2013 Malaysian Grand Prix – Vettel wins a fiery battle

By Simon Wright

Reigning world champion Sebastian Vettel ignited the torch paper this morning by ignoring a team order to win the Malaysian Grand Prix.

The German was told to maintain station behind his team-mate Mark Webber after the final round of pitstops, but proceeded to overtake him in a furious battle that sparked memories of their disastrous clash in Turkey 2010.

Britain’s Lewis Hamilton claimed his first podium for Mercedes GP after his own eventful afternoon, which even included a trip into his former pit garage at McLaren!  Nico Rosberg was fourth in the sister car, after he got coded instructions to stay behind a fuel saving Hamilton.

Jenson Button and Paul di Resta both failed to finish, while a rare lapse in judgement from Fernando Alonso saw him crash out at the start of the second lap.

However, all the talk was at Red Bull after the race. 

The battle started early on, when Webber timed his pitstop from intermediate tyres onto slicks at the right time, and jumped into the lead.

Vettel closed him down after the second round of pitstops, and was told to keep a three second gap, something he decided to ignore.

With the Mercedes cars closing him down quickly, Vettel radioed in on lap 28, saying: “Mark is too slow, get him out of the way.”

His race engineer replied: “Sebastian, be patient, only half race yet.”

Five laps later, he came in for his third stop, and a slight delay on his getaway cost him second place to Hamilton, who was already in fuel saving mode and consequently falling away from Webber.

On lap 39, Vettel used the DRS to comfortably regain his second position, and began to close the five second gap on his Aussie team-mate.  This is where the real action began.

On lap 44, Webber made his final pitstop and came out alongside Vettel on different tyres.  Webber held on through the first two corners, then went defensive into turn four and just about clung onto his advantage.

The instructions from the team were for the drivers to hold position after the final round of stops to save the car and protect the high tyre wear levels around the abrasive surface of the Sepang International Circuit.

Sebastian Vettel took matters into his own hands to win in Sepang

Vettel wasn’t taking this as an instruction and went onto ignore his team.  Two laps later, he got a tow from Webber who squeezed him towards the pitwall (pictured).  Vettel kept his foot on the accelerator and dived down the inside, making contact through turn one. 

An incensed Webber fought back into two to regain his advantage and now the gloves were off.  Side-by-side into turn four, Vettel drove clean around the outside to take the lead, leaving Mark furious.  He even gave Vettel the middle finger as they carried on racing.

The team were incensed, with team principal Christian Horner getting on the radio to his champion to say: “This is silly Seb, come on.”

Vettel went on to win by nearly five seconds to take his third victory in Kuala Lumpur and match Sir Jackie Stewart’s total of 27 career victories.  A disgruntled Webber stayed as far away from the pitwall he could in bitterly accepting the runners-up prize.

Vettel’s race engineer Rocky said on the slowing-down lap to his driver: “Good job Sebastian looks like you wanted it bad enough.  Still, there will be some explaining to do.”

After the race, the hungry media got the drivers where they wanted them.

Mark told the BBC: “The situation was not handled well.  It is very difficult to put your finger on it all now.  It’s the worst scenario for the team.

“There are so many scenarios to this because there is a little bit of history as well.  I’m not satisfied with the result.”

When asked by Peter Windsor from F1 Racing in the press conference, a rueful Vettel admitted his behaviour was below the belt.

He said: “I didn’t mean to ignore the call, it’s something we talk about many times in the year and yeah, I should have behaved better today.”

The damage could be beyond repair and Horner was disappointed with his star man.

Speaking to BBC’s Suzi Perry, he added: “We’ve discussed the situation with the drivers.  Sebastian’s apologised for what has happened today.  He has apologised to Mark, he’s apologised to the team.  We’ll move on quickly from this, and put it behind us.

“It wasn’t acceptable today from Sebastian, he’s apologised for it and we move on.”

Meanwhile at Mercedes, Rosberg was instructed not to pass Hamilton in the closing stages, despite being much faster.  Last year’s Shanghai winner took it on the chin.

