Vettel steals Malaysian win

"Good job, Seb. Looks like you wanted it bad enough. Still you've got some explaining to do."

Hasn’t he just. Sebastian Vettel took his 27th career victory in a gripping and controversial race as team orders  dominate the headlines. His Red Bull team mate Mark Webber exited the pits for the final time on lap 44 of 56 just holding off pole sitter Vettel to keep the lead of a race he’d been heading since the change from intermediates in the early stages after making a decent start for once from 5th to lie 2nd in the early stages.

Webber had been told to turn his engine down and look after the tyres. He was assured that Vettel had been issued with the same instruction. For reasons known only to Vettel (and there has been no talk of the radio being down) he failed to understand this instruction, at least he claims he was unaware of this as he set about launching an attack on the Australian.

Over the radio the team pleaded with Vettel not to be ‘stupid’ as he mercilessly closed in on Webber, he dived to the inside on the start finish straight coming perilously close to the pit wall. Webber held on around the outside into turn 1, keeping the inside into turn 2 and the lead. 

But Vettel kept on pushing and despite Webber being on the inside for turn 4 where he could legitimately have pushed Vettel wide on to the kerbs (and in hindsight you feel he should have done to make a point) he gave Vettel enough room to drive round the outside and into a lead he wouldn’t give up.

There they finished after an intense race in which until the final pit stops the top 4 cars had been circulating within five seconds of each other, the Mercedes cars showing good pace throughout until fuel issues and their own team order controversy scuppered anymore progress.

So what are we to make of this? Certainly over the years of these two being team mates Vettel has had his share of team instructions going in his favour so today Vettel disobeyed what was really a fair instruction. Red Bull had been worried about tyre degradation all weekend, and after Australia had proved they were a bit hard on the tyres they wanted to secure their one-two finish without risk, especially with the Mercedes stalking them quite closely for most of the race.

Vettel apologised after the race but this doesn’t make a difference to the result so is quite meaningless. He isn’t going to give up a win if there is no need to, he’s not that kind of driver, he’s there to win and he showed today exactly how much he wants to win by defying his own team despite explicit instructions.

On the podium Webber explained: "After the last stop the team told me the race was over and we turned the engines down and go to the end. The team made their decision. Seb made his own decision and he will have protection as usual."

The protection comment is the one to talk about, because undoubtedly he will not be sanctioned for his transgression. If anything it makes you wonder why the team did not order Vettel to hand the place back if the team had issued an instruction to maintain position. Perhaps they know Vettel will again be their main chance of the championship, then again Webber would have been on equal points with Vettel had he won.

Team orders are always a touchy subject and of course there are two sides to the story. Many fans hate team orders and believe the drivers should always be allowed to race whatever the circumstances but a team does have to protect their own interests too. 

It also should be pointed out this is very different from a driver being told to give up a position in the early stage of a season or if one driver is out of the equation in a championship battle and is asked to move over. 

Webber had stayed out longer on the intermediate tyres and passed Vettel fairly during the early stops. Then there was an agreement to hold position after the final stops to preserve their finish. So they are allowed to race to a certain point, at that point the teams interests take precedence. This is often used throughout the grid, especially if the team know of some problems which could affect their position. 

Vettel is a racer and has 3 world titles, he probably, whether rightly or wrongly believes he owns Red Bull and can do whatever he likes. To a certain degree he is right, but he’s still young and will look back on this as an immature decision which will have upset his team after all they’ve done for him. He might take a bit of pain for this from the management which is no less than he deserves, because whatever you think, Webber had turned his engine down, so what we witnessed wasn’t a fair fight for the win which in the end is the point, Webber didn’t lose, it was stolen. 

Whatever though, I can’t help but feel this is what a driver who wins world championships would do. It’s not always right but the very best often push the envelope of acceptability to breaking point.  However Red Bull is going to be feeling a lot of tension tonight because of Vettel; Webber looked angry and upset while Vettel still appeared defiant despite his apology. This will take team Principal Christian Horner some time to calm the waters.



Mercedes have their own team squabble

Nico Rosberg pleaded with team principal Ross Brawn to be allowed to pass Lewis Hamilton for the final podium spot. Unfortunately for him Brawn had already made the decision and wasn’t about to back down now. 

In the radio communication you could hear Rosberg sounding more and more desperate as Lewis got slower having been told to conserve fuel. This was a similar situation to Red Bull’s but in this case Rosberg did what he was told. But as Lewis admitted later, Rosberg was the faster driver in this race, just as he actually looked in Australia too.

Like Vettel, Lewis apologised after the race but he actually had nothing to be sorry for, he was following team instructions and like Rosberg he didn’t break them. But Rosberg I think should feel a bit hard done by. He didn’t seem to be in as much trouble as Lewis, and in those circumstances these are the breaks you get in motor racing, so it seems like they could have let him through.

