Rate the race: 2013 Malaysian Grand Prix

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What did you think of the today’s race? Share your verdict on the Malaysian Grand Prix.

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Rate the race out of ten and leave a comment below:

Rate the 2013 Malaysian Grand Prix out of ten

  • 10 (6%)
  • 9 (16%)
  • 8 (25%)
  • 7 (18%)
  • 6 (11%)
  • 5 (8%)
  • 4 (4%)
  • 3 (3%)
  • 2 (2%)
  • 1 (5%)

Total Voters: 956

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1 = ‘Terrible’, 10 = ‘Perfect’

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2013 Malaysian Grand Prix

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Image © Pirelli/LAT

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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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388 comments on “Rate the race: 2013 Malaysian Grand Prix”

  1. Until the Merc fuel / team orders issue, this was a 9/10 but the sight of the two Mercs coasting right next to each other was just awful. Vettel rebelling against the wishes of his bosses was exciting though. 7/10

    1. i dont see how this race is a 9/10 when u see that vettel or webber will be winning the race ever since lap 5!!!!! it is gonna be a boring season just like the seasons before.

      1. Except that wasn’t clear at all. Both mercs were quicker until fuel saving started (they closed right up having been several seconds behind after the first pit stops).

      2. Untrue. Hamilton and Rosberg were contenders throughout, especially the middle section.

        Also there were a lot of battles, especially for the lead with the two RBRs, the Mercedes (before fuel saving / whatever it was), Massa vs Perez vs Raikkonen. It was a great race until the final ten laps.

        1. I’d argue it is true, if they raced to the fuel load they had right from the get go, they wouldn’t have been anywhere near the Red Bulls come the end of the race.
          If they had more fuel on-board they would have been contenders

          1. You really think this is true?

            u see that vettel or webber will be winning the race ever since lap 5

            Because I think it’s nonsense. Lap 5? Come on.

        2. Also consider time Hamilton lost due to erroneous pit blunder. Those extra seconds would have made things that much closer.

      3. Except that wasn’t clear at all. The mercs were both quicker until fuel saving started and Hamilton had already passed one red bull at a pitstop with another to come.

        1. do u need anything more clear than the vettel passing hamilton easily, the mercs have good race pace but not enough to overtake any of the the redbulls and that is what i mean that the season is gonna be boring because they still can’t catch the luckiest driver seb vettel, maybe he has gods blessing more than other people i dont know , but that’s too much, had a little error in pits but still the car managed to win, do u need any better car and luck?

          1. Vettel DRSed him, not “easily”.

          2. I’m not sure how Vettel passing Hamilton using DRS whilst Hamilton is on his lightest fuel mix proves anything.

            The Mercs were 8 seconds behind at the start of the dry section and caught right up, including Hamilton passing Vettel. Then fuel saving very clearly started, and that was that. Unless you knew the fuel load, you can’t pretend it was an obvious Red Bull win without verging on trolling.

          3. @ramysennaf1 – Driver wins 27 races, solution: scream about “luck” and “car” in every post. Okay…

          4. @david-a what’s going to happen when that number of wins will increase? “Luck” and “car” is already very much used. :) Another word needs to be found.

          5. As we could never be sure the Red Bulls tyres would actually last good enough I never felt sure they would win it until the Mercedes got more involved between the two of them than getting close to the Bulls really @ramysennaf1

      4. If you think it was clear redbull would win… Then I would suggest you watch an F1 race with live timing next to the feed.. It brings some excitement and a better insight!

      5. I rated it 3. I could rated it 0 for all the team arrangements. ******** GP. It got me the intention to close the TV when next race comes. Really bad sensation. Hate it!

      6. Tyres are now having the exact opposite effect of their original intention. Noone can make them last on the limit of the cars performance so everyone drives at 80%. The sooner Pirrelli leave the sport the better!

    2. Merc fuel issue just killed the race. I understand that Lewis too was a victim but it cost some points to Rosberg.

      Looking foward to China.

      1. Its not a fuel issue. Its just that Lewis borrowed fuel that was meant for the later part of the race, to set fast laptimes early on. Why Rosberg had to pay the price, who knows? All this tells us is that the race between those two will from now on be about who has track position after both have made their final stops.

        1. so it is a fuel issue

          1. no it isn’t. when you use higher fuel rate, the car became faster, but consumption became greater. When Rosberg never changed it during the race, it cost him enough when he told to back off.

        2. @joshua-mesh I don’t think so. Lewis and Nico lap times were similar early on the race. Apparently Hamilton was under fueled.

          1. How about looking at the big picture? Where were Mercedes last year with Schumacher and Rosberg? This is just the second race of the season with the Rosberg and Hamilton and they finished 3/4..Surely that’s got to be a good thing..another unrelated point..its good to see Whitmarsh and Mclaren still making the same mistakes..!! Lol..what a joke..!!

        3. Considering that he was saving fuel for about half the race, and still had to really coast at the end, I would guess that there was a problem on Hamilton’s car or he was fuelled much lighter than Rosberg, presumably by accident.

      2. Mercedes team-orders saga really killed the race. But i am more worried by the reaction!!! Remember Hockenheim 2010, and they all pounced on Ferrari even though half the season had passed, and today in just the 2nd race of the season, Merc has told us who is their number1 driver by robbing Nico.

        With Nick Fry out and all the management changes i think it is now perfectly clear that Merc want the team to be around Lewis only.

        Merc were my favourite b4 today but i have started hating them from today….

      3. @Dizzy-A -vettel didn’t cement himself yet as a racing great, and his entitlement behavior doesn’t help it either, don’t fool yourself, we’ll see when he drives a slower car and less reliable one like the others . plus, i’ll keep saying luck and car till i see competitive driving in f1 btw 3 teams.

        1. @ramysennaf1

          Vettel has driven a “slower car” earlier in his career. He still proved to be consistent and a race winner.

          And 2010 and 2012 were competitive seasons between at least 3 teams. Vettel won both.

          1. three teams but managing to win it with no excitement in the last two races, it was home and dry before that,maybe 2011 was a bit end to end in the last race at yas marina but that was about it, when alonso had tyre problems.

          2. sorry not the last race, the one before brazil,where alonso couldn’t get past 6th as i recall.

          3. @ramysennaf1 – It was Abu Dhabi where Alonso finished 7th and lost the title, when he couldn’t get beyond the Renaults or Rosberg. And he didn’t have “tyre problems” in that race.

            Whether there was excitement (in your opinion) in the final 2 races is irrelevant- you said Vettel should win in a season with at least 3 competitive frontrunners, and he has done. In fact, Button, Alonso, Raikkonen and Hamilton’s titles came in years with 2 frontrunning teams at most.

    3. Yeah I agree. I felt very bad for Nico. It seems easy to get stuck in a vicious cycle of points decline when team orders are used. You have less points so you get told to stay behind, you stay behind and loose more points to your team mate – team orders become all the more likely. It’s especially bad for Nico seeing as his points deficet to Lewis occured as a result of a mechanical retirement at the last and only race that has happened so far this season. However, it made sense for Mercedes to bring the cars home safely. That said, it was still harsh. It’s not like Rosberg couldn’t had just breezed past on the far side of the track to Lewis while using DRS. It’s not like it is impossible to pass safely…

      As for Vettel… well… Frankly he disgusts me! How a driver can be so arrogant and display such an obvious feeling of self importance literally makes me wretch at the sight of him. His early message about Mark being slow was disgraceful. If he is that slow then OVERTAKE HIM on track yourself you stupid ****!

      I think Mark was far more gracious than he needed to be on the podium. I’m glad that even Helmut Marko said he went too far dissobeying the team like that.

      As for what will happen next… lets just say that Mark has no reason to listen to team orders the next time it happens.

      1. his comment about mark sums it up for me, i also see others agreeing on that, he thinks the world of f1 revolves around him.

      2. Mark really dealt with this situation admirably so far in my opinion. He didn’t slander the team or throw his toys out of the pram when Vettel confronted him at podium ceremony but still managed to make his point sternly when he mentioned that Vettel would get “protection” from the team.

        Red Bull will have to be seen publically at least to discipline Vettel now. He has to acknowledge that the team comes first and foremost, otherwise they are likely to have a situation where both drivers ignore team orders entirely, as why should Webber adhere if Vettel does not and gets away with it.

        Wow. Just watched the post race individual interviews with Webber and Vettel on Sky Sports after writing the above. Really feel for Webber after that. Never seen him so emotional, you could see he wanted to explode but he’s being so mature about it. Respect.

        What the hell at what Vettel said though? He basically said that he wasn’t told that Webber turned his engine down and had backed off. That will cause even more hurt for Webber after being assured twice that Vettel would not pass him.

        It will be very interesting to see how this plays out. Not sure how to interpret Webber’s comment about not being sure if the medicine is enough.

    4. Gloomiest podium I have ever seen….

      1. And one of the worst race I’ve seen since 1990 when I started watch this sport.
        It is simply embarrassing.

      2. artificial racer
        26th March 2013, 21:53

        Yeah, you want to see teammates racing each other. Parading home in lockstep for 15-20 laps is such a ****** finale that it ruins the whole race. Nobody feels good after that.

    5. Raul (@sennahakkham)
      24th March 2013, 11:25

      I thought the race was very exiting and emotional. The Jury is still out on Mercedes because we dont know Rosbergs fuel situation.
      1 But we do know all drivers want to beat their teammate the most.
      2 Espacialy for the last podium position.
      3 Espacialy if your last race resulted in no pointless.

      Also think most drivers would lobby their team for own cause.
      Hamilton should not have said anything without the facts first. Also if the teamboss loses controll over its drivers the situation can quickly turn ugly Vettel Redbull style.

    6. Agree with the sentiment, but I put this race up at 9/10. There was some fantastic racing today, people seem to be skipping over that.
      The Vet vs Web battle was fascinating, and is hugely controversial. I know this won’t be popular, but I’ve got more respect for Vettel after today. He knew he could win it, and he made sure he did. It shows a more ruthless side to his racing character. This is a competitive sport after all.
      Mercedes pushed the Red Bulls for 80% of the race and looked at one point like they could win it. Raikkonen vs Hulkenberg was great. Mclaren are already looking quicker, but yet more systems issues…
      The list goes on, there’s so much to talk about, that’s why I’ve gone for a 9.
      Whatever your thoughts about Ros vs Ham, it didn’t actually affect the race that much, and Rosberg’s classy response in interviews reflected that he knew that was the case, the bigger picture is that both Mercedes cars were pushing the Red Bulls at one of their ‘home’ grand prix, and brought home great points.
      I was a bit bemused by the high marks given on here last week, I went for 6, it seems judging by the comments below I might be a bit out of synch again!

      1. I agree completely, there WAS fantastic racing but it wasn’t just the team orders that dampened the race in the end. The two Force Indias retired, and they looked like they had good pace, and Jenson Button retired and I believe he had the pace to possibly challenge Hamilton and Rosberg. The last 10 or so laps were a procession, but everything up to that was fantastic.

    7. Blackday for F1 when team orders becomes most important . Its like fixing a football or cricket match .

      1. Totally agree. I was more put off by Mercedes than Vettel. Rosberg should not be penalised because Hamilton ran his fuel low (or was mistakenly fuelled low with the expectation of a safety car). I was praying Lewis ran out of fuel on the last lap at least for simple justice. Rosberg could easily have overtaken safely. Hamiton is the one being protected – just sucks.

      2. It would only be like fixing football if the same team played each other. F1 is both a team and an individual sport, thats part of its appeal…well it is for me anyway.

  2. Disgusting, utterly disgusting.

    1. As a Mark Webber fan, I’m unhappy but not because the way it happened but because of the result. Mark lost a race…

      I think in the end Mark did amaizingly to try and keep Vettel behind. It was already a tough job considering it’s 2 DRS zones one after the other. How he defended after his stop and then just before losing the lead was amaizing. And mindblowing considering they are team mates.

      He’s not happy. But that’s the way it should be. The podium conferece said it all. Good for Vettel to step on it (as Mark himself did in Silverstone 2011) and good for Mark to speak his mind. Better luck next time, we already know Seb’s the star within the team, and it’s up to him to fight as hard as today.

      That’s what F1 should be. You got both ends of the string today: Red Bull and Mercedes. Red Bull, while unhappy I guess between bosses, do the right thing. Mercedes was a disgrace… Rosberg could’ve easily passed him… was it his fault Lewis was underfueled? defo not, so sod it.

