Vettel first in Red Bull one-two at Sepang

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Sebastian Vettel led a Red Bull one-two in the Malaysian Grand Prix.

The German driver passed team mate Mark Webber on the first lap and kept the lead for almost every lap of the race.

Felipe Massa took over the lead of the drivers’ championship after climbing from 21st to seventh, finishing behind Lewis Hamilton who had also battled through the field from 20th to sixth.

Nico Rosberg finished third after a quiet race in his Mercedes, with Robert Kubica in fourth place behind him.

Adrian Sutil brought his Force India home in fifth, defending his position from Hamilton who closed in on him at the end of the race.

Hamilton raced his way up to sixth place thanks to a great start where he gained seven places passing, among others, team mate Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso’s Ferrari.

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Vettel took the lead from Webber at the start

He continued his climb through the field, passing both Toro Rossos, Kamui Kobayashi and Vitaly Petrov. Meanwhile Button was battling the Ferraris, stuck behind 14th-placed Massa then losing 15th to Alonso. He later re-passed Alonso, but shortly afterwards McLaren brought him into the pits.

He ran a long stint on hard tyres which eventually allowed him to jump ahead of the Ferraris. But Massa, who ended the race on soft tyres, managed to pass the McLaren driver a few laps before the chequered flag.

So did Alonso – but only briefly. He had been struggling with a gearbox problem for much of the race and when he finally got past Button at turn one he ran wide and suddenly a blast of smoke from the Ferrari signalled the end of his race.

Alonso’s demise promoted two drivers who scored their first ever points – Jaime Alguersuari, taking ninth for Toro Rosso, and Nico Hulkenberg, who might have expected more from his Williams after starting fifth.

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Sebastien Buemi and Rubens Barrichello took 11th and 12th and Alonso collected 13th. Behind him was Lucas di Grassi, taking Virgin to their first race finish, the HRT pair and Jarno Trulli’s ailing Lotus.

Among the drivers who failed to finish was Michael Schumacher, who’s Mercedes stopped with a car problem early in the race.

Neither Sauber saw the chequered flag – poor Pedro de la Rosa didn’t even see the start of the race after his engine blew on his installation lap.

But perhaps the biggest surprise of the race was the failure of the widely-predicted rain to arrive.

Vettel’s win puts him level with Alonso for second in the championship, two points behind Massa, who is yet to win a race.

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Author information

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

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135 comments on “Vettel first in Red Bull one-two at Sepang”

  1. Best. Result. Ever.

    Really made the championship exciting too. 9 points separating 7 drivers! Brilliant.

    1. Yeah drivers championship is very interesting. After old system 1st to 7th would be just 4 points :)

  2. Great race. For me Lewis Hamilton is the driver of the day.

    1. what about vettel.

      1. Alguersuari for me, amazing overtakes to take an average car to 9th place.

        So many drivers drove brilliantly though Vettel, Hamilton, Alonso and Kubica were also fantastic.

        1. And Massa as well.

          1. Massa? Really? Did I miss that bit?

          2. Massa what, who, when?

          3. @Stephen Northcott-
            Felipe started and finished one place behind Lewis, who gained 14 places starting position. By my calculations, now, I might well be wrong, Massa also gained about 14 places.

          4. @SeanG- Same comment to you as to StephenNorcott.

          5. 7 on the start when he had time to react to Rubens problem, which others did not as they were right behind Rubens so had to turn.

            But I’ll give him 7 places if you like. My complaint is that having got those places he screwed up everyone else’s race behind him because he cannot overtake anything.

            Any driver on the grid can sit in a fast car without problems and hold people up. Good drivers keep moving forward.

          6. I’m not even going to go into the overtaking debate, since Massa has proven over the last couple of seasons that he can overtake, and again today on Button.

            At the start, Massa actually had it worse than the cars ahead of him, since the other cars were obscuring his view of Barrichello, meaning he didn’t have time to react. Think Schumacher and Burti, Gemrany 2001.

