Malaysian Grand Prix: Deja vu in Sepang.

As I look back at the Malaysian Grand Prix, I have two thoughts. The first one is, at least the rain stayed away. The second is, haven't we seen this before? Over the winter break the F1 regulators have made massive changes to the rules, in a bid to mix the field up a bit, create a level playing field, and inject even more excitement in to the sport. So, how great to witness the result of those efforts, in the opening races of the season. Oh wait... Red Bull Racing and Mercedes at the front, Mercedes taking first and second, the Red Bull of Sebastian Vettel taking third? That was all too reminiscent of the result here last season. I can hear the echoes of disgruntled F1 fans already, 'F1 is boring', 'Always the same teams winning'. It's only a matter of time.

The scary thing is the huge gulf between some of the teams. It was the Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton that provided us with the best example of this. He left the pits, after his first stop, and steamed past Hulkenberg, in the Force India. We can only hope that the lagging teams can draw closer, in the wake of the technical developments that always come before the European stint of the season. Last season I championed the Force India team, however this season I have a new team to keep an eye on. We're only two races in, but it is clear that Caterham have come on in leaps and bounds. It was hugely impressive watching the Ferrari of Kimi Raikonnen struggling to overpower Ericsson's Caterham. Even the Caterham drivers must have been questioning their great pace, as the trackside marshals erroneously waved blue flags at them. I really hope they can keep the pressure on the teams in the middle of the field, in the coming races.

This week it was Ricciardo's turn to shoulder the weight of disappointment in the Red Bull team. He was looking strong, albeit behind his teammate Vettel, when a mistake during his pit stop left him sitting forlornly, waiting for the pit crew to roll him back to his pit box. It seemed that, after seating his left front wheel correctly and actually attaching it to his car, he might salvage something from the race. However, it wasn't to be, as he suffered a front wing failure, which resulted in him being more than a lap down on the rest of the field and destined to retire. It was unclear whether his retirement was down to a car issue or simply the total loss of motivation, but it really didn't matter to the fans.

McLaren were surprisingly far off the pace throughout the race. It's a little confusing when you consider that  they have the same engine as the Mercedes team. Much like monkeys with typewriters, McLaren just don't seem to know what to do with the Mercedes engine. Perhaps with an infinite number of staff McLaren could pull something off, but then they would need an infinite number engines and that just wouldn't be feasible for Mercedes.

In retrospect, the Malaysian Grand Prix wasn't much to write home about this year. I found myself praying for the Mercedes pit crew to make a mistake, during Lewis' pit stop. Unfortunately, it all went smoothly. There was talk of rain, as we approached the half way point. I prayed to the Gods for that to transpire, but the God's, it seems, are Mercedes fans and were happy for the Grand Prix to be a foregone conclusion. In all fairness, if it had rained, we'd all still be waiting for this race to start.


Check out The F1 Spectator Malaysian GP podcast and listen to The F1 Spectator himself.

The Result:

Pos	No	Driver	Team	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Pts
1	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	56	1:40:25.974	1	25
2	6	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	56	+17.3 secs	3	18
3	1	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull Racing-Renault	56	+24.5 secs	2	15
4	14	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	56	+35.9 secs	4	12
5	27	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India-Mercedes	56	+47.1 secs	7	10
6	22	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	56	+83.6 secs	10	8
7	19	Felipe Massa	Williams-Mercedes	56	+85.0 secs	13	6
8	77	Valtteri Bottas	Williams-Mercedes	56	+85.5 secs	18	4
9	20	Kevin Magnussen	McLaren-Mercedes	55	+1 Lap	8	2
10	26	Daniil Kvyat	STR-Renault	55	+1 Lap	11	1
11	8	Romain Grosjean	Lotus-Renault	55	+1 Lap	15
12	7	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	55	+1 Lap	6
13	10	Kamui Kobayashi	Caterham-Renault	55	+1 Lap	20
14	9	Marcus Ericsson	Caterham-Renault	54	+2 Lap	22
15	4	Max Chilton	Marussia-Ferrari	54	+2 Lap	21
Ret	3	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull Racing-Renault	49	+7 Lap	5
Ret	21	Esteban Gutierrez	Sauber-Ferrari	35	+21 Laps	12
Ret	99	Adrian Sutil	Sauber-Ferrari	32	+24 Laps	17
Ret	25	Jean-Eric Vergne	STR-Renault	18	+38 Laps	9
Ret	17	Jules Bianchi	Marussia-Ferrari	8	+48 Laps	19
Ret	13	Pastor Maldonado	Lotus-Renault	7	+49 Laps	16
DNS	11	Sergio Perez	Force India-Mercedes	0	+56 Laps	14

Malaysian Qualifying: Slippery when wet...

