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/
 
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johnnoble1990 said:
I honestly don't know why I like Mclaren. I don't think it has anything to do with them being British, as I first supported them when Hakkinen won the world title. After that, I think I always supported them as they were the Anti-Schumacher. The only team who ever seemed to challenge Ferrari. Since Lewis and Jenson joined though, they have begun to take their place as the British national team, like Ferrari are to Italy.
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What I like about Mclaren is they arent afraid to give the head to heads between star drivers that the public want to see, they let their drivers race and don't massage any egos. In contrast it seems that Ferrari and Red Bull are only prepared to pair and favour one star driver. Lets face it everyone wants to know whos fastest between Alonso/Hamilton/Vettel - only at Mclaren would you ever find that out.
 
This is what Hamilton saw when he landed at KL airport...

kl-airport.webp
 
tranquility2k9 said:
My verdict on the weekend is that McLaren should be the team to beat. As Whitmarsh has said, I followed testing closely and McLaren appeared the strongest through the fast corners, 3 and 9 I think and were especially good through sector 1. Red Bull tended to be the strongest through sector 3 (ironically where McLaren were strongest last year), with slower turns. It looks like McLaren's updates introduced at the last minute in testing have really sorted their car out in the slower stuff and made it strong all around. One can therefore logically predict that McLaren may have an even greater advantage at Sepang.

This advantage however may be negated, but could equally be compounded by several factors. High temperatures mean tyres will be in a different operating range which will suit some teams and not others. Equally, cooling will be required on many cars, which means opening up valves, causing drag and losing a little speed. If you remember last year, McLaren suddenly were within a tenth of Red Bull from Australia and it was because Red Bull had to open their car up a lot as they had cooling issues whereas McLaren had none. Another factor is obviously the fact that there may be a clean Friday. In Australia, Red Bull seem to think they didn't get the best out of their car so maybe they can get it hooked up at Sepang and make a big step forward. You've also got to bare in mind Sepang has lots of high speed corners and long straights - the long straights should hurt Red Bull and Ferrari, as they were very slow in Melbourne and so this is the main reason why I cannot see Red Bull challenging McLaren, at least for pole. Mercedes could again split McLaren from the Red Bull's, which will most likely gift the win to McLaren, however, whether Hamilton can overcome his tyre woes is another question. He may well take 2nd to Jenson at this race, which is one of the worst on the calendar for tyre deg.
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why do ppl still talk about hamiltons tyre woes?i mean in how many races has he lost out in because of his apparent tyre woes?
tyres wernt the problem,crashing was.
 
MCLS said:
After 10 laps Button was over 10 seconds ahead of Schumacher and Vettel but had to start fuel saving. Could possibly have been a 1-2 if it hadn't been for a safety car.

I wasn't saying there was anything wrong with it, I was just pointing out how amusing it was that it was the case
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were both drivers fueled the same?or was one fueled lighter than the other?
 
I don't think anyone knows riskitall, but Lewis was saving fuel during safety car, as it was on team radio.
 
johnnoble1990 said:
Was it not one of the more exciting finishes to a grand prix? Webber close to Hamilton, Hamilton before that close to Vettel, Maldonado might've passed Alonso, Rosberg controversially passed Perez and broke his wheel I believe, and a few drivers made up 3 places on the final lap, as well as Di Resta passing Vergne on the final straight, as 4 cars were within a second of each other.

What exactly were you after Bushi? ;)
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Guess i was looking to hard at the front there.:)
 
Wonder if RB can give it to Mclaren this race.
Think RB had problems heating there tires in Melbourne, if you look at Seb after the safety car. So this race should be fine for them if that indeed was there problem.

I expect Merc to be at the top aswell.
 
Mercedes may do well in qualifying as they can use their super F-duct for most of the lap, but the race will be a different matter so I expect them to drop back.

I can't see there being too many changes from the last race although it may be a bit closer between McLaren and Red Bull.
Be interesting to see where Raikkonen slots in too, considering how well Grosjean qualified.
 
button won fair and square,but im going to be watching the timing of each drivers pitstops closely,coz sometimes i feel they pit lewis at the wrong times for whatever reasons.
 
Talking about pitstops, Ferrari seem to have it together in that area:
total pitstop time:
Alonso: 43.945
Button: 46.112
Hamilton: 46.326
Vettel: 48.387
 
Same as last year as it seems.

Does anyone know what the speed trap was in the last race? Can only find it from qualifying.
 

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