Malaysian GP team-by-team: Red Bull

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Red Bull had more reliability problems in practice. But avoiding the mistakes Ferrari and McLaren made in qualifying left them with a clear run to a one-two on race day.

Sebastian VettelMark Webber
Qualifying position31
Qualifying time comparison (Q3)1’50.789 (+1.462)1’49.327
Race position12
Average race lap1’40.507 (-0.087)1’40.594
Laps56/5656/56
Pit stops11
Malaysian Grand Prix lap times - Red Bull (click to enlarge)

Sebastian Vettel

After two races with pole position but no win, Vettel finally ended a race weekend in 2010 with the 25 points he deserved.

It was something of a surprise to see him beaten in a wet qualifying session not just by his team mate, but also Nico Rosberg.

But Vettel made the move when it counted – on the first lap, squeezing past his team mate to take the lead. Webber never looked like catching him.

Compare Sebastian Vettel’s form against his team mate in 2010

Mark Webber

Webber’s second career pole position on Saturday came thanks to a tactical masterstroke hatched with race engineer Ciaran Pilbeam. The gamble to use intermediate tyres while everyone else was on wets worked beautifully, giving him pole position by more than a second.

Having seized that precious advantage over his team mate, it was astonishing to see him relinquish it so easily on race day.

Jinxing left at the first corner allowed Vettel a run down the inside and into a lead he was never going to lose. On the podium afterwards Webber looked gutted.

Compare Mark Webber’s form against his team mate in 2010

Author information

Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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9 comments on “Malaysian GP team-by-team: Red Bull”

  1. it was webber’s race to lose and that’s exactly what he did in the first corner. i’ve no idea why he moved to the outside of turn 1 after he’d already covered vettel on the inside. if he’d held his line and led out of the first corner, the race would have been the same, except the red bull 1-2 would have been the other way around…

  2. Webber never looked like catching him.

    He was close to him throughout the first stint. Had Webber pitted first and not had his messed up, he may have even passed Vettel.

    1. I don’t think so. He was always going to have to make his pit stop after Vettel because having the pit stop first is such an advantage – and Vettel would be justifiably angry if the team helped Webber out in that fashion.

      Yes, the tyre thing cost him an extra second or so but he was never going to pass Vettel in the pit stops and after the problem they’ve had earlier this year they were never going to be allowed to go flat-out to the flag.

      Looking back on it, all he had to do to win the race was keep Vettel behind at the start.

      1. I’m not sure Keith. Webber lost at least two full seconds at the pits and it looked like he would have been very close to Vettel had he come out of the pits without a glitch.

        Vettel was also fortunate not to have been stuck behind Hamilton when he came out. He managed to beat Hamilton to the first corner.

        1. I’m not sure either tbh, vettel blasted infront of Hamilton within a few corners after the pit, and it didn’t look like he had to put much effort in defending his lead. so I would of thought even if Hamilton did get infront, vettel would of taken him quite quickly since the Red Bull was faster then the Mclaren that race and with newer tyres.

          He would of also had decent heat in his tyres if Webber did get back infront of him, tbh he would of just picked him off like Button did in Aussie.

  3. And when Hamilton got out ahead of him he may have held him up?, Im not sure. Any1 noticed Webber’s pit stops have been being mucked up a bit lately.

  4. anakincarlos
    7th April 2010, 2:55

    you are right yelrom, its more common than not to see webber lose time in the pits this time it was TWO Seconds.

  5. Webber was too concerned with everything behind him at the start of the race and i think he just didnt focus on getting to the corner first.

    Im a massive and long time fan of Webber and i was gutted myself seeing Webber make this mistake. I dont know why he didnt run a little deeper into the corner also considering people the run on the inside line exiting turn 2.

    Also for the broad comments on Webber not being that quick, I noted he took the DHL fastest lap again.

    On a side note, hope I dont get in trouble for asking it here, but does anyone seriously believe Webber will be there next year? I mean some of my friends are equating him to the DC of McLaren days when Kimi turned up. Thoughts anyone?

    1. webber is hard-working, but unfortunately does not have a great brand image. He may win a race ahead of seb, but commentators and ppl alike will label him ‘lucky’. And i’ve a sneeky suspicion that even if manages to outperform vettel each race(which i seriously doubt),again most would say – ‘oh, vettel is still improving, but look he’s so young and yet he finished x seconds off webber’.
      Schumi was known to be ruthless, hammy is known to be stubborn, alonso is known to be cunning, kimi is known to be blindingly fast over a lap, vettel is known to be nimble on his feet, kubica is known for his aggressive, yet error-free drive. But for guys like massa, webber, barichello, the problem is that they have no such brand identity. They may be race(or even championship ) winners, still they would probably be credited as lucky and not talented.

      So,now that RBR is shaking its balls with the top teams, who amongst webber and kimi, do u think would be the apple of the team’s other eye? Plus, i’m told that newey has a special liking for kimi and had once famously remarked that kimi’s driving style is motivates him in creating innovative and aggressive designs.

      So, go figure :-)

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