Grand Prix 2013 Malaysian Grand Prix Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

The first race of the season has just finished and what a race it was. Exciting from start to finish. Nice battles. Three World Champions on the podium. And the good thing is, there is another Grand Prix in just seven days time in Malaysia!

Having won in Melbourne, Kimi Räikkönen will go into the 2013 Malaysian Grand Prix leading the World Driver's Championship. His Lotus car looked as though it was treating the new Pirelli tyres better than any other car/driver-combination, managing to win the race with only two stops. Can they keep this good initial form up?

Red Bulls pace didn't look too frightening in Melbourne. Mark Webbers race was ruined by his (usual) bad start, which apparently was caused by a software issue. Sebastian Vettel finished third. Let's see if they'll be able to fight for the win in Malaysia, where temperatures should be significantly higher than in Australia.

McLaren had a poor race (as expected). Jenson Button just finishing within the points. Sergio Perez' terrible qualifying led to him finishing just outside the points. Jenson sounded pretty pessimistic after the race about short term improvements. So we shouldn't expect a strong performance from them in Malaysia. But one never knows.

Mercedes had a pretty good start to the 2013 F1 season. Even though Nico Rosberg retired in the middle of the race, Lewis Hamilton was able to qualify third and finish fifth, which in his own words was more than expected. He seemed very upbeat about the car's performance, so there is probably more to b e expected from them. Considering McLaren's early form, his switch to Mercedes seems to have worked out.

Ferrari had a very strong race, leading the constructor's championship after Fernando Alonso finished second and Felipe Massa finished fourth. Alonso was strong as usual, but it was Felipe Massa who looked really impressive. After outqualifying his teammate, he was able to keep Alonso behind him for the first part of the race only losing the battle against Alonso due to a poor pit stop strategy. They're in for a pretty strong season.

In the midfield battle it was Force India who looked mightily impressive with Adrain Sutil leading the race twice and finishing seventh after his last stint was compromised by the quickly deterioating super soft tyres. Let's see if they can keep up their good form in Malaysia.
Sauber only started the race with one car as Nico Hülkenberg was unable to start due to a fuel pump problem. Esteban Gutierrez looked rather anonymous during the race. They'll be hoping for a more competetive outing in the next race.
Williams didn't look too strong with Pastor Maldonado calling the car "undriveable" and retiring after beaching his car in turn one. Rookie Valtteri Bottas finished 14th not living up to the high expectations people put on him. Let's see, if they will be able to make short term improvements for the Malaysian Grand Prix.
Toro Rosso looked strong during Free Practice and parts of qualifying but only managed to finish 9th with Jean Eric Vergne. Daniel Riccardo, who told media before the race that he will have to "blow Vergne away" in order to get a shot at the Red Bull seat for 2014, retired from the race.

In the battle of the "new teams" it was Marussia who looked to have the upper hand over Caterham, with Jules Bianchi appearing to be strongest of the four backmarkers.

Can Kimi Räikkönen make it two out of two? Are McLaren going to be as poor as in Malaysia? Will Nico Rosberg come back strongly after his retirement? And most imprortantly: What about the weather?

Discuss!

 

[Speshal]

Ruthless German F1 driver wins race SHOCKER

 

[mnmracer]

I can't remember there being this much drama after Webber ignored teamorders in Silverstone '11.
Vettel was caught out by the first stop, and he already had to hold back earlier in the race. Teamorders or not, Vettel was the faster driver today and did just what people always say he can't do: race. There was nothing keeping Webber from turning his enging back up, but he didn't have the speed: he finished 6 seconds behind.

And if you no longer go for a gap that exists, you are no longer a racing driver because we are competing, we are competing to win. -Ayrton Senna

 

[Greenman]

Vettel summed it up himself by saying he didn't care about the criticism, and when he wins the WDC again he'll care even less (and not many will remember). A very ruthless move anyway, and am starting to rate him above Alonso in that respect.

Really enjoyed the race despite the team orders towards the end, although that turned out to be entertaining in itself.

 

[Speshal]

Am I being an idiot or did they interview Lewis after the race?

 

[mjo]

mnmracer I think what got Webber so annoyed was that he was seemingly told that both drivers were backing off... saving tyres, fuel etc. And as for saying Webber didn't have the speed - didn't Vettel have to ask his team to 'get him out of the way'?

