The Finishing Straight - Singapore (by HappyDude88)

ONE point is all that is needed now for Sebastian Vettel and if he doesn’t win the championship, I will flush my head down the toilet seat and film the embarrassing moment on YouTube!  The only man who can now deny the inevitable is Jenson Button and on their driving standards this season, these two have been a class apart from anyone else.

     I have given Vettel so many accolades this season, so it’s only fair for me to praise Button in this blog.  Since his sensational last-gasp victory in Montreal back in June, Jenson has been driving out of skin.  For me, he is in the best form of his career, driving that even outdoes what he was achieving in his championship winning campaign of 2009.  He has put in more consistent and stronger performances than Lewis Hamilton throughout the campaign and has now made himself the default no.1 at McLaren.  Button had a couple of shaky moments at the start of the championship; no-one should forget him driving into the wrong pit when leading in China and he had a dismal weekend at the Nurburgring, but more often than not, he has delivered when the task is set to him.  Once again, he elevated himself to high status in Singapore last weekend, outperforming what the car was capable of.  Late on, he put in a spurt to almost give the viewers a tasty finish and although it never looked like he could usurp Vettel at the front, he kept fighting until the end.  The Red Bull/Vettel combination looks like it could dominate Formula One for a number of years, but carry on with this momentum into next season and Jenson Button does have a chance to win the world championship again. 

      Whilst we continue to see the brilliant from Jenson Button, the bad continue to overweigh the good from Lewis Hamilton.  He got into some unnecessary scraps throughout the Singapore weekend with his nemesis from Monaco earlier in the year, Felipe Massa.  In the dying moments of Q3, Ferrari and McLaren stupidly sent all their cars out together at the same time, which left them squabbling for track space.  Massa and Hamilton took their grudge a bit too far, dicing in a position where an accident was a silly possibility.  On this occasion, Massa looked to be deliberately holding up Hamilton, who wanted to clearly get on with his one qualifying attempt.  There was no need for games for the Brazilian, as he re-stirred a pot that has been brewing all season.  24 hours later, I predicted a potential clash in the race between the two and ultimately, they delivered.  The contact at turn seven damaged a tyre on the Ferrari and left Lewis needing emergency front-wing repairs.  Hamilton was given a drive-through penalty for causing a collision.  Although he has his platinum card from the race stewards, which at this rate, might be upgraded to gold class, I felt the penalty was a bit harsh.  The turn-in point was clumsy from Hamilton and Massa didn’t deserve to have his wheel punctured.  However, it wasn’t an incident that was deliberate, malicious or idiotic, just daft.  Hamilton was penalised just as much as Massa at the end of the day, so the stewards could have let it be as a racing incident.  Says a lot for Massa doesn’t it; he finishes ninth and Hamilton fifth, despite the McLaren driver making five trips into the pits during the race. 

     Felipe took it badly and showed his emotion in an unsavoury moment in the driver’s interview pen afterwards.  Hamilton was talking about his race to the German television station, RTL when Massa applauded him saying ‘well done,’ and shoved him.  Hamilton said ‘don’t touch me; pal’ twice, before concluding his interview and going off to cool down in the hospitality lounge.  There was no need for Massa to do this and his conduct was frankly, appalling.  If he’d been a bit more aggressive, he might be up for an FIA charge against assault and have his racing license taken away.  For me, Lewis did the right thing by not responding aggressively and walking off without murmuring a frustrating word, like his Monaco rant.  If Massa wanted to talk, leave it until behind closed doors and I think Martin Whitmarsh and Stefano Domenicalli need to speak to their drivers and thrash out their differences.  There is no need for this rift; and it’s damaging the reputations of both drivers.

UNDERPERFORMING: Massa is not doing enough

     To conclude this issue, Massa needs to take a hard look at his own performances.  Once again, he hasn’t delivered the results this season.  True, he had an excellent start to the campaign and produced some solid races, especially in Malaysia, China and the Nurburgring.  However, he hasn’t collected a podium finish now since Korea last October.  That is an appalling stat for a Ferrari driver, even Eddie Irvine was a more trustworthy no.2 driver.  No wins in three years, I have had my symphonies for the position that Massa is in on many occasions, but you can’t qualify and finish sixth every weekend and think its okay.  It is probably best he moved onto another team, because his championship challenging days are only a distant memory.  Every time I hear Rob Smedley on the radio, I sometimes think he is wasted as a race engineer and could be a decent driver.  There is more chance of Ed Miliband ever becoming Prime Minister of this country than Felipe Massa has of winning another Grand Prix for Ferrari.

