Sebastian Vettel claimed his first win of the 2013 Formula One season at a Malaysian Grand Prix that was filled with plenty of action and tension, both on and off the track.
Vettel’s 27th career victory ties him for sixth on the all-time list with Sir Jackie Stewart, but it came with a heavier burden than the German driver may have expected.
Trailing his Red Bull teammate Mark Webber for much of the race, Vettel made continued calls to Team Principal Christian Horner requesting that he be allowed to pass. On lap 28, Vettel radioed to the pits that Webber was “too slow,” despite being seconds behind and posting a slower time (+0.276) on the previous lap. The calls fell on deaf ears, as his Australian teammate showed impressive race pace and a fastest lap time on lap 37.
On lap 41 of 56, Webber had jumped out to a 4.396 second led over Vettel and received team orders to slow the pace to preserve the engine for what appeared to be a sure victory.
Despite receiving the same orders and being told to keep a considerable gap, Vettel continued to push Webber, who was forced to pit on lap 44 for a fresh set of hard compound tires. Coming out of the pits, the two drivers were neck-in-neck into turn one, then around turn two into turn three. Both Red Bulls came within inches of disaster on numerous occasions, but Webber held the lead with a strong defense of his teammate.
When the race appeared to be in the hands of the Red Bulls, both drivers recieved orders to turn down their engine output to conserve them for the next race. Webber did, but Vettel ignored repeat requests. Then on lap 46, Vettel flew down the inside of Webber on the front straight and into the first corner, snatching the lead. No match for Vettel's overpowered car, Webber conceded the dicey move to Vettel, but not before flipping him the finger in his rear view mirror.
“This is silly Seb (Sebastian), come on,” Horner said.
After the race, Vettel acknowledged his mistake.
"I messed up today. I would love to come up with a nice excuse as to why I did it, but I can’t. I can understand Mark’s frustration and the team not being happy with what I did today; I owe an explanation to him and the whole team. I will try to explain to them later. We talk about this situation happening many times and what we will do if and when it happens and normally it doesn’t, but today it did and I should have translated the call into action. I got the call and I ignored it. I’m not happy I’ve won, I made a mistake and if I could undo it I would. It’s not easy right now and I owe apologies to Mark and the team.”
Webber, undoubtedly disappointed with the result, is looking ahead to the next race in China.
“I think Sebastian has respect for me and I have respect for him, but the situation today was not handled well. It’s hard to put your finger on it all now after the race; when we’re racing on the limit and pushing as hard as we can, then it’s the worst situation for a team. I am sure they are bricking themselves and know that things can go wrong. This puts heat on a few people and unfortunately there’s no rewind button. I know people want raw emotion from us after these situations and it’s there, but we need to remain cool. There’s three weeks until the next race, so time for us to work on things."
Despite the drama between the team and its drivers the Red Bulls displayed dominant pace throughout the weekend, matched only by the Mercedes cars of Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg, who also had their share of on-track incidents.
Hamilton qualified a strong third position in his new Mercedes, but the Britain appeared to forget switching to his new team when he pitted in the McLaren box on lap eight. He quickly drove through to the Mercedes pit and returned to action without incident.
Posting the fastest time on lap 24, Hamilton held on to second until lap 39 when he was told to go into fuel-saving mode in order to finished the race. He dropped to third after quick pass by Vettel, one position up from Rosberg.
With Hamilton’s pace slowing, Rosberg radioed that he could make a pass on lap 51, but like the Red Bulls, team principal requested that Rosberg stay behind Hamilton, who showed considerably faster pace throughout the weekend. Rosberg reluctantly obliged, allowing Hamilton to finish ahead in third.
After crossing the finish the German driver was thanked by his crew for a strong drive, but responded by saying, “Remember this.”
Following his 50th Formula One podium, Hamilton recognized the contribution of his teammate, saying, “I have to say big congratulations to Nico. He drove a smarter and more controlled race than me this afternoon and deserved to finish where I did. The team made the call for us to hold positions and we both respected that.”
With a cooler head following the race, Rosberg said he understood the team’s decision.
“Of course, it was disappointing for me having to hold position but I understand the team’s decision to safeguard our positions and to make sure that both cars got to the end with a strong team finish, especially in light of the tough times behind us. There are a lot of races to go and our performance today makes me look forward to fighting for more podium finishes in the future.”
Placing fifth behind Rosberg was Ferrari’s Felipe Massa, who after a slow start last year, finished in the top five for the second straight race. It was also the fourth time the Brazilian out-qualified his teammate Fernando Alonso, who started in third but saw an early retirement on lap two, when his front wing was damaged on the first lap after touching Vettel, subsequently exploding underneath the car and driving him into the gravel pit.
Lotus drivers Romain Grosjean and Kimi Raikkonen finished sixth and seventh respectively. Australia-winner Raikkonen was forced to start tenth after a three-place grid penalty for an incident with Rosberg in qualifying.
Nico Hulkenberg slotted behind in eighth place, followed by McLaren’s Sergio Perez, who claimed his first two points with the team since his move from Sauber.
His teammate Jenson Button called it quits on lap 55 after leaving the pits with an ill-installed tire on lap 36 required him to be rolled back to the box and fall to 14th.
Force India saw both of its cars retire after showing considerable speed for the second straight weekend. Both cars of Adrian Sutil and Paul Di Resta suffered from wheel nut issues that prevented their tires from either being removed or installed.
Dr. Vijay Mallya, Force India Team Principal, said, “Unfortunately things went wrong in the pits when we experienced an issue with our captive wheel nut system at the first stop, which resulted in major delays for both cars. The issue occurred again at the second stop and it became apparent we would not be able to solve it during the race. As a precaution we were forced to retire both cars and will have a full investigation. It’s frustrating, but sometimes these things happen in racing. We will take the positives of the strong car performance and look to put things right next time out in China.”
William’s Pastor Maldonado has yet to complete both races this year after an off-track excursion that broke his front wing and eventually ended with his car in the gravel. His rookie teammate Valterri Bottas finished 11th, improving on his 14th place finish in Australia last week.
After back-to-back races to open the season, the F1 calendar moves to the 5.451 km Shanghai International Circuit in China from April 12 to 14. Nico Rosberg took the victory last year, with Jenson Button in second and Lewis Hamilton third.
Photography (in order of appearance): Andy Hone/LAT, Andy Hone/LAT, Steve Entherington/LAT, Andrew Ferraro/LAT, Steven Tee/LAT
