2013 Chinese Grand Prix - Victory for flawless Alonso

By Simon Wright

Fernando Alonso flies the Ferrari flag aloft after victory in China

Fernando Alonso put in a flawless drive to record victory at the Chinese Grand Prix on Sunday. The Spaniard (pictured) showed supreme pace all day on a three-stop strategy, managing his Pirelli tyres superbly.

Melbourne race winner Kimi Raikkonen was second, but a distant 10 seconds adrift of a dominant Alonso, who had control of the race from the moment he passed pole-sitter Lewis Hamilton at the start of the fifth lap.

Hamilton resisted a late attack from world champion Sebastian Vettel in a gripping finale to register his second successive podium for his new team Mercedes.  Both Jenson Button and Paul di Resta claimed strong points finishes, but last year’s winner Nico Rosberg and an unhappy Mark Webber were among those out of luck in China as they failed to finish.

Once again, the talk of the paddock was tyres, especially as Pirelli’s softer tyre showed absolutely no signs of durability throughout the weekend. Six laps was the most any driver could achieve on this rubber on raceday, and although it led to some complex strategies down the grid, it made Saturday’s qualifying session fairly tedious with every team desperate to save fresh sets for the main event.

Red Bull’s lack of single lap pace meant they tried a conservative approach and Vettel didn’t attempt to set a serious lap time in Q3, meaning he started from ninth.  Hamilton became the first British driver since Sir Stirling Moss in the 1950s to take a pole position for Mercedes on Saturday, ahead of Raikkonen, Alonso and Rosberg.

The 2008 world champion converted pole into the lead off the start, but Raikkonen was left wanting, and got easily overwhelmed by the fast-starting Ferraris of Alonso and Felipe Massa.

Hamilton though couldn’t build up a useful lead to protect himself from the DRS effect, and on lap five, he was a sitting target as both Alonso and Massa cruised past on the entry to turn one.

Both Mercedes cars had severe tyre wear problems from the beginning, and they pitted a lap later.  Contact from Daniel Ricciardo early on hobbled the balance on Rosberg’s car, although his retirement on lap 21 in the pits was caused by a suspension issue that was more likely linked to a hydraulics problem on Saturday morning rather than this incident with the Toro Rosso.

The other Toro Rosso of Jean-Eric Vergne got up close and personal with Webber, who had a miserable weekend from the outset.

Sporting an appalling new haircut didn’t seem to bring any good luck to the Aussie, and he ran out of fuel in qualifying, leaving him a dismal 14^th on the grid.  Failing to provide the required one litre FIA fuel sample after the session saw his times deleted and forced a pitlane start.

Although he made good progress after ditching the soft tyres at the end of the opening circuit, he clashed with Vergne on lap 14 entering turn five. The incident damaged his front wing, and spun the Frenchman around. After an unsafe release from the unscheduled stop, an issue with the rear of the car forced him to crawl around back to the pits.

The departure of a wheel finished off Webber's appalling weekend

The rear issue became evident exiting the hairpin on lap 15, when Webber’s left-rear wheel (pictured) made a bid for freedom, rolling dangerously across the road and was only narrowly missed by his team-mate Vettel and the Sauber of Nico Hulkenberg.  Retirement was inevitable. 

To cap off his Shanghai shocker, the team were fined for the unsafe pit release, while Webber received a harsh three-place grid penalty for the race in Bahrain next Sunday, as the stewards deemed him guilty to have caused an avoidable collision with Vergne. With speculation mounting over the Red Bull number two having signed an agreement to drive for Porsche in the World Endurance Championship next season, he will want to forget China 2013 in a hurry.

Webber wasn’t the only one in hot water with the race stewards. Eight drivers were hauled before them and drivers’ representative Mark Blundell after the event for use of the DRS system under yellow flags.  No further action was taken due to an FIA telemetry issue, and Esteban Gutierrez was given a five-place grid demotion for Bahrain after his clumsy accident with Adrian Sutil on lap four, taking the pair out of the race.

Having done well to fight past the two-stopping traffic of Vergne, di Resta, Button and Hulkenberg, Alonso inherited the lead again from Vettel with one of his more easier overtakes on the reigning champion just after half-distance.  With the Spaniard in complete command, attention switched to the fight for second place.

Despite a run-in with Sergio Perez, which damaged the nose of his car, Raikkonen showed his championship might and continued without losing too much time.  He used the final round of stops to pit earlier and undercut Hamilton to claim second spot. 

Vettel’s different strategy had him in the hunt, and he eventually made the move onto the unfancied soft tyres on lap 51.  Urged to go for it with fresher rubber, and tyres that would at least give him phenomenal grip for three laps, Sebastian ate into the 12-second deficit to Raikkonen and Hamilton.

