Vettel out paces Mercedes duo to win in Malaysia

The Winner and Star of the race

There were a number of contenders for star of the race in Malaysia including fine drives by rookie Max Verstappen and Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen, but I don't think you can look beyond a fantastic and emotional winning drive by the other Ferrari of Sebastian Vettel.

After Australia it was all doom and gloom. Mercedes could win every race people said, they will be even more dominant than 2014. It's surely too early to say that Ferrari are about to become championship challengers, but they're close and there will be more wins this year for the Scuderia.

Today we saw Mercedes beaten on pace for the first time since 2013. Vettel didn't make a great start and had to aggressively hold Rosberg off who had started third. There was an early safety car due to Marcus Ericsson spinning off with a way too ambitious overtake on Nico Hulkenberg's Force India at turn one which resulted in the majority of the field pitting including both Mercedes.

Crucially Vettel didn't pit and nor did Hulkenberg, Romain Grosjean, Carlos Sainz or Sergio Perez. Hamilton and Rosberg were sixth and ninth when the field was released again. Once Hamilton had worked his way into second place he was 10 seconds behind the Ferrari and wasn't catching him.

Vettel pitted but caught and passed both Rosberg and Hamilton to retake the lead as the Mercedes dived for his second stop. The Silver Arrow driver would surely come back at him. This was a car that looked like it had almost a second advantage at the first race.

It wasn't to be though, Vettel controlled the gap and could respond to Hamilton's attacks. Today Ferrari had genuine pace, whereas Mercedes lost grip from their rubber far quicker, Vettel was able to look after the tyres. This was a case of the red car being able to handle the high temperatures better and having a rejuvenated Vettel in control and back where he feels he belongs, at the front.

The Battles

Plenty of great racing action away from the lead battle today. A safety car almost always mixes up the pack and the action abounded throughout the race.

The Toro Rosso rookie pair continued to show their inexperience means nothing with Max Verstappen in particular highlighting his potential with a number of aggressive moves that never went over the line but trod it carefully. He ended up seventh having fallen back at the start whereas Sainz rose up from 15th on the grid to finish eighth. They raced hard with the Red Bull's eventually making a gap.

In truth Red Bull were out classed by their junior team today by quite a margin as they finished ninth and tenth. Twice Daniel Ricciardo was asked to let Daniil Kvyat ahead as the Australian suffered from brake problems. The main problem though was that the team just doesn't have the pace despite qualifying fourth and fifth, but the fight Kvyat took to Ricciardo was impressive. 

He'd been a bit anonymous in Australia and after a clash with Hulkenberg lost him time it looked to be another disappointing race for the Russian but he fought back and caught Ricciardo who isn't maintaining his smile so well this season.

I enjoyed the McLaren-Honda's of Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button toughing it out in a few battles. Their power unit is way down on power, but once the problems are sorted they should be challenging for points at least sooner rather than later.

They've made progress and having Alonso back in the car would have been a boost. Both battled it out with the Force India's and kept Felipe Nasr's Sauber behind (who had a quiet race), and Button noted that before he retired he still had a Red Bull in sight. This is progress, and I expect them to be closer still in China.

Williams team mates Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas enjoyed a great tussle at the end of the race with Bottas managing to get one over on his rival with a fantastic round the outside pass to finish fifth with Massa sixth. But they'll be disappointed, they were meant to be fighting for best of the rest with Ferrari, instead Ferrari have decided they'd rather fight at the front. Williams look to have been left behind.

Force India seemed to be involved in a lot of scraps with both drivers given ten second penalties, Hulkenberg unfairly for his clash with Kvyat and Perez for not giving enough room to Grosjean in the Lotus who was unlucky not to get some points out of this race. 

Things of note

When you have the mindset that you're going to win, when things go wrong frustration comes easily. Lewis Hamilton questioned tyre choices and sounded very irritable on team radio today. It was an odd race for Mercedes. They definitely haven't just suddenly lost their advantage and they will surely come back stronger but when they were for once challenged, they couldn't respond. One thing I am certain of, they'll be working extra hard for China to make sure this doesn't happen again. A dominant Mercedes win in round 3? It would be a safe bet.

However, Ferrari not only won, but Kimi Raikkonen finished fourth after suffering a puncture that dropped him to the rear of the field. He was well clear of the Williams pair behind too, underlining just how good Ferrari were today, it'll take another few races to be sure, but they could be at the front for the long haul.