      1. It also seemed at Mercedes that they didn’t want to spoil “their star” today. I mean, they did a lot to bring Lewis to the team, and to demote him to 4th… wouldn’t have been cool ! :P

        1. if there’s a vacancy in Lotus or McLaren next year, Nico should apply. I feel sorry for him.

          1. @adityafakhri Its good for Nico that he got to see the true picture today…

        2. please guys look at the graphs about the race and you ll see hamilton was in front safely before being told to back off. the team made a mistake with his fuel so they did not want to take his position away. Anyway team orders will always be awkward because we enjoy racers during the race . but remember that prior to races hundreds of people have worked their socks off and they deserve points and respect. I do not like T.O. but they are part of the sport and snotty rebel vettel was direspectful but that makes him human and so much more interesting than the usual PR world of F1. the battle with mark was amazing, we don;t see that at all races. Coulthard was very reflective and spot on.

      2. Probably Webber is not unhappy about Vettel just passing him, Mark probably had a lot of pace that he saved in the previous stints but knowing that the team had asked them to “bring the car home” he would need to just cruise arround. Then, it is not just a matter of Vettel going arround him, the problem is that just one of RB drivers actually play according to plan while the other took an “unfair” advantage.

        Clearly I am not sure about this, but I guess that for all RB team to be so unhappy with a victory, the big picture must be bigger than just a move.

        1. Continuing with this line of tought, when Vettel said to the team “Webber is to slow, get him ou of the way” this message probably found is way to Webber who answered by opening a 4s gap in the following laps. I know that this is not conclusive, but probably Webber just feels that he has been disrespected on multiple ocassions.

          And we cannot just watch the gap that VET put on WEB at the end of the race, we cannot know what that unnecesary battle did to a fresh set of hards (which probably haven’t been heating quickly as the race had already been “decided”). I am not a fan of neither VET or WEB, but I believe in F1 as a team sport.

      3. I don’t care if Webber lost it or not. Since I’m not a fan-boy that’s not the source of my disgust, my disgust comes from the “sucker punch”. Fighting is on fair grounds.

        1. Plus 1 from me

        2. Vettel can be a good champion at times, but we always get to see his dark side from time to time. Same for Hamilton (and Alonso in the past). Lets hope for the rest of the season we see Webbers.

      4. @fer-no65 Excellent comment. I agree with you entirely.

        1. I am with you guys too on that account @magnificent-geoffrey, @fer-no65. Boo to team orders, if only all drivers ignored them …

      5. @fer-no65 Agree with you completely, it was Mark Webbers race today… Only yesterday we were talking about his poor start, but boy what a start today…

        Its a shame Vettel won today, but for me Mark is the winner… And you could see in Vettels behavior that he did wrong…

      6. The contrast between what happened with the Red Bull and Mercedes drivers was striking.

        At Red Bull both Mark and Vettel were capable of going quick at the end. They were a little ahead of their rivals and both were given orders to conserve car and fuel to the end, probably a little unnecessarily. Webber heeded those orders. Vettel disobeyed them and passed Mark. He may not have been able to pass if Mark had been expecting a fight and run a harder pace.

        At Mercedes Hamilton was so close on fuel he had to slow right down on the last lap. Brawn told Rosberg they were both capable of going faster, but it certainly seemed that Rosberg had the superior car at that point. Perhaps he’d saved his fuel a little better than his team mate.

        I think both teams made bad calls. This is race 2 of the season. They should have kept their drivers informed of the situation, but let them race to the end.

        Once team orders were issued though, the right thing to do is to follow them. You’d have to feel like you’re the victim of a significant injustice to go against those orders.

        Rosberg had it explained to him that both drivers were under orders to slow till the end. He stayed close in case something happened but ultimately followed the orders he was given. Vettel did the opposite when, in my opinion, he had less cause than Rosberg.

        1. I think both teams made bad calls. This is race 2 of the season. They should have kept their drivers informed of the situation, but let them race to the end.

          It raises the question, is it actually likely to cause more damage to teams in the long run to impose team orders when they are not strictly necessary, so early in the season?

          I can understand the obvious appeal of using team orders early doors with a pairing such as Alonso/Massa based on previous form with one teammate being vastly more competitive than the other. It just makes logical sense, especially after Alonso missed out on the drivers championship by the smallest of margins twice in the last three seasons. It is however perhaps no coincidence that the beginning of Massa’s long slump in form corresponds with the infamous “Felipe, Fernando is faster than you” episode.

          I seriously question the merits of applying team orders so early with the Vettel/Webber pairing given the relative competitiveness of both drivers. Webber could have easily taken the title instead of Vettel in 2010. In 2012 Webber led Vettel in the championship for much of the season. Sure, Vettel has won the previous three drivers championships but in my opinion, the team should be very convinced that their pseudo number 1 driver will outperform the other in order to justify the risk of irreperable damage to relationships potentially caused by imposing team orders like this.

          Is this a case of teams being too smart for their own good trying to play the long game, when if they would just let it play out naturally there would be no bad blood between the teammates? A race ending collision between teammates is obviously something the teams wish to avoid, but it’s worth debating that a breakdown in relationship as a consequence of team orders is a much greater risk to the team in the long run.

          Do the teams really have such a lack of faith in their drivers, that they believe the drivers need to be mollycoddled in order to avoid a potential catastrophic collision that takes both out of the race despite the massive potential repercussions?

          Ok we have the precedent of Turkey 2010, but other than that there is little in the way of evidence to suggest that team orders are necessary in order to avoid serious problems between teammates on track in recent years. The Hamilton/Button pairing at Mclaren coped fine without them and they had multiple bouts of close but fair racing between them at the front of the field. Their relationship as teammates remained intact.

          As for the case of Mercedes, I really don’t understand the decision, especially given that this is a brand new driver pairing. It’s not like they’ve been racing in the same team together for years and one driver has proven to be significantly better than the other. They now have to deal with an awkward self inflicted precedent whereby whichever driver is leading at the last pitstop automatically gets preference whilst the other driver is told to follow in his wake, even if he has much more pace. This is not a good scenario by any stretch of the imagination. All this just to ensure that they could achieve a 3-4 finish in the race. Is it really worth it? Why not trust your drivers not to take each other out instead?

          Both teams should have just risked the potential collision of teammates in my opinion. The negative repercussions are big if a collision occurs but ultimately the team and drivers will be able to deal with such an event and move on from it and it’s unlikely to happen often. On the contrary, a situation where one driver betrays the trust of another by ignoring team orders or feels that his teammate is being given preferential treatment is far more emotionally difficult to deal with and can leave wounds in a relationship which may never heal sufficiently.

          1. Webber could have easily taken the title instead of Vettel in 2010.

            Which would have been off he back of terrible reliability for Vettel’s car, and near perfect reliability for Webber’s.

            Webber is more competitive than Massa, when compared to his teammate, but not to an overwhelming extent.

          2. Webber could have easily taken the title instead of Vettel in 2010.

            Which would have been off he back of terrible reliability for Vettel’s car, and near perfect reliability for Webber’s.

            Webber is more competitive than Massa, when compared to his teammate, but not to an overwhelming extent.

            We’ve seen in the race one of the potential reasons for Seb’s increased unreliability over Mark – his refusal to heed messages from the team to slow down and manage his car home.
            It’s clear that this happens regularly with Seb frequently asking Rocky what the Fastest Lap is in the closing stages of the race for example.

          3. Great comment, @panache. The Mercedes team order were especially puzzling as it seemed neither driver was very happy with them. If Brawn hadn’t imposed, Hamilton would have been disappointed to lose the race because of fuel saving, but no more. Now, it will be awkward if Rosberg and Hamilton get close to each other by the end of a race.

          4. @adrianmorse Thanks, although I realize now that the third paragraph in my comment doesn’t really make sense in this instance as it was the pseudo number 1 driver who was supposed to hold position behind his teammate on this occasion. :)

            The fact that Rosberg was so much faster than Hamilton in this race makes the issue of team orders at Mercedes even more confounding. I think it is evident that Rosberg could have easily passed Hamilton in the DRS zone(s) with very low chance of contact or a long drawn out battle between them. Once Rosberg was passed he would have pulled away quickly and both drivers could then settle into fuel saving again.

            I find it interesting that people think adhering to team orders demonstrates trust and respect for the team principle because team orders could be interpreted from the opposite perspective as demonstrative that the team principle doesn’t have enough trust or respect in his drivers to keep things clean on track.

            It also occured to me retrospectively that the failed attempt to impose team orders at Red Bull might actually have caused a higher risk of the drivers taking each other out as Webber in particular was clearly fuming at the betrayal when suddenly Vettel was all over him trying to overtake. He was very stern in his defence on track until he apparently backed out of it and allowed Vettel to pass him instead of cutting him off on the outside.

    2. Really don’t feel the best after watching that race. A real ugly feeling…

      1. @ivz Agree, as I said it was the gloomiest podium I have ever seen, nobody seems happy…

    3. Could’nt agree more.

      My first 1.

      Pathetic, RedBull, pathetic. Even worse than the sad Fernando is faster than you incident…

      1. I don’t get it.

      2. @imarlab – I assume that 1 is for Red Bull telling the drivers to hold station so Mark Webber could win.

        1. I presume you mean “so that they would finish ahead of the mercs”?

          1. @hey – The Merc’s ended up around 10 seconds off, with Hamilton struggling.

    4. Disgusting, utterly disgusting.

      +1. Only the second race of the season and F1 marked a new low. If I were at the track, I would ask my money back.

    5. Indeed, it makes me think perhaps I waste my time watching F1 races.

  3. Wish Rosberg had done the same! he was robbed.

    1. Traverse (@)
      24th March 2013, 9:47

      Ham is the No.1 driver though, so Rosberg will have to get used to it.

      1. Nico robbed off a podium place. Shame on the team, but that’s not unusual when the team principal is Ross Brawn.

        1. I just don’t get this. Rosberg robbed because he wasn’t handed the place by Hamilton? Rosberg was asking to be let past after he’d tried to pass and hadn’t been able to make it stick.

          At some point the team also had to point out that they were low on fuel (both drivers probably) and that continually racing each other would be risky for the team and them. This reminds me of when Button went past Hamilton when the latter had followed team orders to turn down his engine setting – and was caught by surprise (but defended successfully). I get the feeling Rosberg may have been genuinely faster, as Hamilton acknowledged as such, but still I don’t see why anyone should be annoyed he didn’t get a free pass on Hamilton after failing to race past.

        2. Hmmm..I am no Ross Braun fan, but..but this guy has an amazing record..am certain also him being at Mercedes had a bearing on Hamilton joining them..So unless you know what you’re talking about please refrain from commenting..now if your talking about Whitmarsh my answer would be totally different..since he has been at Mclaren there has been a steady decline..Whereas the aforementioned Braun there has been an improvement..but that’s just my point of view..there iss a big difference today..The red bull team didn’t do as they were told but the Mercedes did..in the end its about the team..Vettel as 2 world championships you can’t argue about that but..but …but what an ass!!

          1. @mosbourne1122: This guy has an amazing record because he is good with all the politics. He knows how to get things done politically, which is contrary to sportsmanlike. I know what I’m talking about, I can say what I want to, I don’t have to refrain if it is not to your liking, go around the page you’ll find many people saying the same stuff as me.
            Respect to Lewis for repairing damage.

            Oh and yes, I’ll give you the fact that Rosberg being a compliant driver did not pull a Vettel on Webber today. From that pov, the entire Merc unit is better than the Bulls.

      2. Yup – Not wasting points on the number 2 driver is a big reason he left Mclaren – Like it or not, Alonso shows the way you need to operate if you want to win, given the tightness at the top nowadays.

        1. Traverse (@)
          24th March 2013, 9:55

          +1

        2. It is easy to understand team orders in latter part of the season, but it’s only 2nd race for this year and Merc already applying team orders?

          Rosberg was taking better care of his car and team was practically lying to him during the race as they justified the decision by telling that “Lewis could also go faster” while Lewis barely made it to the end.

          This is not good for F1.

          1. I didn’t see any evidence for Rosberg taking better care of his car.

          2. @matt90, the evidence is that Hamilton was out of fuel, but Rosberg had some to spare.

            Hamilton blew all of his – presumably by running high engine modes for half a GP. Rosberg managed to keep up without doing that. But he wasn’t allowed to take advantage.

