Formula 1 2013 - Round 2: Malaysia

I’m sat in a bit of a funny situation at the moment. The 2013 Malaysian Grand Prix wasn’t a classic by any stretch of the imagination, but it more than highlighted a few damning things about the sport. Can’t have wheel to wheel racing with a team mate unless the boss permits it, can’t push too hard in case you run out of fuel or the tyres go off and having to save the engine and/or gear box as much as possible, not to mention the overpaid former second hand cars salesman who has far too much power (though I doubt he has so much power he can choose who drives for who).

Through the harsh sun and the rain, the drivers were pushed to their physical limits on what is one of the hardest tracks for the driver to endure, leading to some interesting situations, even if one overly familiar situation did have to make a reappearance.

Circuit: Sepang International Circuit

2012 Winner: Fernando Alonso

2012 Pole: Lewis Hamilton

Dry tyre choices: Medium and Hard

When Bernie Ecclestone’s mouth wasn’t running about how Marussia and Caterham had merger talks over the winter and how Lewis Hamilton asked him to try and get him a seat at Red Bull (which I doubt he did), practice was dominated by a worry for Red Bull, that they couldn’t make the tyres last over a race distance. The car was still quick over a single lap as always, but it remained clear the Lotus’ and Ferraris were almost as quick and it appeared the running order from Australia was going to carry over, though not quite exactly as it was.

McLaren seemed to be starting to make some minor progress with Force India remaining strong, Williams improving and Mercedes starting to catch up with Lotus, Red Bull and Ferrari. Toro Rosso, however, was actually starting to look a bit slower in comparison to some of its rivals on single lap times, but that rarely means much by Sunday evening.

With how badly the tyres performed in some cases in Australia, there were voices in the paddock (primarily Red Bull’s and Mercedes’) asking for the slightly more durable 2012 tyres back, though frankly I’d go the whole hog and demand the 2010 Bridgestones back so they can go hell for leather, but I’m not paid huge amounts for my opinions so I’ll just continue writing this blog. Speaking of equipment out of the team’s control, the FIA continued to have problems with their radar and lights systems with no dashboard warning lights for the drivers and patchy weather prediction at best.

Anyway, qualifying. As always in Malaysia in the late afternoon, there was a threat of rain so many of the teams got their first qualifying laps in early in the first phase of qualifying, except for Red Bull and Lotus who opted to have a single lap towards the end of the session. Vettel was very nearly caught out and just got through first qualifying in 15^th, unlike Vernge and Bottas who joined the Marussias and Caterhams. Surprisingly, Bianchi was only half a second away from 16^th and qualifying 2, so the Frenchman will be well worth watching in future.

The threat of rain increased in second qualifying, so again everyone except Maldonado (who didn’t even set a lap time) went out straight away, though Di Resta pulled in before setting a time. He later went out just as the rain arrived and span twice attempting to set a time, leaving him to go out with both Saubers, Grosjean, Riccardo and Maldonado.

The track remained suitably damp throughout third qualifying for all the drivers to keep intermediates wet tyres on. The slightly poorer than normal dry pace of the Red Bulls was put aside as Vettel ultra hot lap and put it on pole again with Massa out qualifying Alonso again while Hamilton lined up next to the Spaniard after being on preliminary pole for a chunk of the session. Raikkonen had qualified reasonably well, but was given a three place grid penalty for impeding Rosberg on one of his qualifying laps. Regardless and a bit disappointingly, Vettel’s streak of poles continues unabated, much like his constant change of helmets for reasons only he seems to know.

Before the race, after the GP2 Sprint race now the support series has started, the rain made another appearance and soaked the track. Everyone was back on intermediate wet tyres for the start, though some drivers struggled even on the way to the grid with both Williams, Riccardo and Webber having trips across the gravel at the same corner within seconds of each other. After several drivers had used two sets of the Intermediate tyre in third qualifying, there was a concern they wouldn’t have enough fresh sets for the race, but it soon stopped raining just ahead of the start.

Off the line, Vettel, Massa and Hamilton had more or less equal starts, but Webber, Alonso, Hulkenburg, Button and Perez had very good starts, Massa starting to fade over the rest of the first lap as Alonso made it into second behind Vettel. Unfortunately, Alonso got on the throttle before Vettel in the second corner and the Spaniard ran into the back of the Red Bull. While the contact wasn’t big, it was enough to break Alonso’s front wing and leave it hanging down on one side (Vettel was fortunate enough to get away with no damage, unsurprisingly. It’s almost insane how much he gets away with sometimes).

Despite the damage, Alonso was able to maintain second place and good pace as they started the second lap, Ferrari hoping to keep him out long enough for to switch him onto slick tyres, but when Alonso braked for the first corner on the second lap the wing got sucked under the car and he went off into the gravel and out of the race.