 

[Andrea_Moda_Rules]

mnmracer also i think the crucial thing there has well is the "right result" happened in Silverstone. don't think it would of been so easy to swat away if Webber finished ahead

 

[mnmracer]

mnmracer I think what got Webber so annoyed was that he was seemingly told that both drivers were backing off... saving tyres, fuel etc. And as for saying Webber didn't have the speed - didn't Vettel have to ask his team to 'get him out of the way'?

Vettel was clearly faster and could have overtaken him, but was asked not to fight him. Not fighting him is one thing, but if it means that Hamilton is going to overtake you, then either Webber needs to speed up or get out of the way.

 

[rufus_mcdufus]

I guess this is what make Seb an irritating triple world champ and Mark a bit of a number two! Winners often aren't very nice.
I love a bit of controversy though.

 

[Brogan]

One driver ignores team orders and another obeys them.
Looks like that covers everyone on the forum so plenty to argue about

 

[Fenderman]

Bit of a Birthday treat for you this one Bro'

 

[Slyboogy]

Good thing about these early starting races, is that I can watch them live before work!

Anyhow, the race was not bad, quite bland until the last round of pit stips, where the Mercedes drivers closed in on the Red Bull's, and then all the shit that happened afterwards.

First let's get the team battles out of the way.

Red Bull tried to tame their firey Red Bull, but it just wasn't happening. Vettel felt he was faster than Webber throughout the whole race and was getting held up, made his move on Webber giving us a great battle. As soon as this happened, you knew the mood wasn't great at the team due to the odd radio messages. Webber was cruising around saying he was 'saving the tyres', while Vettel felt that Webber was just 'going to slow'. Vettel shouldn't have done what he did if he acknowledged what was going on, but even so it wasn't as if Webber backed down, Webber fought hard in defence, and the next lap tried to overtake Vettel, in my opinion Webber was slower on the day. Vettel wasn't allowed to fully unleash, Webber drove a great race, both probably could have taken the victory today. Neither go away pleased with the result, but it gave us a good battle .

Now on to Mercedes, I personally feel Rosberg should have had 3rd today, as do many of you. I found it refreshing that Rosberg was arguing back with the big bearboss (Ross Brawn). Can't say it's Rosberg's fault that Hamilton's side of the garage underfuelled if that was the case or whatever the fuel issue was for Hamilton. They two had a battle for a while with Rosberg getting past Hamilton into the final corner, with Hamilton re-passing him in the final corner. After that, they were told to hold station, must have been painful for Rosberg to do a Massa for 10 or so laps and kept pushing the big man for the move. Following Hamilton to the end, and the team rightly so should in Rosberg's words 'remember this one'.

Now on to the race winner. Pulled a sneaky one didn't he? Probably was the fastest out there today, but was let down by the strategy. Looked fiesty once he fell back, and pulled a brave manouevre on Webber down the pit straight, even though Webber defended hard, Vettel was lucky it wasn't Schumacher that was defending at that part of the track. Pulls aways from his main rival from the championship (Alonso). Looked sorry, did he mis-read the situation? Judging by his reaction I wouldn't rule it out, neither the opposite.

Woop woop! Let's have a party! Mark Webber actually had a great start for once, and since 10 races he's finally finished ahead from where he qualified. He looked up for it in this race, had a Ferrari-like start, had the optimum strategy. Seemed slower than Vettel in the stints ahead. Might have been caught off guard by Vettel coming at him, but he seemed to have chosen his line early on, defended and raced hard against him, and tried to get past next lap after flipping him the finger. At the end, it was Vettel flipping the index finger up at the end. (or did he? didn't notice ).

Hamilton was lucky to have third, kept the Red Bull's honest, but again, had fuel problems. The car doesn't look too bad, was looking strong compared to the lead McLaren, even with his team-mate until the end. His first podium for the team, but not in great circumstances judging by his mood on the podium. His girlfriend talked some sense, "wonder why they hold the race at 4pm". But in hindsight, if they started the race earlier, it would have been a wet race.

Rosberg hard done by? I think so. Drove a controlled race, looked to be biding his time behind Hamilton for most of the race, his chance came at the last stint, but was told to hold station, 3rd should have definitely been his as he clearly had the pace, but could have also challenged for Mark Webber's second if he was let through. Took one for the team, Britney needs to MAN up!