          3. Brawn has come out and said there was a fuel problem on Hamilton’s car. Ham didn’t enjoy this podium at all.

          4. That means you’re assuming that they definitely had the same fuel level and that Hamilton didn’t have a problem which increased his consumption. If it is all down to engine modes, then you are right and the pressure of running in the dirty air clearly required a lot more fuel. However, that is still not necessarily a case of ‘Rosberg taking better care of his car.’ That is a case of ‘Rosberg was in a position to afford turning a switch on his wheel down a notch.’ But until we hear more, nobody knows exactly why Hamilton needed to save so much, and that is why Rosberg having more fuel left is not evidence.

          5. I just think its good to see Mercedes competing nearer the front of the grid..its only the second race of the season with the new pairing..Mercedes leave this weekend in much better shape than Red Bull..lets see how the season pans out..although there is no doubt currently and for some time now Red Bull are the team to beat..Rosberg did as he was told..Hamilton did as he was told..when you’re part of a team that’s the way it got to be..Lets hope its the beginning of the end for the Red Bull Dominance..I agree with one of the previous comments its boring otherwise…

  4. 1. In my mind Webber won this race in front of Rosberg.

    1. @cyclops_pl – How did Webber win this race? Vettel took him fair and square.

      1. Traverse (@)
        24th March 2013, 9:50

        It was a brilliant battle between the two Bulls!

      2. Yes, and suddenly after Seb’s whining he started to lap 1-1.2 secons slower.

        1. @cyclops_pl – What, so according to you, Vettel complaining that Webber was slower is a crime, but Rosberg wanting Hamilton out of the way is fine (and deserving of 2nd place ahead of Ham)?

          1. I think those were 2 very different phases of the race. When Vettel complained on the radio (which was long before Webber turned his engine down and Vettel was presumably told to do the same), we don’t know if he’d been told to hold station or if both were actually pushing to their maximum and Vettel just wanted a favour passing. Rosberg’s was different as we know the full circumstances.

      3. @ david-a
        I wouldn’t call it fair when you are asked to switch your engine to coast to the end of the race and your team mate ignores that fact. Exciting battle tho.

        1. If Webber had his engine turned down he had plenty of time to turn it back on, Vettel did not overtake him in a single moment of blistering speed, he was coming at him, than tried once did not work than tried again on next lap, plenty of time for Webber to mumbojumbo the engine power back on.

      4. After webber turned his engine down.

        1. Sorry, this came up out of order to the intended comment. Ignore.

    2. @cyclops_pl – the team orders were actually against Vettel, so Vettel did it on his own initiative and superior pace. Don’t you like seeing proper, fair fights?

      1. The most awkward podium ever?

        1. @aimalkhan – quite probably! ;) The tension before the podium in particular could be cut with a knife!

          1. OmarR-Pepper (@)
            24th March 2013, 16:12

            yes, but Vettel showed today that he`s a totally “true” racer, as Hamilton.
            (ham’s face was because he doesn’t like “gifts”)

      2. I don’t see it as a fair fight when both drivers are told to turn down their engines and manage tyres and seb goes out does a quick out lap when the team has told him to match a target lap time. Teams orders have ruined this race in my mind especially with mercedes as well.

        1. @tomand95 – I’m sure that Silverstone 2011 wasn’t a fair fight when Webber ignored team orders.

          1. Mark didn’t pass seb. Silverstone 2011 was just like lewis and nico today, but the bulls were going much faster in that race.

          2. @tomand95 – Nevertheless , Mark tried to pass, after his team told him to “maintain the gap”. He even got alongside at one point.

      3. @vettel1 You don’t see it do you. Red Bull lays down the strategy, when Vettel is leading Vettel gets the victory and the other way around, besides it not always happen the other way around. The problem here is that Red bull and Mark Webber raced the way they raced because they knew that the other side of the garage wouldn’t attack when they were vulnerable, because many times during the race they put each other in less than perfect conditions, the difference is that Webber follows the team and Vettel just sucker punches at any chance. If you want to fight, do it cleanly from the get-go.

        1. @peartree – nobody was stopping Webber from fighting back, but he fell way back towards the end of the race. Webber could’ve easily just turned up the pace if he was capable of doing so but he wasn’t, so it worked out well in the end didn’t it?

          1. don’t you remember Red Bull problem with tyre? favouritism biased your view, mate.

          2. How do you know he wasn’t capable?

          3. @dvc Since he didn’t chase after Vettel.

          4. @david-a that doesn’t mean he couldn’t. It just means that he continued to do what the team told him to do: run with the engine turned down.

          5. @vettel1 The team had already told Mark that Vettel wouldn’t attack, so he was on the hards and in savings mode, that said It really doesn’t matter if Seb was faster or not.

          6. @dvc – He had plenty of time to chase after Vettel. There was the way he had to defend off Vettel after his stop, for starters.

          7. @david-a: Yes, he defended the position vigorously after coming out of the pits, and managed to do it on cold tyres. If you’ve been following the details, then that’s usually the point at which if team orders are going to be issued then that’s the last chance. Orders are usually issued after the last pit stop. So both drivers were going to give it everything.

            After that both were told to ease off. Webber did. Vettel didn’t. That’s what they’ve said. Once Vettel had overtaken there is no evidence to suggest that Webber pushed on to get the position back. On the contrary it seems he maintained the engine map he was ordered to use, even though Vettel passed him. Maybe he thought Vettel was going to run out of fuel, but his pace didn’t change from when he was told to turn the engine down.

          8. @dvc – But why stick so rigidly to team orders, when the other guy wasn’t doing so? Did Webber have no fuel in reserve (while Vettel did)?

          9. @david-a This is going to sound silly to you, but I think it is in keeping with Webber’s character: I think he was making a point to the team. He was saying, I can follow orders.
            If he had raced with Vettel after he overtook him, they would just of said well they were both racing. This way he keeps the moral high ground.

        2. +1
          I lost respect for Seb. Because when Webber got instruction, no matter what in the end he obey it (although still angry).
          2011 Silverstone? Mark could have passed Seb, but in the end he didn’t.

          1. @adityafakhri – The fact that he didn’t pass isn’t necessarily because because he was obeying team orders.

          2. Vettel was doing the right thing, trying to pass Webber, but team orders are important so Vettel was not fair with Webber and his team.
            Was a shame not to see the real pace of Alonso’s ferrari

          3. firstLapNutcaseGrosjean (@)
            24th March 2013, 11:28

            @david-a @vettel1
            “After the last stop the team told me the race was over and we turned the engine down to go to the end,” said Webber.
            This didn’t happend with Vettel in Silverstone. So, if Webber is right, and I think it is, then obvious, the battle wasn’t fair. Plus, you can’t say Vettel is fair, after he said to the radio to let him pass, because Webber is slow(so slow that he put another second gap between them).

          4. http://www.yallaf1.com/2012/12/06/briatore-joins-montezemolo-in-criticising-schumacher/

            “The only one who helped Ferrari was Webber,” he added, referring to Vettel’s Red Bull teammate Mark Webber, who is in Briatore’s management stable.

            That should’ve been enough to get Webber out of the RB cockpit.

        3. Yeah i agree vettel clearly break the instructions given to him,it was clear from the post race interview with horner and marko , gloves are off now I dont think vettel get any more favors from webber

  5. Why should Nico suffer for because of Hamiltons fuel issues?

    1. It was disappointing but let this thing die down a bit and get all the facts first. For all we know, Rosberg probably had the same issues.

      1. What let it lie like Phillipe Alonso is faster than you. Nico should have been allowed to pass full stop as for Vettel another non team player.

        1. another multiple WDC who isn’t done yet.

    2. Agreed, he should have been allowed to pass Hamilton and have a go at the bulls. It was a poor decision by Brawn but nothing Lewis could have done… had he have let him through that would have been disobeying Brawn himself- not the thing to do in your 2nd race for the team.

      Bad call by Merc, especially as the difference between 3rd and 4th is not that great anyway.

  6. 9/10

    Amazing racing

    Only negatives Button/Mclaren pitstop woes and team orders for Ros/Ham and Vet/Web.

    1. No more than a 6.

    2. the negatives are that no one can catch redbull, just like last season, when any of the two are in front u hardly see anyone making a move for first and succeeding , did u see how easily vettel went past hamilton, i mean way too easily, i wouldn’t think alonso could have done much if he stayed on also.

    3. Deserves a 1. Horrible situation with Rosberg. Just plain horrible. Robbed.

    4. Forgot to mention the pitstop issues for Force India being another negative. That was a real shame given their pace this early in the season.

  7. team orders ruined fight for third and whole race. 6/10

  8. 7/10

    Good job (eventually) by Vettel. The wheel to wheel scrap between the RBRs was the highlight.
    Rosberg should have just DRS’d Hamilton on the final lap if he wanted 3rd so badly.
    Shame about Alonso. Massa woke up in the closing stages.

    1. finally someone i totally agree on! +1

  9. The first half was good but apart from a few incidents the latter part of the race was a bit of a dull anti-climax.

    6 overall

  10. Sviatoslav Andrushko (@)
    24th March 2013, 9:48

    But race itself was pretty exciting.

  11. teams orders ruin the race : it a shame !!!!!

    1. Agreed. This makes F1 hard to admire. You heard Webber basically admit Vettel ignored team protocol re the guy in front and webber was coasting to victory looking after his tyres and fuel but Vettel thought stuff it. No one was happy on that podium

  12. Did Button make 1 less stop than the Mercs and Red Bulls? He had great pace after the pitstop blunder. Would he have been in the mix for a podium, or dare I say it, even a potential win?

  13. Traverse (@)
    24th March 2013, 9:49

    McLaren clearly haven’t learnt their lesson from the 2011 British GP. Yet more pitstop issues -_-

  14. Weak… 4/10 from me. Maybe I’m being too harsh but there was way more politics in this race than I could handle. I respect seb as a driver and think he’s an amazing talent, but I don’t like his attitude and his sense of entitlement.

    1. great comment

      1. mark did the same thing in silverstone 2011, u cant hack at Seb for anything, you can only say thanks for both of them giving us the best battle in the last couple of years

        1. If you can’t ‘hack’ him for anything, then perhaps you can tell me why he apologised?

          1. @john-h It’s just PR talk, I think he never should have apologized, and i don’t believe and in fact hope he didn’t mean what he said.
            It wasn’t fair towards him for the team to order him to relinquish a victory, it’s just the second race and they both have equal chances for the WDC, so why tell them to hold position ?
            If people are going to say tyres, Well Seb was on mediums and Mark on Hards, , and Seb took better care of them and had more pace, and if mark was worried about his tyres then he shouldn’t of battled him.
            It all comes down to the team being at fault for putting both of them in this position of guaranteeing results before the race is over, or even begun.
            Also the whole thing with Mark having his engine turned down, Seb passed him in two laps, not within a flash, so he had plenty of time to adjust.
            I think Sebastian did the right move, provided us with great racing(from both of them), and IMO Mark would have done the same as his history with defying team orders proves this.
            Thanks to Mark’s sense of entitlement and everyone backing him because he’s the “underdog”, and stupid RB PR this thing was blown way out of proportion, which deprived Seb from enjoying a thoroughly deserved win

    2. Sense of entitlement (all race drivers have it) is what Webber felt when he came in 2nd at the end. Vettel was faster as usual is all.
      If the positions were reversed and Webbo had done the same people would glorify him and call Vettel a whining little *****. Goes to show peoples general dislike of the guy. Yes he was ruthless and ruthless wins Championships (of witch Vettel has 3), always has always will. He should be

  15. Bob (@bobthevulcan)
    24th March 2013, 9:50

    Good battles up and down the field, and no shortage of dicy moments as well, particularly around the pit exit and Turn One. However, the Vettel/Webber and Rosberg/Hamilton disputes were disappointing, and did take the sheen off the race for me. Overall, a solid 7.

    1. @bobthevulcan – I wasn’t bothered by the former because the team orders were just ignored anyway but the latter I agree was quite disappointing, especially considering Hamilton himself admitted Rosberg was faster (although whether that was just to salvage the relationship I don’t know).

      1. Why would Hamilton need to try & save his relationship with Rosberg? Hamilton never asked to finish 3rd. He didn’t block Rosberg unnecessarily & even admitted on the podium that he didn’t feel right being up there because Nico was considerably quicker than he was. Ross Brawn dictated the orders & both drivers followed them. If Nico feels hard done by Lewis, then he’d be an idiot.

      2. firstLapNutcaseGrosjean (@)
        24th March 2013, 10:56

        @vettel1
        “After the last stop the team told me the race was over and we turned the engine down to go to the end,” said Webber.
        So, Vettel is not so fast as he seems to be at TV.

