bull Racing was awarded a race victory with Sebastian Vettel taking the honours after missing out in Bahrain and Melbourne. No reliability problems unlike the previous Grands Prix and the RB6 seemed to be the car to beat this season.
Felipe Massa now leads the championship with 39 points with Malaysian Grand Prix winner Sebastien Vettel moving up to a joint second with Fernando Alonso on 37 points. Reigning world champion Jenson Button and Mercedes GP driver Nico Rosberg are on 35 points. While in the constructors’ chase, the Scuderia still maintains the lead with 76 points, ten ahead of McLaren and 15 over Red Bull Racing.
Race results from Sepang, 56 laps:
1. Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1:33:48.412
2. Webber Red Bull-Renault +4.8s
3. Rosberg Mercedes +13.5s
4. Kubica Renault +18.5s
5. Sutil Force India-Mercedes +21.0s
6. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes +23.4s
7. Massa Ferrari +27.0s
8. Button McLaren-Mercedes +37.9s
9. Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari +1m10.6s
10. Hulkenberg Williams +1m13.3s
11. Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari +1m18.9s
12. Barrichello Williams-Cosworth +1 lap
13. Alonso Ferrari +2 laps
14. Di Grassi Virgin-Cosworth +3 laps
15. Chandhok Hispania-Cosworth +3 laps
16. Senna Hispania-Cosworth +4 laps
17. Trulli Lotus-Cosworth +5 laps
Fastest lap: Webber 1m37.054s
Not classified/retirements:
Kovalainen Lotus-Cosworth 46 laps
Petrov Renault 32 laps
Liuzzi Force India-Mercedes 12 laps
Schumacher Mercedes 9 laps
Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 8 laps
Glock Virgin-Cosworth 2 laps
De la Rosa Sauber-Ferrari 0 lap
World Championship standings, round 3:
Drivers:
1. Massa 39
2. Vettel 37
3. Alonso 37
4. Button 35
5. Rosberg 35
6. Hamilton 31
7. Kubica 30
8. Webber 24
9. Sutil 10
10. Schumacher 9
11. Liuzzi 8
12. Barrichello 5
13. Alguersuari 2
14. Hulkenberg 1
Constructors:
1. Ferrari 76
2. McLaren-Mercedes 66
3. Red Bull-Renault 61
4. Mercedes 44
5. Renault 20
6. Force India-Mercedes 18
7. Williams-Cosworth 6
8. Toro Rosso-Ferrari 2
NEXT RACE: Chinese Grand Prix, Shanghai. April 16-18.
The top three drivers’ views on the Malaysian Grand Prix from Sepang. News articles taken from Autosport.com.
Sebastian Vettel was delighted that Red Bull was able to put its hesitant start to 2010 behind it by dominating the Malaysian Grand Prix.
Red Bull had been the pacesetter in both the opening races, with Vettel heading at Sakhir and in Melbourne only for a spark plug and wheel issue to deny him victories in both grands prix.
But he had a flawless run at Sepang today, leading team-mate Mark Webber home in a Red Bull one-two and vaulting straight up to a close third in the championship in the process.
“What a day,” said Vettel. “Yesterday was extremely difficult. We had a magnificent car, and the key once again was to pace yourself, but Bridgestone did a good job bringing two compounds here that worked fairly well.
“At the end of the day a very good result for us and for myself after two races where I didn’t finish where I wanted to be. It was crucial for the team not to panic and to stay relaxed. It is a long season but this is the best result we could get and on top of that Mark getting second place is a big plus for the team and a lot of points.”
Vettel had qualified third, but immediately grabbed the lead into the first corner of the race.
“I realised straight away I had a good start,” he said. “I passed Nico [Rosberg], was alongside and got the tow from Mark and was able to gain, gain, gain. It’s a long sprint into Turn 1 so I had a clear advantage over him.
“I took the chance I had into Turn 1, it was quite late, and just made it. Mark had a bit of better exit out of Turn 2 and into Turn 3. It was a bit slippy, we both tried to push and each fighting among ourselves but we kept respect. If Mark was in my position he would have done the same.”
Mark Webber says team-mate Sebastian Vettel deserved victory at the Malaysian Grand Prix despite the Australian starting from pole.
Vettel, starting from third position, made a superb start and took the lead from Webber at the first corner.
Although the Australian tried his best to take him back, Vettel kept the lead and never looked back, scoring his first race win of the season.
Webber admitted his German team-mate had been a worthy winner, and he hailed the team’s weekend as perfect.
“We know these days with the strategy and the way the race unfolds the first part of race is crucial. I got a little bit of wheel-spin and on the run to first corner Seb had a big tow,” said Webber.