He set the fastest lap in the process, but going slightly off-line to lap the Caterham of Charles Pic on the last circuit led to the German not getting the desired exit out of turn 12 onto the backstraight.  With that, Hamilton just held on by less than half a second to claim the final podium spot.

Hamilton admitted he was slightly disappointed with the lack of race pace from Mercedes.  He said to BBC: “We just don’t have the pace of the Ferraris and the Lotuses in the race conditions.

“I’m not sure where we’re losing out.  There are definitely a couple of areas that we can focus on the car, but we’ve got to bring some more updates.”

Nobody was taking anything away from Alonso, who stormed to his second success in the Chinese Grand Prix, the last one coming back in his Renault days in 2005.  The win was also the 31^st of his career, taking him equal fourth with Nigel Mansell in the all-time winners list, and it was his first victory since the German Grand Prix at Hockenheim last July.

Raikkonen was second, followed by the battling Hamilton and Vettel.  Button’s two-stop strategy saw McLaren achieve their maximum result with fifth place, whilst major tyre graining ruined Massa’s afternoon and left him in a frustrated sixth place – some 40 seconds behind his race winning team-mate.

Ricciardo recovered from an early stop to change a front wing to finish a fabulous seventh for Toro Rosso, achieving the best result of his career.

The Aussie spoke afterwards, saying: “I am really pleased to score my first points of the season and to confirm the qualifying performance.  After yesterday afternoon I kept calm, knowing the real work would begin today.

“Of course, the early pitstop to change the nose affected our plans and towards the end, Massa’s Ferrari was looking bigger and bigger ahead of me!  So yes, maybe I could have done even better, but for now I’ll settle for this seventh place.”

Di Resta was eighth, with Romain Grosjean blaming traffic for a rather underwhelming performance on his way to ninth.  Hulkenberg battled hard for the final point, after two sluggish pitstops, ahead of a disappointing Perez and Vergne.  Max Chilton once again made it to the finish, this time a lap adrift in 17^th spot.

Fernando Alonso has laid down a positive statement of intent in China, and was the man to beat here.  However, with three winners in three races from three different teams, it doesn’t look like one driver will run away with this championship, and the next chapter will be told in just seven days time, with the Bahrain Grand Prix completing the first Asian leg of this 2013 championship.

	2013 UBS CHINESE GRAND PRIX RESULT
Pos	Driver	Team	Laps	Time/Reason	Grid
1	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	56	1hr 36min 26secs	3
2	Kimi Raikkonen	Lotus Renault	56	+10.1secs	2
3	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes GP	56	+12.3secs	1
4	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull Racing Renault	56	+12.5secs	9
5	Jenson Button	McLaren Mercedes	56	+35.2secs	8
6	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	56	+40.8secs	5
7	Daniel Ricciardo	Scuderia Toro Rosso Ferrari	56	+42.6secs	7
8	Paul di Resta	Force India Mercedes	56	+51.0secs	11
9	Romain Grosjean	Lotus Renault	56	+53.4secs	6
10	Nico Hulkenberg	Sauber Ferrari	56	+56.5secs	10
11	Sergio Perez	McLaren Mercedes	56	+1min 03.8secs	12
12	Jean-Eric Vergne	Scuderia Toro Rosso Ferrari	56	+1min 12.6secs	15
13	Valtteri Bottas	Williams Renault	56	+1min 33.8secs	16
14	Pastor Maldonado	Williams Renault	56	+1min 35.4secs	14
15	Jules Bianchi	Marussia Cosworth	55	1 Lap	18
16	Charles Pic	Caterham Renault	55	1 Lap	20
17	Max Chilton	Marussia Cosworth	55	1 Lap	19
18	Giedo van der Garde	Caterham Renault	55	1 Lap	21
R	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes GP	21	Suspension/Vibration	4
R	Mark Webber	Red Bull Racing Renault	15	Lost Wheel	22
R	Adrian Sutil	Force India Mercedes	5	Collision with Gutierrez	13
R	Esteban Gutierrez	Sauber Ferrari	4	Collision with Sutil	17

Drivers’ Championship after 3 rounds: 1. Sebastian Vettel 52, 2. Kimi Raikkonen 49, 3. Fernando Alonso 43, 4. Lewis Hamilton 40, 5. Felipe Massa 30, 6. Mark Webber 26, 7. Nico Rosberg 12, 8. Jenson Button 12, 9. Romain Grosjean 11, 10. Paul di Resta 8, 11. Daniel Ricciardo 6, 12. Adrian Sutil 6, 13. Nico Hulkenberg 5, 14. Sergio Perez 2, 15. Jean-Eric Vergne 1

Constructors’ Championship after 3 rounds: 1. Red Bull Racing 78, 2. Ferrari 73, 3. Lotus 60, 4. Mercedes GP 52, 5. McLaren 14, 6. Force India 14, 7. Scuderia Toro Rosso 7, 8. Sauber 5

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The team order storm rumbles on

The Formula One circus has arrived in Shanghai for this weekend’s Chinese Grand Prix, round three of the 2013 season.