          7. @Stephen Northcott

            Massa overtook Hamilton in spite of his F-duct advantage.

            About “screwing everyone’s race behind him”, I guess by everyone you mean Alonso. He had a gear box problem today. There was no point in surrendering a position to your team-mate when he is handicapped.

            And this early in the season, team orders should also be banned, among team-mates who are almost equal.

          8. He got past Button because of tyres. Alonso was able to put two moves on Button *with a broken gearbox* in less than half the time it took Massa to finally get past Button.

            And you’re wrong about the start too. Sorry. But there is a concertina effect. Massa was able to accelerate and turn. The other drivers ahead of him had to turn then accelerate. With varying degrees as you move back from Rubens towards Massa. You also have more visibility of the space ahead (and what’s going on), and more space to move in the further down the grid you are. If you’d started a race on a grid you may know that. So probably not your fault.

          9. @sumedh

            I’d agree with you if it wasn’t *the third race in a row* that this has happened.

            And if Alonso wasn’t faster than Massa *even with a gearbox that had problems*.

            Ferrari had no reason to expect it would fail. And most likely it would not have had he not had to work so hard, partly because his race was compromised by Massa. QED.

          10. I’m sick of saying these examples (I may save them on file so I can just drop them in) but Massa at Aus 07, Silverstone 07, Canada 08, Hungary 08 and China 09 show Massa can overtake. I really hate how he is just dismissed as not being able to overtake. He has plenty of flaws particularly his defending at the mo’ and he is no Hamilton but he can overtake when he needs too.
            He wasn’t up there with overtaking with Lewis today but he passed a Mclaren and still made up as many places as Lewis. It was just a different style of racing. Lewis is a master overtaker anyway -though he makes mistakes- but that doesn’t mean he’s terrible

          11. To be honest, I think we’ll have to agree to disagree about Massa.

          12. And I agree fully with steph.

          13. @Northcott-
            Sorry for the triple post, but also Massa had old tyres too, you clearly didn’t look for the Schumacher-Burti incident on Youtube to have a look at what can happen and you’re just making excuses for Button. Even Brundle said he was “caught napping”.

          14. @David I was going to leave it, but obviously you can’t.

            I am familiar with the example you gave of the race in 2001.

            I couldn’t give two hoots about Button. Not a fan. His tyres were graining at that point though. The fact remains, graining or otherwise it took Massa way way way too long to mount any kind of attack. Not just there but elsewhere in this race, and the last two races before it. Period.

            So your theory about me being defensive of Button is wrong.

            As are your other comments. :)

          15. Ah fine then, I promise to leave it here, at “agree to disagree”, since you don’t rate Massa, but I do :)

        2. I have to agree with you Tommy, Alguersuari was very good today. Apparently you can’t overtake in an F1 car, but nobody seems to have told him. :P

          1. “I have to agree with you Tommy, Alguersuari was very good today. Apparently you can’t overtake in an F1 car, but nobody seems to have told him.”

            I know he was supreme, his move on Hulkenberg was brilliant and if it was Alonso, Button or Hamilton that had done it we’d have been talking about it for a long time. Great move.

      2. driver of the day doesn’t always have to be the winner. In the heat of the moment you can say vettel but in hindsight you will realise that it was a pretty straight forward race for vettel – fastest car +slower team mate =race win .

        Hamilton did a great job climbing a whooping 14 places to claim sixth with some brilliant overtaking moves . Massa had a great race too . A race to forget for alonso .

        But my focus in this race is button trying to steal another pit call but this time getting it wrong . Pitting on lap 10 because he could no longer cope on his option tyres (baffles me how he is called mr smooth!) ;-), was that not the same reason he pitted so early in Australia? , but rather than admit that his win was down to luck and an unfortunate vettel , he opened his mouth and said it was not luck rather it was HIS call and got himself some whitmarsh praises .so we should ask button and whitmarsh what happened to the call ?why did it not pay off like australia ? and the lewis they were ganging up on , completed at least 28 laps on his prime tyres long after his rivals had pitted he was still competitive even at some stage matching button who was on fresh tyre .

