2013 Malaysian GP race report: battle of the teammates

2013MalaysianGP_report15

As witnessed in Sunday’s 2013 Malaysian GP, evidently in the world of Formula One, bad guys finish first while the good guys lose. A Vettel win was always expected as he dominated the practice and qualifying sessions, but the way he achieved it in the race was controversial, to say the least.

Reluctantly obeying Ross Brawn’s command to stay behind teammate Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes GP’s Nico Rosberg was denied the chance to step on the podium and challenge the leading Red Bulls. Brawn’s Red Bull counterpart Christian Horner obviously doesn’t hold the same authority over his drivers, as Sebastian Vettel ignored his calls to stay put and went on to attack Mark Webber for the win.

Win he did, but he did so by greatly risking the team’s fortunes. He later apologised to Webber, saying that he didn’t break the agreement deliberately, a claim that was quickly refuted by his team boss. “He put his interest beyond what the team’s position was,” said an angry Horner. You can read more about the Red Bull team order furore here.

2013MalaysianGP_report12

Hamilton finished third, 12 seconds adrift. A podium finish in just his second race for Mercedes put a smile on his face and continued his strong start to the season, but it could have been more. That hilarious moment where he pulled into the McLaren pits by mistake aside (old habits do die hard) he challenged for the lead and at one point even galloped past Vettel into second place, primed to take the battle to the Red Bulls.

Unfortunately his team had made a grave error and under fuelled him, forcing him to “lift and coast” before the mid point of the race and severely affecting his race pace. With his engine running in low-fuel mode, he was easily devoured by Vettel and his DRS, who then went on to close the gap to leader Webber.

Meanwhile, Nico Rosberg was in close vicinity of his teammate, lapping even quicker than the leading Red Bulls. “Let’s go get the Red Bulls!” he screamed, only to be told by Ross Brawn to hold position behind Hamilton. It’s yet unclear why Brawn ordered as such, but it’s believed that he didn’t want to disadvantage his new star signing out of a team mistake. Hamilton had outpaced Rosberg before the troubles appeared anyway.

2013MalaysianGP_report04

Nico was the perfect team player and stayed closely behind, missing out on the chance of a podium or even a win as the Red Bulls clearly slowed down near the end of the race. He magnanimously accepted the team decision but was quick to quip “remember this one”, suggesting that he expects a fair role reversal in future races, should he be the one in need of team favours.

In fifth was the sole Ferrari, driven by Felipe Massa. He qualified on the front row, outperforming teammate Fernando Alonso. Off the start however, it was Alonso who quickly challenged Vettel for the lead, damaging his front wing in the process. Ferrari and Alonso declined the chance to pit safely and repair the damage at the end of the first lap, hoping to stay in touch with the leaders until the track is dry enough for slick tyres.

It wasn’t meant to be, as the wing broke off in spectacular fashion on the pit straight, throwing him off the circuit and out of the race. As usual in Ferrari’s Fernando-can-do-no-wrong land, the team took the blame for the error. A curious admission, and in stark contrast to Alonso taking the credit for his early pit stop that leapfrogged him ahead of Massa and Vettel to second in last week’s Australian GP.

2013MalaysianGP_report06

Lotus’ Romain Grosjean was sixth, ahead of Melbourne-winner Kimi Raikkonen. Both Lotuses looked quick in the race, but had traffic issues as they dropped places at the start. Raikkonen had a clumsy race, going off the track twice trying to keep up with his teammate. Fortunately enough he came out tops in a mighty tussle with Sauber’s Nico Hulkenberg, who ended up just behind him at the end.

Sergio Perez scored his first championship points since he was confirmed as a McLaren driver in September last year. It was just two points however, as he finished a distant ninth after struggling to keep his tyres alive near the end. Losing eighth place to Hulkenberg just three laps from the chequered flag, Perez pitted again for fresh tyres for the two remaining laps, allowing him to set the fastest lap of the race.