He confessed to Sky Sports F1: “I respected the opinion of the team and I’m a team player.  There is one part of me that wants to go flat-out all the way to the end, but the time will come for that.”

Fernando Alonso's 200th Grand Prix was short and messy

Alonso’s 200^th Grand Prix was a short affair, as he clipped the back of Vettel on the first lap in turn two, damaging his front wing.  Ferrari’s bizarre decision not to pit him backfired at the start of the second lap – as the front wing collapsed underneath his front wheels.

With no steering, Fernando’s race went straight for the gravel trap (pictured) and an early trip to the airport.  Team-mate Felipe Massa was best of the rest in fifth, but nearly half a minute off the winner.

Button had the chance to fight the Mercedes cars, but he had a dreadful second pitstop, when the left-front wheel wasn’t fitted correctly, meaning he had to stop in the pitlane and be recalled. He duly retired later with a bald front tyre, and with no points on offer, McLaren decided to stop the car.

It was a day of pitstop woes.  Toro Rosso were fined 10,000 euros after the race for a collision in the pits between French drivers Charles Pic and Jean-Eric Vergne, while overheating wheel nuts wrecked Force India’s afternoon.  With numerous pitstop delays and committee meetings from confused mechanics, both Adrian Sutil and the luckless Paul di Resta were withdrawn on safety grounds before half-distance.

Romain Grosjean was a solid sixth for Lotus, ahead of his team-mate Kimi Raikkonen who had a frustrating afternoon spent staring at the gearbox of Nico Hulkenberg’s Sauber.  Although unimpressed with some of Hulkenberg’s defensive tactics, the Melbourne winner eventually got by for seventh, with Hulkenberg getting his first points for Sauber.

A pitstop on the final lap didn’t stop Sergio Perez to a ninth place result, with Vergne collecting the final point after team-mate Daniel Ricciardo was a late retirement with a broken exhaust for the second successive weekend.  Valtteri Bottas missed out on a point by two seconds, and Max Chilton finished his second event, although that was in 16^th and two laps down.

Entertainment is what the Formula One fans want and we certainly got that today, although the behaviour of Sebastian Vettel’s actions has every right to be questioned.  Formula One is all about racing, but his sportsmanship levels have gone down in many eyes.  The storm of Malaysia will struggle to die away.

Red Bull have a big job to do when they get back to their base in Milton Keynes and get their warring drivers speaking civilly again before the next event, which is in three weeks time in Shanghai.

	2013 PETRONAS MALAYSIAN GRAND PRIX RESULT
Pos	Driver	Team	Laps	Time/Reason	Grid
1	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull Racing Renault	56	1hr 38min 56secs	1
2	Mark Webber	Red Bull Racing Renault	56	+4.2secs	5
3	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes GP	56	+12.1secs	4
4	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes GP	56	+12.6secs	6
5	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	56	+25.6secs	2
6	Romain Grosjean	Lotus Renault	56	+35.5secs	11
7	Kimi Raikkonen	Lotus Renault	56	+48.4secs	10
8	Nico Hulkenberg	Sauber Ferrari	56	+53.0secs	12
9	Sergio Perez	McLaren Mercedes	56	+1min 12.3secs	9
10	Jean-Eric Vergne	Scuderia Toro Rosso Ferrari	56	+1min 27.1secs	17
11	Valtteri Bottas	Williams Renault	56	+1min 28.6secs	18
12	Esteban Gutierrez	Sauber Ferrari	55	1 Lap	14
13	Jules Bianchi	Marussia Cosworth	55	1 Lap	19
14	Charles Pic	Caterham Renault	55	1 Lap	20
15	Giedo van der Garde	Caterham Renault	55	1 Lap	22
16	Max Chilton	Marussia Cosworth	54	2 Laps	21
17 R	Jenson Button	McLaren Mercedes	53	Tyre Wear	7
18 R	Daniel Ricciardo	Scuderia Toro Rosso Ferrari	51	Broken Exhaust	13
R	Pastor Maldonado	Williams Renault	45	KERS Failure	16
R	Adrian Sutil	Force India Mercedes	27	Wheel Nut/Withdrew	8
R	Paul di Resta	Force India Mercedes	22	Wheel Nut/Withdrew	15
R	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	1	Accident Damage	3