     Other topics of interest over the Singapore weekend and the decline of Lotus Renault alarmingly continued last weekend.  Vitaly Petrov, who has had a very impressive second season in the sport, finished 17^th in the race, having been outraced fair and square by the Team Lotus of Heikki Kovalainen.  Eliminated in Q1, Petrov must be wondering whether this is a nightmare.  He was on the podium at the season opener in Australia and that must feel like last century, not six months ago!  Eric Bouillier can’t use Nick Heidfeld now as his scapegoat anymore either.  This car should be put in the scrapheap, it’s quite possibly the worst ever Renault that has ever been designed.  How can you go from being the third strongest team in the opening two races, to fighting with the class B team’s five races before the season’s end?  Robert Kubica’s impact on the team has been severely felt by his enforced absence this season and whilst I hope he regains full fitness, I sincerely hope Renault pull their finger out next season and actually give the drivers a car that they are capable of delivering the required results.

     The three Formula One rookies in midfield teams this season all put in stirring efforts in Singapore.  Once again, Pastor Maldonado narrowly missed out on points for Williams, but pulled off a classy overtake on his team-mate Rubens Barrichello in the dying laps.  He has had his moments on insane behaviour this season and other events where he has been attempting to make alterations to the circuit design.  However, he has performed credibly in a dismal car and in difficult circumstances.  I actually do hope he gets another season at Williams to see just how good he really is.  Whilst on the point of Williams’s drivers; Barrichello was laughing and so was I when I heard about the story of Kimi Raikkonen coming back to F1 next season as Rubens’s replacement.  Get a fax message through to Sir Frank Williams; you are better off with Rubens, Kimi’s only going to turn up, drive the car and go home.  He couldn’t give a flying monkey’s about all the technical development and although he might bring more points than what Rubens car, I can’t see where the team would go with Raikkonen onboard other than stagnated progress.

HOT: The humid conditions didn't affect di Resta, who scored his best finish

    Back to the rookies and Sergio Perez finished a solid tenth and earnt a deserved point for a weekend where he proved his street fighting capabilities.  Perez’s season will be sadly remembered for that horrific qualifying crash in Monaco, but I think he has performed solidly throughout the season, despite the tendency to get into some unnecessary accidents.  Sebastian Buemi can vouch for that.  However, it is Paul di Resta who continues to take all the headlines in the rookie department.  He drove like a man on a mission in Singapore and finished sixth; his best ever career result.  Backed up by an eighth place result for Force India team-mate Adrian Sutil and the team now look odds-on to finish sixth in the constructors championship.  As the year has gone on, Force India have made drastic improvements to their package, so credit to Vijay Mallya and the technical team back at Silverstone for finding the change in performance.

      However, we must finish this edition of the Finishing Straight talking about Sebastian Vettel.  Nine wins, eleven pole positions, countless fastest laps, immense ability on the first lap, dynamic overtaking, flawless pitstops, his driving at the moment is like poetry in motion.  Once again, Vettel was my Driver of the Day and Driver of the Weekend in Singapore and don’t count on him not winning all the remaining races.  He has destroyed the opposition in Japan, Korea and Abu Dhabi in previous years and will want to finish his dominant season in style.  Michael Schumacher’s almost insurmountable tally of 13 wins from 18 in 2004 is looking incredibly vulnerable now, especially with this new German great in the pound seat now. 

2011 Hungarian Grand Prix - McLaren's renaissance continues

MASTERFUL: Button was the expert again in slippery conditions

MCLAREN’S mid-season renaissance continued at the Hungaroring yesterday.  Britain’s Jenson Button celebrated his 200^th Grand Prix start in tremendous fashion, as he recorded his second win of the 2011 season, making it back-to-back wins for the Woking team.  However, Sebastian Vettel took full advantage of errors by Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton to increase his world championship lead to 85 points.