        Had lewis not been stuck behind sutil , i think he would have either passed Kubica or he would have had the fastest lap today such was the speed of the lewis and his mclaren .

        At any rate , it was a good race :-)

        1. “such was the speed of *lewis and his mclaren” . No CAPS LOCK ! ;-)

        2. That’s the hilarious thing about Button down under. Somehow he left Australia as some sort of genius/hero. He simply got lucky and/or made some luck.

          The same Mr. Smooth needed new tires early. And supposedly Mr. Ragged, the destroyer of tires, was able to “soldier on” reaching 6th.

          Its more than funny.

          1. Total luck. His choice to switch tires early was a good call to be sure, but had it not been for Vettel’s early retirement he would not have won. I’ll be surprised if we see another win out of Button this year with the competition he has for the championship.

          2. Jose Arellano
            5th April 2010, 6:14

            i think he is avoiding being compared with hamilton by using different tyre strategies etc..

      3. only had to overtake one driver adn had free air for the whole race…

    2. I’d actually agree with Tommy today, today was Jaime breakout performance. Got his points by 3 parts overtaking 2 parts pace and 1 part luck. Which is the perfect racing mix.

    3. I kinda ask you, why didn’t Hamilton get penalised by blocking Petrov?

      1. Because he wasn’t blocking, he was shrugging off a tow.

      2. Seriously, all this penalty stuff is dreary in the extreme. Is everyone back at playgroup? The rules are to stop dangerous maneouvres, not racing. If you wan’t orderly processions, try the local supermarket.

  3. Good race.

    Bring on rain either on Saturday or Sunday. Definitely gives an interesting race.

    It is strange how Hamilton is so much more spectacular to watch than Felipe or Jenson but ends up finshing only 4 and 8 seconds ahead of them.

    Credit to the latter 2 for their consistency.

    1. In all fairness, Hamilton got stuck behind Sutil, allowing Button and Massa to motor up to him…

    2. It was weird and showed how important tyres and strategy is.

      Lewis drove a crazy race overtaking 8 cars getting up into the points whilst Button was stuck down the pack, they take different strategies and Button was only just behind him when Lewis came out the pits.

    3. Lewis was 14 seconds ahead of Button.

    4. The lack of respect for the person who is single-handedly saving F1 is a bit more than obvious.
      “consistency”… nice way to put it.

      1. And you’re showing a lack of respect to Vettel, Massa, Alonso, Button, Rosberg, Webber, Kubica and the rest by claiming Hamilton is single handedly saving F1.

      2. “Single handedly saving F1”. Isn’t that going a bit overboard.

        Lack of respect!! I just said he is the most spectacular to watch.

        I just duly noted that while Hamilton might be spectacular, the other drivers are doing their bit and bringing home a good haul of points for their team.

        1. Its definitely a provocative statement and meant more along the lines of entertainment but I believe there’s a lot of truth in it.

          Folks viewing in europe may not realize this but F1 is incredibly boring to watch. Here in the U.S. one has to watch it at 2am or 7am. Normally, one is back asleep 30 minutes later.

          Hamilton and Alonso (and Webber to a degree) are the two racers who keep things alive.

          1. Of course, some “folks in europe” have a different opinion to yours.

          2. Even in Europe, there are very few people who think Massa’s boring “stay behind the opposition and hope for the best strategywise” is an inspiring way of approaching a race.

    5. Hamilton and Massa outperformed Button, gaining 14 places each. They started behind Button but finished ahead.

      1. I still think Massa has been poor in the past two races and can up his pace a bit, he seems to get spooked when Fernando is lurking behind him

        1. Massa, as I’ve said many times before, spends the start of any race trying to shaft his team mate, and the rest of the race trying to keep them behind him. That’s his primary focus.