        1. @sorin – nothing was stopping Webber turning his engine back up though, unless he used up too much fuel early on in which case Vettel should’ve passed him anyway.

  16. I feel really sorry for Rosberg (I feel he should’ve been allowed to pass) but the strategy was thoroughly interesting and the Red Bull’s fighting at the front was brilliant! I was quite disappointed though with the ridiculous number of pit-stop foibles – Force India in particular just looked amateurish.

    On another note though, what was Fernando Alonso (and Ferrari) thinking? It was a mistake on Alonso’s part for hitting Vettel but it wasn’t a huge issue and he should’ve just pitted – instead though he failed to finish quite spectacularly.

    1. Hahah the race had so much drama and action that I completely forgot about Alonso. All his fault it has to be said. I was shouting at the screen when he didn’t pit at the end of lap one. It was always going to end badly. Even if his wing stayed fixed he would get a flag (is it black and orange?) for dangerous car and would be forced to pit anyway.

      1. @panache – yes, you are right with the black and orange flags and I agree entirely – his team should’ve seen the screens and told him to pit. The only reason I could see for him staying out is if he was trying to not go onto another set of inters, but that’s hardly a reason now considering he failed to finish!

        1. (@vettel1) (@panache) Why did Alonso decide to stay out? Seems strange, he’s normally very good at strategy etc.

          1. @sgt-pepper

            Why did Alonso decide to stay out?

            It’s beyond me also! I could only conceive the possibly he was trying to do as I have said above (that seems to be Alonso’s sentiment) but they should have recognised the fact it wasn’t going to stay on and so if he hasn’t crashed he would’ve still lost spadefulls of time – it seemed a bit suicidal keeping him out to me.

            Dissapointed Webber didn’t give Vettel a well deserved punch in the face after his “I’m in the middle” smugness.

            That would’ve broken the tension at least!

    2. (@vettel1) Absolutely agree with you on feeling bad for Rosberg, though I’ll hand it to Hamilton that he admitted Rosberg deserved it on the podium.

      Dissapointed Webber didn’t give Vettel a well deserved punch in the face after his “I’m in the middle” smugness.

    3. On another note though, what was Fernando Alonso (and Ferrari) thinking? It was a mistake on Alonso’s part for hitting Vettel but it wasn’t a huge issue and he should’ve just pitted – instead though he failed to finish quite spectacularly.

      To be fair, I can’t find a reasonable explanation for why they did not pit him! I mean, it’s clear it was simply a gamble in order to try and stay out a couple more laps and switch to the slicks but there was NO WAY (and I mean NO!!! way in hell) that front wing would have held on on the straights. Wheter that was Alonso’s decision or the teams, it doesn’t really matter now.

      To be fair, Alonso couldn’t actually see the state his front wing was in anyway so Stella shouldn’t even have given him the option to stay out. They simply took a gamble they couldn’t afford.

      1. @tony031r

        To be fair, Alonso couldn’t actually see the state his front wing was in anyway so Stella shouldn’t even have given him the option to stay out. They simply took a gamble they couldn’t afford.

        Agreed – it was a simple option in my view: stay out and have the front wing fall off or come in and have the opportunity to salvage some points. A bit of a no-brainer don’t you think?

        1. or come in and have the opportunity to salvage some points

          And he easily would have, considering Massa’s pace on the mediums and the fact that many hit trouble of sorts out there. Dumb. Simply dumb.

  17. I quite liked for the first 40 laps, especially when Vettel passed Webber. The ending was miserable though. And not even slightly fair…. 5/10

  18. Utterly boring unitl the Vettel/Webber duel. 7/10

  19. and you were afraid of team orders from ferrari. haha.

    1. @naylamp – I assume you mean from Mercedes? If so, yes I dislike what they did.

      1. JP (@jonathanproc)
        24th March 2013, 11:58

        Why would he mean only from Mercedes? Red Bull gave the exact same orders. The only difference is that their driver chose to disobey the order.

        1. JP (@jonathanproc)
          24th March 2013, 12:11

          @vettel1 In response to you

        2. @jonathanproc – true, but I read it as he didn’t like the way in which the Mercedes team orders held out (like Ferrari’s in Korea last year for example). I think it was meaning as in afraid of team orders akin to Ferrari’s, which of course Red Bull’s weren’t because they were just ignored.

    2. Sviatoslav Andrushko (@)
      24th March 2013, 10:13

      It was clearly demonstrated through the race that Massa isn’t a leader at Ferrari. He was nowhere comparing to the leaders. Apparently, Domenicali has to claim Massa is second.

      1. Well, he always has been mediocre in wet conditions and apparently Ferrari is not that good with low temperatures. I’ll wait until a proper dry race before I come to a conclusion.

        1. I am sorry, but… what are you saying? Ferrari bad at low temperatures? How low were the temperatures today?? And what about a week ago in Melbourne?
          Massa is just and average driver, he had the chance today to show what he can do, but he didn’t. I am more convinced after today race that his only preoccupation is Alonso. The start was horrible. And after Alonso got out of the picture, he just drove his mediocre race.

  20. The first half was a 10/10, the second half was a 2/10. So 6/10 overall.

  21. team orders made it too uncomfortable even for me a massive LH fan. Hope Nico gets this favour back soon.

    1. Thinking the same. Even though I want Hamilton to do better, not like this. I don’t want to see both those drivers in bad favour to each other. The driver with the better pace at the time should really be getting past. He could have easily eased passed with Hamilton needing fuel saving.

      Question is, did he actually need to save fuel, or was it just a way to give Rosberg a message to stay behind ‘fairly.’

      1. Not the first time Hammy has been fuelled light is it

      2. Hamilton was saving fuel for practically half the race, I truly wonder if they made such a large error in fueling and whose all was it. If it was a team call then Rosberg would have been similarity under fueled and dialing it up to charge would also have put him in dire straits. The fact remains he obviously had more on board at the time and could have safely gotten by Hamilton.

        There is another thing to consider, while it was not his fault he had a failure in AUS, Rosberg was behind in the driver championship at the time and while Mercedes would have the same overall tally for the race taking 3 points off Hamilton may make the difference between a flashy position in the drivers championship and falling to the wayside. Lets not forget Vettel beat Alonso by 3 points in the last Championship.

        Not saying I expect Hamilton to win the championship but Mercedes do need to really justify the decision to bring him on for that fat salary and the best way is to flatter their driver at every point.

  22. Exciting race despite team orders near the end.

    Some questionable events though:

    -Alonso staying out??
    -STR letting Vergne go, feel sorry for Pic
    -Force India pit stop fail….
    -Hulkenberg making slight contact with Raikkonen, luckily nothing happened

    Good race from Grosjean and Webber

  23. Possibly the most political race since “Crashgate”.

    1. But we didn’t know it was political then, did we? I’d wager to say this is the most political race in F1 history.

      1. More political than the Prost-Senna or Mansell-Piquet battles of the 80s with drivers getting preferential engines, (generally) fewer pit stops…
        Less political than Austria 2002? USA 2002?
        Somehow I doubt it.
        Intriguing none the less, will be a very interesting few weeks between now and China

  24. I gave it a 9/10 can someone tell me why Mercedes didn’t let Rosberg by Hamilton he was faster?

    1. Traverse (@)
      24th March 2013, 9:58

      Hamilton is the No.1 driver. End of. :-)

      1. I’ve not yet seen proof that Hamilton is top dog, not yet anyway

  25. Far too much tyre saving, DRS made passing far too easy in most instances & the 2 DRS zones caused artificial/gimmickey passing/re-passing in a few different cases which just showed how utterly ridiculous the DRS placement was.

    Red Bull fight was good, Mercedes team orders sucked!

    4/10.

    1. DRS worked fine, can’t see what you’re all upset about, VET even made his race winning pass in a non DRS area.

      1. DRS didn’t work fine, It made passing stupidly easy again in most cases!

        Yeah Vettel’s pass was outside the DRS zone & thats exactly why it was so fun to watch, However most of the other passes were made far too easy purely because of this stupid gimmick!

  26. 2 out of 10. One for Bianchi, half for Vettel-Webber duel, half for Massa’s late charge. Team orders led to -ve points.
    Vettel’s demeanour was as bad as Mercedes’s. Rosberg should have been allowed to pass. The two of them were so slow that they lost over 3 seconds in the last lap to Massa.

    1. The Next Pope
      24th March 2013, 10:05

      Here we go again, Bianchi really?
      How about Grosjean and Hulkenberg? Bottas surely deserves a mention?

      1. Yep, Bianchi really. Bottas did pretty well. Hulkenberg only proved what we’ve known so far, that he’s good in changeable conditions. Grosjean was made to look like a king by a Finn who stuggled like a pig..

  27. In normal circumstances the man in front has the choice to pit first when both front runners are from the same team. Seb clearly ignored protocol here and shows he’s prepared to win at any cost. Great race though. Webber unlucky but so was Rosberg which was team orders. Multiple 21.

  28. I was shocked at how much fuel HAM needed to save. Shocking battle between the Red Bull drivers. Will be interesting how that one pans out. I voted 7.

  29. What did Mercedes/Ross Brawn do? Utterly disgusting. Rosberg was robbed of a podium in broad daylight.
    Absolutely sorry for Mark. He did a brilliant job at the start. His teammate does not understand the meaning of holding station.

  30. 5/10, quite exciting at start but really no quality racing in the later half, some good driving by webber though to defend his place.

  31. Tyre saving sucks, 1/10.

  32. Aditya (@adityafakhri)
    24th March 2013, 9:55

    FOUR
    Ross Brawn has just Barrichello’d Rosberg. *** Ross? Nico has been running better this whole weekend!
    and next time Webber issued an order, I think he shouldn’t obey it like Sebastian do today. no matter whay the consequences. just racing! If only Red Bull let them race before (2010-2011), there won’t be any awkward circumstances like this.

  33. Decent race, the best bit was the team radio. Fascinating stuff. Rosberg rightly ****** off, and Webber looks furious at Vettel. Clear refusal to obey team orders from Vettel there though.

    Great action though. Disappointed with Kimi today, a few stupid errors and took way too long passing Perez.

  34. Traverse (@)
    24th March 2013, 9:57

    Currently watching the podium interview, Webber is FUMING!!!

  35. The racing was great but this race left a very bad taste in my mouth. 7/10.

  36. The sight of Hamilton standing on the podium, smiling and waving as if he actually accomplished something, is revolting.

    1. When asked by Brundle, Hamilton said “It doesn’t feel right being up here”.

    2. He wasn’t smiling, and if you listened to him he said “Nico should be up here.” I have a lot of respect for him for saying that.

      1. How happy must Ham be not to be with Mclaren anymore..how many points I wonder have their ineptitude in pit stops cost them over the past 2 seasons..??!!! Button must be spitting nails!! I would be..!!!

    3. Did you see a different podium than the rest of us? Hamilton was clearly unhappy and acknowledged that Rosberg deserved 3rd place.

      1. Give Nico the trophy then

    4. It was a forced smile (at best).

    5. And in the light of this you’re gonna have to wonder, WHY did Ross Brawn bother with team orders there? Rosberg would have easily passed, it wasn’t like he was pulling what Vettel pulled on Webber, they weren’t gonna risk anything, they are not fighting for the title. Why bother trashing your image (and Hamilton’s as well), create tension in the team and between your drivers, for what? Because Brawn decided it’s best to gift Hamilton his first podium for Merc like this? So, for nothing basically…

      I don’t know which decision is more stupid, Brawn’s to contain Nico or Ferrari’s to not pit Alonso…

  37. Was Vettel was told to stay behind? There are strange comments if he wasn’t, Rocky’s ‘explaining to do’ comment, Christian Horner’s ‘this is silly’. Villeneuve vs Pironi all over again.

    1. Scrap that, Webber’s podium interview has made it abundantly clear that was the case. Can of worms right open.

  38. Very well played on the podium, Mark Webber, very well played!

  39. 7/10 great start, awful finish. Hammy pit, FI went bush league, Maldo as F1’s official source of comedy…

  40. What an uneventful, somber Malaysian GP! Vettel did well, his pass was great to watch, good stuff for entertainment, but he could have done it in the straights with the DRS too so I’m not going to say anything about that. I like Horner’s attitude, he was right it was silly.

    Rosberg is robbed. Thanks to the calculation mistakes made by the fat unsportsmanlike Ross Brawn. He was fast all trough out qualifying, he had a solid car, his engineers did a solid work, Nico was himself more deserving of a 3rd place than Lewis, even though I like Lewis very much and I know that his hands were tied, but don’t rob a guy off a podium because of your poor calculations, typical Ross Brawn, you did it with Michael, now you’re doing the same with Lewis. Shame on you.

