Grand Prix 2012 Malaysian Grand Prix Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

Someone other than Vettel is leading the Championship!

It may be strange to see, but for the first time since Abu Dhabi 2010 someone other than Sebastian Vettel is top of the Championship after Jenson Button won the Australian Grand Prix in commanding fashion with Vettel second and a folorn Hamilton falling foul of a safety car which allowed the German through.

Going into Malaysia it seems apparent that Mclaren have the strongest car as they were far and away the strongest team in Australia and it was only after having to fuel save for 90% of the race that let Red Bull get within distance, when Button and Hamilton were at full throttle for the first 8 laps, they pulled away at over a second a lap which provided a comfortable cushion even though it was wiped out by a safety car due to Vitaly Petrov breaking down on the main straight.

But the Australian Grand Prix raised more questions than it did provide answers, the only thing that we learned was that the not quite so new teams are still as bad as they were last season and Mclaren and Red Bull are the two fastest teams. Ferrari had a shocking qualifying but Fernando Alonso managed to drag it kicking and screaming into 5th place which suggests a better race pace compared to qualifying pace while beleaguered Felipe Massa trundled around in midfield like he was on a Sunday drive in the Australian parks.

lotus are the only team where a question mark still remains about the general competitiveness. Roman Grosjean qualified a remarkable third but was taken out early on by Maldando while returning champion Kimi Raikkonnen failed to get out of first qualifying but managed to fight through the field to finish a very strong seventh which suggests that they do have a strong car but need to ally qualifying with race pace if they are to take the fight to the top teams.

In 2011 Malaysia was a race full of pit stops due to the high degradation of the Pirelli tyres, and while the tyres this year are more conservative and stable, high degradation is still to be expecting and several pit stops are going to be the norm with an unpredictable weekend to come. The only thing to expect is the likelihood of a massive shower at some point during the weekend which would no doubt spice things up.

For Galahad's excellent circuit write up, see here http://cliptheapex.com/pages/sepang-international-circuit/

 

[ExtremeNinja]

Vettel had better buck his ideas up or he'll be remembered as Newey's pilot rather than Newey being Vettel's aerodynamicist.

 

[Il_leone]

I've been waiting to see how Vettel would perform with a more level playing field. Two GP's and he's made a mistake in both. In Australia he ran off the track though it didn't cost him anything, in Malaysia he turned in on the car he had overtaken before he had cleared it giving himself a puncture. To me that's an error you would expect from a rookie, not a double world champion.

Schumacher syndrome - he makes it look easy leading in front in the fastest car but when he has to battle and scythe through the field he looks like a novice

 

[tranquility2k9]

What is going on with Hamilton's race pace ? That's twice he has got pole then been not up there with the fastest in the race. Perhaps he needs to work on a different set up for race day because it just doesn't make sense.

Nothing was wrong with Hamilton's race pace. He was faster than Button for most of the race. The only time when Button was quicker was when he put on a 2nd set of new intermediates because he couldn't make his first set work. Towards the end of Hamilton's stint on the intermediates he was the quickest car on track along with Perez. He held a 12 second lead on Vettel and then when he came back out on slicks he was only 4.5 seconds ahead, which shows you the time he lost at that pit stop.

His time on the slicks wasn't anything special but his fastest lap of the race was close to the Red Bull's and I think the tyre to be on was the hard, as Perez showed and so possibly he was on the wrong tyre.

I think if Button had blown Hamilton away you'd say he had a problem with race pace again but I think the only question is why the McLaren didn't perform so well. Clearly it wasn't working awfully well in those conditions. Probably tyre pressures / setup related. Webber said it took him forever to feel comfortable after the restart.

 

[Il_leone]

An unsatisfying race, as is usual in Malaysia where the rain dictates the state of play.

A bad error by Button hitting Karthikeyan, likewise for Vettel.
Quite surprised neither of them were investigated for causing a colllision - I thought that was mandatory now if you damage someone else's car?

A great drive from Pérez - such a shame he was told to back off*.
Hamilton unlucky with a slow pit stop and being brought in 1 lap too late, although arguably he possibly wouldn't have been able to stay with Pérez and Alonso.

Another poor race from Grosjean - unlucky for anyone who had then in their FF1 (snigger).

A great result for Alonso and Ferrari - considering how poor the car is, Alonso's not doing too badly leading the championship.