      In very challenging circumstances in Budapest, it was Button’s brilliant ability in these conditions that excelled once again, as he has shown on many occasions in the past, not least five years earlier when he won his first Grand Prix here.  It was Vettel who held off the McLarens in qualifying and halted a ‘supposed’ mid-season slump to take another pole position.  He made a perfect start in unseasonable wet weather in Hungary, leaving the silver cars behind.  The two Ferrari’s and Mark Webber’s Red Bull all made tardy getaways, allowing the underperforming Mercedes GP cars of Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher vault up into fourth and fifth places.

     As the Mercedes cars struggled to keep up with the three leaders, it was Hamilton who looked the most comfortable.  He pressured Vettel into a small error on lap five and charged by into the lead.  Quickly, the track began to dry and Felipe Massa was caught out.  At the same place where Vettel and Alonso had ran wide in the opening laps, the Brazilian fought his moment on lap nine, but it left him in a spin and a harmless kiss with the barriers.  Two laps later, Webber was the first driver to make the switch to dry tyres and his solid sector times forced all the major players to make changes shortly afterwards.

EXPLOSIVE: Heidfeld's demise was a scary, fiery moment

     Lap 25 saw a catastrophic fire, which ended the race for Lotus Renault driver Nick Heidfeld.  Heidfeld was having a bad weekend and pitted from a lonely 19^th place for his second stop of the afternoon.  A wheel nut problem at the pitstop led to oil and smoke smouldering from the car on the pit exit, spewing across the pitlane.  As the engine blew up, Nick parked the car on the grass as the fire began to take hold through the exhausts of his car, and for the second time this season too (he had a similar issue in Barcelona practice this season).  Seconds later, something else around the area, possibly the KERS battery pack on the Renault exploded as marshals attended the scene with fire extinguishers.  Luckily, nobody was seriously injured, although team boss Eric Bouillier seemed to hint that Heidfeld had been over-revving the engine before his demise, which will increase the possibility of him being replaced in the team after the summer break.

     With the possibility of a Safety Car to clear away the remains of Heidfeld’s Renault, the leaders all pitted for a second pitstop with Button using the pits to outsmart Vettel and make it a McLaren 1-2.  On lap 40, Webber was the guinea pig again, as he made the move to the prime, harder tyre.  Meanwhile, Alonso on super-soft, option tyres moved upto third, ahead of the Red Bull’s, but within seven laps, his rubber looked very second-hand.  Hamilton went in a similar direction, whilst both Button and Vettel went down the Webber route.  Meanwhile, a gearbox problem after a silly spin ended Schumacher’s day before half-distance.

     Seven laps later and Hamilton spun away his six second lead at the turn six chicane.  As he recovered, Lewis spun his rear wheels up, which forced the lapped Force India of Paul di Resta off the road to take evasive action.  The move was considered dangerous by race stewards, despite Hamilton’s claims that he couldn’t see di Resta when he started the manoeuvre.  A drive-through penalty was awarded, but by then, his race chances had already been ruined.

     A brief rain shower made grip on the slick tyres almost non-existent.  New leader Button and Hamilton enjoyed a great mini battle, swapping lead position on several separate occasions.  It gave Alonso the chance to pit and repair some of his damage, although a later spin lost him any chance of catching Button and Vettel.  Rosberg, Webber and most crucially Hamilton decided to make a gamble for intermediate tyres, but lost their initiative.  The rain quickly stopped and all three were forced to make an extra pitstop.  Plus the penalty, Hamilton was relegated to sixth, but passed Massa, whose tyres were finished on lap 60 and then, with aid from Kamur Kobayashi’s grip less Sauber, overtook Webber with six laps remaining for fourth.

     Button kept his nerve and brilliantly won from Vettel by 3.5 seconds.  On an off-day, Alonso somehow kept his Ferrari pointing in the right direction for a podium, with Hamilton, Webber and Massa ensuring that McLaren, Red Bull and Ferrari dominated the afternoon.  The Force India of di Resta survived his near-miss with Hamilton to finish seventh; his first points since Malaysia and also, the Scot’s best ever finish.  Rosberg recovered to ninth in his 100^th GP start, whilst the Toro Rosso team, also in their 100^th GP celebrated the milestone with a double points finish, with Sebastian Buemi in 8^th and Jaime Alguesuari tenth.