    I’m sorry Nico, I know you would have cherished it.

    1. 1/10.
      Drivers have agreed.

      1. Yeh Rosberg was mega in qualifying lol 6th 8 tenths behind Ham , same in AUS ham outqulified and outraced him , so lets not think Rosberg smashed Ham.

  41. ha good race. funny podium.

  42. Zantkiller (@)
    24th March 2013, 10:05

    I suggest that the rate the race is done after the podium interview.
    What was said and revealed on the interview changed everything and I wish I could change my score to something much lower.

  43. Overall I enjoyed it.
    It’s a shame that Rosberg wasn’t allowed to race but there was a lot of drama between the Red Bulls, loads of great racing lower down the field, interesting strategies and mechanical dramas – 9/10 for me.

    Will be interesting to see what, if anything, happens throughout the season thanks to Vettel’s determination to win regardless.

  44. 10/10. This is exactly what I want to see: the human element of the sport, with real drama. Can’t wait for Shanghai.

  45. Seriously I can’t remember a race when the WHOLE podium was decided by team orders, so early in to the season.

    Anyone who thinks Vettel won over Webber fair and square – just watch Webber lap times. One does not get 1 second slower all of a sudden without any technical problems. Also Vettel’s brilliant radio message does not leave ANY doubts.

    1. @cyclops_pl – I’m inclined to entirely disagree here: were you a supporter of Rosberg being reigned in behind a slower driver, as would’ve happened to Vettel had he not taken matters into his own hands? I like seeing the faster driver being allowed to race for victory, so provided their wasn’t a huge risk of both cars being eliminated I would support any trailing driver from the same team taking a punt at stealing the position.

      1. @vettel1

        If there really was an order to maintain status quo, then both drivers would have their engines reved-down. When you turning down the engine of the leader and not the other driver chasing him, you are not protecting the leader but placing him as a sitting duck. And this is exactly what Vettel has publicly demanded via radio. Also Mark wasn’t allowed to take his lead back, his engined was not reved-up again. Fair fight indeed.

        1. @cyclops_pl – I somehow doubt that. There is always a reason for such occurrences, be it fuel saving or for reliability.

        2. @cyclops-pl Why didn’t he turn his engine up? They can’t change engine modes via pit-wall, that has been forbidden for years.

      2. Did you see Vettel’s first attempt to pass? He nearly gave Mercedes a 1, 2 finish. That’s why Horner told him he was being silly.

        1. @hyakuyagami – He said it was silly because he disobeyed he team order, not because his attempt to pass was poor.

      3. @vettel1 For me few things make sense:
        1. Team orders? eventually- yes
        2. Team tactics/strategy? yes.
        3. Team orders at this early stage os the season? no!
        So it’s a double no from me. Not for Mercedes and RBR but for Mercedes and Vettel! Brawn made Merc look silly and Vettel made RBR look the same…

        1. @arrrang – I disagree because I admire racing drivers being racing drivers, but respect your sentiment.

          1. @vettel1 – you know I would love to see two drivers (even from the same team) race their wheels of for the whole season fighting for every inch of the track. No compromise. It’s a dream come true scenario. But saying that you admire racing drivers being racing drivers sounds (with all due respect) plain naive. It’s 2013, it’s how F1 has been like for the last X(30?) years, it’s loads of corporate money etc. Drivers represent the interest of their employers team wheter we like it or not. I got used to it but still don’t like it. I got used that the teams are guilty and I can criticise them for it. I’m not used to see an F1 driver pretending that this sport is all about speed only to explain his actions.. Team orders are against the sports spirit? sure. But what makes drivers against their teams better?

          2. @arrrang why shouldn’t we admire drivers being proper racers though? The good ‘ol days had its plus points, and if we can relive them it’s for the better as far as I’m concerned!

            Team orders are against the sports spirit? sure. But what makes drivers against their teams better?

            This article pretty much mirrors my opinion, so reading it will probably do my opinion justice more than I could!

          3. @vettel1 I agree with the principle of having proper racing drivers. But as far as my sight reaches I don’t see even one of those on the current grid. With all my symphaty to Alonso, Hamilton and respect for Vettel- they are not that kind. They are very fast, talented but suported by their teams, sponsor – crybabies. All of them capable of acting like a true racer- when they have good cards in hand but will hope for the team to help them when they can’t achieve their goals on their own… We have heard all of them claiming how much faster they were comparing to thei teammates in the past… For me calling Vettel a true racer (only because he was “not aware” or made a egoistic action) would be hypocrisy. Today I gained lots of respect for Rosberg for not braking team orders (wich he could done with ease) and Hamilton for saying loud that he believes that Nico deserved this podium. Brawn and Mercedes lost in my eyes. As for Vettel he just gave me another reason not to support him in the future..

  46. 7. The whole race was quite entertaining to watch up to lap 40-something, to be fair. As for the end, it was good fun watching Massa put in some sneaky overtakes and go from behind Perez to in front of Grosjean in 6 or so laps.

    Otherwise, the race in which all of the three best drivers of the world were put to shame either by their team mates, teams, stupid behaviour or stupid mistakes, topped by the grimmest podium I’ve seen in a long while.

  47. Mercedes got it so wrong, if only they had pitted Rosberg first they might have had a chance at winning.

    Heart goes out to Mark. If they had pitted Mark first in the final stint, he would have been way ahead. He was already leading by about 3 seconds from the PEDELAR before the stop.

    Really starting to hate the finger boy.

  48. Great racing between Vettel and Webber, and that too when team orders were against Vettel.

    That should shut up some of his haters.

  49. this race was a farce!

    the bit of respect i had for vattel / red bull is now gone, i feel sorry for mark webber, for being stuck in a team which will always favour their number 1 driver.
    mercedes also made me dislike them, at least we now know who their number one driver is, and again i feel sorry for rosberg.

    i give the race 5/10, i never think highly of races that vettel wins

    1. @rigi Would you rather have seen Vettel stuck behind Webber for 12 laps, with clearly the better pace (newer, softer tyres), just like we had to see with Hamilton and Rosberg?

      When Webber ignores team orders, he’s a racer. When Vettel ignores team orders, people crucify him. Go figure.

      1. @guilherme webber does not ignore team orders, that’s the problem… he explained on the podium, he was told the race was over and vettel wouldn’t go for an overtake.

        1. @rigi – Except that when he was told to hold station behind Vettel in 2011, he admitted to ignoring the team order.

          https://www.racefans.net/2011/07/10/webber-red-bulls-order-pass-vettel/

      2. What gives you the impression Vettel was faster, and it was not managing to the end?

        I think it is great that Red Bull cars raced each other but if Webber had pitted first he would have been ahead by about 4 secs at least . Also did it occur to you that Webber went on hards because he was given the information there would be no more racing after the final stop?

        Vettel is arrogant and disrespectful on global television. His comments “he is slow get him out of my way” clearly tells us what the attitude is within the team.

        1. @vishy They were running similar races. If Vettel turned his engine up, why didn’t Webber do the same and fight back? The team can’t control the engine by telemetry for, I don’t know, almost a decade now?

          I’ll wait for Keith’s pit stop strategies article to comment on Webber tyre choice, but remeber, Vettel had an extra set of tyres.

          Yeah, just like a certain Alonso saying “this is ridiculous” and the team duly proceeding to move Massa out of the way. I didn’t like Vettel’s radio either, that’s not the values I look up to in my favourite driver, but the team didn’t do anything to screw Webber.

  50. Rosberg passed Hamilton on the first DRS zone… If he were able to hold Lewis on the second one, I don’t think Ross would ask him to give the position back (it’s kind his fault too, he had his chance). But team orders in the start of the season always sucks…
    Vettel was the highlight of the race. In the early part of the race he said Red Bull that Webber was slow ( probably asking for a team providence). But in the end he ignored everything and rushed and passed Mark.
    Acted like a 2013 World Champion !

  51. Brawn and Newey strain msg to the drivers, “We need to talk”. Thats ugly. Apart from internal affairs, im applause for Hulk’s speed and fighting spirit which really make himself a true challenger for next few races.

  52. I don’t have a problem with Vettel racing as long as Webber is aware of that, and then they can fight to the finish. If Webber’s been told to turn his engine down then he’s obviously assuming Seb will do the same, and he then had hand tied behind his back in terms of the battle to begin with. It clearly caught him off guard.

  53. in the only lap that Fer managed he counter-passed Mark with a broken front wing…i think that says it all…
    -Avanti Fer-

    1. @zhaviator – he also fell back from Webber and then failed to pit and crashed out. What’s your point?

      1. Fell back from Webber???? Get a pair of spectacles,Max….

        1. @wsrgo – I apologise, I meant to say Vettel!

          1. @vettel1 Oh…okay. I must also apologise for being too confrontational!!

          2. @wsrgo – na it’s cool; I must just proof read my comments! :P

  54. Gave it 1 thanks to Vettel

  55. 10. Very exciting race, there will be a lot of talk, but from a spectator I enjoyed it. I’m quite surprised by the community. I mean, Red Bull is right to be upset, but us? We saw great racing, we saw a driver wanting to win without caring about team orders.

    Everyone would have loved Massa to defend from Alonso in Hockenheim 2010, Webber to overtake Vettel in Silverstone 2011. As a spectator I like when a driver wants to win no matter what.

    On the other hand, I’m sorry for Rosberg. He deserved a podium and he couldn’t properly fight for it.

    1. Best and fairest comment so far! sorry folks but Webber is not my favourite driver, shades of Coulthad ‘it was the track, the weather, the other drivers, my team mate…’

  56. I’m so tired of this, we can’t even call this racing anymore! It’s the second race of the season and already teams are deciding before the race which driver is allowed to be ahead! Yes there may be situations when team orders make sense, but to use them like this ruins it for everyone, including the drivers involved. Hamilton didn’t seem happy about a 3rd place his teammate deserved! What on earth did Mercedes gain from using team orders here? Were those few extra points for Hamilton really worth it? It sure didn’t look like he thought so! They wouldn’t have lost any points as a team by allowing Rosberg to race, who knows they may even have gained some if he managed to catch Webber. It’s unfortunate that Hamilton was low on fuel but that’s racing. If teams start ordering fixing positions for every little thing like that we may as well decide the outcome of the race before it even starts.

    1. +1, this was totally unnecessary, since Massa was way behind Roseberg.

    2. I believe the faces at the podium said everything about this race. Just awful.

  57. to DIZZY A, i will scream for luck and car when i see that it’s the fact,i will keep saying the same, and facts are what u see in the race results, i wish the contrary, i do, but looks like another redbull season.

    1. @ramysennaf1 It might or might not be a “Red Bull season”. 2 races into the year, and Red Bull have won one of them, having lacked race pace compared to Ferrari and Lotus as recently as last week.

      And what makes Vettel’s success down to “luck” more than any other driver? Taking pole positions? Winning races? Being better than your teammate most of the time?

      1. between us, have u ever seen a driver having lesser problems of whatsoever or even a dnf in more than 2 year period, i personally haven’t seen, and i insist on saying that vettel got the advantage of others having problems to win the last 2 titles, either with consistency helped by his most reliable car ever, i don’t deny he’s fast and agressive, but luck is too much this time around.

        1. Valencia.

          1. Korea

          2. Mechanical DNF in Abu Dhabi 2011, Monza 2012 as well, @ramysennaf1

  58. In Silverstone 2011 everyone was fuming at Red Bull because they told their drivers to hold station for second and third at the end of the race – Webber ignored the order, and people praised him for his real racer spirit. Now they again issued team orders to hold station for the lead of the race, with many laps of racing still left – Vettel ignored, and now people are bashing Vettel. I am sorry, but I just can’t wrap my head around this double standard.

    Watching Rosberg holding back behind Hamilton was already uncomfortable enough to watch. Watching the Red Bulls do the same for 12 laps would be farcical.

    1. In Silverstone they could have raced each other and finished claiming the same positions for the team anyway; in Malaysia they could have raced, knacked the tyres up and finished behind the Mercedes. That’s the difference.

      1. That would be a problem for Red Bull, to be sure, but I don’t see why the comunity here would be upset about it (actually I’m pretty sure most would be happy). Furthermore, they could also have crashed into each other in Silverstone.

