Race, Petronas Malaysia Grand Prix, Sepang International Circuit, Kuala Lumpur
Sebastian Vettel, the defending world champion again showed the potential of Red Bull with back to back victory in 2011 season. Vettel the winner of 2010 Malaysian Grand Prix done the same in style.
It was an exciting Malaysian Grand Prix, 2011 with top order changing on every 5-10laps. There were many drivers who were leading the packing for a short interval during the race. The race was hovered by the havoc of Rain to come. A strong cloud cover suspected of a heavy storm was a worry for the teams. But ultimately it was dry race in the end.
Before the race started it was predicted that the race will see a heavy storm just in 30mins into the race. So all the drivers were tried to utilize the tyres to have a gamble of rain. So that they could only require one pit stop. And all changed to soft slick tyres again. But it was not of a luck for gamblers and lucky of Sebastian Vettel who had an easy run to the sweet victory.
Sebastian Vettel after the marvelous performance in Malaysia is up to a strong start of 2011 season with 50 points in the kitty up ahead of 24 points that of second man Jenson Button.
The use of 2011 toys were a common sight in Malaysia as all the drivers shows the capabilities of KERS and DRS (Drag Reduction System). It really enhanced the overtaking by the drivers. Most of the drivers were seen overtaking the car up ahead due to the mix use of KERS and DRS.
But the real winner was the much criticized Pirelli. As there was as predicted 3-4 stops required to complete the race with Pirelli tyres. But the real overtaking and change of field only came due to the tyre strategy as opted by the teams. At the end of the race, it was seen that Lewis Hamilton was overtaken by Nick Heidfeld and also Mark Webber just lost the momentum in last lap when he tried to overtake the slower moving Renault of Nick in front of him.
Due to the high humidity and track temperature, most of the cars suffered from tyre wear problem with 8 cars retiring from the race.
Although Red Bulls come home high but they were troubled by the faulty KERS and DRS all the race. In the starting lap, Mark Webber lost much of the places and was dropped to 9th due to KERS not working on his car, while Vettel was advised not to use the KERS anymore in the remaining of the race on Lap 30. Webber was having problem with the KERS also.
Mclaren were strong but Lewis Hamilton lost all the momentum in the closing stages when faster Alonso hit him on the rear end of the car when he tried to overtake him on Lap 46. This caused Fernando Alonso lot of track position as the collision cost him his Front Wing.
Nick Heidfeld and Vitaly Petrov continued the strong outing by Renault as Heidfeld was on 2nd position on the first lap where Petrov closed him as much as 3rd position. But in later stages, with some problem, Petrov was skidded out of the track and he jumped onto the curves causing his steering wheel to come off and he was out of race. At that moment, he was running in 7th position.
Ferrari show a dominating run on track with competitive moves and finally finishing in5th and 6th position.
Sauber again proved their mettle with Kobayashi always in battle with 7 time world champion Michael Schumacher on track and finished the race ahead of him on 8th. But Sergio Perez was out of the race.
After a devastating start of the season for Mercedes, the Malaysian GP was also less than successful as they were lacking pace and had understeer problem with the car where Pirelli tyres were not working properly with Mercedes.
The Rookie Force India Driver Paul Di Resta again impressed the crowd and F1 after finishing last of the point scorer in 10th ahead of his team mate Adrian Sutil. Also Paul gave a strong competition to the Sauber and Mercedes.
Michael was able to pull up the car ahead of Paul only in the second last lap of the race. Nico had a rough day in other Mercedes. Toro Rosso also were not able to put their mark onto the race.
Only one of the Lotus and Virgin were able to finish the race while both the HRT's and William's were out. Williams had a rough day again after Australian GP. But it was Vitantonio Liuzzi who was able to hold up the race onto the 47laps for HRT but could not able to complete the race. While Narain Karthikeyan was out early.
The rookie driver Pastor Maldonado was the first one to retire. Barrichello again had an accident in the early laps where he was forced to pit as there was no left front tyre on the car which caused him to the back of the field from where he was not able to recover.