     Sebastian Vettel took another big stride towards the title in Hungary, but Jenson Button showed his supreme skill in slippery conditions once again.  Formula One now goes on an extended summer break, with the next action at Spa in Belgium in four weeks time.

The Finishing Straight - Spain (by HappyDude88)

THE teams are gathering in Monte Carlo for the most spectacular and exciting weekend of the calendar.  This gives me the time to reflect on the events of last weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix at the Circuit de Catalunya.

PUSHED: Vettel was made to work incredibly hard for his win

     Red Bull Racing seems to have all the covers based, against main rivals, McLaren and Ferrari, particularly on a Saturday afternoon.  However, Barcelona showed signs that they can be beaten totally fair and square.  On Sunday, Lewis Hamilton seemed to have the faster, more stable package than Sebastian Vettel.  If only his McLaren could stay close through the last corner, it would be a similar result to China last month.  True, Vettel was hobbled again by the lack of use of KERS during the Grand Prix, but his car did look far more unstable compared to Hamilton.  He was far from comfortable and really had to work hard for his victory on Sunday, unlike previous successes in Australia, Malaysia and Turkey this season.  Some will say that Vettel’s regular successes are now getting boring for the sport.  Thankfully, there is plenty of entertainment further down the field to keep the purists interested. 

     Although Vettel won again on Sunday, Lewis Hamilton must be encouraged by the form and speed that McLaren had last weekend.  Traditionally, Barcelona is seen as a circuit which rewards those teams who have the best technical package around.  Consequently, it will suit Adrian Newey’s team, and it is no secret to look at the previous history of results at the Spanish Grand Prix and see the domination of Williams and McLaren in the 90s here, when Newey was the spearhead of those teams.  So, for McLaren to be so close to race-winning pace was very encouraging.  Hamilton is the best hope for many to challenge for the championship, as long as he stays consistent and continues the discipline he has shown so far in 2011, Malaysia aside.  It is disappointing to see him accuse the likes of Sebastian Buemi, Jamie Alguesuari and Michael Schumacher of deliberately blocking him last weekend, in his pursuit of Vettel.  From watching the race again, I saw no evidence of this, and if Hamilton has anyone to be aggrieved with for blocking, it has to be the Hispania of dopey Indian driver Narain Karthikeyan.  Karthikeyan never seems to check his mirrors at any stage, and is more of a stationary roadblock on the M1 than a racing driver!  Looks like Andrea de Cesaris influence on Grand Prix racing has continued into the 21^st century then!

     Mark Webber will be mystified by his lack of race performance on a circuit, where he has outshone Vettel significantly in the past.  Webber produced a perfect lap in qualifying on Saturday afternoon to end Sebastian’s pole streak, which had stretched back to Brazil last season.  However, 40 seconds behind at flag fall does tell its own story, and the Aussie is likely to be mentally shattered to have been outperformed so dramatically by his younger team-mate, on a Webber-style circuit.  Like Vettel, Webber had limited use of his KERS power boost button during the race, but I was disappointed to see him just sit behind Fernando Alonso’s much slower Ferrari and not do anything about it.  On harder tyres, Alonso was a sitting duck and I expected Mark to breeze past him.  He didn’t, and with the force that Jenson Button showed in passing both Webber and Alonso aggressively in just one lap, it highlights the fact that Mark Webber has never won the world championship, whereas Button has.  That’s the difference; you need to have that killer instinct as a racing driver at all times.  As sad as it is, Mark just doesn’t have that.  It is okay to produce stunning drives like the one he produced in Shanghai, but it has to be done on a consistent basis.  Vettel, Hamilton, Alonso and Button are all capable of it, and are all world champions.  Sadly, Mark Webber can’t.  I can only see him being an occasional race winner now this season, and riding shotgun to Vettel for the rest of the campaign.  It will have to take a staggering amount of bad luck on Vettel’s side of the garage to allow Mark a shot of the drivers’ championship in 2011.