As mentioned McLaren have made genuine progress. They may still have only out-qualified Manor but they were much close to those in front and were able to fight, although I'm sure Alonso must be casting a wistful eye over to the guys in red. 

Red Bull could be in the doldrums for a while, their relationship with Renault is frosty at best, and with both not exactly working in harmony it could take some time for Ricciardo and Kvyat to work their way back to the front.

Manor couldn't get Will Stevens to the grid but they did finish with Roberto Merhi which is a brilliant result after all their problems. The car does look rather short of sponsors though in that they have none.

I'd like to end on one of the best things of the weekend which was Lewis Hamilton's pole position lap. It was a lap of brilliance, going over a second quicker than his team mate at the time when the track was at its wettest. Vettel did bring the gap down to under a tenth of a second but at that time in those conditions, Lewis was untouchable.   

The title chase

So what does this result mean for the championship fight? It could be exactly what we need. If one thing is worth noting it's that Rosberg has been rather tamed by Hamilton. Lewis seems to have had the edge in these first two rounds, and Rosberg almost looks like he's accepting of it. 

It's far too early to say that Ferrari are now the equal of Mercedes, but they are clearly at the very least the second best team out there, both Vettel and Raikkonen are more than capable of racking up the podiums this year, but will enough wins come their way to make it a fight for the ultimate prize? We will see, but the delight on Vettel's face this weekend will make him even hungrier for more.

If there is to be a proper fight for the title this year, then at the moment I think it's more likely to be Vettel than Rosberg. Is Nico can't strike back in China then he's very much in danger of playing the support.

Result

1. Sebastian Vettel - Ferrari
2. Lewis Hamilton - Mercedes
3. Nico Rosberg - Mercedes
4. Kimi Raikkonen - Ferrari
5. Valtteri Bottas - Williams-Mercedes
6. Felipe Massa - Williams-Mercedes
7. Max Verstappen - Toro Rosso-Renault
8. Carlos Sainz - Toro Rosso-Renault
9. Daniil Kvyat - Red Bull-Renault
10. Daniel Ricciardo - Red Bull-Renault
11. Romain Grosjean - Lotus-Mercedes
12. Felipe Nasr - Sauber-Ferrari
13. Sergio Perez - Force India-Mercedes
14. Nico Hulkenberg - Force India-Mercedes
15. Roberto Merhi - Manor Marussia-Ferrari
R. Pastor Maldonado - Lotus-Mercedes
R. Jenson Button - McLaren-Honda
R. Fernando Alonso - McLaren-Honda
R. Marcus Ericsson - Sauber-Ferrari
DNS. Will Stevens - Manor Marussia-Ferrari

all photo's taken from autosport.com

The Malaysian Grand Prix Forecast

Round 2 - Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, Sepang International Circuit

Laps - 56

Pirelli compounds - Medium and hard. High temps and abrasive result could mean two stop strategy. (pirelli)

DRS Zones  - Two, on the start finish straight and between turns 14 and 15.

Weather - Threat of rain, particularly on Saturday, high humidity with temperatures as high as 34C.

TV - Live on Skysports F1 and BBC (UK 8am lights out).

Pick a winner - Lewis Hamilton to continue his perfect start to the season.

Hot topics:

Fernando Alonso's relationship with McLaren is likely to come under the microscope once again. After missing the first race due to concussion, Alonso was back in the car for the Friday practice sessions, leading Jenson Button but having to be content with being 2.7 seconds off the pace. 

It's what he said before though that will get people talking. He suggested that the steering locked in his crash during testing contradicting what McLaren had earlier said that there was no mechanical failure. Given their history, this could be a little bit of kindling to the Alonso/McLaren relationship. It'll be watched with interest.

Another classic race gone and others under threat, what is going on with the running of Formula 1? The German Grand Prix is off the calendar due to the Nurburgring's financial problems and Hockenheim saying they can't afford it this year. The latter is due to run it next season but whether that will happen is an entirely different story because of other richer nations wanting a piece of the action.

Italy's race is by no means secure either. Go on Bernie, rip some more tradition out of the F1 calendar because everyone is just flocking to those middle eastern races. Money eh?

Teams can now have five engines for the season and not the previously allowed four. Makes sense, some teams are already using second parts for their power units although it's more to do with the tokens used for development purposes.