          It’s a function of the fact that for the last three partners he feels inferior. First he was Shumi’s number 2, then he was desperate to prove he wasn’t Kimi’s number 2. Now he’s in a world of self-harm again with Alonso.

          He needs to look forwards, not sideways and back.

          1. @Stephen northcott

            Your comments make me laugh

            why should he work hard by making a great start(aus and mal) and surrender the good work to his team mate? Would you have done that?

            As to your point on massa gaining 7 places on the start. Look back and see that “the savior of f1” gained the same no of places on the start.

            Get fact right

            also the savior of f1 could not get past sutil even with the fduct which gives him a straight line speed. Atleast massa got past button.

          2. I didn’t say he should give the place up. I said he should look forwards, not sideways and back. There is a huge difference. Massa does indeed make some good starts, but all too often with quite aggressive and dangerous moves to the detriment of his team mate. He did it to Kimi many times last year, and has done the same to Alonso. In both cases both drivers gave him room rather than have an incident.

            You must also remember that Alonso had no clutch at the beginning of this race, and yet he also made up places. 3 I believe.

            In any case it’s easy to slingshot past back markers, as all the drivers who are normally on the front of the grid, did today.

            Not sure who “the saviour of F1” is? Anyone?

            And for the last time Massa sat behind more than one car for much longer than Alonso, or anyone else would have. And he was able to pass Button because Buttons’ tyres were going off at that point.

        2. Massa just goes super defensive with Alonso behind him. It’s damaging the team, it’s up to Alonso to sort it out though. He’s got to qualify an stay ahead of Massa in time for the pit stops as Ferari don’t tend to split strategy an give preferance to their leader. He’s definatley racing better an when you think about the problems he had to today it was a champions drive from Alonso, saving a damaged car right up untill the engine gave up on him. So today he did as best he could.

          What I want to see is Alonso vs Hamilton, talented an exciting, get rid of Vettels pesky quali advantage an I’d like to see him do some proper fighting too, which he’s yet to prove himself capable of.

          1. I think the jury is still on Vettel. Meaning, is he a proper fighter/racer or simply a very fast driver? I’m a fan of his though. I’d just like to see more action.

            Cheers!

  4. “Adrian Sutil brought his Force India home in fifth, defending his position from Hamilton who closed in on him at the end of the race.”
    Err.. Wasn’t Hamilton close to Sutil for like 15-20 laps?

    “Vettel’s win puts him level with Alonso for secong in the championship, two points behind Massa, who is yet to win a race.”
    Wasn’t this the problem the new points system was supposed to solve?

    Overall, it was a great race. Hamilton, Massa, Alonso and Alguersuari provided a lot of overtaking and Sutil defended well against Hamilton.

    Good job by Red Bull to bring both their cars home, let alone a 1-2 finish :)

    1. And Webber was defnitely not happy with his pit stop problem. It cost him the race and he was grumpy on the podium…

      1. I noticed it too. He didn’t look too happy

      2. Webber cost himself the race when he got passed after the start.

        Then he lost all hopes of winning when they called in Vettel first.

        1. After they stopped, Webber was quicker than Vettel. He came very close (less than 3 secondes behind)… The pit definitely cost him the race or at least a chance to fight against his team-mate

          1. The pit stop in no way cost him the race. Even if that pitstop had been perfect he would never have been able to pass Vettle. Just think for a second, do you really think Vettle would have allowed Webber to pass him. An how may I ask would Webber have pulled of this pass? What rubbish, Webber lost himself the race by taking a silly line an approach to the first corner.

          2. Yeah, like Webber is going to be able to overtake his team mate.

            If they had pulled Webber in first, he would have ended up in front of Vettel. Where he should have been in the first place.

          3. Webber is not allowed to overtake his team mate as 50% of the time he crashes into anyone he overtakes. ;)

          4. Webber did some good overtakings during the Australian Grand Prix. So yeah I believe he could to pass Vettel. Though I admit that Vettel is way faster than Webber, I think Webber just missed an opportunity to fight for the 1st place, and maybe win the race.