Drivers’ Championship after 2 rounds: 1. Sebastian Vettel 40, 2. Kimi Raikkonen 31, 3. Mark Webber 26, 4. Lewis Hamilton 25, 5. Felipe Massa 22, 6. Fernando Alonso 18, 7. Nico Rosberg 12, 8. Romain Grosjean 8, 9. Adrian Sutil 6, 10. Paul di Resta 4, 11. Nico Hulkenberg 4, 12. Jenson Button, 13. Sergio Perez 2, 14. Jean-Eric Vergne 1

Constructors’ Championship after 2 rounds: 1. Red Bull Racing 66, 2. Lotus 40, 3. Ferrari 40, 4. Mercedes GP 37, 5. Force India 10, 6. Sauber 4, 7. McLaren 4, 8. Scuderia Toro Rosso 1

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2013 Australian Grand Prix - Kimi storms to victory

By Simon Wright

Kimi Raikkonen tastes the bubbly after triumphing in Australia

KIMI Raikkonen stormed to victory in the Australian Grand Prix this morning for Lotus.  The 2007 world champion managed his tyres better than his rivals to take the spoils at the 2013 season opener in Albert Park.

A stunning start got the Flying Finn upto fourth from seventh on the grid by the end of the first lap, and his ability to conserve and push when required on the Pirelli tyres was key to him winning his second race since returning to the sport after a two-year absence last season.

The ex-McLaren and Ferrari driver beat fellow world champions Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel to the top step on the podium.  British drivers Lewis Hamilton, Paul di Resta and Jenson Button all finished in the points, whilst rookie Max Chilton saw the chequered flag on his debut for Marussia.

After a baking hot day on Friday, the weather changed Down Under on Saturday, with the qualifying session postponed due to heavy amounts of rain and standing water after Q1.  At around 12.30am UK time on Sunday, Vettel claimed another pole position with team-mate and local hero Mark Webber making it an all-Red Bull lockout of the front row of the grid.

Sebastian Vettel led off the line, but he wouldn't win the opener

Dark skies still hung over the circuit when the 5pm local time arrived, but the track was dry for the start.  However, Webber progress was in the wrong direction.  A slow start saw five cars overwhelm him into turn one.

Later, a KERS issue was revealed as the cause of another poor opening to his championship, and he made little impact afterwards, finishing a disappointing sixth.

Felipe Massa charged into second place off the grid, and hunted down Vettel, with Alonso being forced to sit in behind.  Cars started pitting off the degrading super soft tyre inside six laps, and it soon became a question of strategy and who could manage their tyres the best.

The Ferrari and Red Bull cars were heavier on tyre wear, but Alonso managed to leapfrog past both Vettel and Massa in the second round of pitstops.  However, Raikkonen managed 25 laps on the medium compound rubber in his second stint, putting him in prime position to take the opening laurels.

Mercedes attempted a two-stop strategy for Lewis Hamilton, and he was a podium contender throughout.  Unfortunately for the Brit, he flat-spotted his left-front tyre badly when having a juicy dice for position with Alonso on lap 31. 

This meant an emergency earlier than planned second stop, and hence a switch onto a three stopper.  Team-mate Nico Rosberg didn’t get as far as this.  He dropped out just before half-distance with an electrical problem.

Raikkonen had the race and the gaps under control, and when his nearest pursuers pitted as early as lap 38 to make their third stops, the event was his to lose.  He duly reeled off the final laps in effortless fashion to cross the line 12 seconds clear of Alonso.

Afterwards, he told podium interviewer Martin Brundle of how comfortable he felt the race had gone. 