Red Bull's Christian Horner rashly said he wanted equalisation for the power units after a poor weekend for his team in Australia. It was even suggested the team could pull out of the sport if nothing was done. It seems it is just a case of a team losing throwing it's toys out of the pram. Although they have to rely on Renault to get them back in the ball park whereas Mercedes and Ferrari can at least get things done themselves.

Predicting the headlines:

This suddenly becomes a lot easier when holidays means the preview comes out after practice.

Ferrari much closer with Kimi leading the way. 

Lewis Hamilton to crush Rosberg.

Alonso to drag McLaren closer to midfield.

Verstappen grabs points.

Kvyat to show promise.

Williams can't hang on to Ferrari.

Romain Grosjean to get Lotus a top six finish.

Manor to qualify both cars.

Under the radar:

Although still feeling pain in his back, Valtteri Bottas was in action in practice after missing the race in Australia. What I found more intriguing was that despite Susie Wolff having been promoted to test driver and competing in practice sessions and testing she was categorically ruled out as racing in Malaysia. Why have her doing all this running if you wouldn't trust her to race? Some advancement for the female driver brigade. Not quite as bad as Carmen Jorda, recently hired by Lotus as a development driver. She's done nothing in her career, but publicity is publicity.

Money will always be on the agenda and it should be until Bernie and CVC start treating ALL the teams and the circuits fairly. Formula 1 has enough money to run a decent and highly regarded sport, not strip the heart out of it and leave it as a murky diseased plague ridden shell that it threatens to be. I'll say it again, nothing wrong with the product but the management of the sport and the selfish attitude of the participants leaves a lot to be desired. Still at least they've embraced social media now, whilst improving the website too. Of course those improvements are charged for. They'll not learn will they...

The title chase:

Hamilton had problems in first practice which restricted him to just a few laps but came back to top second practice with Rosberg only third with a Ferrari sitting pretty in-between.

Already there is a sense that Rosberg needs to strike back after his emphatic defeat in Australia by Lewis. 

Interesting though that Kimi had Ferrari just .3 of a second back from the ultimate pace... Too optimistic?

all photos taken from autosport.com

Malaysian Forecast

The Malaysian Grand Prix at the Sepang circuit near Kuala Lumpur usually produces a pretty decent race. Just look to last years multi-21 team orders fiasco from last year as an example. This year should be no exception as the teams arrive with so much still to learn about the 2014 machines they’ve created.

We still might not learn too much about the competitive order after this weekend. Malaysia is traditionally hot and humid, so it will place great stress on the cars cooling, something many of the Renault engine teams have had great trouble with in testing, particularly Red Bull.

The weather for the weekend is predicting storms throughout so it seems likely that we could be in for a topsy turvy qualifying and race, which is no doubt an exciting prospect but also disguises just which team is where when it comes to a normal dry race weekend.

The tyres Pirelli have brought are the medium and hard compounds. How much usage they’re going to get is hard to tell, it all depends on how much rain we’re going to get and at the  moment it looks like a lot of running will be done on the wet and intermediate tyres.

As is usual at most circuits these days there will be two DRS zones one on the back straight approaching the final corner and one on the start finish straight. These are unlikely to play a major role in the race should it be affected by precipitation as DRS is banned in wet conditions.

So what can we expect from the competitive order this weekend? Well a lot of teams are making bold claims about what they can achieve with many claiming Australia wasn’t a true reflection. As I’ve already said Malaysia may not provide a whole lot more information if you want the truth but McLaren for example through Ron Dennis have claimed they’ve found half a second for this race.

Can that be extrapolated for the wet conditions? It’s hard to say right now, but after a successful double podium opening weekend it’ll be interesting to see their progress. Jenson Button is great in wet conditions while new star Kevin Magnussen will be very keen to demonstrate his prowess in the wet stuff again after impressing with his rain affected qualifying performance in Melbourne.

Ferrari are well aware they need to work on the speed of their car. Fernando Alonso only just managed to get ahead of Nico Hulkenberg’s Force India last time out while Kimi Raikkonen suffered a myriad of issues mostly blaming set up problems. At least they have a reliable base to start from, although they were suffering from power issues in the race, so if all is well I expect to look far more racey this weekend.

I hope Williams can demonstrate their full performance. If Felipe Massa hadn’t have been taken out by Kamui Kobayashi’s brakeless Caterham at the first corner or Valtteri Bottas hadn’t have clunked the wall (although still recovered to sixth) then I feel sure they would have nabbed a podium fairly easily.