Guess what. It rained again in Sepang and Formula One cars can't drive in the rain, which meant we had to sit and watch two Scotsmen attempting to fill time for almost two hours, whilst wearing shirts that were rapidly becoming transparent. Not something I like to wake up to. I have to say, I think it's ludicrous that, with all the modifications and improvements to the regulations, Formula One cars still can't race in the wet. It's just another thing that fans of the sport have to put up with.

Once the cars finally got out on the track, things were a little nervy, to say the least. Mercedes looked colossal in the first session, leading the pack by almost two full seconds for much of Q1 and the first part of Q2. Let's hope that doesn't become a common occurrence, or the more fickle F1 fan amongst us will begin grumbling about 'the sport getting boring' and 'it's always the same team winning', with a combination of frustration and disappointment adorning their face. It looked as though Vettel's woes would continue, as he heard those immortal words coming across the radio, 'box! There's a problem with the car'. A few laps later, in Q2, and he was splitting the two Mercedes cars on the front row and proving that somebody could challenge the Silver Arrow.

The most shocking moment of the qualies was when the partisan BBC commentators claimed that, Fernando Alonso driving in to Kvyat was the Russian's fault. David Coulthard and Ben Edwards stumbled through reasoning like 'the man coming in to the corner is the man at fault' and 'Kvyat locked up and slid in to the side of the Ferrari', none of which was true. It didn't take a genius, whilst watching the onboard camera, to see that Alonso, unceremoniously and without warning, closed the gap that Kvyat was driving in and left him nowhere to go except through the Ferrari's side pod.

Vettel didn't finish qualifying completely unscathed. In Q3, he managed to run out of time and cross the line after the chequered flag, whilst everyone else began their final hot laps. He still qualified second, but will surely have to admit that it was an opportunity lost. The unusual thing about the session was that the result wasn't random at all, despite the rain and despite the unpredictable new cars. Hamilton and Rosberg were fastest, in the Mercedes, whilst the Red Bulls and the Ferraris were up there too. Hopefully rain doesn't postpone the race until Monday afternoon, and that something shakes the order up a bit.

The Grid:

Pos	No	Driver	Team	Q1	Q2	Q3	Laps
1	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:57.202	1:59.041	1:59.431	22
2	1	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull Racing-Renault	1:57.654	1:59.399	1:59.486	20
3	6	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1:57.183	1:59.445	2:00.050	23
4	14	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	1:58.889	2:01.356	2:00.175	22
5	3	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull Racing-Renault	1:58.913	2:00.147	2:00.541	20
6	7	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	1:59.257	2:01.532	2:01.218	21
7	27	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India-Mercedes	1:58.883	2:00.839	2:01.712	23
8	20	Kevin Magnussen	McLaren-Mercedes	2:00.358	2:02.094	2:02.213	20
9	25	Jean-Eric Vergne	STR-Renault	2:01.689	2:02.096	2:03.078	23
10	22	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	2:00.889	2:01.810	2:04.053	22
11	26	Daniil Kvyat	STR-Renault	2:01.175	2:02.351		16
12	21	Esteban Gutierrez	Sauber-Ferrari	2:01.134	2:02.369		16
13	19	Felipe Massa	Williams-Mercedes	2:00.047	2:02.460		16
14	11	Sergio Perez	Force India-Mercedes	2:00.076	2:02.511		15
15	77	Valtteri Bottas	Williams-Mercedes	1:59.709	2:02.756		17
16	8	Romain Grosjean	Lotus-Renault	2:00.202	2:02.885		17
17	13	Pastor Maldonado	Lotus-Renault	2:02.074			8
18	99	Adrian Sutil	Sauber-Ferrari	2:02.131			7
19	17	Jules Bianchi	Marussia-Ferrari	2:02.702			8
20	10	Kamui Kobayashi	Caterham-Renault	2:03.595			8
21	4	Max Chilton	Marussia-Ferrari	2:04.388			8
22	9	Marcus Ericsson	Caterham-Renault	2:04.407			7

Malaysian GP Qualifying: Everybody loves the sunshine

The qualifying in Malaysia started in predictably sunny and dry conditions, allowing the teams to set up the cars in a more optimum way to what they had to for qualifying in Australia. However, it wouldn't prove to be that way throughout the session.

Q1 was dry and, despite this, still managed to throw up a couple of surprises. Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel both left it very late to secure their places in the second session of qualifying. They looked to be massively off the pace, whilst once again the Force India cars were looking extremely competitive, as were the Lotus cars. Sutil is really relishing the new found pace and performance in his Force India and is likely to be a cause for concern to the front runners again on Sunday. It'll only be a matter of time before Sutil is considered one of them, instead of just in amongst them...

The Red Bull drivers made it through to Q2, Sebastian Vettel by the skin of his teeth, and as Q2 got underway it became clear that something was worrying all of the teams. It was revealed that the reason all of the cars were out on track at the same time, and desperately trying to get a decent lap in, was that rain was on its way. It was inevitable that it would catch somebody out and that somebody was Paul Di Resta, who found himself pirouetting through the KLIA Curve. He didn't fair any better after that and ended up qualifying fifteenth. He and the team will have to work on an interesting strategy for the race.