Then again Mercedes are on form now, and this was a good result for them. They’ve really made a giant step forward compared to last year and this time I don’t see them falling away. The whole array of various technical directors has really made a difference and I can see them continuing to improve.

It was a generally impressive display as both Mercedes stalked the Red Bulls with Lewis Hamilton even getting ahead of Vettel at the third stops before the Red Bull zipped past with the aid of DRS. 

Lewis Hamilton appears to have settled in well too although he got a little confused at the second stops when he went to stop at the McLaren garage and had to be waved through. One other thing is that Rosberg looks really good against him. Even though he has been out qualified twice, his stock is certainly rising which will make the decision to hold station burn just that little bit more for Nico.

McLaren can see some light

Jenson Button retired today while Sergio Perez could only finish 9th to pick up another 2 points for the Woking squad. Seems like a bad day again and I guess it was, but mainly because they actually looked to have some good pace.

Button reckons he could have challenged Mercedes for a podium if it wasn’t for a dodgy pit stop (old problems returning) when his right front was coming off and he had to stop in the pit lane. It took an age for him then to be wheeled back to the garage.

Once he’d resumed a lap down, he kept pace with the leaders and was often quicker. As Button generally 
is, he was great in the early mixed conditions and had risen to 5th from 7th on the grid. He couldn’t quite hold onto the leaders but as the track dried he set competitive times. The podium might have been a bit optimistic but McLaren certainly look to be beginning to understand their new car at last. Hopefully by China they’ll be making it a 5 way hunt for glory.

Perez had a good drive but ran out of grip towards the end making a late pit stop but he did set fastest lap and had a number of exciting battles with Nico Hulkenberg’s Sauber and the Lotus’.

Alonso crashes out

Fernando Alonso looked particularly up for it today, you can tell that much even if he did only last for a lap. He made a good start from third and was challenging Vettel into turn 2 when he locked up and knocked his front wing so it was half hanging down.

Still he maintained the pace, holding off Webber, but surely the team knew it was inevitable that the wing would fall off? They told the Spaniard to stay out, perhaps trying to hang on until the track was dry enough for slicks. 

It didn’t work at the start of lap 2 as Webber passed, the wing came off got trapped underneath the front wheels and he was powerless to avoid going straight on and into the gravel. Not his mistake, but I’m surprised Alonso took the risk and didn’t just pit on his own accord. He showed perfectly how to build championships last year even if he did miss out. He now lies 22 points behind Vettel already, but this year he’s got the car to take victories, he won’t be worried yet.

Rest of the top 10

Felipe Massa continued his good form this weekend, again out qualifying Fernando Alonso to take a front row grid slot. Although he looked a bit uncomfortable in the early damp stages he still finished 5th after making his final pit stop and charging back past the Lotus’.

The Lotus’ indeed were next up with Romain Grosjean looking the more impressive today as he moved up from 11th on the grid to finish 6th. It was a mature performance and included a great move on Nico Hulkenberg into turn 5 which was brave indeed.

Kimi Raikkonen couldn’t continue his great form from Australia. In the damp conditions his car looked difficult, but after concluding an epic battle with Hulkenberg he wound up 7th to score a valuable 6 points. Consistency is everything, and I do see him being in the title hunt to the end; you never know how many points you’ll win by. 

Hulkenberg got as high as 5th, but ended up in 8th, but it was still a strong result from 12th at the start. He was great in the wet, and continued to battle hard with various people all afternoon.

The final point went to Jean-Eric Vergne who quietly made his way up the order. In part down to retirements but still you got to finish to score and he did that well. Toro Rosso will be happy to score having had a troubled start to the year.

Jules Bianchi and other notables

Put him in a top car now. He is head and shoulders above the other three back of the grid drivers and is proving very impressive indeed. Marussia are very lucky to have him, although I would still like to see how he would have compared against Timo Glock.

Williams poor start to the year continues, Valtteri Bottas finished 11th which wasn’t a bad run admittedly, but Pastor Maldonado went off and then had a KERs failure. 

And after the heroics of Melbourne, Force India couldn’t even get their left front tyres on in Malaysia. A promising result, particularly for Paul di Resta was left ruined as a new nut and gun system for their pit stops proved to be catastrophic. Both cars had to retire as a result.

After all that, time for a break

So the last two weekends have produced some rather frenetic racing. Three weeks now until the Chinese Grand Prix where it’ll be extremely interesting to see how things have been settled at Red Bull, whether Lotus can bounce back to the top, if Massa can continue to outpace Alonso in qualifying, can Mercedes fight to the finish and will McLaren be back on the pace. There’s so much to look forward too.

LAT photo's from autosport.com, all others from planetf1.com