Webber must be grinning ear to ear.


* Only (half) joking.

Probably because it was the wet and also both drivers did suffer damage to their race already in losing a lot of time without really affecting Karthikeyan's position

Ferrari I don;t think can hold onto the lead for long but with Alonso you never give him a sniff of an opportunity or he will take full advantage of it like today

It will not have gone unnoticed when the fuel loads came down and the tyres started to wear Alonso was about 1 second slower than a Sauber !!

incidentally that is his 28th win which I think puts him 5th in the winners list ahead of Sir Jackie Stewart

 

[Il_leone]

Vettel had better buck his ideas up or he'll be remembered as Newey's pilot rather than Newey being Vettel's aerodynamicist.

Clearly the flexi wings , the EBD and the power steering system gained Vettel more of an advantage in performance because Webber is now a lot closer to him and beating him at the moment
( Helmut when are you going to step in and have your say?)

 

[johnnoble1990]

Public opinion just swings from one extreme to the other. I spent last year trying to bring people back to earth with their opinions on Vettel; I don't want to have to prop them back up. Vettel is clearly one of the quickest drivers over 1 lap. I personally think Hamilton, but that is down to opinion. When out in front, without a teammate in an equal car to challenge, he makes it look easy, as does any of the quality drivers on the grid, but you still have to bring it home to the flag and he did phenomenally well last year at doing exactly that.

In traffic, we haven't seen much of him in the last year, but you have to say he has improved. In 2010, some of his errors were quite embarrassing and made him an easy target. Though he made errors last year in Canada and Germany, in general his driving within the field was more impressive, as it was in Melbourne and here, till his mistake. Vettel can come across as clumsy at times, but I don't think we've seen enough of him to make these judgements and he has certainly done more good than bad in his career. He is also the current back-to-back world champion.

 

[teabagyokel]

Big surprise of the day was Bruno Senna's excellent drive, although it seems his Williams Patented Points Proximity and Prevention Sensor (WPPPPS) is not working. The one in the other car is at full capacity though...

Mercedes - two races. One point. Oh dear.

The gap between the two Ferrari drivers is as big as it has been. (since Spa in 2009! ) Alonso is a world-class driver, Pérez was excellent.

 

[Clinton]

Vettel made a bad mistake. However I will say that having three teams that are so regularly way off the pace must be a hassle for the leading drivers who have to pass them each two or three times per race. I can definitely see the benefit of having those teams for young talent to get a foot on the F1 ladder, or drivers in limbo like Kov and Petrov to stick around potentially for a second chance in the competitive cars. But just having Marussia and Caterham would be enough, I think.

Apart from that odd error I think Vettel's driven reasonably well and has looked consistently faster than Webber in the races - until he starts doing this every other weekend I'm going to put the popularity of the new narrative that Vettel can't race in the mid-field down as a confirmation bias phenomenon (since the sum of evidence in favour of it is one silly incident that could've happened any time a frustrated Vettel was trying to pass a backmarker whether in the mid-field or in clean air, and against it is stacked the fact that Vettel is a double-WDC who has exhibited clean racing prowess on numerous occasions by now, including IIRC against his team-mate and Rosberg today).

As for Button's incident, that was also an amateurish error but I wonder if part of his mind went into the normal backmarker-passing mode when he came up to pass the HRT for position and therefore caused him to be far too bold? Anyhow, I feel sorry for Narain who had his moment of glory spoiled through no fault of his own as far as I could see.

As for the Schumi-Grosjean incident, Schumi has been responsible for many collisions since his comeback but I thought that Grosjean was a little unsportsmanlike to blame him for that one.

 

[johnnoble1990]

What we should really be talking about here is Sergio Perez and Fernando Alonso. Fernando Alonso looks like he could make a milk cart look quick. I think we have to class him, reluctantly, as the strongest all round driver on the grid. God knows how he is leading the world championship in that car, and it is not like this is the first time he has made Ferrari look good. As a Lewis fan, this is the driver I'd like to see him surpass and definitely believe he has the potential.