REWARDED: Alonso got his desserts for a special start

     Ferrari’s Stefano Domenicalli has admitted that their hopes of winning either championship are looking increasingly slim, especially if Vettel continues on his victory charge.  Well, if that’s the case; Stefano will need to pick up his P45 from Luca di Montzemolo with immediate effect.  The highlight of the Grand Prix was Fernando Alonso’s incredible start.  From fourth on the grid, Alonso repeated Jarno Trulli’s trick in 2004 at the same circuit and vaulted into the lead by turn one.  There was a load of bravery, aggression and commitment from Alonso in those first few hundred metres and he deserved the rewards.  The onboard camera from his car off the grid was just a joy to behold.  For twenty laps, the home hero used all of his driving skill to keep the much faster cars from Red Bull and McLaren behind.  Ultimately, as Ferrari had a useless set-up on the harder Pirelli tyres, he was powerless to resist them through the pitstops.  By the end of the race, Fernando had been lapped.  Not his fault, his car is severely limited and Barcelona just highlighted how far Ferrari really is behind.  When a Ferrari is lapped, they will claim it to be a national embarrassment in Italy, and it is.  My advice would be to write this season off and concentrate on next year’s car.  Like Webber, they might win races, but have more chance of winning the EuroMillions jackpot than either world championship!  Felipe Massa had a very poor weekend and was struggling to even rescue a point from it when he stopped with gearbox problems five laps from home.  There is a lot of soul searching to be done at Maranello.

     Youth continues to shine in Formula One and Sergio Perez showed signs that he could be a natural successor to Felipe Massa at Ferrari.  After a breathtaking debut in Australia, which ended in an unfortunate technical disqualification, Perez has gone off the boil, but it has to be expected for the Mexican to have peaks and troughs in his rookie season.  He looked strong all weekend in Catalunya, outqualifying and outracing Kamur Kobayashi.  Plus, he passed Massa on-track, although the Brazilian was already struggling with a gearbox problem.  This time, his points stood and they won’t be the last this season.  Credit has to be given to Kobayashi too, as he had contact with Jaime Alguesuari on the first lap and had to pit to replace a punctured tyre.  To come back to tenth and the final championship point is then some effort.  Sauber have a very good motor car this season, and they could well be challenging Renault to be best of the rest behind the four main teams; Ferrari, McLaren, Mercedes and Red Bull by the end of the season.

     A driver who is under a great deal of pressure, both on and off the track is Force India’s Adrian Sutil.  Sutil’s dalliance at not signing a contract extension last season with the Silverstone based team angered some members inside the team.  His 2011 season did start with points in Australia, but he is struggling to recapture the form he showed in the closing stages of 2009 and early exchanges of 2010.  After the Chinese race on April 17, Sutil is reported to have been involved in a nightclub incident with the chief executive of Genii Capital, Eric Lux.  Genii Capital owns the Renault Formula One team.  Lux has filed a criminal complaint against Sutil, who could go the same way as Bertrand Gachot did in 1991, when the Belgian was unfairly jailed for spraying CS gas at a London taxi driver.  With Paul di Resta continuing to outperform him on the circuit, this is a tough time in Sutil’s career, both personally and at his occupation.  It is clear that the German’s performances have suffered; due to the lack of technical development from his Force India team, plus the penalties that hang over his head should he be found guilty of this nightclub incident.  I’m pleased to see Vijay Mallya has come out in support of Sutil and will honour his contract.  The ‘innocent till proven guilty’ aspect is the right way to go, and I just hope that Adrian Sutil, who is one of my favourite F1 drivers can pick his form up, fight these charges off and turn his career around from this stalling point.

BLAZING: The charred remains of Nick Heidfeld's Renault

     Finally, Hamilton is my driver of the day, for his relentless pursuit of Vettel, but Nick Heidfeld deserves a special mention.  On Saturday morning, a spectacular exhaust fire saw Heidfeld forced to abandon his burning Renault chassis.  Despite the best attempts from his mechanics, Nick had no chance of qualifying, so he had to start last.  Granted, he had six sets of fresh tyres available, but on a track where overtaking is normally impossible – it looked set to be a fruitless weekend.  Come the end, Nick had been able to climb from 24^th to finish eighth, which was a great performance and had the race ran two more laps, it would have been sixth.  However, with team-mate Vitaly Petrov starting sixth, running fifth early on and ending up out of the points, it does reveal a qualifying flaw.  Saturday is starting to become a non-event, and I’d like to see the FIA make some tweaks to flatten out the Saturday failings with Sunday’s action.  Let’s see what will happen this weekend in Monaco.  It could be interesting to watch, especially with DRS available.  Don’t miss it!