“I didn’t really know where Nico was either, I didn’t know whether to go middle or left, so I braked late, I had a bit of a better exit and the fight continued up to Turn 4.
“We had a chat with Christian Horner at start and he said ‘Behave yourselves’ and we did. The spirit and chemistry in our team is awesome.
“It was a good fight today but he deserved the victory.
“First and second is sensational. It has been a tough few races where clearly we didn’t finish where we should, so coming to the weekend, you will take this kind of result. I would like to be one step further up, but we executed a perfect weekend.”
Nico Rosberg said he was not surprised that he had no chance to keep pace with the dominant Red Bulls in the Malaysian Grand Prix, but was still happy to give Mercedes GP its first podium.
The German had qualified second, but lost out to the Red Bulls at the start, and thereafter had a quiet run to the final podium spot.
“It is a fantastic result for us today,” said Rosberg. “I am quite pleased but unfortunately the start didn’t go too well, it was quite a lot down to me, I got too much wheelspin and lost out.
“From then on I knew it was going to be difficult to follow the Red Bulls. I was struggling in first stint with the options as [Robert] Kubica could stay pretty close which wasn’t the plan.
“Once onto prime tyres I was comfortable. I was a bit worried about [Lewis] Hamilton initially and I was expecting him to be fast but he didn’t get past people behind me.”
He added that it was appropriate for Mercedes to break its podium duck on main sponsor Petronas’ home ground – but warned that the team had to keep pushing as the gap to the pacesetters remained too large.
“It is a great coincidence that the first podium comes over here,” said Rosberg. “I have to thank the team for the work put in over the winter. We definitely need to push on as we are not where we need to be.”
Despite racing with downshift problems in the Ferrari F10, double world champion Fernando Alonso was disappointed to retire from the Malaysian Grand Prix. It didn’t help that he started the race at the back of the grid. Read this Autosport.com for Alonso’s view on the race:
Fernando Alonso labelled the Malaysian Grand Prix as the hardest race of his life after having to cope with gearbox issues before retiring.
The Ferrari driver lost his clutch before the start of the race and was forced to step on the throttle on corners in order for the gears to engage.
Despite that, Alonso battled with team-mate Felipe Massa and McLaren’s Jenson Button, before an engine failure forced him out with two laps to go.
The Spaniard looked set for ninth position, which would have helped him keep the championship lead. As it was, however, Alonso is now tied in second place, two points behind Massa.
“From the start things went wrong,” Alonso told Spanish television. “On the formation lap my gearbox broke and I had no clutch during the race, so I had to brake in a weird way.
“I had to first gear down and then push the throttle hard so it would engage the gear for that corner.
“So it was probably the hardest race of my whole life in terms of driving, because I had to improvise for every corner. But even so we were going to get a few points, which in the end was not possible because of the engine.
“But if the gearbox and then the engine are going to break, it’s better than in happens when you are ninth than when you are leading and you lose 25 points.”
He added: “A tough weekend. Sometimes it’s us, sometimes it’s other. You have to take the opportunities.”
From a low grid position McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton drove a fantastic race to finish in sixth. Read the Autosport.com for the full story below:
Lewis Hamilton declared himself delighted with sixth position at the Malaysian Grand Prix after recovering from the back of the grid.
The McLaren driver made his way through the field after having to start from 20th place following a strategic mistake during yesterday’s qualifying.
“Not a bad finish from 20th on the grid,” Hamilton said after the race. “If we were further up I think we would have had a better race, but I think it was a real great job by the team and the car was fantastic here this weekend. It’s a positive thing going into the next race.
“I’m very, very happy with that result. I think to come from 20th on the grid to sixth, I don’t know how many points that is, but it’s definitely a good result.””
The Brion was stuck behind Force India’s Adrian Sutil during the latter part of the event, but admitted the German’s car was simply too quick down the straights to try to pass him.
“I was pretty much quicker than him but he was very smart on the exits and down the straights he was too fast,” Hamilton added.
Team-mate Jenson Button also had to make his way to the front after a disappointing qualifying, but the Briton’s cause was not helped by a poor start.
The world champion went on to finish in eighth position.
“I got a terrible start and I think I made a mistake going to the option tyre because I had no rear grip at all. In the high speed it was terrible,” Button said.
“So I just couldn’t overtake. I lost a lot of time at the start.
“I pitted on lap 10 when I could drop into a clear circuit, and it felt good. But the problem was I was on the prime for so long, around a circuit you can overtake on it was very, very difficult. The cars behind me were 2s quicker. To try and hold them off was very difficult.
“Felipe eventually got past. Fernando tried a couple of times. The last time he tried, he went so deep into the corner and then suddenly his engine was gone. I don’t understand what happened. But we had a good fight.”