Poor old Jenson Button had been at his tyre-conserving best in Sepang and seemed destined for a strong finish with a three-stop strategy (one less than Red Bull and Mercedes). Unfortunately his pit crew had other ideas, releasing him with loose tyres on his last stop and losing him over two minutes in the process. He retired near the end, running outside the points.

2013MalaysianGP_report09

Toro Rosso and Jean-Eric Vergne grabbed the last point on offer, beating rookies Valtteri Bottas and Esteban Gutierrez to it. Marussia’s Jules Bianchi ended up miles ahead of his teammate and both Caterhams, proving himself as a star of the future. The green backmarkers meanwhile continue to disappoint, as they appear to have fallen behind Marussia in pace, becoming the slowest team on the F1 grid.

In the championship standings, Vettel now leads with 40 points, ahead of Raikkonen with 31. Webber is third, five points adrift but with one and four points more than Hamilton and Massa respectively. Alonso is sixth with the 18 points he scored in Australia.

Red Bull appears to have a strong hold of the constructors’ championship already, their 66 points putting them 26 ahead of Lotus and Ferrari in joint second place. Mercedes has 37 points, while McLaren only has four points from two disappointing outings.

2013MalaysianGP_report20

With this latest win Vettel now has 27 Grand Prix wins under his belt, equalling fellow triple world champion Sir Jackie Stewart. The great Scot achieved it in nine seasons and 99 races while Vettel has done 103-race starts despite only starting his sixth full season in Formula One. Three more victories and he’d be on level pegging with Alonso.

The three weeks to the next race in China will be a welcome break for the fuming Mark Webber. Red Bull will have to work hard to overcome the intra-team disaster, with McLaren even busier still to get their season back on track. Mercedes on the other hand will have to speed up their pitstops, which is consistently a whole second longer than the Red Bull and McLaren’s.

It was Rosberg who gave Mercedes their first win in Shanghai last year. Can he repeat that feat, or will he play second fiddle to Hamilton again? There are a lot of questions to be answered. The 2013 Chinese GP on April 14 can’t come quick enough.

Looking to sell your car? Sell it with Carro.

10% discount when you renew your car insurance

Compare prices between different insurer providers and use the promo code 'PAULTAN10' when you make your payment to save the most on your car insurance renewal compared to other competing services.

Car Insurance

Hafriz Shah

Preferring to drive cars rather than desks, Hafriz Shah ditched his suit and tie to join the ranks of Malaysia’s motoring hacks. A car’s technical brilliance is completely lost on him, appreciating character-making quirks more. When not writing this ego trip of a bio, he’s usually off driving about aimlessly, preferably in a car with the right combination of three foot pedals and six gears.

 

Comments

  • GT Fan on Mar 26, 2013 at 9:30 am

    Saddest looking podium winners ever.

    Vettel is such a lying cheat, robbing Webber of his win.

    I hoped Webber stormed into the room and gave Vettel a nice uppercut.

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 14 Thumb down 6
    • Saddest day in F1 ever. Not because of Vettel’s doing but because future F1’s winner or champions will be decided by the team and not the drivers themselves!

      Like or Dislike: Thumb up 18 Thumb down 3
      • lan87 on Mar 26, 2013 at 11:18 am

        Winning if you really deserve it doesn’t mean its cheating… Cheating is when you are asked to lose on purpose so that you can let some loser to get ahead of you…

        Like or Dislike: Thumb up 12 Thumb down 3
        • Morally, Vettel is wrong, that I agree.

          But more importantly, you won’t see any competitive driving in F1 anymore because the team are discouraging their drivers to race properly. Vettel is just a small problem, the bigger problem is how shallow this season’s champion might be, decided by the team, not by the driver.

          Like or Dislike: Thumb up 5 Thumb down 1
      • GT Fan on Mar 26, 2013 at 11:33 am

        Umm… team orders have been legal for years. Vettel had benefited from such orders before but when it was his turn to follow orders, the lying cheat decided to ignore it. Webber should have just pushed the idiot into the grass.

        Like or Dislike: Thumb up 6 Thumb down 2
        • jay8393 on Mar 26, 2013 at 12:42 pm

          Seriously? Team orders were banned from 2003 to 2011. Only in 2012 were they made legal again.