        1. Yeah, but I guess it’s all about where the crossover is between the team’s priority and the drivers’, and how far one wants to take good-honest racing before pragmatism is allowed to take over. For example I think the team should have allowed the good-honest driving in Silverstone, but pulled rank (team over drivers) in Malaysia. I can see why people might have different valid opinions on that. I guess it’s all about what we see as “good reasons”. I know where I see the clear differences but I guess I’ll leave it alone anyway. It’s a Sunday morning for goodness sake, I have DIY to do! lol

      2. Speeding Helmet
        24th March 2013, 10:36

        Indeed! Totally different scenario. It makes a mockery of any car set-up instruction given by the team in the future because of the doubt about whether it might be a veiled team order or not.

    2. (@guilherme) Because Mark is;
      a) Far more likeable and honest.
      b) Not coming from an inherently screwed over position within the team, he’s the underdog etc.

    3. Difference being that Webber showed he could have passed, but he did not because he knew there was no point in doing it. He followed the orders.

      1. @philereid. I disagree strongly. Webber tried and just didn’t make it. He himself said so.

  59. Was a 7/10, but the “talking points” at the end made it a 9/10. I’m not really bothered by what happened in the grand scheme. I think Rosberg’s position is made less sour because no-one’s pretending that it shouldn’t have been Rosberg on the podium, and Seb’s just straight up confirmed himself as untrustworthy which makes things easier. It’s all very well saying “it’s racing” but the team agreed not to fight in order to save the tyres so that both cars would be ahead of the Mercs, and Seb middle-fingered his team and his team-mate and stole the race. It’s basic social rules; now I’ll like Seb to fail like I would for any common liar/thief.

    PS The difference between the situations is that Hamilton was always going to have to save fuel and be slower than Rosberg regardless, whereas Mark could easily have fought too but knackered both red bull’s tyres.

    And Seb’s just apologised! Bit too late mate. lol

    1. Agree entirely.

      The other difference is that Hamilton is quite prepared to pay back his teammate in a similar situation. I can’t quite see the two Red Bull drivers looking at it so amicably –

      “He is a great team-mate,” added Hamilton. “I will speak to the team, or apologise. I said to him he did a fantastic job.

      “Nico deserved to be where I am. With the position in the championship the team thought it was logical to stay in position, but Nico drove a smarter and more controlled race than me today.

      “Would I let him past in the future? I probably would.”

  60. 7/10 politics aside it was an eventful race. Webber had very right to be ****** as he was so much quicker in the final stint & pulling away before he was given the order to slow down & cruise to the finish only for Vettel to play the spoiled child. Should have been Webber, Vettel, Rosberg.

    Fuel & tire saving is a joke. I like the difference in tires giving many strategies a possibility but they should have enough sets to get through the race

  61. I have to say the fall out in the last 15 laps has rather left a bitter taste in my mouth. Webber on the podium looked like he’d love nothing more than to go into a dark room with Vettel and give him a right hook or two. There is no doubt that the racing between Vettel and Webber was absolutely sensational stuff, but it feels as though Mark was not fully prepared for that to happen until Vettel was right up his gearbox. I feel that was underhand from Vettel, if they’re going to race they should do it with both guys having full knowledge. And there was the stuff at Mercedes which was just ridiculuous, Rosberg should have been allowed to pass Hamilton. 6 out of 10. A shame really when the race probably merited an 8 on racing action.

    1. @debaser01 – The problem is, Webber has demonstrated he has no issues being “underhand” either, with regards to ignoring team orders.

      1. I presume you mean Silverstone 2011? Underhand is referring to the fact that Webber was under the impression BOTH cars would be managing the car and the situation to the end. Given Red Bull were clearly worried about making it to the end of the race with the tyres I cannot agree with Vettel ignoring the team order from Horner. Silverstone 2011 Webber might have ignored the order but Vettel would have been aware of that and kept his guard up; they both drove hard and fair and neither car was in danger of not finishing the race due to car/tyre issues that time. Vettel caught Webber off guard and that is the part that upset me and I think Webber as well. Webber loves to race hard, and if both of them had gone to the end with Vettel coming out on top then I am certain he would not have had a problem with that. He would have been disappointed sure but Mark Webber is the first to admit the better man won.

        1. I disagree. Maybe WEB was caught off guard when he came out of the pits but he held off VET then. He could then have turned is engine back up and defended (and I guess this is what actually happened). So the actual pass was fair and square. Arguably, he and his engineer should have pushed more on the inlap so he would have come out well ahead of VET, and avoided all this.

        2. Silverstone 2011 Webber might have ignored the order but Vettel would have been aware of that and kept his guard up

          Vettel came out of the pits near Webber in today’s race, and defended the position well. Then Vettel passed him on turn 4 of the following lap. How would Webber not have kept his guard up? Through total ignorance?

          They both drove hard and fair and neither car was in danger of not finishing the race due to car/tyre issues that time.

          How much more danger was there today? Hamilton was dropping back from the RBR pair with issues. The Red Bulls were pretty much fine.

  62. I’ve never rated a race as low as I have just done. I gave it a 2. It was depressing.

  63. 7.5, rounded down to 7. It was a good race with some great racing, but the win never looked like slipping from Red Bull’s grasp and the good battles were intermittent.

    .5 added for the ongoing handbags after the race!

  64. We all have lots of opinions on what is right/what isn’t but personally for a couple of hours there I was pretty highly entertained. 9/10

  65. I don’t get the hate on the Mercedes team order. Didn’t they do what Red Bull should have done? Hating on Vettel overtaking Webber when he shouldn’t, at the same time hating on Hamilton/Rosberg sticking to the team order? Hardly contradicting at all

    1. Speeding Helmet
      24th March 2013, 10:44

      Red Bulls order was to preserve both cars to ensure a one-two finish with no problems (no driver preference, even though Weber would have been quicker if he hadn’t deliberately slowed down on team instructions) – i.e. both drivers told to slow!

      Mercedes order WAS about driver preference and keeping the faster driver behind!

      Difference compared to the Silverstone order in 2011 was that it again fell into the driver preference category.

  66. I can’t understand why people feel the race was terrible because of the pit stop blunders, or the tense interteam rivalries. The politics, prat-falls and the passes all contribute to the excitement and drama. A dull 10 minutes at the end when everything settled down was the only negative.

  67. I gave it a 5. It started very well, and I enjoyed the formation running too because it was tense for a long while. The tension went the second that it became clear that Hamilton could not run at the pace of the Red Bulls. The bit of excitement from the Red Bulls was great, but cheapened upon hearing the circumstances of it. Watching the last 10 or so laps of coasting was incredibly dull, and overall I felt like I’d spent the race just waiting for something to happen that never really did. Plus, the DRS, particularly the second zone, was generally a joke. If we have to have DRS, it needs to be more like last week, with any overtaking happening right into the corner rather than halfway along the straight.

  68. 7/10 Decent race. Some good overtaking but the DRS was stupid. Lost so much respect for Vettel and Mercedes today. Ridiculous. 1/10 for that but purely on the actual race, it wasn’t bad, so I deem 7 a fair rating.

    Props to Bianchi on a good 13th finish.

  69. Gave it a 9. Despite the race turning out to be kind of anti-climatic, there was plenty of CLEAN action, suspense and surprising events.

    The race was sort of painful to watch from the perspect of (a Finnish) Kimi fan and Bottas didn’t quite make it to points. Some people should – once again – look at the instructions of the voting, you shouldn’t vote based on how much you like Pirelli’s tyres or team orders (which are completely legal).

    1. you shouldn’t vote based on how much you like Pirelli’s tyres

      But if the pirelli tyres affect the race in a way you dislike then I think you shoudl vote based on the tyres.

      I hate them, I hate the effect they have on the racing with tyre saving & stupid passing so i will vote races down if tyres play a big role.

      Same with the DRS, If passing is made stupidly easy its not getting a high mark from me!

      Today I gave it 4/10.

      1. Everyone’s on the same tyres, up to the teams to solve the puzzle. Give me ‘bubblegum’ tyres over processional racing every single time.

        1. You could have slightly more durable tyres & still have good racing.

          My problem isn’t with the tyres degrading faster than normal, Its the level of wear & the speed of drop-off.

          With things as they are you just have this stupid tyre saving all race & situations where drivers at different stages of wear are unable to race each other because of how massive an advantage fresh tyres are.

          Watching F1 now is so unsatisfying for me as the racing is becoming too artificial. I used to love watching a good race & a good racing scrap over positions, Don’t get the same level of excitement or enjoyment now because of these stupid artificial gimmicks.

    2. @tmekt – Yeah, I was hoping Bottas could catch Vergne for 10th.

      1. Yeah I would have won my money back from my other failed bets had he managed to do it.

  70. The race was entertaining to look at, wasn’t very entertaining to listen to. I found it quite fascinating, so I gave it a 7. Without the pit radios revealing all the team order nonsense it would have seemed quite different.

    Having them (the radio messages) so openly broadcast is quite risky for the sport and arguably damages it. Its one thing to speculate and joke about team orders, its another thing entirely to have them clearly heard and the frustrations of the drivers involved. Possibly going to be lasting fallout from this.

    1. Interesting point. Without team radio, we probably would have all been excited by the race and then would be totally puzzled by the mood on the podium!

  71. Team orders all around the front runners, an awful thing that left me with an overall bad taste when the race ended. Haven’t felt that way since a long time ago so I rated the race a 4. For many years people have criticized Ferrari for such orders but today it has been proven that all teams have being doing it openly or behind the scene when it was prohibited to do so.

  72. These bubblegum tyres are getting ridiculous.

    all race everyone was just saving the tyres, all you heard on the team radio feed on the pits channel was drivers been told not to race & to instead run to a delta time to conserve the tyres.
    thats why the mid part of the race was so dull, nobody was actually racing.

    also you had the dumb racing system making passing so ridiculously easy in many cases that it was just boring to see the passes occur.

    the best bit of racing in the drs zone was when raikkonen passed hulkenberg without using his drs as it wasn’t working. without his drs he got just alongside nico using the slipstream & then we had a real racing into the braking zone & a real overtake whihc kimi really had to work for at the end of it.
    just shows why drs should be banned!

    1. Agree with the DRS comment 100%.

  73. Good race…but would have liked if it was dry from the start..good battle..7/10
    Today Vettel just lost a Fan..

    1. But gained 7 xtra points. looks like he traded up.

  74. 8/10 for me. The huge gaps between knots of cars was the only real issue, and the team politics and personalities were fascinating.

    If I were Marigold, I would have said to hell with it and passed Lewis. Nico is in danger of becoming a bridesmaid a la DC. Much as I wanted the Red Bull team to support Mark Webber, Seb was right to take the opportunity to pass. In the end, an apology after the fact doesn’t cost him anything, and he gets the points. F1 isn’t road cycling – there’s very little chivalry involved.

  75. How can anyone rate this race a 1 or 2? Great drama, loads of overtaking, fights throughout the field, 9/10.

  76. 8/10 from me. Good racing actually, some gritty battles and lots of strategy. To top it off there was intra-team politics involved as well!

  77. Chris (@tophercheese21)
    24th March 2013, 10:51

    8.

    Pros:
    – The inter team battles between RB and Merc were so much fun to watch. People can get butt-hurt all they want about the politics, but Webber defending from Vettel was great fun to watch. (Webber forcing Vettel to the pit wall on lap 45 was dangerous, and reminded me a lot of the Schumacher-Barrichello move in Hungary ’10.)

    – Lewis is my favourite driver, and I’ve gained even more respect for him today, for admitting on the podium, that Rosberg probably deserved his position. Would have been good to see them race to the end, but i respect the fact that the teams want to secure the best possible result, and not risk anything.

    – Mark’s comments on the podium were just ace! And completely spot on.

    Cons:

    – The Merc’s fuel troubles
    – Lewis and Nico formation flying to the end was a bit of a kill joy, but i completely understand why.
    – Again, too many pit stops. Since Pirelli cant offer a tyre that’s any harder than what we saw today, then there is something fundamentally wrong with what they’ve made, because 4 stops is too much.
    – Would have loved to see JB get 5th, unfortunately Mclaren ****** up his stop.
    – Both Force India’s having to retire. I feel Sutil still would have beaten Di Resta anyway.

    1. Chris (@tophercheese21)
      24th March 2013, 10:56

      Also, let’s face it, Vettel apologising in the post race press conference. He’s not really sorry is he, I mean come on, really. He’s only apologising because he needs to maintain a respectable media image. He’s not actually sorry.

      Anyone with half a brain knows that.