The Finishing Straight - Malaysia (by HappyDude88)

THE second weekend of the 2011 FIA Formula One World Championship took the teams and drivers to the heat and humidity of Malaysia.  Melbourne had left a lot of questions unanswered, rather than answers being given.  In Sepang, we got a taste of the exciting season we are set to have, and optimism that Red Bull aren’t going to have it all their own way, despite Sebastian Vettel’s formidable start.

     Sure, Vettel won the race and he had enough in reserve if he came under severe pressure I felt.  However, the KERS issues that the team have seem to be a plaguing matter.  It definitely seems that Adrian Newey hates the device and doesn’t want it around.  However, if Red Bull doesn’t run it, then they will be at the mercy of others by nearly half a second a lap.  I personally think KERS is an expensive failure and always have that belief.  McLaren were the only team to make it work in 2009 and I honestly don’t see any benefit this year, except the environmental impact it is supposed to have.  The reliability of the device has been questioned by some, and it is clear this is a problem that needs sorting out for Red Bull.  With the device not working, Mark Webber was made to look like a granny pushing a supermarket trolley around Sainsbury’s at the start!  True, he did bog down off the line, but through little fault of his own, the Aussie was down to tenth from third on the grid by the end of lap one.  Midway through the race, Vettel’s race engineer gave him a message which stated ‘DO NOT USE KERS!’  Although the system restored itself and Sebastian could partially use it in the closing stages, Newey and his designers need to get on top of KERS.  It will certainly cause some problems for them in Shanghai this weekend, especially with the longest straight on the Grand Prix calendar to contend with.

     The other main talking point to come out of Malaysia was the contentious clash between arch rivals Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso.  The flashpoint moment of an action-packed race came with ten laps to go.  Hamilton was struggling on his harder compound Pirelli tyres and the Ferrari was faster.  Allegedly, Hamilton used aggressive defending tactics to keep Alonso behind, although the evidence doesn’t seem to support this.  Out of turn three and Alonso got too close to the back of the McLaren and ploughed into the back of Lewis.  The damage to Alonso’s car (a new front wing required) wrecked his chances of getting on the podium.  However, the Spaniard was his own enemy in this, as he completely misread and misjudged the situation, probably more surprised with Hamilton’s lack of speed off turn two.  It had echoes of an incident between the pair in Bahrain in 2008 and Ferrari clearly had feelings, although they didn’t express them publicly, that Hamilton had brake-tested their no.1.  The stewards, advised by former Benetton and Dallara driver and multiple Le Mans winner Emmanuelle Pirro elected to give Alonso and Hamilton both 20 second penalties after the race.  The penalties are totally unjustified and unnecessary and it disappointed me that such action was taken.  Maybe Pirro and the stewards had evidence, like telemetry traces etc that suggested such a penalty was required.  However, to the viewer’s naked eye, it was no more than a racing incident and at worst, Alonso should have received a reprimand.  To make matters worse, Hamilton loses a place, but Alonso kept his sixth place.  Why was Hamilton exactly penalised boggles my mind totally!

     After an unsuccessful start in Australia, the DRS system, which is such a horrible word by the way to describe the movable rear wing, came into its own in Malaysia.  We saw some tremendous battles down the field, and enough overtaking opportunities to last a season.  What pleases me is that DRS will allow drivers the chance to pass, without making it a simple overtake.  With the KERS effect, we do see some easy overtaking, but that can’t be helped, especially if a faster car is miles quicker than a backmarker for example.  The Pirelli tyres also played their part in Malaysia.  Hamilton and Webber both had to make four stops and everyone else had to make at least three visits for tyres.  The tyres are doing the job required and it is making the racing far more exciting.

FLYING: Petrov auditioned to be a Red Bull driver, but he failed!