Raikkonen started his day badly, losing a place off the start and then enduring an extremely twitchy Lotus that led him to having a few off track excursions during the opening few laps, but both Button and Perez were running strongly in the damp along with the Mercedes cars which were now third and fourth.

Vettel was first in for slicks as Webber closed in slightly, but the German was released into fairly heavy traffic and by the time Webber pitted two laps later, the Aussie was in the lead with both Mercedes breathing down their necks as all four cars were within 8 seconds of each other. Hamilton, possibly missing his old team or having a moment of brain fade, went to go into the McLaren pit box on his first stop, getting quickly waved through, around the Lotus pit box and into his own in a move that is now widely referred to as ‘A Button’.

With the rule requiring all drivers to use both compounds of dry tyres relaxed due to running wet weather tyres, the Red Bulls split their tyre use with Webber on the harder, more durable hard tyres while Vettel was on the faster but less durable medium tyres. Both were evenly matched as the Mercedes were both ordered to push as hard as they could, slowly reeling the Red Bulls in without quite threatening them.

Elsewhere, Di Resta had come flying up the order past even his team mate, showing he still has good speed while Button continued running in a fairly quiet fifth. Raikkonen got himself stuck behind Perez for several laps but once he’d cleared the Mexican he was able to go much faster.

Surprisingly, Webber pitted first ahead of his team mate and the Mercedes’, changing to the medium tyres for his next stint. The rest soon followed but disaster struck the Force India team when their wheel gun failed to secure a wheel nut to Di Resta’s car, leaving the Scot stuck in his pit box for nearly two laps as the engineers tried to remedy the situation. When he was finally underway, the exact same problem happened to Sutil and both cars later retired, likely due to overheating in the pit box while waiting or possibly as they couldn’t guarantee the wheel was attached with the eventual fault being found to be a new wheel nut the team was using.

After the second stops, Vettel and the Mercedes’ both started closing in on Webber, the German even asking on the radio for Webber to move aside before Webber picked up his speed, putting in the fastest lap of the race at the time. However, the tyres wouldn’t be able to hold up for longer so Hamilton was the first to pit for what would be the third time, nearly wiping out the Red Bull on his way into the pits due to the design of the pit entrance but allowing him to pass Vettel when the German pitted and leaving him vulnerable to Rosberg.

Things looked bleak for a moment, before it became clear the Mercedes’ didn’t have enough fuel to continue at their stonking pace and make it to the end of the race, so Vettel was easily able to escape Rosberg and later pass Hamilton. The pit lane became the main focus meanwhile as Massa was released into the path of Perez, forcing the Mexican to jump of his brakes to avoid a collision before Raikkonen and Hulkenburg engaged in a fairly pointless drag race down the pit lane at a steady sixty miles an hour, the Finn having to back off as he was behind.

Button, who looked like he could start to harass the Mercedes’ if they had to slow right down to conserve fuel, went to leave his pit box before coming to a halt in the pit lane when his front right wheel nut didn’t go on. Unlike the Force Indias, it was a mistake by one of the mechanics rather than a new-fangled wheel nut.

It seemed things were falling apart for Vettel as Rosberg closed before his luck turned in its usual over the top manner as both Mercedes needed to slow down in order to conserve fuel in order to get to the end. With both cars coasting, changing gears and braking early it took Vettel little effort to escape the pair once past Hamilton. Webber was a long way ahead so it looked like Vettel may have to settle for second.

Due to continued over the top tyre degrading, the leading four had to pit for a fourth time, Hamilton in first with Vettel and Rosberg the next lap and Webber the lap after. With clear air and fresher tyres, Vettel drew Webber in so that went the Aussie left the pit lane, the pair was side by side. Through the first five corners, Webber fended Vettel off while behind the Mercedes both started swapping positions in the DRS zones, Rosberg passing Hamilton before the last corner while Hamilton retook his place going into the first corner for several laps in a row.

Elsewhere, Button had dropped a long way back after his botched pit stop and later retired, possibly due to overheating in the pits but defiantly in order to change his gear box ahead of the next race in China. Raikkonen continued moving forwards while Perez remained in the points, but Massa had to pit again after trying to do just three stops, though the fresher tyres enabled him to climb up to fifth place. Grosjean and Hulkenberg had both managed to evade notice all afternoon, doing well in sixth and eighth while Bottas was showing fairly well. Maldonado, on the other hand, ended his afternoon in the gravel once again.