As for Sergio Perez, I think Martin Whitmarsh eluded to what was on everyone's minds. If possible, Sergio Perez will be the Ferrari driver in China, because it is absolutely perfect timing to boost the team on the back of such strong performances. Sergio seems to have a natural understanding of these pirelli tyres, that probably even surpasses Jenson. His first ever race in F1 he did 1 stop in what I seem to remember was a 3 stopper and his continued to show this kind of tyre management, the pinnacle of which was today where he was absolutely brilliant, despite a few mistakes. He'll bring something different to Ferrari. He won't match Alonso for pace, but may be able to play the long game and get some good results. I don't think we need to debate Felipe Massa too much anymore. It is unfortunate that he has got to this position, but he has become a liability and appears to be one of the worst drivers in an impressive grid.

 

[johnnoble1990]

Was Perez not criticised as a pay-driver when he first came into F1, due to his Mexican money? Seems a long time ago now.

 

[Vortex]

Schumacher syndrome - he makes it look easy leading in front in the fastest car but when he has to battle and scythe through the field he looks like a novice

Are you kidding me? Schumacher use to be incredible at that!

 

[KekeTheKing]

The gap between the two Ferrari drivers is as big as it has been. (since Spa in 2009! )

And what happened after that? The guy harassing the winning Ferrari to the flag found himself in the other Ferrari in the next round. What chances we see that again?

 

[Slyboogy]

Quite a boring race for a wet one, but it was still exciting!

Confused by the pace of several cars first of all Alonso and Perez lapping faster than anyone else, then Maldonado and Bruno Senna too. Alonso and Perez might have been in clear air, but Senna at times wasn't and he was still fast.

Not much of a Ferrari fan, but it was nice to see them win.

Perez really should have won the race today, but unlike Alonso he wasn't flawless as he made a crucial error, and I highly doubt he made the mistake so Ferrari could win, as he couldn've easily ended up in the gravel at that point on the track and lost valuable points for the team, simply looked like an error from a driver pushing very hard. It's a shame he didn't, but his time will come eventually. I thought he would have slipped back as he lucky with the pistop, but boy did he prove me wrong. His pace was astonishing, would have been interesting to see someone else on the harder compound though so we could make a comparison.

I think Vergne deserves a mention aswell, his team-mate despite making some great overtakes, seemed to be nowhere, while Vergne was solidly in the points, plus he did well with having the intermediates on while everyone else was on the wets.

Senna was pretty good too, as was Maldonado who had a poor start, that Williams is very quick, could an experienced driver do a better job than them?

The biggest shocked is Mercedes, only 1 point from 2 races in what seems to be their best car so far, but not sure that can be said as we have yet to witness them on a fair playing. It's a shame Schumacher got hit by Grosjean, I don't think he would have done much, but he would have got more points I would think, plus more points for me in the fantasy league

Jenson Buttons luck finally ran out in this race, as did Vettel's. I initially thought Khartikeyan kind of chopped Vettel's tyre from the angles I seen it on, well have to see it again.

Kimi Raikkonen did well too, Rosberg just went backwards once again.

Well this was a great race championship wise as it's opened things up, although it would have been good if Vettel scored some points, but at least the McLarens where pegged in this race, and that must be a good feeling for the rest of the grid.

And most importantly of all, thankfully we got a full race!

 

[Slyboogy]

Was Perez not criticised as a pay-driver when he first came into F1, due to his Mexican money? Seems a long time ago now.

Not sure why, he finished runner up to a guy who had the better car and that 4 seasons to win the GP2. Might have been the fact that they had a very inexperienced line up for 2011.

 

[KekeTheKing]

Quite a boring race for a wet one, but it was still exciting!

Confused?

Yes!

 

[siffert_fan]

Schumacher syndrome - he makes it look easy leading in front in the fastest car but when he has to battle and scythe through the field he looks like a novice

If he does have "Schumacher syndrome", I guess that means he has five more WDCs in his future!

 

[Slyboogy]

Yes!

Ah...abusing the quoting feature I see

 

[MCLS]

It's good to see Hamilton focus on consistency and bringing the car home for podiums instead of risking everything and crashing, for once it was Hamilton who was sensible while Button made the uncharacteristic error.

 

[Chad Stewarthill]

A bad error by Button hitting Karthikeyan, likewise for Vettel.
Quite surprised neither of them were investigated for causing a colllision - I thought that was mandatory now if you damage someone else's car?

Only mandatory if your surname starts with 'H'?

 

[ExtremeNinja]

Jenson Buttons luck finally ran out in this race, as did Vettel's.

Perhaps, but in reality the demise of these who drivers in the race today cannot be attributed to luck.