Massa was anonymous,he and Alonso where my favourites for the race, but just did not have the pace. For once he had an average start, and then was too cautious going into Turns 1 and 2, some may say because he didn't want to hassle Alonso . Confused on the pace of Ferrari, they looked like the all round car in Australia, front two rows in qualifying, yet Massa only managed 5th racing himself.

Starting from 11th, 6th must feel like a good result for Grosjean, especiallly after the bad start in Australia. Once he cleared Perez and Hulkenberg he was on his on, leading those from 7th-9th with a little gap.

The three place grid drop for Raikkonen didn't help his race. Started in 10th from the dirty side, lost places, and just got frustrated first behind Perez, then a ding dong battle with Hulkenberg. Once in clear air, he had the pace. Starting further back was a problem for Lotus last season, seems like it's going to be the same again this season.

Hulkenberg started his season off with a great start in Malaysia, hooked the revs up and got as high up as 6th in the race. But once on the dry tyres he started slipping back. Might have had a wet setup, but got some needed points for Sauber, who look to be the only serious challengers to Force India at the moment.

A so-so race for Perez, gets his first points for McLaren, looks all over the place at the moment. Did McLaren make the right decision? Only time will tell.

Vergne gets Toro Rosso off the mark with a point, even after a clash in the pits with Charles Pic. Nearly got 9th in Australia until he went off in the last lap, he's looking strong. His team-mate though, is having the lion share of the problems.

Bottas misses out on a point by a second.

Bianchi is proving that the three drivers he's competing against are shit, while he's good.

An Alonso DNF is quite rare, but we've seen 3 in 11 races. Seemed to be too fiesty at the start, damaged his front wing and oddly stayed out, surely he could have felt the car behaving strange. The team should have called him, they seemed ready in the pits when he went off. I originally thought it was Webber who took Alonso's front wing clear off, replays show it just came off and went under the car. What could have he done in the Ferrari?

Thought Button did well today, was unlucky with the pitstop. McLaren's pitstop woes started again?

The less said about Force India's pitstops the bettter. Missed oppurtunity for them, they looked very strong in the dry, but come out with no points.

Williams look as if they are in a battle with Toro Rosso.

A three week wait for the next race in China, with weather usually unpredictable there, will we finally see a non-affected rain weekend?!

 

[Brogan]

Is anyone aware of any post race investigations still going on?

I don't want to update everything until the results are finalised.

 

[Boyle]

Well that was fun wasn't it?

The Red Bull rivalry coming to a head again. There would have clearly been an agreement that whoever was leading after the last round of pits would bring home the win. Otherwise Webber wouldn't feel so aggrieved. It's not like Red Bull to be so cold about a Vettel win. He was clearly in the wrong.

Shame for the Force India's and Jenson today, they looked like they had the pace for decent points.

Strange one at Merc, though. Obviously the team felt bad that they had under fueled Hamilton and so Nico was told to hold. I thought Nico could have pushed the Red Bull's into a mistake. It would have been interesting if this was the case had Button been chasing them down. How the Red Bull situation would have panned out too had Rosberg pushed may have ended differently.

Roll on China

 

[mjo]

According to Ted Kravitz' notebook thing, Toro Rosso were fined 10000 euros for the unsafe release of JEV, no penalty for the driver though, which is a surprise considering he crashed into Pic. Apart from that I can't think of anything else.

 

[Slyboogy]

Is anyone aware of any post race investigations still going on?

I don't want to update everything until the results are finalised.

Toro Rosso got a fine for the pit lane incident.

 

[Hamberg]

Is anyone aware of any post race investigations still going on?

I don't want to update everything until the results are finalised.

Only the unsafe release from Toro Rosso

 

[Brogan]

Thanks guys.

Race Hub will be updated now, followed shortly after by FF1.

 

[Boyle]

Is anyone aware of any post race investigations still going on?

I don't want to update everything until the results are finalised.

I know the Toro Rosso/ Caterham pit lane incident was to be investigated after the race. Unsure if it has been though

 

[Boyle]

A for god's sake Hamberg

 

[Quintessentially]

If Red Bull aren't careful, Vettel/Webber could descend into a Villeneuve/Pironi type feud.

Too late for that I'm afraid. Psychologically Vettel has had the edge on him for a long time, albeit with the help of the team and Webber simply lacks the consistency to take the fight to him. This was the first time he's led a Grand Prix since Silverstone and that's just not good enough. I thought he made it far too easy when Vettel passed him regardless of whether his engine was turned down. Even Alonso put up a better fight with a broken front wing at the start.