Sebastian Vettel And Red Bull Dominate Malaysian Grand Prix

Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull utterly dominated the Malaysian Grand Prix. The rain held off, but the race was still interesting for the charges from the back by the big teams.
 
I believe Malaysia finally set our field as it should be. Well, at least at the front. The Red Bull has been slammed for its lack of reliability, but today we saw how fast it was. Was there any doubt? The 1-2 was a controlled race to the point the cars were barely shown on the telecast! An utterly dominant race and we will surely see more like this.
 
This was also the race of champions. Lewis Hamilton showed his aggressive nature with a charge from the beginning. Fernando Alonso was staggeringly brilliant with a Ferrari that was popping into neutral in the corners. Schumacher had a great start, but then saw his race ended when a wheel nut went bad. Button was smooth, but disappointing. Still, you could see why at least three of the four have made their mark.

Drive of the Race
 
This is a tough one. Many will say Hamilton, but I don’t think so. Yes, he went from 20th to 6th, but so what. He was supposed to pass the like of Williams and so on. It was good, but he stopped progressing when he ran up against better quality drivers and cars.
 
Alonso certainly deserves merit. The sick Ferrari looked like a bear to drive, but he was hanging in there pretty impressively. There is little doubt he is the class of Ferrari compared to Massa. Still, the car blew up on the last lap and it is hard to give drive of the race to someone who didn’t finish. If ever it was going to happen, this is the time.
 
What about Vettel? Well, he is brilliant. He is clearly superior to the inconsistent Webber. Still, one can only really say he had a great start and then pretty much cruised around the track for much of the race. It’s a win in the race column, but not the drive of the race.
 
Given all this, my choice is Adrian Sutil. Force India has come a very long way [thanks to McLaren!], but it is still shocking to see them in the top 5. The fact that he effortless held off Hamilton over the last quarter of the race is all the more proof of his quality. Well done, Adrian!
 
Poor Drive of the Race
 
There are three candidates – Button, Massa and Webber. While Hamilton charged to the front, Button made little progress. It is no fun being in the back because your team made bad decisions, but I expected more. He still scored points, so…
 
Mark Webber is proving something now that he is on the best team – he simply is not good enough. His start from pole was poor and Vettel decided the race on that first corner. Can you imagine any of the other top drivers losing from pole like that? You’re a great mate, Mark. You’re just not a great driver. Enjoy your time because it is hard to imagine you in the Red Bull next year.
 
Our “winner”, however, is Felipe Massa. I realize he is coming back from injury and such, but it seems somewhat amateurish that his race engineer seems to constantly need to coach him during the race. His inability to pass the far inferior Toro Rosso lap after lap was really pathetic. It went a long way to ruining the race for Button and Alonso. Felipe appears to be a good front runner, but that is really about it. Has anyone leading the championship ever looked more unimpressive? Look for Ferrari to start tilting resources towards Fernando as the season moves forward.



Special Note – Robert Kubica
 
I’ll admit it. I had a bad feeling when it was announced Kubica was going to Renault. I thought he had simply taken a big step back in his career. Apparently not. A second and a fourth in the last two races has him within nine points of the championship lead. Very well done.
 
The Season
 
The season appears to be one that will boil down to reliability. The last two races have been exciting, but I believe we may be headed back to processional racing soon. The cars appear to be so aero dependent that passing on the horrific Hermann Tilke designed tracks. Still, I think we can safely say the procession of the teams is Red Bull, Ferrari, McLaren, Mercedes, Renault, Force India [!], Williams, Sauber and the new teams.
 
Race Results:
 
1 Sebastian Vettel     Red Bull      1:33:48.412
2 Mark Webber         Red Bull     + 4.849
3 Nico Rosberg         Mercedes GP     + 13.504
4 Robert Kubica     Renault     + 18.589
5 Adrian Sutil         Force India     + 21.059
6 Lewis Hamilton     McLaren     + 23.471
7 Felipe Massa         Ferrari     + 27.068
8 Jenson Button     McLaren     + 37.918
9 Jaime Alguersuari     Toro Rosso     + 1:10.602
10 Nico Hülkenberg     Williams     + 1:13.399
11 Sebastien Buemi     Toro Rosso     + 1:18.938
12 Rubens Barrichello     Williams     at 1 lap
13 Fernando Alonso     Ferrari     at 2 laps
14 Lucas Di Grassi     Virgin         at 3 laps
15 Karun Chandhok     Hispania     at 3 laps
16 Bruno Senna         Hispania     at 4 laps
17 Jarno Trulli     Lotus         at 5 laps
18 Heikki Kovalainen     Lotus         at 10 laps (DNF)
19 Vitaly Petrov     Renault     at 24 laps (DNF)
20 Vitantonio Liuzzi     Force India     at 44 laps (DNF)
21 Michael Schumacher     Mercedes GP     at 47 laps (DNF)
22 Kamui Kobayashi     Sauber         at 48 laps (DNF)
23 Timo Glock         Virgin         at 54 laps (DNF)
24 Pedro de la Rosa     Sauber         at 56 laps (DNS)

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