It’s important they do, as there should be no doubt the likes of Ferrari and McLaren will improve a great deal especially when we get back to Europe, now is the time for Williams to get the big points while the going is good.

Other teams with a lot to prove include Lotus. They’ll be happy just to get their car to the finish. They haven’t completed a race distance yet, but everyone was impressed that they managed to get two cars past half distance, which was a treat as they had barely strung five laps together. They’ve got an interesting car but I don’t expect them to show any great improvement until round five in Spain.

Marussia and Caterham look like they'll be battling at the back again after a few races of elevated position while I'm afraid Sauber look a bit slow at the moment.

One of the teams to look out I think is Force India. Nico Hulkenberg had an impressive drive (yet again) and will be looking for another top result. If it rains, look out for him and Sergio Perez (so impressive just two years ago in Malaysia). They are armed with the Mercedes power unit, so should always be one to watch over the next few race weekends.

Now we come to Red Bull. They were remarkable by getting to the end with Daniel Ricciardo’s car despite not having done a race distance before the opener. Ok, so they were disqualified for the fuel flow rate being consistently greater than the 100kg/h it should have been but they are appealing and feel confident they’ll get their points back but that’s another story.

What we can tell though is that once they iron out the reliability problems they’re once again going to be involved in the championship fight. They’ve barely tapped into the potential of this car, and after such a strong showing they’ll have been delighted. So Sebastian Vettel didn’t make it over five laps, that’s a niggle that was to be expected in many ways.

I expect a more coherent challenge from both cars, especially from Vettel as he seeks to put Ricciardo in his place after the Australian out-qualified him in Australia albeit with a down on power car. Red Bull and particularly Vettel are the ones to watch this weekend in regards to their pace and whether they can keep their Renault power unit cool enough in the extreme heat and humidity we expect.

Of course out in front we can still expect to see the silver of Mercedes leading the way. At the moment if they get far enough away in the early stages  it could  be a two horse race for the title between Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton.

As brilliant as Mercedes were in Australia they had their own problems with Hamilton retiring after only two laps. However, Rosberg went on to dominate the race. Lewis will want to assert his authority on this particular team mate battle sooner rather than later. He knows he has the edge in out and out speed, but in the races it could be a different matter, Malaysia is the time for Lewis to get a victory on the board and it’ll be game on. Even at this early stage he can’t afford to fall behind Rosberg any more especially if other teams begin to catch them…

Let's see how the engine noise continues to grow on us too. I think we'll be used to it in a few races and on TV it comes across fine. Live though it seems the feedback is it could be louder. I'm sure they'll sort something out, Formula 1 is about the spectacle and the awesomeness of the cars live. It's what everyone says if they attend a race. Ok the cars will still look great to watch, but it's the sound vibrating through your body that is the most amazing thing. That needs to be there.

So in short Mercedes will lead, McLaren and Williams will challenge them, Ferrari will disappoint and make Fernando annoyed, Hulkenberg will offer us a surprise while Red Bull I’m sure are about to make Mercedes wonder whether they really do have the best car. It’s going to be an exciting weekend of racing.

all photo's taken from autosport.com

Team orders aren't that bad for F1

There’s a lot of talk about the team orders controversy that occurred in the Malaysian Grand Prix after Sebastian Vettel ignored an instruction to hold position behind Mark Webber. Let's get one thing straight first, if anything this incident just enhanced the drama and story of what looks likely to be a thrilling F1 season.

In the F1 press and in the national press there seems to be a lot of talk that team orders are a bad thing, but yet are also slating Vettel for ignoring those team orders which seems slightly hypocritical.

What we saw yesterday was an exciting race and yes Vettel’s behaviour was distasteful, but it’s also got a lot of people talking about the incident, and in fact might make a fair few more people tune in at the next race on the off chance that Webber might shove Vettel off the road.

Of course we’ve had a lot of chatter in the world of twitter accusing Formula 1 of not being a sport because of the use of team orders. Well to them I say that’s a load of rubbish. Obviously I would prefer a fair race to the finish, but despite the public perception this sport isn’t just about the drivers, there’s up to 500 people or more back at the factory working all hours to prepare the cars and want to win just as much.

The constructors championship is very important to these people and to the team in general as they get a great deal of prize money and other assorted benefits depending on where they finish. If Vettel when trying to squeeze through that gap had taken out Webber yesterday and himself, then instead of a 26 point lead in the constructors, they’d have been third and perhaps it might have cost them the title by the end of the year, effecting many peoples bonuses etc.