      1. Massa obeys team orders…and gets bashed by all and sundry
        Webber ignores team orders….and is thought of as a hero
        Vettel ignores team orders…and is bashed
        Talk about double standards!!!

        1. Wouldn’t so its a double standard if you considered that earlier in the same race Vettel demands team orders to be used to advantage him. Then ignore them if they are against him.

          1. @wench – True, I was disappointed by him sayng that. But at least he dealt with the matter oon track, and won.

        2. Even worse is that people say Rosberg should’ve had that podium (bashing team orders) but say Webber sould’ve won (pro team orders). Anyway, good race by Massa, Grosjean and Bianchi?

      2. @tophercheese21 – True. I see nothing he even needs to be sorry for.

      3. @tophercheese21 +1. Sadly, I wonder whether Vettel actually does understand that Webber was right in what he said. Christian Horner and Helmut ‘I love Seb’ Marko will of course say to Mark that Seb made an error of judgement and that he won’t do it again, however I think we all know who wears the pants in Red Bull, and it certainly ain’t Webber.

      4. @tophercheese21
        Whether he is really sorry or not, it doesn’t matter. I mean, he had to apologize in front of the media, everyone would have done the same.
        He clearly doesn’t like discussing internal problems with the media, he said that he wanted to talk to the team before saying something significant.
        I think he managed the situation as well as he could.

      5. As he shouldn’t be.

      6. @tophercheese21 – agreed. I think he may have just been trying to salvage a team relationship more than anything, but he knew exactly what he was doing and I doubt he regrets his decision – 7 points is worth more to a driver than public admiration any day of the week.

      7. Chris (@tophercheese21)
        24th March 2013, 12:46

        IMO, what Vettel did was pretty ‘Scumbag Steve-ish” (meme reference), but at the same time, i can’t really blame him, he took a win that was there for the taking. Sure, it wasn’t what the team wanted, or instructed him to do, but i’d gladly take a bit of media flak, if in return i get a 4th world championship.

        If i were a 3 times world champ, and an extreme competitor, i probably would have done the same. Because at the end of the day, if Vettel wins the WDC (again), and it comes down this difference, then he’ll look back and be glad.

  78. I really don’t get it.
    Imagine Vettel hadn’t attack.
    Imagine those 13 laps, with Rosberg behind Hamilton, being much quicker, and Vettel behind Webber, being much quicker (new set of tyres against used ones from WEB). Just imagine! That would have been MUCH worse.
    Not defending Vettel here, but the race got better for it, not worse!

    1. Chris (@tophercheese21)
      24th March 2013, 12:48

      Now that I think about it, i completely agree with you. It would have dropped the public rating for this race about 3 or 4 points. lol

  79. Regarding the intra-team battles, people must understand that Nico has 2/3 chances to get past Hamilton but never made it stick. He always got past Hamilton in the first DRS section, but Hamilton would repass along the front straight. Instead, he should have waited till the front straight to get past Hamilton.

    Schoolboy thinking there from Rosberg, and in the end I think Ross Brawn had enough of it and told them to cut it off. So, essentially Rosberg dug his own grave there.

  80. Im going down to a 6.

    Vettel and Webbers battle was a 10/10 at the time. When have we seen a wheel to wheel battle like that.

    Sadly Vettel went against team orders while doing this and thats going to sour his image. That dropped a point for me.

    Dropping 3 point was the Hamilton/Rosberg situation. That must have been painful for Rosberg having to sit behind Hamilton who had used up all his fuel

    1. @mrgrieves

      Sadly Vettel went against team orders

      ?

      Normally F1 fans rail against team orders, so surely it’s a good thing to disobey them!

      1. Im really contridicting myself! The more i think the more it doesnt annoy me as much and Rosberg touring around behind Hamilton not getting passed. And having read through other comment i forgot Webber ignored team orders at Silverstone 2011. The only think im not to high on is we’ll never know if it was a fair fight. Was Marks car at full pelt like Vettel or had he turned it down so like Vettel im going to admit i was wrong with my 1st post. Also the racing ending after the last pit stop is another thumbs down to F1

        1. I didn’t want Vettel to pass Webber but at the same time it was a great F1 moment. And if Rosberg had passed Hamilton on the last lap… that would have been exciting too! We were robbed! :o)

  81. I give the race a 7. It was quite interesting, but I agree the team orders were ridiculous. However I can’t help feel that Rosberg’s strategy in the DRS zones when trying to overtake Hamilton prior to being told to hold station could’ve been better. He should have used the first zone to close but not pass Hamilton and then used the second to perform the pass, otherwise Hamilton was always going to re-pass in the second one. A few laps of that and the team cried enough. If he’d approached it differently he could’ve been in front before the decision was made.

    Having said that, two DRS zones that close together is as ridiculous as the team orders in that respect. The second zone undoes what the first zone was trying to promote.

  82. I wanted to give this race 10/10 simply for Webber telling Vettel what he really thought and Hamilton’s humility on the podium, but 9 will have to suffice. Regardless of team orders the squabble for the lead was sensational, Webber pushed Vettel so close to the pit-wall it reminded me of when Schumacher tried to “kill” Barrichello at Hungary in 2010. Hamilton knew he shouldn’t have been on the podium, and I no doubt agree that Rosberg should be mightily angry at Ross Brawn. Other than that, I thought the race would’ve been more interesting without two DRS zones, which were completely unnecessary on a track like Sepang.

  83. Without echoing the major disgust here (which I fully understand), I say it was a 5/10 as far as racing goes, 7/10 as far as F1 goes, and a 9/10 at the end. The awesome battle of the teammates and the drama on the radios had me on the edge of my seat till everybody started following orders. I forgot which poster mentioned Vettel’s ‘entitlement’ mentality, but it is spot on.

  84. Webber pits first he wins. Simple as that. Was controlling the race and should have won. Normally the guy in front calls the shots and I think that’s what webber was alluding to. Multi 21? Hopefully gives Mark a rev up to do better this year.

  85. The team orders left a sour taste at the end, but really, we had a great race. The first half was very interesting and chaotic, the Webber/Vettel battle was pretty exciting and battles featuring the likes of Perez, Raikkonen, Hulkenberg, Button were very good.

    I voted 8/10, because in between the chaos and the Webber/Vettel battle commencing, there were some dull laps. As far as post-race drama is concerned, I’d say 10/10, though. Not only the in-team battle at Red Bull and Mercedes, but as usual the Pirelli debate is very amusing.

  86. The worst race for long long time.
    And Ross Brawn should be send to green grass like Fry.
    Only one question to Brawn Why Ham should be before Nico Why?
    Why Nico couldnot be before Ham?
    For team is the same.
    But Ross Brawn is disgusting just l ike Todt with Barrichelo.

    1. Because it was Brawn that talked Ham into joining the team

  87. The race was ugly. The whole pit lane was stoned or had a hangover, the Ferrari race control was not existent, just two drivers, a team to change tyres and Rob Smedley, who sounded like talking to Massa from his bed at home. The Pirelli is at control of whole circus. But then a wonder happened: a beautiful battle between Webber and Vettel and second one between Hamilton and Rosberg, but then Newey and Brawn intervened making the podium most bitter (for the drivers and for the fans) since Austria 2002. Two quick conclusions are: 1) its really hard to respect current, and 3 time (!) world champion when he behaves like a spoiled little boy, 2) now we know some details of Hamilton contract with Mercedes, Rosberg was free to race Schumacher, but now he can’t race Hamilton :/
    In such circumstanced I wish Bernie would keep all the money for himself, the teams are too pitiful to have any.

    1. What did Newey do?

      1. I forgot exactly what was said but I can recall Newey radioing Vettel around the same time as Horner with a similar message.

  88. I’ve rarely been so disappointed by a race that was so interesting. I enjoy seeing exciting battles, close on track action, the superior skill or strategy of one driver in overtaking another and even the strategy of team orders, albeit the latter can often be frustrating. But the competitive edge must be tempered by sportsmanship otherwise sport is lost to uncivility. This otherwise entertaining race was marred by a shocking display of arrogance and disrespect. That that display was by one of the most successful F1 drivers of all time makes it all the more saddening.

  89. Hulkenderg deserves top team drive! Daniel also. It was also good to see Mercedes on the pace and McLaren did better than in first race. Lotus still managed to finish race with less pitstops. FI was fast but with stupid problems. And Pastor? Oh dear.

  90. 8/10. Plenty of wheel-to-wheel, no quarter asked or given, racing. Up front and in the midfield. That’s what I love to see. Wet and dry conditions. Also comedy and tragedy in the pits. Ham wrong box, Button’s wheel falling off, FI going nuts.

    I’m so sorry Alonso retired early. Bad mistake from Ferrari not to call him in, and denied us a thriller of him dicing the Red Bulls and Mercedeses in the leader group. And Kimi was a damp squib *sob*

    At least I called Maldonado’s tyre choice before the race. For Pastor Maldonado: hard–hard–knobbly x-country (Those tyres looked really knobbly with the samrties stuck to them after he went off.)

  91. I don’t get why people are voting it low because of what Vettel did. After all most of us voted Germany 2010 very low because of Ferrari’s use of team orders. Now because Vettel goes against team orders its also a bad race? What do you people want?
    Anyway. I really enjoyed the race. The fight between Merc and Red Bull was intense for most of the race and that Vettel vs Webber duel was heart-stopping. And it has certainly provided us with a lot of drama. All in all, a 9 from me. It was such an intense F1 experience. And a race which didn’t just show the happy face of F1 drivers drinking champaign driving fast and winning. It showed a darker side of F1. I liked that for a change.

    1. Low because Vettel doesn’t own up and stand up for the fact he did go against team orders. He is claiming he wasn’t aware of such orders instead. Very weak.

      1. Michael Brown (@)
        24th March 2013, 17:06

        Low because of what Vettel said after the race? I thought this was rate the race.

      2. @himmatsj
        He is just pouring a big bucketfull of PR out of his ears to please the press and calm a few people.
        While I agree that it is the wrong thing to do. Personally I would have preferred if he had stood by his actions and admitted what he did.
        But that wasn’t a part of the race, and not something we should base our votes upon.

  92. Unfortunately, on FIA’s request, Pirelli has created this new type of racing.
    It’s not Formula One but Formula Delta (lap).
    The driver’s speed is dictated by the pit wall. As we saw today different teams are grouped on the circuit by the delta lap time set by the pit wall.

  93. felt the drs was working too well today & the 2 zones were just dumb.

    i was watching the in-car feeds on sky today on my laptop & saw many cases of cars backing out of overtakes into the final corner in order to not be ahead at the next drs detection. drs is now starting to discourage good moves just because drivers don’t want to be the lead car, that isn’t right in my view.

    also am starting to get a bit fed up of all this tyre saving, i never could get into sportscar racing because i didn’t like that element of it so may stop watching f1 if it gets much worse.

  94. 6/10 Frustrating race as a Raikkonen fan. From the wet quali to hydraulic & DRS problems nothing seemed to go right. With Kimi & Alonso up at the front it wouldn’t have been so boring at times.

  95. It was a 6 from me. It would have been higher if not for the politics at the end of the race.

  96. 9/10 for thr race
    0/10 for the whinging afterwards

  97. A lot of comments being negative about Vettel overtaking despite team orders, people being annoyed that Rosberg was told to stay behind Hamilton.

    Surely, they are both the same thing? You can’t be pleased with Rosberg had he got passed Hamilton, and ignored the team orders, and not be pleased about Vettel doing the same. I understand that they are different circumstances, to some extent, but very, very similar as well.

    Personally, though I felt that Webber deserved the win, I can see why Vettel did it. No-one wants to willingly finish behind their team mate, especially when seven points could be very valuable come the end of the season. Had I been Rosberg, I would have done the same. It may cause a rift, but in the end, these guys want to win the Championship for themselves. At times, you have to be a little selfish and ruthless in order to win the Championship. You can’t just hold back or give up places all the time, just because it’ll keep your team mate happy.

    I understand that the team want to be conservative and score good points across the board with both drivers, but these are arguably the best drivers in the world. Keep both informed about what is going on, and then you can’t be mad if you lose out in the end. The main problem here was that Vettel disobeyed without Webber knowing. Had the team been allowed time to inform Webber of Vettel’s sudden charge, then you wouldn’t necessarily be as mad in the end.

    It’s obviously a fine line, and easy to say in hindsight, but, for me to see Rosberg robbed of a podium was quite a bitter pill to swallow. More so than seeing Vettel win the race anyway. It did, however, create some hilarious tension after the race!