Raikkonen said: “That was our plan before the race and I was pretty confident that the tyres would be okay. 

“I had doubts because this is the first race and you don’t know how it is going to go.  I didn’t do any long runs over the winter, but I knew I had a good car and a feeling it was going to be a good race for us.”

Raikkonen won this race back in his championship year of 2007, and statistics from recent years suggest the winner of the opening race has a great chance of going on to win the championship.

The prestigious Red Bull pace of practice and qualifying was missing, but third place for Vettel was still a solid start to his championship defence.  It does suggest that his dominating year of 2011 was just a one-off.

Massa was a fine fourth, followed by a buoyant Hamilton who was fifth on his Mercedes bow.

He said to Natalie Pinkham from Sky Sports F1: “I’m very happy.  I think it is way better than expected.  The guys have done a fantastic job to have the pace we had.

“In Malaysia it will be very tough, but hopefully we can have better pace and a better result.”

Not so upbeat was his former team-mate Jenson Button, who broke the 1,000 points barrier in his career, but could manage no better than ninth.

Speaking to Lee McKenzie from BBC, Button revealed: “We had bad spots last year, but there’s a lot more to do to get back to the front than last year.

“It was good to get a couple of points, but it doesn’t really ease the pain.  I think we are going to have a tough week.”

McLaren debutant Sergio Perez missed out on even scoring.  11^th was the best he could achieve, ending up behind Romain Grosjean who was a lacklustre 10^th in the second Lotus.

Ahead of them all were both Force India cars.  Adrian Sutil led a decent portion of the race on his comeback to the sport and recorded a fine seventh place result, just ahead of di Resta – who was disappointed to be told to hold position rather than attack his team-mate in the final laps.

All five Formula One rookies finished, with Esteban Gutierrez finishing the highest of them in 13^th.  Team-mate Nico Hulkenberg didn’t even get to start after a fuel leak forced him out before getting to the grid.  It means he has never completed the first lap of this event in three attempts.

It was a fascinating start to the season, and Lotus and Kimi Raikkonen have signalled their intentions clear.  However, there isn’t much time to bask in the glory, with Malaysia just seven days away.

	2013 ROLEX AUSTRALIAN GRAND PRIX RESULT
Pos	Driver	Team	Laps	Time/Reason	Grid
1	Kimi Raikkonen	Lotus Renault	58	1hr 30min 03secs	7
2	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	58	12.4secs	5
3	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull Racing Renault	58	22.3secs	1
4	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	58	33.5secs	4
5	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes GP	58	45.5secs	3
6	Mark Webber	Red Bull Racing Renault	58	46.8secs	2
7	Adrian Sutil	Force India Mercedes	58	1min 05.0secs	12
8	Paul di Resta	Force India Mercedes	58	1min 08.4secs	9
9	Jenson Button	McLaren Mercedes	58	1min 21.6secs	10
10	Romain Grosjean	Lotus Renault	58	1min 22.7secs	8
11	Sergio Perez	McLaren Mercedes	58	1min 23.3secs	15
12	Jean-Eric Vergne	Scuderia Toro Rosso Ferrari	57	1min 23.8secs	13
13	Esteban Gutierrez	Sauber Ferrari	57	1 Lap	18
14	Valtteri Bottas	Williams Renault	57	1 Lap	16
15	Jules Bianchi	Marussia Cosworth	57	1 Lap	19
16	Charles Pic	Caterham Renault	56	2 Laps	22
17	Max Chilton	Marussia Cosworth	56	2 Laps	20
18	Giedo van der Garde	Caterham Renault	56	2 Laps	21
R	Daniel Ricciardo	Scuderia Toro Rosso Ferrari	39	Broken Exhaust	14
R	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes GP	26	Electrics	6
R	Pastor Maldonado	Williams Renault	24	Spun Off	17
DNS	Nico Hulkenberg	Sauber Ferrari		Fuel Leak	11

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