It is civil war at Red Bull between Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel

All eyes will be on the Red Bull Racing drivers, world champion Sebastian Vettel and his team-mate Mark Webber following the team orders storm three weeks ago in Malaysia.

The debate has kicked off again, and it seems like the team has lost all control over its drivers.

Webber, who is sporting a dodgy haircut this weekend, said the situation was tense and the relationship between the drivers was strained.

Vettel launched his own attack in a highly charged media conference of his own, stating Webber has never helped him or the team, and although he respected him as a driver, suggested his actions in Sepang were payback for Webber not being there when he needed his help to win the title in Brazil last season.

I’ve kept fairly quiet on the team orders debate, but having mulled over the arguments and the various opinions over the past few weeks, it is time to state how I feel about the situation.

The background

For those who don’t know the full story of what happened at the Malaysian Grand Prix, here is the explanation of events.

Timing a move onto slick tyres better than Vettel had Webber in the lead for the majority of the race.  Despite some frustrations from the German around half-distance, the team issued a coded instruction called ‘Multi-21’ after the final round of pitstops.

We’ve since learned that ‘Multi-21’ is meant to mean car two ahead of car one.  This should suggest Webber was ahead and Vettel was not allowed to attack.

Sebastian took matters into his own hands and disregarded the team order, and raced Mark hard, but clean and took the lead against the accords of his team.

He apologised to the team, and looked miserable on the podium but he has come out fighting since, saying he felt Webber didn’t deserve the victory in Kuala Lumpur.

But should he have listened to his team?

It is about racing

At the end of the day, Formula One is about ‘racing.’  It is what draws in the many followers to the sport.  If racing doesn’t happen, you have to question the morals and ethics of the sport.

I certainly despise team orders.  They have been a part of Grand Prix racing for a long time though.

Some will obey to team instructions.  David Coulthard stuck to a pre-race agreement and allowed Mika Hakkinen to win the 1998 Australian Grand Prix, as Hakkinen had beaten him to the first corner.

In 2002, Ferrari staged the finish of the Austrian Grand Prix, when they brutally asked Rubens Barrichello, who had dominated the whole weekend to gift the race to Michael Schumacher.  Barrichello did it at the last possible moment, but the team were roundly criticised and it led to a rule banning team orders.

And of course, they did it again at Hockenheim in 2010, by asking Felipe Massa to let Fernando Alonso by for the victory.  This was a race that finally lifted the ‘team order’ ban, but in reality, they had never gone away from the background.

Others have ignored instructions.  Both Carlos Reutemann and Rene Arnoux went back on agreements to win races in the early 1980s, as did Didier Pironi famously in 1982 at Imola – leading to Gilles Villeneuve vowing never to speak to him again.  He didn’t, as he was killed 14 days later in practice at Zolder in Belgium.

Sebastian Vettel should have listened to his team.  There was an instruction in place, and the common sense would have been for him to obey the order and follow Webber home.

However, he is a racing driver, a triple world champion and with his chief rival Fernando Alonso out of the race after a crash on lap two, saw an extra seven points up for grabs which could be vitally important come the latter part of the championship.

You tell him not to do it, and especially for the win and it is a difficult one to swallow.

Formula One is a team sport.  It is the teams that employ the drivers, pay their wages and keep the sponsors happy.  However, the drivers are racers and will want individual honours.

Vettel had a case

Vettel had every right to go for it if he felt he should have.  It was ruthless and risky, but I praise him for going against morals and showing the determination he has in proving what a true racing driver he is.

Nice guys do not win world championships, and we all know Mark Webber is not a serious championship contender.  He had his chance to win the title in 2010, and blew it in the wall in Korea.

The neutral wants to see racing at the highest level.  I do not want to see a race that is decided with 15 laps to go, and then they just race around in circles until the chequered flag.  If they did that all the time, I’d rather watch a round of golf!

Vettel took a pasting from the media afterwards, and on reflection – it wasn’t his smartest move to make, but then again – he isn’t the first and won’t be the last to ignore team orders.

Mark Webber has been painted as a saint who has done nothing wrong.  This is Mark Webber, a driver who has ran into countless team-mates (some weren’t his fault, it has to be said), one who has brake tested drivers in the past (Fernando Alonso in Bahrain in 2004), and one who has ignored team orders himself against Vettel (Silverstone 2011).

He is not whiter than white.  Webber is a good racing driver, traditionally has a fair reputation and on his day, is unstoppable but he’s made poor errors of judgement in the past.  Far too many people forget his character.