And it’s not as if they hadn’t been racing, it was only the last 12 laps when they were asked to call it off to preserve the tyres as Red Bull had reason to be worried they wouldn’t make it to the finish. Yes it would have been much better if they hadn’t needed to do that, and generally they don’t but overall the teams interests come first.

Anyhow when people hark back to the bygone days of Formula 1 they seem to forget that in the 50s some drivers handed over their cars to their number 1 driver. It’s been going on since the beginning, it is part of the sport. Not the best part of the sport, but part of it nevertheless and used by countless teams including Ferrari and McLaren.

Perhaps worse though is that Sebastian Vettel ignored those orders. It’s unlikely Red Bull will sanction him, after all he’s probably their best shot at the drivers title, but he is facing further discussions with the team.

They’ll be those who support his disregard for team orders and applaud his will to win, then again it was against a driver who’d been reassured twice that Vettel would not attack him, so hardly a fair fight. In truth Vettel made a petulant selfish choice which has brought his team into disrepute and made him look like a bit of a spoilt brat.

However, if he wins the title by 7 points at the end of the season who will criticise him then? World Champions are often the most selfish of creatures driven by their desire to win at all costs. It’s not morally right sometimes, but in some ways what exactly do you expect?

Whatever though, team orders are part of Formula 1, we saw an exciting end and a controversial decision, this is also part of Formula 1, and it’s got a lot of people talking about it. Bernie will be pleased.

all photo's taken from autosport.com

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

Alonso carries Ferrari to victory against brilliant Perez

What a race and what a fantastically unexpected win for Fernando Alonso and Ferrari. The even more unexpected Sauber of Sergio Perez was second and pole position holder Lewis Hamilton’s McLaren completed the podium in a race which saw a deluge, a red flag, a grid of gazebo’s, safety car restart and some quite thrilling action.

Perez was phenomenal today, at times his pace and relentless pursuit of Alonso was spellbinding. Perhaps he should have won? In fact he should have because he was in the perfect zone, comfortable in all conditions and his car seemed easy to drive and kind on its tyres.

But that surely promotes the point that here today we witnessed a victory by a car which is not even quicker than a Sauber (as good as it is this year, it generally isn’t quicker than a McLaren or a Red Bull) and a driver who will never ever give up.

Fernando Alonso was simply awesome in the rains and heat of Malaysia. He dragged it into the top 10 in qualifying and from the very start in the wet conditions he was there mixing it towards the front. Pit stops worked his way, and he took advantage of that as well as a decisive move to pass Perez.

When the going was good, he exploited it to the maximum. He was amazingly careful with his tyres, making sure not to take too much from them, so he could at least put up a fight against the charging Perez.

He knows that the Ferrari at the moment doesn’t stand a chance in normal conditions, so when a door of opportunity opens you can count on the Spaniard to step right through it and slam it in the face of his pursuers.

Ferrari still hope to challenge for the title as the season goes on and had wanted just to be able to hang on to the leaders during the opening races while they try to develop the car, so to be leading the drivers championship is a real fillip.

The other Ferrari driver Felipe Massa ended up in a poor 15^th from 12^th on the grid. Little wonder then, especially after this fantastic performance by Perez why there are persistent rumours of his imminent replacement by the Mexican. Massa just isn’t the same driver who was so brilliant in 2008/09.

Sergio Perez should have won in what would have been a remarkable victory for him and his Sauber team. I know this team are not exactly podium regulars and so they should be very satisfied with their second place which judging by the reaction after the race they are fairly ecstatic about it but you can’t help but feel they should be a little disappointed and not just about Kamui Kobayashi retiring.

Apart from a couple of slight off track moments Perez was almost perfect and for a large portion of the race he was the quickest man out there in what is supposedly a midfield car.

As the race started there was a constant drizzle of rain ensuring that the entire field apart from the HRT’s started on intermediate tyres. The rain increased and Perez in conjunction with his team decided to take a gamble.

In for the full extreme wet tyres, he started lapping three seconds quicker than anyone so that when all the leaders had to pit he had floated up to third behind the two McLarens. The rain made the track what Jenson Button described as a ‘lake’ and the safety car was duly deployed on lap six and the red flag came a few laps later followed by the grid of gazebo’s and umbrellas.

This didn’t ruffle Perez though, at the restart everyone was on full wets, but the track was soon ready for inters. During the pit stops Perez emerged in the lead, but Alonso had pitted a lap earlier and with tyres already up to temperature passed him quickly and pulled away.

