It’s two out of two for Sebastian Vettel as the defending champion continues to exude his dominance by winning the 2011 Petronas Malaysian Formula One Grand Prix albeit with much less breathing space compared to his season-opening win at Australia.
While the defending champ wasn’t able to dominate the race, running without KERS for most of the race, he was still able to put enough distance between himself and his rivals for a comfortable victory at a dry Sepang International Circuit.
Jenson Button came in second with Lotus-Renault GP continuing its strong start to the season as Nick Heidfeld gave them their second podium in as many races. Vettel’s teammate, Mark Webber had to make do with fourth, ahead of the Ferraris of Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso who came in fifth and sixth respectively.
The Lotus-Renault GP cars were off to a thundering start as Heidfeld and Vitaly Petrov shot through the outside to take second and fifth, up from their starting spots of sixth and eighth.
Webber wasn’t having the best of days after taking third in qualifying, his KERS not functioning caused him to drop to ninth before losing another spot to Kamui Kobayashi toward the end of the lap.
After the first round of stops, Hamilton managed to trim Vettel’s lead down to below four seconds. Alonso made progress too, moving up to third pass Button.
It was after the second round of stops that Vettel lost the use of his KERS. Nonetheless, he still managed to stretch his lead over Hamilton to eight seconds. From this point on, Button started making his move, taking back third place from Alonso after the pair had done their stops. The last to pit during the second window was Hamilton, who was held back by an issue with his car, allowing Button to move up to second.
Hamilton was running on the hard tyres, severely slowing him down, which in turn allowed Alonso to catch up with him. Alonso got too close at Turn 3 and clipped the rear of Hamilton’s McLaren that damaged the Ferrari’s front wing and forced an unplanned pit for repairs.
Both drivers were given post-race drive through penalties, meaning both had 20 seconds added to their final times. Hamilton was punished for making more than one move to defend his position while Alonso got his dues for making contact with the McLaren.
Heidfeld managed to catch up to Hamilton, who was struggling for pace. The Lotus-Renault GP driver then passed him on Turn 1. It was then Webber’s turn to slip pass Hamilton into fourth and he duly did so after Hamilton slid off the road for a moment. It was a good showing from Webber as the Australian was running sans KERS on was on a four-stop strategy.
Vettel managed to stem off Button to take the win by just over three seconds and Heidfeld too staved off Webber for third. Massa and Alonso came in next, followed by Hamilton. The post-race drive through penalty incurred by Hamilton dropped him to eighth but Alonso managed to maintain his sixth place even with the added time.
Petrov was looking good for seventh until he ran wide and went over the grass, hitting a bump and busting his steering.
The offensive Kobayashi somehow made a two-stop strategy work to come home eighth, ahead of Michael Schumacher, but not without some spectacular dogfights along the way. Team Lotus continued their slow but steady climb towards being established midfield-runners as Heikki Kovalainen took fifteenth behind the Toro Rossos.
Final Classification-
1. Vettel- Red Bull-Renault 1:37:39.832
2. Button- McLaren-Mercedes +3.261
3. Heidfeld- Renault +25.075
4. Webber- Red Bull-Renault +26.384
5. Massa- Ferrari +36.958
6. Alonso- Ferrari +37.248
7. Hamilton- McLaren-Mercedes +49.957 (20 second penalty drops him to eighth)
8. Kobayashi- Sauber-Ferrari +1:07.239
9. Schumacher- Mercedes +1:24.896
10. Di Resta- Force India-Mercedes +1:31.563
11. Sutil- Force India-Mercedes +1:41.379
12. Rosberg- Mercedes +1 lap
13. Buemi- Toro Rosso-Ferrari +1 lap
14. Alguersuari- Toro Rosso-Ferrari +1 lap
15. Kovalainen- Lotus-Renault +1 lap
16. Glock- Virgin-Cosworth +2 laps
17. Petrov- Renault +4 laps
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