2011 Malaysian Grand Prix - Champ Vettel continues perfect start

SUCCESSION: Sebastian Vettel can't be beaten in 2011 so far

SEBASTIAN Vettel overcame KERS problems and degrading tyres to win the Malaysian Grand Prix today.  The world champion led for most of the race from the pole position in Sepang to make it two wins from two in 2011, and earn his fourth successive victory.  Britain’s Jenson Button finished an excellent second, but it was a day to forget for Lewis Hamilton, who wound up in the stewards room after another clash with arch enemy Fernando Alonso.

     Vettel led from the outset, but Red Bull’s advantage from the Australian Grand Prix wasn’t as clear-cut in Kuala Lumpur.  They had KERS fitted on their cars for the first time ever and both cars had problems.  Without the extra horsepower, Mark Webber was a sitting duck on the startline and got bundled down to tenth from third on the grid.  At half-distance, Vettel was told by his race engineer to not use KERS anymore.  At this stage, Hamilton had the potential to win the race, but his tyres wilted and the young German started to pick up the pace in another awesome drive.  Although Button was a late threat, Sebastian always had enough in hand against the 2009 champion to cruise across the line and achieve his second straight win in Malaysia. 

CLASH: The moment when Alonso's wing disappears

     Button and Hamilton were the closest challengers, but both lacked the pace when required to make the killer blow.  Hamilton was held up by the fast-starting Nick Heidfeld for the first stint, which gave Vettel a ten second head start.  When that gap closed, Lewis went for the harder of the two Pirelli compounds earlier than expected and the gamble backfired.  On lap 43 and 44, he got entangled in a battle with his bitter rival Alonso, which ultimately ended in tears.  After some clean and exciting driving, Fernando misjudged the McLaren’s speed exiting Turn 3 and ran into the back of Lewis.  The result saw the Ferrari limping back to the pits with a damaged front wing, which cost Alonso a certain podium.  Hamilton was already in trouble before the collision, and a fourth trip to the pits in the closing stages finished his race totally.  After the pair crossed the line sixth and seventh, they were hauled up to see the race stewards afterwards to explain the crash.  Both were giving 20 second time penalties, which kept Alonso in sixth, but pushed Hamilton back to eighth in the final classification.  Fernando got his penalty for causing the crash, whilst Hamilton received his for aggressive defending driving against the Spaniard on the previous lap.  Hamilton’s poor body language afterwards suggested some serious questions would be raised in a tense McLaren debrief afterwards.  Button made a slow start and struggled to find a consistent rhythm in the early stages.  He was passed brilliantly by a fired-up Alonso after the first stops and although he handled his tyres better than others around him, had lost too much time to Vettel by the time he started setting quicker lap times.

POINT: Heidfeld made his, to secure his third career Sepang rostrum

    After his abysmal start, Webber did well to fightback to fourth, considering he had a malfunctioning DRS system, no KERS all race and four pitstops to contend with.  He finished on the tail of Heidfeld, who sealed a second successive podium for the Lotus Renault team.  Heidfeld qualified sixth and made one of the best starts of his career, on a weekend when he proved he was a very adequate stand-in for the injured Robert Kubica.  His pace was consistent throughout; wrapping up his third podium in Sepang in the process.  Team-mate Vitaly Petrov made the most spectacular exit of the race.  The Russian was running a solid seventh, when he ran wide onto the grass at Turn 8, kept his foot on the throttle and was launched airborne in a spectacular incident with just four laps to go.

     Felipe Massa produced a solid drive to finish fifth.  Massa beat Alonso, which will go down well for his confidence and only a poor first pitstop cost the Brazilian the chance to fight it out with Heidfeld and Webber for the final podium position.  Kamur Kobayashi was promoted to seventh by Hamilton’s penalty.  The Japanese driver won an entertaining scrap with Michael Schumacher, which seemed to last all race.  Schumacher made a superb start to split the Ferrari’s on the first lap, but fell back rapidly afterwards, with a car that simply isn’t up to standard.  Michael still wound up ninth for the team’s first points of the season.  Already though, it looks like being another tough campaign ahead for the seven-time champion.  At least he beat Nico Rosberg, who was a dismal 12^th and didn’t look interested all afternoon.  The final point for the second consecutive race went to Paul di Resta, who had a consistent afternoon and once again, beat his highly-rated team-mate Adrian Sutil.  Amongst the retirements were both Hispania cars, which competed solidly in their first start of the season and both Williams.  Pastor Maldonado has only managed 18 laps in two races this season and Rubens Barrichello’s day was ruined by an early collision with Sutil which left the Brazilian limping back to the pits on three wheels.  With lack of pace and reliability simply non-existent, these are very tough times for Williams.

    It isn’t long for the next race, with the Chinese Grand Prix only seven short days away.  The challengers saw chinks in Red Bull’s armour, which is encouraging for the season ahead.  So too was the DRS system, which provided the epic racing that Melbourne simply failed to deliver and the degradation of the Pirelli tyres, which came into their own in Sepang.  However, Sebastian Vettel is building up a healthy lead already, and it seems like it will take a lot to stop him in 2011.