Malaysia has always been known for its unpredictable weather and though this weekend the probability of a rain was high yet again, nothing of that sort happened. The drivers were informed a few times that a rain was about to come “soon” but all we saw was a few drops here and there. It doesn’t still change the fact that the race was fascinating with tyre degradation making up for the lack of the rain.
Sebastian Vettel might have won second Grand Prix in a row, leading undisturbed from the start to the finish line, yet the race was everything but a dull procession with the order changing constantly behind the German’s back, great (sometimes tragic) fights and bold overtaking moves.
Vettel had a clear start and took the lead with no apparent problems. Meanwhile, behind him both Renaults started very well with Nick Heidfeld jumping a few places and taking P2 on the opening lap. Massa overtook Alonso again at the start (the Brazilian was now P5) with the Spaniard dropping to P7 and finding himself behind his old friend Petrov in the third race. Webber had a disastrous start which saw him back to 10th, Nico Rosberg also dropped (from P9 to P13), but Michael Schumacher evened out Mercedes results at the start by making up a few positions. Button was one of a few drivers who managed to keep his place and stayed as he started – P4.
The situation seemed to be calming down after a few laps, but not for long. Petrov soon made a mistake, allowing Alonso through and so we saw a familiar sight of a combo composed of Button and the two Ferraris fighting for a position (although this time, compared to Australia, the order was different with Massa behind Button).
The tyres, as expected, didn’t last long and so we saw first part of pit stops as soon as lap 10. It has been yet again (after Australia) confirmed that the tyre degradation (though bigger than in case of Bridgestones) is not too big and it perfectly spices things up. Thanks to many pit stops, the situation on the track was changing constantly and one could never be sure what the final outcome would be. The only thing that was certain was that Vettel would most probably win his second race as he drove easily at the front, but the rest of the podium remained a mystery till the very end.
By lap 30 the leading three drivers were Vettel, Hamilton and Button. Hamilton was now first to pit from the McLaren duo and as a result he lost his place to Button, when the latter one pitted soon afterwards. However, catching Button was not the main task for Hamilton at this stage as he had to defend his position from Webber. Luckily for the Englishman, both Red Bull drivers were unable to use their KERS system. Apparently, the team is still not confident with it, despite their previous assurances that everything was fine.
Webber changed his tyres to the hard compound on lap 32 and it seemed that he might try to keep them till the end of the race which would definitely help him make up for some positions lost at the start. However, he was forced to pit for the fourth time on lap 42 which sent him back again.
Most of the drivers opted for the third (and last) pit stop around lap 40 and it seemed that the situation has calmed down yet again. Vettel was still leading, followed by Button, Hamilton and Alonso. The Spaniard was much faster than Hamilton, but as his DRS wasn’t working properly, he was forced to try a conventional overtaking move in a corner on his former team mate. After an exciting and fierce battle, Alonso hit Hamilton’s rear left wheel damaging his front wing. He was now forced to pit for the fourth time in order to get a new nose. This sent him back to P7 behind Massa and Webber.
At this stage of the race, Vettel was cruising to the finish line with Button comfortable in P2. Hamilton, on the other hand, seemed to be struggling with his tyres and so he lost his P3 when he was overtaken by Heidfeld with a small help of DRS. The McLaren driver soon went off the track and so we saw him back to the pit lane. He came back behind Alonso. In the closing stages of the race, Webber managed to pass Massa and finished the race just behind the podium (Vettel, Button and Heidfeld), in fourth.
There was one more scary moment, when Vitaly Petrov left the track two laps from the finish line. He hit the curb and jumped as if he was driving in WRC. When he touched down, his steering wheel literally fell off and he drove through the grassy side of the track unable to control his car until it came to a total halt somewhere in the banners.
After the race, the stewards found Alonso and Hamilton guilty of breaking the rules and they were both handed a 20 second drop penalty: Hamilton was penalized for changing direction more than once when defending his position, while Alonso was found guilty of causing a collision with the Briton. As a consequence, Hamilton lost his 7th place to Kamui Kobayashi, while the Spaniard managed to keep his 6th position.
I found the unfortunate in consequences fight between Alonso and Hamilton, the pinnacle of all the fights (maybe because of the history of those two), but the race was full of other exciting overtaking maneuvers. In the middle of the pack, Schumacher was fighting with Kobayashi, who once again proved to be an entertaining driver as they kept on passing and re passing each other. Massa also seemed to be in a pretty good shape, overtaking Webber and then fighting fiercely with the Aussie, only to be overtaken not long before the finish line.
Vettel is now leading the WDC with 50 points, 24 points ahead of Jenson Button. With 72 points, his team Red Bull is also enjoying a comfortable margin in the WCC over second McLaren (48 pts.) and third Ferrari (36 pts.).
Cheers,
Ewa
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