After the Race, Sebastian is way ahead of the others lead runner with 50points in the bag after the first two races. Also Red Bull in the constructors lead the pack by 22 points from Mclaren.
| Pos | Driver | Team | Laps | Time | Grid | Points |
| 1 | Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull - Renault | 56 | 1 hr 37min 39.8sec |
1 | 25 |
| 2 | Jenson Button | Mclaren - Mercedes | 56 | +3.2sec | 4 | 18 |
| 3 | Nick Heidfeld | Renault | 56 | +25.0sec | 6 | 15 |
| 4 | Mark Webber | Red Bull - Renault | 56 | +26.3sec |
3 | 12 |
| 5 | Felipe Massa | Ferrari | 56 | +36.9sec | 7 | 10 |
| 6 | Fernando Alonso | Ferrari | 56 | +37.2sec | 5 | 8 |
| 7 | Lewis Hamilton | Mclaren - Mercedes | 56 | +49.9sec | 2 | 6 |
| 8 | Kamui Kobayashi | Sauber - Ferrari | 56 | +1min 6.4sec | 10 | 4 |
| 9 | Michael Schumacher | Mercedes GP | 56 | +1min 24.8sec | 11 | 2 |
| 10 | Paul Di Resta | Force India - Mercedes | 56 | +1min 31.5sec | 14 | 1 |
| 11 | Adrian Sutil | Force India - Mercedes | 55 | + 1 Lap | 17 | |
| 12 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes GP | 55 | + 1 Lap | 9 | |
| 13 | Sebastien Buemi | STR - Ferrari | 55 | + 1 Lap | 12 | |
| 14 | Jaime Alguersuari | STR - Ferrari | 55 | + 1 Lap | 13 | |
| 15 | Heikki Kovalainen | Lotus - Renault | 55 | + 1 Lap | 19 | |
| 16 | Timo Glock | Virgin - Cosworth | 54 | + 2 Laps | 21 | |
| 17 | Vitaly Petrov | Renault | 52 | + 4 Laps |
8 | |
| Ret | Vitantonio Liuzzi | HRT - Cosworth | 47 | + 10 Laps |
23 |
|
| Ret | Jerome d'Ambrosio | Virgin - Cosworth | 43 | + 14 Laps | 22 | |
| Ret | Jarno Trulli | Lotus - Renault | 32 | + 25 Laps | 20 | |
| Ret | Sergio Perez | Sauber - Ferrari | 24 | + 33 Laps |
16 | |
| Ret | Rubens Barrichello | Williams - Cosworth | 23 | + 34 Laps | 15 | |
| Ret | Narain Karthikeyan | HRT - Cosworth | 15 | + 42 Laps |
24 |
|
| Ret | Pastor Maldonado | Williams - Cosworth | 9 | + 48 Laps | 18 | |
| Fastest Lap - Mark Webber, Red Bull - 1min 40.571sec | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lap Record - JP Montoya, Williams BMW (2004)- 1min 34.223sec | ||||||
| Drivers Standing | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sebastian Vettel | 50 |
| 2 | Jenson Button | 26 |
| 3 | Lewis Hamilton | 24 |
| 4 | Mark Webber | 22 |
| 5 | Fernando Alonso | 20 |
| 6 | Felipe Massa | 16 |
| 7 | Nick Heidfeld | 15 |
| 8 | Vitaly Petrov | 15 |
| 9 | Sebastien Buemi | 4 |
| 10 | Kamui Kobayashi | 4 |
| 11 | Adrian Sutil | 2 |
| 12 | Michael Schumacher | 2 |
| 13 | Paul Di Resta | 2 |
| Constructors Standing | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Red Bull | 72 |
| 2 | Mclaren | 50 |
| 3 | Ferrari | 36 |
| 4 | Renault | 30 |
| 5 | Toro Rosso | 4 |
| 6 | Sauber | 4 |
| 7 | Force India | 4 |
| 8 | Mercedes GP | 2 |
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