    2. “Wasn’t this the problem the new points system was supposed to solve”
      Bear in mind Alonso and Vettel have both had DNFs, if Vettel hadn’t had car trouble he would be walking the championship by now.

      1. These things never really work out.

        1. My summary of Webber’s post race grumpy face…He’s accepted that he’s not as good as Vettel. Simple as that.

          Vettel drove a great race, the momment he passed Webber at the first corner, you knew that it was his race to throw away. The car held up this time and he drove a perfect race.

          Based on the spectacular, people would give the driver of the day to Lewis because he passed so many cars, but at the end of the day, he was just one place ahead of Massa, who didn’t really pass anyone during the race.

          If Alonso’s engine didnt blow out, I would have given him drive of the day. To drive a whole race without a clutch! You have to admit that was some feat. He made up the same amount places as his teamate, and was putting in faster lap times, which deserves mention.

          My pick for drive of the day was Robert Kubica. He had a solid drive today, no fuss, just got on with it, very consistent in lap times as well. Nico wasn’t far off either, good drive. Sutil showed he was no slouch either!

  5. Real shame. Second time this year his pit crew has let him down.

  6. Some great drives all round. Very good start from Vettel, Rosberg gets his first podium of the year, Hamilton put on a great show, and also good to see Alguersuari in the points. Didn’t rate him at all last year but has been great in the last two races.

    1. Me neither but Jaime really made me proud to be an STR fan today. Great drive from him with some stunning overtaking.

  7. his start was his biggest problem.

  8. nice 5-gate slalom on the straight by hamilton

    1. Yes. I didn’t know that you were allowed to change line that many times?!

      1. I pray you’re being sarcastic.

        1. He did get a warning for it.

  9. Good race with some nice battles throughout the field right upto the last lap. Huge congratulations to Hulk, Alg & Sutil. Shame to see Alonso’s Ferrari break after wrestling with it all race long, but it does offer us a tighter championship battle.

    Strange that after all these years at the pinnacle of racing, Rubens still manages to duff the start so often.

  10. Yup, greatest weaving ever. Should have been a drive though at the very least. Yet again, the rules are different for HAM.

    1. it’s the driver chosen to act as an steward. I hoped he was here the last past years. good job fia, keep it up, and let the boys race.

      1. Mark Hitchcock
        4th April 2010, 12:45

        Absolutely, I wouldn’t be surprised if Herbert had some influence over not giving Hamilton a penalty.
        A warning is fair. Hamilton did nothing wrong in my opinion, the rule is there to stop drivers weaving in the braking zone and blocking the following driver from passing. Hamilton was just trying to break the tow that Petrov was getting, he wasn’t blocking him.

        Obviously a lot of people seem to think that what he was doing was dangerous so a token warning needed to be given. Very sensible decision.

        1. Absolutely. Agree 100%.

          But I still wonder if it had been Petrov in front whether it would have gone the same way. ;)

    2. A warning was fair, it was enjoyable to watch and at that point they were neither in the braking zone nor was Petrov making a move, he was sitting getting a tow.

    3. Akiko
      Yup, greatest weaving ever.

      Is this the first F1 GP you’ve watched ?

    4. Akiko, so I take it you would have penalised Massa heavily in Auz for 150mph weaving in a breaking zone just in front of another driver. Because that was ridiculous driving.

      Hamilton got a warning for weaving on a straight, trying to break a tow. By the time they reached the braking zone he’d chosen his line long ago an didn’t take another move.

      This wasn’t terrificaly dangerous driving, it was unfair driving which is why he got his warning, but Petrov could have taken the inside line after Hamiltons first weave an got the place, which while irrelavant to safety goes some way to explaining the stewards desicion. Petrov didn’t need to tow chase like that it was rather odd by him as well.