He added: “I never realised fighting for eighth was going to be so difficult, but it’s good to get some points. I went for the outside at the first corner and it wasn’t the place to be. I lost a lot of places there.”
The Force India team should be proud by this result in Sepang with Adrian Sutil taking a fine fifth spot, finishing ahead of the same Mercedes-powered McLaren of Lewis Hamilton. Autosport.com has the full story.
Adrian Sutil reckons Force India can now expect to be a top ten contender in every race, having taken a very strong fifth place finish in Malaysia.
The German qualified fourth in the wet session and then held his own with the frontrunners in the dry race, fending off the charging Lewis Hamilton’s McLaren to finish fifth.
“The race was exciting and fifth place in the end was a great achievement,” Sutil said.
“I was hoping for a good race as we were so close in the first two races but then had a little bit of back luck that stopped us scoring. It was a good overall performance from the team.
“It was always very close with Lewis just behind in the closing stages but I knew that if I didn’t make any mistakes I wouldn’t have any problems, so it was just trying to concentrate. I had to push, of course, but it was under control.
“I think we can now carry this forward to China: we are still a good top 10 competitor and we need to continue like this – Q3 and a few points each race would be great at this stage in the season.”
Team boss Vijay Mallya agreed that Force India had now proved it was a consistent points contender.
“Three races and three times in the points, I am absolutely delighted,” he said.
“Adrian had a strong race, keeping a cool head under pressure when a charging Lewis Hamilton was right on his tail. Once again we’ve proved the pace of our car and our ability to really mix it in the midfield.”
But he admitted to some disappointment for Tonio Liuzzi, who was also running in the top ten before an early throttle problem.
“It was disappointing not to have two cars in the points, but it is overall very positive that we can race hard and score points entirely on merit,” said Mallya.
Following some great overtaking moves to a ninth place finish Toro Rosso’s Jaime Alguersuari looks back on the Malaysian Grand Prix, courtesy from Autosport.com.
Jaime Alguersuari said he never expected to score his first Formula 1 points so early in the season and admitted he was delighted with the result.
The Toro Rosso driver put on one of his strongest performances so far at Sepang, battling his way to ninth place to pick up two points.
Alguersuari, 20, says the result is a confident boost for the upcoming races.
“I am very happy to have scored points today and I have to say I never expected to do it so early in the season,” said the Spaniard. “A big thanks to everyone in the team who have worked so hard to achieve this result.
“Step by step, I have improved my performance, but this weekend was very tough because I didn’t know the track. I enjoyed this race, especially the fights I had with some of the others: I think I learned a bit about the art of fighting with Michael (Schumacher) last weekend in Melbourne.
“Towards the end, I was a bit worried about how the tyres would last, as I was on the soft ones, but I had no degradation. It is very satisfying and I feel a lot more confident now going into the upcoming races.”
Sebastien Buemi wound up just outside of the points in 11th after damaging his car early on after making contact with Kamui Kobayashi.
The Swiss, however, was still upbeat about the pace of his car in the last two races.
“This race didn’t go so well for me, because, after quite a good start, my front wing was damaged on the first lap when I made contact with Kobayashi,” Buemi explained. “It meant that from then on, I lacked grip and had a lot of understeer.
“I ended driving for much of the race with a damaged wing, but once it was changed I was able to put in some very fast lap times, but by then it was too late to do much.
“A one-stop strategy in any case was not on for me, as I did two stints on the Option tyre. In general, these two races in one week have not gone well for me, but we can be optimistic about Shanghai, as the whole package, the car and the team seems to have made a step forward this weekend.”
Sebastian Vettel has escaped a penalty for overtaking backmarker Jarno Trulli under yellow flags in the closing stages of the Malaysian Grand Prix.
The Red Bull Racing driver was leading comfortably two laps from home when he came up to lap the slowing Lotus at Turn 4 – just as the yellow flags were out for Fernando Alonso’s stranded Ferrari.
Vettel overtook the Lotus on the inside of Turn 4 –a move which was in breach of the regulations that bans car from overtaking each other when yellow flags are out.
The stewards spoke to Vettel after the race and, after also viewing video and telemetry data, they decided that since he had made ‘a large reduction in speed through the yellow flag area and that he understood that Car 18 was slowing with an obvious problem’ it was decided that no penalty would be applied.
Former grand prix driver Johnny Herbert was acting as the drivers’ advisor on the stewards panel in Malaysia.
Source: Autosport.com
According to Autosport.com the Renault team have been critical of Lewis Hamilton’s weaving. Read on for the full details below:
Renault boss Eric Boullier believes Lewis Hamilton was in the wrong for weaving to prevent an attack from Vitaly Petrov – but has ruled out taking the matter any further despite his McLaren rival only getting a warning.