          Like or Dislike: Thumb up 5 Thumb down 0
  • Go4 1 on Mar 26, 2013 at 10:28 am

    How it actually went towards race end(secret radio conversation)
    Vettel (in Germanic slang): Bozz, Webby like big turtle, can i pazz him?
    Horner (classic Brit slang): Nay.. stay put laddie.
    Vettel :(Seeing chequered flag ahead) Bozz, Pleeezz.. can i?
    Moments latter,
    Webber: @$&#! Hey boss, me no gud mate’s overtakin’ me…Heeelp!!
    Horner: Hey Seby! I told you not to…..CAN NOT!

    Vettel: Whaaat? You all dunz know meaning of BOLEHLAND? PuhLeezz..(Flooring pedal)

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 18 Thumb down 3
  • This is not a race, only a road show, a very expensive road show ever in Malaysia or in the world, RACE is push them self to the limit for machine and driver / rider in any situation dry or wet track, I think F1 organiser is cheating the fan hard earn money, if 58 laps, it must allowed to add 1 fuel, but sadly is not allowed, then we only saw four “faster” turtle in front of the track, hopeless. for Nico case is really disappointed from merc team, that why Nico answer : i only the employee from mercedes.

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 6 Thumb down 2
  • Ramun on Mar 26, 2013 at 11:14 am

    Ryan, I agree. top 4 cars have almost same situation but different decision making by driver. this happens because Big B (Not Bachan but Bernie) want to make F1 more interesting by forgo fueling during pitstop. What happen will be cars must bring tons of fuel at race start. Makes the car slower & team director/ strategist / engineers have to crack their head to prepare awesome aero package (RBR has this package)

    Next they limited no of tyre allocation for each driver. I got no problem with that as this will remind the drivers not to tekan kaw kaw all the way, but what I hate most is the tyre will be made from softer compound & will degrade even faster.

    If they want to control everything I recommend the next F1 cars should be almera. 33km/l.. sigh

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 6 Thumb down 0
    • 33km/l is too fast, use battery car is better way, not 240V, but 40XAA size battery will allowed, hahaha…

      Like or Dislike: Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0
  • MUSTAFA on Mar 26, 2013 at 11:40 am

    It is strange…in a race… the driver that is racing (vettel) even his team mate is considered to be doing it the wrong way, while a driver that can overtake his team mate but do not (therefore he is not racing) because of team order is considered doing the right thing…

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 1 Thumb down 0
  • Black Dog on Mar 26, 2013 at 11:54 am

    Obviously Ross Brawn is a wimp. A Vettel should be fired straight away for disobeying team orders and putting the team at risk.

    You can’t hold down a rebellious kid no matter how good he is.

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 1 Thumb down 2
  • When a sport is funded by the hundreds of millions of dollars, by multiple sponsors, politics like this are bound to happen. F1 is a team sport, and all the drivers know this, vettel made a gamble, he made it and was lucky. If he took out Webber at 1 go, the head lines would differently.

    F1 not only has pressure from sponsors, but also countries that they represent. Mercedes is germany, ferrari is italy snd so on. The pressure on the team principle is unimaginable.

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 5 Thumb down 0
    • tokmoh on Mar 26, 2013 at 12:34 pm

      Indeed. This is a side of F1 that we fans hardly see.

      Unless the regulations evolve to allow drivers to push to the absolute limit, then we could be seeing a different race. Webber wouldn’t have to tune down his engine, and we could be seeing some serious action rather than the current predicament we’re in.

      But regulations are as it is now to level the playing field and save cost. Otherwise, without limit, the really big budget teams like Ferrari and McLaren continue to dominate like Schumacher’s era, and Red Bull is probably still just a mid-tier team.

      It’s a bitter compromise, it’s either save cost and get what we have now, or we might not get F1 at all as not many sponsors want to commit, not as privileged as Ferrari.

      Like or Dislike: Thumb up 5 Thumb down 0
 

Add a comment

required

required