      An you’ve rather given yourself away by claiming Hamilton gets advantageous stewarding descions because he famously doesn’t. It’s a clear sign of your own bias that you claim that.

      1. Well said Scribe, I found the irony quite heavy!

    5. @Akiko

      Are you knew to F1???? Because I am extremely shocked he didn’t get a drive through because everything usually goes against Hamilton!

      1. It’s actually pretty funny to see how divisive Hamilton’s driving is.

        Hamilton fans: “He gets treated unfairly.”

        Hamilton haters: “He gets preferential treatment.”

        Personally I do think other drivers would’ve been given a drive through penalty for that weaving. That’s based on previous seasons though, when there weren’t past drivers with the Stewards, so maybe that’s having an effect of softening the rulings in these incidents, after all, Webber only got a warning in Melbourne when he took out Hamilton…

        1. I am a Hamilton fan, I have watched every single one of his races in F1 and I can tell you for a fact he has had more harsh decisions from the stewards than he has had lettings off.

  11. still no wins from the front row, looking to be an interesting season :)

    1. weaal. sort of. Could have been three wins decided before the first corner had not rain an gremlins interfeared.

    2. hmm, when last time first 3 GP winners wasnt in front row on grid? :)

      1. Also 3 different drivers, 3 different constructors. SPEED said the last time the first 3 races of a season were won by 3 different constructors was 1990. It’s definitely an above average season for competition.

  12. where are the people that criticized bernie for the late start of the race. Not a single rain drop.

    1. It started an hour earlier than last year.

  13. Hands up to Lewis!

  14. Great result for Vettel. Well deserved. FInally!
    And Hamilton drove a great race too. Awesome result.

    For me, my favourite drive of the day was actually Petrov. His fight with Hamilton was great fun to watch. And whilst I agree with Hamilton only getting a warning for “technically weaving”, I have to wonder if it had been the other way around whether it would have just been a warning or not!!

    wrt to Alonso’s engine blowing : It very visibly blew as he passed Button. It looked like he was dropping chaff as he came past him at the end of the straight. Presumably that was when a necessarily aggressive downshift went wrong, the box lost some more important cogs, and that contributed to Alonso running wide. But by then it was all over anyway. It was painful to watch Alonso fight with that gearbox all race. Basically with how hard Alonso was forcing the gear changes in a attempt to put a move on Button it was merely a matter of time before that gearbox went.

    The most noticeable thing for me all race was that yet again Massa was unable to pass anything unless conditions gave him the opportunity (re. Button’s tyres). He required driving instructions from Rob (again), and held people up. Notably Alonso.. again! Very frustrating for Alonso I am sure.

    When Alonso can put two moves on a car (driving with a broken gearbox) in half the time it took Massa to luck a pass on the same car. And then when given clean air Alonso can reel in Massa from a seemingly untenable position, the team needs to think about some kind of team orders when Massa is driving so badly. I was quite happy for Ferrari not to do this in the last two races. But this weekend Alonso’s car finally blowing up and their teams loss of points can be directly attributed 100% to how much pressure Alonso and his car were put under in the interest of not upsetting “Felipe baby!”

    Frankly I don’t give a damn about Ferrari. But from an outside perspective the team is just as unhealthy as it was when Kimi was in it. Qualifying was another example of this. They are smoking dope on the pit wall I think.

    Just my opinion.

    1. “They are smoking dope on the pit wall I think” [I can’t do the quote thing!]

      I thought that Kimi had left! Haha! :-P

      1. Ha Ha! I am sure he left a stash in the “special” tool boxes for them! ;)

    2. Alonso was actually driving with no clutch. It is close to impossible to keep the car up to speed, let alone race it. You have to pump the throttle as you come down the gears just to keep it from jumping and stalling. Alonso had to improvise every corner to keep his pace up. Amazing driver.

      1. According to the info on Wikipedia (not claiming it’s right, I have no idea one way or the other) the clutch on F1 cars is only used to get the car rolling from a stop into 1st. Once they’re moving the shifting becomes semi-automatic. So would a failed clutch still cause problems?