Hamilton was fighting Petrov hard for position during the Malaysian Grand Prix and, after overtaking the Russian, he weaved down the start-finish straight several times to try and prevent a counter-attack.
That action prompted suggestions that Hamilton had broken the unofficial drivers’ code of conduct that they can only make one directional move to defend a position.
However, with Hamilton accelerating out of a corner rather than coming under pressure into a braking zone, there were other arguments suggesting he was simply trying to break the tow.
Renault boss Eric Boullier said his team complained to race control about Hamilton’s actions during the event – and felt the FIA should have done more than show the former world champion a black and white flag for unsportsmanlike behaviour.
“We just raised our point of view,” Boullier told AUTOSPORT. “Very frankly, it is very clear in the regulations that you can have one change of direction, so when you do three in a row something is wrong.
“He got a warning for dangerous driving, but I am not sure it is enough. It is definitely clearly written in the regulations that you can not do any more than one direction change, and it is something you should not be doing.”
When asked if Renault would pursue the matter further to seek clarification from the FIA, Boullier said: “No. A warning says that if you do it again you will be penalised.”
With Red Bull Racing dominating the Malaysian Grand Prix with the perfect one-two result, rival Ferrari and in particular Fernando Alonso has commented that he is not worried about the strong performance. Read the Autosport.com article for the full story.
Fernando Alonso says he is not worried about Red Bull’s performance despite a dominant one-two at the Malaysian Grand Prix.
Sebastian Vettel led team-mate Mark Webber home to secure his first win of the season after coming close in the previous two races, from which the German retired while leading.
Red Bull has also secured three pole positions from as many races so far.
But Alonso denies Vettel would have won the first three races had not not suffered problems, and the Ferrari driver is confident his team will improve as the season progresses.
“They have three pole positions, but the three wins I’m not sure, because we were very quick in Bahrain and we were maybe quicker than them in Australia,” Alonso told reporters after the Malaysian Grand Prix.
“Here it was a strange race, too easy for them because we made a mistake in qualifying. We are not too worried at the moment.
“It’s a very long championship and we are capable of improving the car a lot. We know in which areas we need to improve the car, so I’m more or less confident that we can have the best car in the next few races.”
He added: “As always you need the consistency to be champion, but also you need to be fast. We are only in the third race so it’s normal that the leader changes in the first races. You need a few races to settle down the championship.
“As usual, you need to finish all the races if possible and to take points, but also especially with the news points system you need to win races as well, because it’s a good reward of 25 points.
“At the moment it’s open with many drivers around 30 points. But as I said, when the championship goes to the end I’m sure only two or three drivers will fight for it.”
The Spaniard lost the championship lead after retiring on Sunday, following a difficult race in which he was hindered by mechanical problems even before the start.
“It was difficult,” Alonso added. “Already from the start we had a problem with the gearbox so it was very difficult to drive the car. For me it was the most difficult race of my life and probably the best race of my life until the problem.”
Alonso retired with an engine problem, on a weekend where the Sauber team also hit engine trouble with its Ferrari units.
But the two-time champion, whose team replaced his engine at the season-opening race in Bahrain, says he has no worries about reliability.
“Not a concern, for sure. We had some problems. It’s true that the engine are the same as in winter testing without problems. Also we have a lot of experience from Toro Rosso and Sauber as well, so unfortunately it seems that Sauber had a problem as well.
“For sure we will investigate it but overall I think the engines are more or less the same as last year so I think our engine guys have a lot of experience with this engine without any problems.
“I’m sure the problems we are having now are very specific thing that we will study after this race.”
Well it was just as well stuff was happening behind the leaders otherwise it would have been a very dull race instead of just dull. Though Lewis’ overtaking was pretty cool. What was really strange was the fact whilst he did all that overtaking, Ferrari were going nowhere and did nothing; and yet by the end of the race they were right up there!?
So many retirements also! Left, right and centre cars were breaking down including Schuey’s little wheel problem. Well it’s a good excuse for him not doing so well. He’ll get there I’m sure but the press are loving his lack luster races so far
But a great race by Nico though to get third. Not quite sure how he thought Lewis would be challenging though!
good to see it wasn’t a total disaster for virgin though lotus had a torrid time of it. Not good on the track but the PR machine was in overdrive thanks to it being their main sponsors home Grand Prix. In the red button forum after Heikki certainly seem happy in the team. Shame the same cannot be said for Trulli. Think he just wants to get out!
Alas the rain didn’t come so the prospect of a brilliant race didn’t happen. Shame as you could put money on it raining just about everyday at the same time over there. So it’s off to china and probably not the greatest race yet again.
Roll on Europe!