It was an interesting and exciting Malaysian Grand Prix, despite the domination of Sebastien Vettel at the front. Few would have predicted Jenson Button and Nick Heidfeld joining him on the podium, or that Lewis Hamilton would finish only 8th having started from the front row.
Given how tight qualifying was Hamilton could easily have taken pole, but was beaten by a last gasp Vettel flyer. The two McLarens and two Red Bulls were separated by only 0.3 seconds but behind them things looked ominous for Ferrari, with Fernando Alonso almost a second off the pace. Both Renault drivers did well to get into the top 10, and Pastor Maldonado was the Q1 casualty from the established teams. Otherwise, the main talking points were improved form for Lotus, who got within half a second of Q2 on merit, and (miracle of miracles) both HRTs actually qualifying for the race!
The start was a partial disaster for Red Bull – Vettel pulled away in the lead, despite a challenge from the fast-starting Heidfeld’s Renault, but Mark Webber’s KERS did not function and this left him back in 9th. Red Bull must wonder at the wisdom of going their own way with KERS (i.e. not adopting the Renault system), especially since the ‘works’ Renault cars appear to be the class of the field off the line, as has often been the case in the past 10 seasons or so.
Heidfeld maintained 2nd until his first pit stop, with a frustrated Hamilton unable to pass the German despite using his DRS and KERS devices. Further back, Webber and Kamui Kobayashi engaged in an energetic battle, the cars swapping places once or twice a lap (albeit with some DRS assistance), and Williams’ nightmare weekend was already over with both cars out by lap 22.
After the first pit stops, the race settled down somewhat, although Alonso pulled off a great move on Jenson Button while the Briton was seemingly asleep. But then Vettel started to experience similar KERS problems to team mate Webber, sparking brief hopes of a battle for the lead. It was not to be however, and instead 2nd placed Hamilton started to drop back into the clutches of Button, with Jenson taking the place after Hamilton suffered a botched pit stop.
Alonso then closed drastically on Hamilton but couldn’t get through, mainly because the Ferrari’s moveable wing wasn’t functioning. The Spaniard soon did manage to make some wing adjustments, but unfortunately these were to his front wing, part of which broke off after a rather clumsy bit of driving led to a brush against the back of Hamilton’s rear tyre, necessitating a trip to the pits for both drivers. Alonso took the lion’s share of the blame for misjudging his closing speed, although Hamilton did edge across the track slightly at the moment of impact. This, combined with earlier weaving from the Briton, meant that Hamilton, as well as Alonso, was given a 20 second post-race penalty – a slightly harsh judgement in Hamilton’s case since it cost him a further position to Kobayashi at race end.
This incident allowed Heidfeld back up to 3rd, although Renault were not entirely happy as Vitaly Petrov then reverted to his 2010 ways by running off the track and launching his car over a bump on the infield. The resulting impact broke the steering column, and the hapless Russian held the severed steering wheel as his car careened into a braking marker, taking the unofficial ‘Taki Inoue* Tribute Comedy Moment of the Race’ trophy (sadly only awarded in my imagination) in the process.
As a result, Kobayashi and Michael Schumacher moved up and Paul di Resta picked up a well deserved point. At the front it was plain sailing for Vettel though, despite his KERS difficulties, and although Button closed up at the end he appeared to have everything under control. The opposition are getting closer though, which bodes well for China next weekend and the start of the European season at Istanbul Park in May.
* Unaware of the existence of Taki ‘In the Way’? Peruse the brilliant F1 Rejects website and see this video for details of the great man’s exploits!
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