  15. http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/82694

    How did he manage to set a string of fastest laps driving like that? Pretty impressive!

    1. Mark Hitchcock
      4th April 2010, 12:40

      Very impressive indeed. He’s gained a lot of respect from me for that drive!

      1. Well done Alonso. What a driver

    2. Wow. From the start of the race. Even more impressive. I know I rag on Massa a lot, but again (sorry) I can’t help wondering if he’d even have made it half distance with that problem.

      1. I think a lot of the drivers would have been able to cope for as long, but whether they could do it with that kind of pace is another matter.

        1. Alonso once again showed his worth today. I doubt any other driver could have put in that performance right now

      2. They would have had to “Felipe Baby” him every lap not to give up …

      3. Your Massa hate is getting very tiring.

        1. As is your blind adoration. ;)

          1. Not “blind” adoration, but as on the last post further up the page, we’ll truly leave it here.

    3. It’s a real shame the car didn’t last the race, he worked very hard for those points.

  16. Was the ‘three’ Ferrari engine failures today!? I also got the impression that the Torro Rosso’s had to back off a bit towards the end of the race.

  17. Great performances from Vettel, Alguersuari, Kubica, Sutil and Massa.

    I’m sorry but I’m not going to name Hamilton. He got warning from something that was clearly against the rules. You may say that it’s good that penalties didn’t change results but now we have precedent that such blocking won’t give a driver a drive through. It’s not common to see such desperate blocking as Lewis performed today. I think Petrov would have deserved that overtake.

    1. Mark Hitchcock
      4th April 2010, 13:25

      When did he block?
      Petrov wasn’t making any move to overtake, he was just trying to get a tow. Hamilton moved across the track, Petrov followed. If Petrov had moved across the track and Hamilton had THEN weaved it would have been blocking.
      Just my opinion though obviously, I haven’t actually looked at the wording of the rule.

  18. I told you Rosberg would have an easy race, and would of let the Red Bull’s fight it out up front.

    Driver’s of the day for me was Kubica and Sutil being able to keep infront of the Ferrari’s and Mclarens.

    Flops of the race were Hulkenberg and Rubens 5th to 10th and stalling from the start hope for a better race in China.

  19. Massa started only one place behind Lewis and ended up finishing only one place behind Lewis. So for all Hamilton’s so-called Driver of the Day driving, you can’t fault Felipe Massa’s driving. He was as good as the McLaren driver.

    1. The difference is that Hamilton overtook the two Torro Rosso’s, Petrov (twice), Luizzi and Kobayashi on the track, rather than waiting for the retirements or relying on strategy like Button, Alonso and Massa.

      1. Its no metter how u get it. So u wanna say that Button was 7th best driver in Australia?He did no overtakes at all!

  20. Everyone says Hamilton stuck behind Sutil…was Sutil just a hurdle? The Force India was too quick for Lewis to get past which he himself acknowledged on team radio.

  21. Brilliant race and especially start for Vettel. Also kudos to Kubica and Sutil. Kubica is in the same boat as in 2008. He just collected points regularly and almost won the championship, and again he is near the front. I hope he will stay there till the end of the season and hope Renault won’t stop development of their car. And Barrichello’s start is dejavu of last season when he missed start 3 times(correct me if I’m wrong). Schumacher just lost his luck, but he will perform better in the second part of the season, I’m sure about that.

  22. Just watched the race again, and I saw Heikki Kovalainen being wheeled back into the garage in lap 20. How did he manage to continue his race later and finish 10 laps behind Vettel? Never knew that drivers are allowed to race again after temporarily retiring. Anyone has a clue?

    1. yes, they are allowed..think back to Coulthard and Tuero an Belgium 98

    2. yes, they are allowed..think back to Coulthard and Tuero at Belgium 98

      1. and Berger at Imola in 93

    3. They had two very good reasons to get him back out.

      Sponsors in Malaysia.