Lewis Hamilton has ignored team orders before, so has Jenson Button.  They have all done it.  I can’t help feel that Vettel got so much stick because of his nationality.  Who cares if he is German?  I’m not bothered.  Those who’ve branded him as Schumacher Mark II look ridiculous.  Of course, he has made mistakes before, but who hasn’t in life.

And I have to ask this question too?  If you were in the same situation as Vettel, what would you do? 

What happens now?

Red Bull has insisted there will be no more team orders this season, which is a strong statement to make.  I’m not convinced by this at all.

This is Sebastian Vettel’s team, and where does it leave the situation at Red Bull now, both in the short and long term.

For now, there will be no change.  Mark Webber will see the season out, and the competition between them on the track will now be even fiercer than what it has been before.

Vettel was never going to be sanctioned heavily.  He apologised for his actions to the team afterwards, and he went back to the factory to apologise and explain last week in Milton Keynes.  He is the golden boy of the team, and they seriously weren’t going to ban him for one race for what he did.

If teams started doing that to drivers – you could probably turn Formula One into a reality show contest for Channel Five, and auction seats off on eBay.

Webber will be gone at the end of 2013, probably into retirement you’d imagine.  It is Vettel’s team, he owns it and whoever come into the den in 2014 will have to get used to that pretty quickly.

What it does mean is this Formula One season already has an explosive matter to remember as it progresses throughout the summer.

Hopefully, we can get on with the action of ‘racing’ and not ‘staging’ in China this weekend.

However, I will leave you with one lasting quote from the fantastic Senna movie.

The late Ayrton Senna famously said to Sir Jackie Stewart in 1990 during a tense stand-off between the pair; "And if you no longer go for a gap that exists, you are no longer a racing driver."

If you question Sebastian Vettel’s will to win and determination to win, then perhaps you need to ask yourself whether Formula One is a sport you really should be watching.

Categories: Brazil, China, David Coulthard, Felipe Massa, Ferrari, Formula One, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Mark Webber, Media, Multi-21, Red Bull, Sebastian Vettel, Sport, Team Orders

The British weather - Should we be surprised?

We have just reached the start of British summertime, but should we have even bothered changing the clocks in 2013?

The rain continues to fall in this country, but should it be a surprise?

As I write this piece, my bedroom windows are taking a hammering from a tropical rainstorm, the typical type associated with April showers.  As less as two weeks ago, the estate looked like a winter paradise with snow covering roofs, cars and the pavements.

It is getting a little bit ridiculous, considering April has just begun, but in reality, should we be surprised?

This is Britain after all

This is Britain after all and frankly, nothing should surprise us about the weather.

This is the land of unpredictability.  One minute, we could be sitting outside in bright, beautiful sunshine with a magazine and listening to the top pop tunes. Then in a flash, the skies darken and the heavens open and we get reminded it was all too good to be true.

Perhaps I jinked this latest spell of bitterly cold weather.  The temperatures picked up at the beginning of March, and it became so much so, I was ready to ditch the scarf and get out the sunglasses.  I even said that on Twitter.  Oops!

This time last year, it was all so different.

March 2012 – Our summer

This time last year, I was approximately five weeks away from finishing my journalism degree at the University of Northampton.

We were going through a tropical patch, and the majority of March saw hour after hour of glorious sunshine in fresh but delightful temperatures.

It was the hottest March I can ever remember.  It felt good not having to go somewhere needing to wrap up to face the elements.

I was working so hard on my final individual project at the time, it meant I wasn’t able to enjoy sitting outside with a cold beverage at the SU bar as much as I would have liked.

Little did we know at the time, but that was practically our summer.  We had another spurt of similar weather for around 10 days in May, and the second week of the Olympic Games brought some sizzling conditions.

Then, after that – the temperature plummeted, and it just kept raining.  It started to become a shock when we had a decent day’s weather.  This year – you wonder if we will experience a summer period of bright weather.

It shouldn’t happen to a weather forecaster

It is easy to criticise the Met Office, but being a weather forecaster can’t be an easy job.  And it isn’t great to listen too, especially after another news bulletin full of depressing stories.

The great Michael Fish will always be associated with his famous forecast on the eve of the powerful storm of October 1987 – when he badly got his wires crossed about an upcoming hurricane which did cause sheer destruction.

We all enjoyed Prince Charles taking on the role of reporting the weather last year, but what else can they do?  I’m sure in a perfect world, we’d like them to grit their teeth and say we will experience hot summer days all the time, when actually there is a thunderstorm on its way to these isles, but they have to tell the truth.

And it is the British weather.  Sure, it is frustrating to see it still being so cold, but at the end of the day, we can’t control the forces of Mother Nature.

Categories: April, Britain, Clocks, Magazine, Met Office, Michael Fish, Prince Charles, Snow, Summer, Sunshine

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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