Sebastian Vettel cut it close again, in Q2, and was lucky not to be a victim of the same fate as Di Resta. He was just outside the elimination zone and joined the other ten cars as they went out for the final session of qualifying, on intermediate tyres. As the cars completed lap after lap, the times got quicker and quicker on a drying track. Unbelievably, and probably to all of his rivals' dismay, Vettel managed to bag pole position. The two Ferrari's are hot on his heels again and it will just be a case of whether Seb can keep them behind him this time.

Malaysian Grand Prix

Now that I’ve caught my breath, I have to decide which bits to write about. There was just too much excitement and incident for a short blog; might have to make this a long ‘un!

Well it’s now safe to say that the season isn’t going to be a one horse race. We’re still only two grands prix in, but the title fight appears to be wide open. As the lights dropped, Lewis Hamilton managed to hold on to first place, with Button holding second and all the action
occurring behind them further down the order.

In true Malaysian Grand Prix style the rain set in almost immediately and, by the time the cars were embarking on the second lap, it was almost impossible to see them on the TV. Also in true
Malaysian GP style, the race was red flagged within a few laps and we all had a long wait before it restarted.

However, it was on the second lap (before the safety car and the red flag) that Perez and Sauber made their inspired decision to pit and change the tyres to ‘full wets’. It meant that the other cars were losing a lot of time, whilst Perez was making a lot. This resulting in him leading the race at one point and eventually finishing second.

It was a bit of a shock to see Jenson Button make an uncharacteristic mistake on lap fifteen; a mistake that saw him drop down to the back of the pack. He needed a front wing change after
hitting Narain Karthikeyan in a wild move. Button later apologised, but his race was beyond repair and he finished outside the point scoring positions… as did Sebastian Vettel.

Vettel made a slightly more characteristic mistake to end his own race. He shook his fist at Karthikeyan, who it’s fair to say was having a pretty eventful day, but it was entirely Sebastian’s fault and he could blame no one but himself. The top drivers consistently believe it is their right to have the track to themselves and, in this instance, that belief backfired. Sebastian gave Karthikeyan little to no room and clipped his right rear tyre on Narain’s wing endplate.

As the race progressed towards its conclusion, rumours of rain and talk of extra pit stops circulated. Lewis Hamilton didn’t seem to be able to get close to the fight between Sergio Perez and Fernando Alonso, so they were left to duke it out. Perez was staggeringly faster than Alonso and he rapidly caught up with him, both before and after his final pit stop.

Everybody, excluding Alonso fans and Ferrari fans, watched with bated breath as Perez came within touching distance of Fernando. He was scuppered when he was, first told to hold his position (a call that was both reasonable and slightly suspicious), and then caught out by a moist white line that saw him run very wide and crucially lose all the ground he had made up between himself and the first placed Ferrari driver.

The race finished that way and I think almost everyone was a Perez fan by the chequered flag. However, questions and accusations started flying even before the cars had started slowing for their in lap. The first thought to cross many people’s minds was the one regarding the politics of Ferrari and Sauber, and whether Ferrari had the power to influence the outcome of the race.

Ferrari provides Sauber with engines and as a result Sauber could be seen to play second fiddle to the Italian team. Then the idea manifests itself as to whether Perez’s mistake was indeed a mistake or just made to look like one. Something tells me this discussion will continue to play out well in to next week. Personally I would rather not be sceptical about this one. I believe that for Sergio Perez (a young driver, running in second position, in the second race of only his second
season, with a car easily quick enough to take the victory) holding back and settling for second would be the last thought on his mind.

All in all, a fantastic race! It’s hard to see how it can get better than this. One thing is for certain, if it continues in this fashion, then I’m not going to run out of things to write in this blog.

McLaren start as they mean to go on...

McLaren have emphasised the fact that their win in Australia was a sign of things to come, after filling out the front row of the grid again this weekend. Hamilton repeated his performance of Melbourne qualifying with a blistering lap early in the final session of qualifying, whilst Button was hot on his heels to secure second.

It's great to see Schumacher back up at the front and hopefully this weekend he can make it stick and mix it with the two Brits when the lights go out. Red Bull Racing have found themselves down the order again with Webber fourth and Vettel sixth, split only by the Lotus of Kimi Raikonnen. Red Bull will be striving to show that, (like in Australia) despite the car not having the pace in qualifying, it has considerably more pace in the race. Only time will tell.

It's interesting to note that the qualifying lap times were extremely close with less than half a second separating the top eight drivers. Alonso was almost a second off the eighth place Mercedes of Rosberg, showing the a worrying gulf between the top four teams and the rest of the field. However, four teams closely matched at the front sounds good to me, so I'm looking forward to tomorrow's race delivering on expectations.