However as the track dried, the Sauber driver started catching by over a second a lap at times, taking huge chunks out of the seven second lead Alonso had built up. By the time it was ready for slicks Perez was about to make a move, but waiting a lap longer than Alonso to pit meant he was back to a seven second gap.

This was their first mistake, as mentioned in the Sky commentary perhaps they should have been looking for a win and grasping their opportunity rather than protecting a decent result. It had become obvious that slicks were the way forward as Daniel Ricciardo who stopped first for dry tyres was lapping several seconds quicker than anyone else. The experience of Ferrari showed here, as this was also their chance and they grasped with hands and feet.

But the Mexican remained unflustered and calmly set a scorching pace to catch the Ferrari back up, and here’s where I believe they made their second mistake. With six laps to go the team radioed Perez to remind him not to take too many chances and that this was a very good result. This of course prompted him to go off which surely is no coincidence, although it's to be expected he'd deny it caused him to lose concentration. 

Drivers are here to race and to win, valuable though those points are to the team, and perhaps it would be more understandable if it was when he was running third as second is just another spot on the podium, but this was a chance to win.

I think his mind set was thrown off slightly, his heroic pursuit of Alonso was now not the priority and there the lack of concentration came, any conspiracy theories of Sauber backing off to protect their Ferrari engine partners victory have been denied and are just silly. Fantastic result tinged with what could have been.

Bruno Senna was another one to star finishing 6^th after tripping over his Williams team mate Pastor Maldonado and being last after the first lap. At times he was one of the fastest out there and made some great overtakes. Scored the result Maldonado should have had in Australia, but also proved that Williams have got themselves a decent car this year in all conditions, already beating their points total from 2011.

The top teams had a mixed day. McLaren had secured their second successive front row lock out, and Hamilton was leading fairly convincingly. But after the restart, a botched tyre stop left him behind Alonso and Perez and he was never able to get back on terms with them,  again the speed didn’t seem with him. Still he had a more genuine smile about him after the race.

Of course that wouldn’t be because his team mate Jenson Button failed to score a point after breaking his nose against the innocent HRT of Narain Karthikeyan, then having tyre temperature issues resulting in 14^th. Not a good day in conditions he’d usually excel in.

Red Bull had a similar story. They got solid points from Mark Webber in fourth but the damage limitation run to second in Australia was not to be repeated by Sebastian Vettel in Malaysia. Although he had worked himself up to fourth place from fifth, he suffered a puncture while lapping Karthikeyan, pulling in front of him too soon and slicing his tyre on the HRT front wing.

His arm waving from cockpit indicated Vettel was not a happy man. Still it’s just the start and although they were strangely nowhere while the track was wet the dry pace still looks like it will win them some races.

Lotus had another good race from Kimi Raikkonen who charged up from his 5 place grid penalty of tenth, to finish 5^th. He says all he is now craving is a normal straight forward weekend so he can discover where the team really stand. Romain Grosjean threw it in the gravel.

Force India recovered from a poor qualifying to get Paul di Resta up to 7^th and Nico Hulkenberg to 9^th and score his first points of the year. They were split by Jean-Eric Vergne in the Toro Rosso, making up for his last lap disappointment in Australia.

Pastor Maldonado would have been at least 10^th if his engine had survived to the end, but this handed the final point to Michael Schumacher. The Mercedes driver deserves more for the form he is currently showing as the silver arrows flatter to deceive again.

Schumacher had qualified 3^rd, but a sluggish start and Grosjean’s Lotus hitting him on the first lap left him down the field. Despite his Mercedes also chewing the tyres, he was able to manage them for one less pit stop than team mate Nico Rosberg, and completed a decent recovery drive, but Merc’s race pace is nowhere near their qualifying speed. Nico was 13^th and has disappointed so far this year but both drivers will have expected more from the first two races.

And one more mention for Narain Karthikeyan, whose HRT started on wets so that when the red flag came out he was lying tenth. That was one team who were hoping the race wouldn’t be restarted!

The opening races are done and now there’s a three week gap until China, so what have we learned so far? It’s closer than ever at the top and in the midfield. McLaren are very quick, but perhaps not as quick as first thought. Red Bull has problems in qualifying, Sergio Perez is a star, Mercedes should be doing better and Ferrari is being carried on the shoulders of a magical Spaniard called Fernando Alonso.

all photo's taken from autosport.com