    1. There are two BIG differences:

      1) Rosberg actually overtook Hamilton two or three times right before he was asked to hold station. The opportunity was there, but because each time he overtook Hamilton into the final corner, Hamilton would use DRS himself to re-pass Rosberg on the front straight. A smarter move would obviously be for Rosberg to have taken Hamilton along the front straight.

      2) Webber was under the impression Vettel wouldn’t overtake him, and he also had his engine revs turned down. Hence, he was unprepared for the onslaught from behind. What if Webber was told that Vettel wasn’t backing off, and he turned up the revs to the normal levels and defended? He might even be able to pull away. And I think Webber then just backed off thinking Horner would order Vettel to return the position, but this never happened…

  98. The unpleasantness within teams ruined this race for me, particularly RBR. Christian Horner has a got a serious problem on his hands.

  99. There are some generous race graders here. This could have been a pretty good race, if not for the team orders spoiling it.

  100. Lets face it

    No matter who’s to blame you still walk away from this race with an empty feeling in your stomach

    Not good for the sport

    Ohhhh and if you want my opinion that was webbers race and rosbergs podium

  101. Bring back refuelling.

    1. Why would anyone want refueling to come back?

      Racing in the refueling era was awful as a lot of the ‘racing’ was done in the pits & it was been determined by the strategist’s running there computer simulations at the back of the garage.

      Its no coincidence that the amount of close racing & on-track overtaking plummeted from the very 1st race refueling was allowed.

    2. Michael Brown (@)
      24th March 2013, 17:09

      Back to 1 overtake per race then

  102. 3, only because there were some redeeming factors. I like Vettel, but it’s not racing when your temamte turns down the settings –LAME – WEAK. The podium guys looked like they were in trouble in the principals office. Brawn’s austensible reasons for holding Nico in position don’t pass the sniff test — it reeks of trying to manufacture media exposure for the product. If Brawn was so concerned about Hamilton’s fuel, let Nico by, let Hamilton draft down the DRS zones. With a double DRS zone the teams could learn something from cycling and alternate the draft to catch up or gap the field. Processional at the end team orders ignored and abided by spoiled the show.

  103. 9/10

    great race, but Button’s pit and Vet/Ham driving…

  104. 8/10
    I was actually thinking of giving it a 9 because of the mighty battles in the lead between the RBRs and the Mercedes. But then I remembered Vettel took advantage of Webber, and that in fair conditions that wouldn’t have happened, and that we lost a brilliant battle between Rosberg and Hamilton. The racing was good, plenty of action going on, surprises in the pit lane, strategic variety, a beautiful race. It’s a pity the final laps spoilt the atmosphere.

  105. 3/10

    An interesting strategy battle was ruined by obvious team orders. The mood in the staging point for the podium summarised everything perfectly.

  106. Maybe this is the right moment to have a vote on team orders yes/no again soon @keith-collantine!

  107. Didn’t really enjoy the race, didn’t like some drivers whining or behaviour. Everyone cruised at the end and there was generally a bad feeling after the race gave it a 5…

  108. F1 is hard to put up with these days. up until lap 40 it was a 8 or 9 out of 10. But now … not so sure
    For the first time I heard the winner apologizing for overtaking others and the Merc show-run brought back memories with Ross Brawn manufacturing results.

    Imo, it would need a serious discussion whether F1 should be more about real competition or more like wrestling – because I’d like to know where this is headed.

  109. I had to give it a 5. The race started well but the team orders totally ruined it for me, I ended the race feeling as dejected as the drivers looked.

  110. Wake me up when it’s finished. Must be the worst Malaysian GP for years.

  111. A sour taste in the mouth.

  112. 7/10.

    The Red Bull and Mercedes drama is great television, but there were stints of dull racing here and there mixed with all the action at the front. And personally, the Alonso and Maldonado retirements were discouraging – same with Perez’s struggles. I expected Massa to do better than 5th as well.

    I highly doubt Vettel’s apology shuts the book on this round of RBR drama, I think you’ll see more of this as the season plays out.

  113. Fikri Harish (@)
    24th March 2013, 18:02

    Not quite sure how to rate this one. The actual race was great, the wheel to wheel between the Red Bulls and between Hulkenberg and Raikkonen was great. That was some defensive driving from Hulkenberg.
    It was also nice to see Mercedes finally delivering on their promise. Not to mention Hamilton’s pitstop mistake (I laughed when they showed Nicole’s expression at that moment).
    The aftermath left a bad taste in my mouth though. Ended up giving this a 7. Good racing is good racing after all, I guess.

  114. Potentially great race destroyed by unnecessary and obnoxious team orders to protect and give advantage to two drivers who don’t deserve it.

  115. Team orders aside, it certainly would have been nice to see Mercedes attack til the end. Their turn around is more than I imagined. I am tipping them to win China GP in three weeks.

  116. Not a great race, certainly not the worst.
    Upside – Good passing at times, race outcome was not a certainty until the last stint, then it was fairly certain barring unexpected mechanical failure or interteam carnage.
    Many interesting battles midfield and at the not so sharp end of the grid. Bianchi continues to shine.
    Downside – team orders to play things safe for the sake of points, however understandable, led to a rather boring conclusion on one hand and a spectacle on the other
    In a perfect world it would always be every racer for himself no matter what, damn the torpedoes! But alas, it is not a perfect world.
    6/10

  117. Totally amazed by the generally good rating the race has received, have the people who gave it a good rating ever seen another race????

  118. I’ve awarded this race an 8, because of the team orders, and the absolute polarisation it has shown. The juxtaposition of the RBR and Merc’ orders, with one being followed and one not is exactly the kind of theatre that drives emotion and interest in the sport for me at the moment, as the tyres have frankly ruined the racing.

    What interests me is how early both sets of team orders seem to have come in (Straight after last pit stops or just before), and I can completely vindicate the teams relevant decisions at this point. I genuinely believe that neither team were showing favouritism, but instead taking a simple track position statement, and looking at the conditions around them: RBR heading for a possibly unexpected 1/2 and Mercedes coming home with a very nice 3/4 thank you very much, and moving up to the sharp end of the constructors. (This is especially easy to grasp when you view the shot’s of Ross Brawn and ChristianHorner with Adrian Newey (the Horn-ey as I like to call them) who both had their heads in their hands with exasperation.

    On that basis, Nico has went up in my estimation by dealing with it professionally, but making his opinions known and making sure he’s got a banker with his “remember this one” comment. Lewis looked and sounded genuinely abashed straight away and he has also went up slightly in my estimations. Mark continues to be the most brutally honest and forthright driver in the paddock, and handled his situation with an unexpected antipodean caution, whilst being definitive and articulate about his feelings. Kudos to him for that, and finally we come to Sebastian. I used to hate him. Then last year I grew to love him and thought he could have been a ‘better’ schumacher. Now, I am a little unsure.

    Unlike a lot of brit’s. I used to love M Schumacher until I realised his win at all costs attitude was, despite his brilliance, a horrible an unattractive trait (Which is why I loved him on his second stint again as I was able to admire his former brilliance whilst watching him being beat and funny and engaging in interviews). So. Now that Seb has shown what I am taking to be the same trait, how do I deal with it as a fan?

    Well, for now I’m going to note just how competitive this guy is and not hold it against him because of how he came out straight away with an apology, but this is very, very wary, and unlike Hamilton, who seemed downbeat from getting out of the car, Seb did his usual salute went into the weighing room and did not seem to give a monkey’s about Mark when he came in at that point.

    Finally. This is why they should never again have regular podium interviews, but instead have them only on occasion.

  119. Actually, I’m going to re-iterate one of my former points for people talking about team orders. What get’s me is that in this race, they seem intrinsically linked to tyre performance (With mercedes, please note that fuel usage is a function of thrust power which is somewhat inverse to drag which in an F1 car leads to downforce and grip, meaning that a close fuel strategy can be impacted by tyre performance indirectly. as well as directly), which already is causing stinkiness.

    So the tyres are the biggest problems surely?

  120. 3/10
    i’m amazed people are rating this race so highly. Team orders directly influenced the outcome of the top 4 and were implemented at just over half distance. All 3 on the podium were ****** off and embarrassed to be there.
    Although it was exciting that Vettel ignored orders (good for him), there is still a sour taste leftover knowing that Mark wasn’t defending to the best of his abilities. Red Bull trying to implement orders in the second race of the season is in bad taste imo, Mark and Seb have shown that they have the ability to race each other fairly in the past.
    I’m especially disappointed at Mercedes for giving up on catching the Red Bulls. I can’t understand why they would refuse Rosberg’s requests to overtake Hamilton and have a go at the leaders. Ross Brawn and the entire Mercedes strategy team quit on their drivers, which is hugely disappointing.
    Germany 2010 was the last race i can think of where team orders influenced the outcome with the championship picture still up for grabs. I believe that race was rated around a 5/10 on average, and this was easily worse.
    I can’t believe i woke up at 4:00am to watch F1 make a joke of itself.

  121. I will abstain from voting. I only could watch this on BBC and that’s highlights only.
    It seemed rather exciting, but when you get only the best bits it doesn’t really reflect the whole race.
    Maybe Keith, you can add a “Could only watch it on highlights” option. :D

  122. Another awful drive from Massa very lucky it wasn’t 7th instead of 5th..As for Alonso and Ferrari, they just love to keep gifting Red Bull. Ferrari are inferior to Red Bull in every single department.

  123. All this team orders malarkey has overshadowed the main aspect of the race – tyres, tyres, tyres, prerservation, prerservation, prerservation.
    The Merc and Bulls were in tyre preservation mode for most of the race. Add to that Engine Preservation, Fuel Preservation, and we have a “Preservation Championship” with Tyre Preservation leading the way. They were all preserving tyres to make specified pit-stop windows. This is the main point. How sad!!

    1. You said preservation so many times it started to sound weird in my head as I read it :D I totally agree though its starting to get ridiculous

    2. hopefully Pirelli acts on it – otherwise we would be in for a few 4-5 stoppers this year.

  124. James (@chairmanmeowmeow)
    24th March 2013, 20:53

    The BBC highlights ruined it for me. I know they have a hard job to edit it down but a lot of the strategy was cut out. I even thought BUT had retired af ther the pit mishap!

  125. 8/10 is fair.
    It had dry and wet, had a good start from Webber, a mistake by Ferrari and Alonso, split stratagies in the RedBull, Hamilton pulling a Jenson, had Kimi and Hulk fight, Vettel turning the cards, Nico acepting the orders, Webber showing the finger. It had a “sad” podium, Webber saying the obvious on the podium conference.
    8/10.

    1. I was going to say pretty much exactly what you said, all the controversy has spiced this year right up imo, and look at how many people are talking about it. I gave it 8/10, and ferrari is my team so its not from bias

  126. i liked it – decent action, and plenty of absurdity :D

    to those equating team orders to race fixing, you couldn’t be more wrong. it is a team sport and the team boss decides who on his team does what.

    as for justifying the decisions made, there is validity to deciding to fly in formation and take the points in hand. there is also validity to favoring who you believe is your stronger driver and therefore more likely to deliver the maximum result at the end of a long championship.

  127. Its funny All redbull fans were blasting Ferrari in 2010 for team orders even after half the season was finished and only Alonso had the realistic chance for the WDC. But now its ok if its done from Redbull.

    i get it, it was illegal then but not now.

    And as for Mr.Hemlet Marko we saw who is the political driver…
    “Mark is too slow… get him ouut of the way”

  128. I really enjoyed this race but reflecting on it, I would give it an 8 out of 10. It was really interesting strategy wise and it was good to see some battles for the lead. It would have been nice to see Alonso and Button not have problems as it would have made it more exciting.

    Obviously the team orders thing brought up some massive intrigue too. Could have done with a little bit of rain midway through to liven it up but I enjoyed it nonetheless.

  129. Rated the race as a 9.A very exciting race with some good overtakes and I did predict a good start for Webber due to his distance to Vettel on the grid.
    Would have given a 10 if Webber snotted Vettel at some point after the race.

  130. Good interesting GP, but sadly rotten because of one’s ego…
    I believe Vettel didn’t make a lot of friends within the driver’s circle and/or in the Paddock, so young, and already so sick of power, I wonder why, he’s had everything he could believe in the last 3 years, but okay, they remain “beasts” when wearing a helmet, I suppose ?

  131. I enjoyed it better than the Australian GP so I rated Malaysia as a 7.5 rounded up to an 8, it’s a shame Mercedes didn’t put enough fuel in the cars or we could have had a more interesting end to the race.

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