Things seemed to be cooling down slightly as Webber got nearly a second ahead of Vettel, before the German suddenly made another attempt on the lead. The pair fought again, going wheel to wheel as they had when Webber exited the pits, but this time there was an interesting twist: the team was telling Vettel to back off and he was ignoring them. Vettel managed to win the duel this time, taking off into the lead as it became clear they had both been ordered to back off and cruise to the end in formation and while Webber had tuned his engine down, Vettel had ignored the order, forced his way through and scampered off into the distance.

Red Bull weren’t the only team issuing orders as Rosberg asked for Hamilton to move over. Team manager Ross Brawn talked him down, pointing out Hamilton could go faster but they both had to save fuel as much as possible after the earlier efforts to catch the now distant Red Bulls.

The ordered remained to the end of the race with Vettel taking another win that puts him level with Jackie Stewart on total wins, screwing the statistics up once again. Webber came home in a very angry second while Hamilton finished third with Rosberg still on his tail.

The podium prep room, for lack of a better name, was a very awkward place when Hamilton and Vettel arrived, Adrian Newey, who designed the Red Bull and was there to pick up the winning constructors trophy, looking displeased when Vettel walked in. Webber, never the master of hiding what he thinks, reminded Vettel of the order to back off and stayed in the corner while Hamilton remained quiet.

Felipe Massa came home fifth after an up and down day, followed by a stealthy Grosjean, Raikkonen after what wasn’t a particularly good day, Hulkenberg after a solid and quiet race, Perez and Vergne picking up the final point. Further back, Bianchi once again beat the Caterhams and his team mate Chilton in an impressive thirteenth.

It’s an interesting and somewhat funny situation. The FIA have actively tried to spice up the racing by removing fuel stops and more recently having tyres degrade quickly to force stops and this is what it’s led to. I never thought of Vettel as the honourable sort who would pay attention to anything they didn’t allow him to win, but there’s a lot of annoyance pointed towards him at the moment and his apology to Webber doesn’t seem particularly sincere to me. He could potentially have driven a more potent wedge into his team then the crash in Turkey in 2010 could have done as he’s shown he can’t be trusted to act for the team’s benefit. Then again, this is the second race of the year and two teams had to employ team orders to prevent their drivers racing in order to save tyres and fuel, which is a joke in itself.

Frankly, I’d like to see more wheel to wheel action like that over the lead, even between team mates. Button and Hamilton had several ding dong battles at McLaren, after all. If anything though, the FIA should stop meddling, give them back the 2010 tyres, a set amount of fuel so they can go to the end at full speed and let them sort it out on the track.

Image Credits: Codemasters FB page

Race Results:

	Driver	Constructor	Race Time	Grid
1st	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull	1:38:56.681	1
2nd	Mark Webber	Red Bull	+00:04.298	5
3rd	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	+00:12.181	4
4th	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	+00:12.640	6
5th	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	+00:25.640	2
6th	Romain Grosjean	Lotus	+00:35.564	11
7th	Kimi Raikkonen	Lotus	+00:48.479	10
8th	Nico Hulkenberg	Sauber	+00:54.044	12
9th	Sergio Perez	McLaren	+01:12.357	9
10th	Jean-Eric Vergne	Toro Rosso	+01:27.124	17
11th	Valtteri Bottas	Williams	+01:28.610	18
12th	Esteban Gutierrez	Sauber	+1 lap	14
13th	Jules Bianchi	Marussia	+1 lap	19
14th	Charles Pic	Caterham	+1 lap	20
15th	Giedo van der Garde	Caterham	+1 lap	22
16th	Max Chilton	Marussia	+2 laps	21
17th	Jenson Button	McLaren	DNF (UNKNOWN)	7
18th	Daniel Ricciardo	Toro Rosso	DNF (UNKNOWN)	13
19th	Pastor Maldonado	Williams	DNF (Spin)	16
20th	Adrian Sutil	Force India	DNF (Pit Issues)	8
21st	Paul di Resta	Force India	DNF (Spin)	15
22nd	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	DNF (Accident)	3

Driver’s Championship:

	Driver	Score
1st	Sebastian Vettel	40
2nd	Kimi Raikkonen	31
3rd	Mark Webber	26
4th	Lewis Hamilton	25
5th	Felipe Massa	22
6th	Fernando Alonso	18
7th	Nico Rosberg	12
8th	Romain Grosjean	9
9th	Adrian Sutil	6
10th	Paul Di Resta	2
11th	Nico Hulkenberg	2
12th	Sergio Perez	2
13th	Jenson Button	2
14th	Jean-Eric Vergne	1

Constructor’s Championship:

	Constructor	Score
1st	Red Bull	66
2nd	Lotus	40
3rd	Ferrari	40
4th	Mercedes	37
5th	Force India	10
6th	Sauber	4
7th	McLaren	4
8th	Toro Rosso	1