      R&D.

    4. Kovalainen didn’t retire – his car was simply pulled into the garage to make it easier for the team to work on. He then rejoined the race, albeit too far behind to be classified.

      1. Lotus needs to have a lot of track time that’s why I think they have done this. & also for the Malaysian fans.

  23. Alonso gets the laurels today for wrangling that car through the race, just as fast as Massa at most stages. Amazing—and incredibly ironic the car let him down after he carries it on his back for the whole race minus one lap.

    Button does a slightly Kovalainen-esque drive. Starts ahead of Hamilton, gets passed, then sort of fades backward, thanks to handling troubles, or something. Bottom line is Hamilton passed him, then dusted off a succession of cars leaving him in the dust, while on the harder tire. Normal service has resumed at McLaren.

    Do Ferrari have an engine situation? Maybe it’s a hot weather thing, as in Bahrian, but this is ominous. We know they use a lot of fuel for similar power, i.e., they are less efficient, and that extra fuel apparently is going toward barbecueing stuff in the back end.

    1. Button still has more points than Hamilton. I don’t recall that ever happening with Kovalainen– do you?

  24. I have some doubts, if someone might enlighten me. How exactly is the ruling concerning the end of a race? The lapped cars get the chequered flag after the winner and end their race no matter how behind they were right? I ask because of Alonso: he ended 13th although he couldn´t race anymore. The lapped cars theoretically could´ve done the rest of the race therefore overtaking Alonso. So, I just want to know how´s the ruling, not that I´m implying something´s wrong. Thanks.

  25. I’m just trying to play out the race if a true “reverse grid” had been in place – seems it was close enough to that to make for some really exciting racing for the entire race, not a dull minute went by, I thought…

  26. A great race– but am I the only person who thinks Alonso shouldn’t have attempted the pass on Button? If he had nursed his engine those last two laps instead of pushing, he may have had a couple of points instead of a DNF. Thoughts on this?

    1. I think you are right, in that it was how aggressive he had to be with the gearbox to even have a chance to attack Button. It was truly painful to watch and hear him trying to get efficient gear changes when on Button’s tail. And the shrapnel that flew out the exhaust at the end of the start finish straight was quite amazing to behold!!

      If he had just followed Button home then he most likely would have finished the race IMO too.

      But it was only 2 points. In that situation I am sure Alonso was quite happy to have a go. Why not?

      Yeah.. I know a season can be decided over 1 point. I’ve lost a championship in karting that way. But I’d still have a go, even with the benefit of hindsight.

  27. Neither of the Ferraris could get past Algersauri throughout the race (only happened when he pitted). Hope it says something to those who were critical of Schumacher being stuck behind this Algersauri in Melbourne (where it is even harder to overtake)!

  28. Hamilton did extremely well I thought, the 2 Ferraris as well.
    Very disappointed by Button: as he said himself, his start was quite poor. He lost position to both Ferraris and Ham in the first laps, pathetic. I somehow like Jenson but he has to raise his game quite a bit if he wants to get rid of all the “not worthy” tags.
    Well done Patrov and Alguersuari !
    I like Vettel too, but his finger-sticking-up celebration annoys me for some reason…

  29. OK, now who was suprised by this. after qual I said this, Vettel would be in front after the start and win if he had no mech issues and boy I got that right. I have to say that Red Bull has really put a great car together over the years and I hope they keep going.

  30. A wonderful race not as good as Australia. Felt very bad about Alonso, the pain of those noise of the gearbox was very bad. So far each of the big teams have won a race, hoping that Mercedes wins a race in China.

    1. Force India is regularly scoring points, it seems like so far they are best behind the top 5 teams.

  31. I’m pleased for Vettel and Webber of Red Bull, but I’m really chuffed for Adrian Newey. He must feel a little relieved and perhaps even vindicated to some degree…

  32. another great start form Robert!!!

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