     He had a frankly embarrassing start in Melbourne, but Nick Heidfeld came to form in Malaysia and recorded a fine podium finish for the Lotus Renault team.  Off the back of Vitaly Petrov’s successful podium in Australia, this proves that the team have overtaken Mercedes GP to be the fourth fastest team in F1.  In fact, some would argue that they are quicker than Ferrari too at the moment.  The starts of Heidfeld and Petrov were simply fantastic.  Whilst the McLaren’s and Ferrari’s diced on the inside of turn one, the Renault’s flew past the lot of them on the outside line.  Heidfeld showed some feisty aggression against Hamilton in the first corner, which was pleasing to see.  Nick is a very consistent driver, but has been criticised for not having ‘that’ cutting edge in the past.  In Malaysia, he showed a lot of grit, determination and panache in his driving.  He deserved his podium and it must make Robert Kubica partially sick.  Of course, Kubica, who still must be in such intense physical pain, will be delighted to see Renault doing so well, but I bet he’s wishing he would be there getting the results for himself.  Saying that, Lotus Renault still need to put together an error-strewn weekend for both drivers.  Petrov had a tough race and made a dramatic exit with four laps to go.  The Russian ran wide in Turn 8, hit the grass, then rather stupidly kept his foot firmly on the accelerator pedal, which led to his car going airborne spectacularly.  To add to this, the impact was so severe that it snapped his steering column.  Petrov has already a lot more maturity this season, but he does need to cut out the basic elementary errors such as this and it was a clumsy error to say the least.

     Hispania Racing were a total disgrace in Australia, but I was pleased to see them race creditably in Malaysia.  There is still a load of work to do and both cars failed to finish, but Vitantonio Liuzzi kept in sight of the two Virgin cars, which shows they can actually build a proper racing car.  However, Narain Karthikeyan looks terrible.  He is simply out of his depth in the sport and is simply there at Hispania to pay the bills.  Considering no team found him employable for five years after his Jordan excursions in 2005, it feels odd to see Colin Kolles pick him over the likes of Christian Klien and Bruno Senna amongst others.  In fact, I think Sakon Yamamoto could do a better job than Karthikeyan!

ROLLING: Mercedes seems to be going backwards, not forwards

     Heads will be rolling very soon at Mercedes GP after another dire weekend.  Michael Schumacher did muster a couple of championship points together, but even Schumacher is struggling to cope with the chassis he has on his hands.  Mercedes GP produced a poor car last year, and stopped developing mid-season.  How have they managed to produce an even worse car this time around!  To see drivers like Schumacher and Nico Rosberg struggle around in a terrible car is a sorry sight.  If anyone can turn it around, it is Ross Brawn for sure.  However, the board at Mercedes will not accept this underachievement again, and managerial changes may have to be made, to make sure that they don’t go down the route of other underachievers, Honda and Toyota in recent years.  At least Williams are independent and don’t have to worry about this, but a Morris Minor seems to have more chance to finish a Grand Prix at the moment than a Williams.  Rubens Barrichello’s body language says it all.  Of course, he will work extremely hard to turn around this depressing situation, but 15^th and 18^th on the grid was not what the team were expecting, especially after a very strong pre-season.  Barrichello picked up an early puncture and then retired with a hydraulics failure.  Pastor Maldonado is lacking race distance and only managed eight laps in Malaysia before an engine problem forced the rookie onto the sidelines.  Perhaps the money problems Williams are suffering is starting to harm their on track performance and reliability.

CLASSY: Vettel was Mr. Cool in Malaysia

    My driver of the weekend in Sepang was the winner, Sebastian Vettel.  Nick Heidfeld, Paul di Resta and Jenson Button all put in very notable performances, whilst Webber’s race effort, considering he was being hampered by no KERS and a four stop race was pretty impressive.  However, Vettel was once again in a class of one.  In qualifying, the pressure was on, especially against a fired-up Hamilton.  Once again, he produced the perfect lap to snatch pole position in a dramatic and nail-biting qualifying session.  In the race, he did brilliantly to handle the issues he had with KERS and the degrading tyres to handle Button and Hamilton from a fairly safe distance.  With 50 points out of 50 in the bag, Sebastian Vettel has already set the solid foundations down for a world class season.  He looks so relaxed and calm and it will take a lot to beat him this season.  Can the opposition respond positively in China?  I hope so, but Vettel turns up as the formidable favourite.