Sebastian Vettel Wins Controversial Malaysian Grand Prix

[Dan Hawkins]

Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel claimed his first win of the 2013 season. Although it was a controversial win due to Red Bull giving both of their drivers the "Multiple 21" code, which in Red Bull Racing terms means the order they finish - Number 2 Driver (Webber) and Number 1 Driver (Vettel). Yet Sebastian ignored this radio message and a direct team order and continued to press hard against the likes of his Australian teammate.



From the moment the lights went out the action on track began, with the first retirement of the GP being Ferrari's Fernando Alonso, who drove straight into the back of Vettel on turn two in the first lap. The broken front wing then snapped off down the pit straight on the start of lap two, lodging itself under the front of the car, just as Alonso was braking, which made him lock up the front tires and narrowly missed the back of Mark Webber's car. Vettel started to pull out a big gap straight away.

Then at the first set of pitstops Lewis Hamilton did a "Jenson Button" and stopped at the wrong garage. Lewis pulled in at McLaren, who quickly waved him through to go to his new team. Hamilton admitted on the podium "It's embarrassing, although it's known as doing a Jenson as he did it last year."

Meanwhile, Toro Rosso and Caterham had a collision in the pitlane, which resulted in the Toro Rosso (At fault - Unsafe Release) needing a new wing. Things we're going from bad to worse for Maldonado, he went off the track on Lap 14 then he had to retire on Lap 47 due to technical problems with his Williams.

Force India had a few incidents in the pitstops, both of their drivers were looking strong in the race too. With dreaded wheel nuts not coming off - Paul Di Resta was stuck in the pits for five to sixe minutes while the team bashed his trapped locking nut with a hammer in true gorilla style! Sutil then came in later on but Force India had the same problem again, although this time Sutil was only in there for a few minutes. The team retired Di Resta from the race on lap 35.

McLaren had the unfortunate problem of a loose wheel for Jenson Button, much like in Silverstone 2011. However, the Briton quickly realized his front right tire was loose and instantly stopped the car outside Force India's garage. Button was looking good for a top five finish until this happened on Lap 36. He was even leading the race for a few laps, until he pitted and it all went wrong, sadly the Brit retired on Lap 54. The other McLaren driver Perez had a fairly quiet race, apart from nearly getting wiped out by a Sauber diving out the pit lane trying to get track position (Hulkenburg) Perez managed to finish in a respectful 9th place.

Mercedes had a great result, P3 and P4. Although dogged by team orders, Rosberg was ordered to stay behind Hamilton who was in fuel saving mode. With Rosberg .3 of a second behind him. Rosberg's radio messages were broadcasted, on lap 51, The German radioed "He's holding me up". To which team boss Ross Brawn came across the radio - "He can go faster than that, we have told him to remain at that speed. We also expect you to remain in control too." Rosberg didn't reply to that, but on lap 54 another broadcast from Rosberg "He's too slow!" Again Ross Brawn came across the radio - "Nico, there is nothing to gain ahead or behind. I want both of these car's home. Thanks." Even Hamilton admitted on the podium "I feel Nico should be up here." The Brit told Martin Brundle.
Rosberg's final radio message to the team was "Remember this one" Obviously he will be expecting the same thing back sometime.

RedBull's final radio call to Vettel after he passed the line was a simple "Well done Seb, It looked like you really wanted that. Still there will be some explaining to do." All was going well for the Red Bull's until Webber was ordered to save fuel, but Vettel who then switched to high - starting challenging Mark for P1. Providing some really close battles, including Sebastian Vettel nearly getting sandwiched between the pitwall and Webber's car. To which Christian Horner got on the radio to Sebastian "Come on Seb this is silly"

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Provisional Results:

1. Sebastian Vettel (Ger), Red Bull, 1hr 38min 56.681secs

2. Mark Webber (Aus), Red Bull, 1:39:00.979

3. Lewis Hamilton (GB), Mercedes, 1:39:08.862

4. Nico Rosberg (Ger), Mercedes, 1:39:09.321

5. Felipe Massa (Brz), Ferrari, 1:39:22.329

6. Romain Grosjean (Fra), Lotus, 1:39:32.245

7. Kimi Raikkonen (Fin), Lotus, 1:39:45.160

8. Nico Hulkenberg (Ger), Sauber, 1:39:49.725

9. Sergio Perez (Mex), McLaren, 1:40:09.038

10. Jean-Eric Vergne (Fra), Toro Rosso, 1:40:23.805

11. Valtteri Bottas (Fin), Williams, 1:40:25.291

12. Esteban Gutierrez (Mex), Sauber, 1:39:01.194

13. Jules Bianchi (Fra), Marussia, 1:39:55.128

14. Charles Pic (Fra), Caterham, 1.40:29.370

15. Giedo van der Garde (Ned), Caterham, 1:40:38.354

16. Max Chilton (GB), Marussia, 1:39:14.486

17. Jenson Button (GB), McLaren, 1:35:35.060

18. Daniel Ricciardo (Aus), Toro Rosso, 1:32:16.617

DNF:

Pastor Maldonado (Ven), Williams, 45 laps.

Adrian Sutil (Ger), Force India, 27 laps.

Paul di Resta (GB), Force India, 22 laps.

Fernando Alonso (Spa), Ferrari, 1 lap.

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[Caramidaru Andrei Bogdan]

his second win of the season?

 

[Dan Hawkins]

his second win of the season?

Apologys mate, That Should be 1st not 2nd - Auto correct on my phone for some reason changed 1st to 2nd

 

[Diego Lopez]

multi 21.

I guess the FIA can take this to next season and limit the amount of team orders per season, like the amount of times mechanics over stay the night working on the car, there should also be a limit to team orders.

Like time outs, limit of X number so teams can use it wisely and not have some stats happy driver ignore his team.

 

[Gavin Hendley]

There should be no team orders for the first half of the season.
Team orders take away the best part of racing and that was some battle between the redbull drivers.

 

[Diego Lopez]

There should be no team orders for the first half of the season.
Team orders take away the best part of racing and that was some battle between the redbull drivers.

team orders regardless of being banned or not banned will exist, that's why there are plenty of debriefs prior to race.

but I standby a limit # of team orders per season, up to each team if they want to use it in Race #1 or last race. Make it a timeout with a limited amount.

 

[Dan Hawkins]

"some stats happy driver ignore his team."
Brilliant!

 

[Alberto Casado]

You cannot limit team orders. I mean, you can add 200 pages in the FIA regulations about them if you want, but it is an exercise in futility.

May I remind you that team orders were _forbidden_ (not just less than 12 per season, or the first race, or whatever, simply and completely forbidden), and nevertheless happening constantly.

 

[Markus Neumann]

team orders regardless of being banned or not banned will exist, that's why there are plenty of debriefs prior to race.

but I standby a limit # of team orders per season, up to each team if they want to use it in Race #1 or last race. Make it a timeout with a limited amount.

You do realize that your first paragraph completely invalidates your second one, right?

 

[hansip87]

Reminds me my recent favorite movie.. Vettel = Turbo-tastic lol

 

[Andrew Holmes]

its ridiculous not obeying team-orders this early in the season, Webber was ahead fair and square and Vettel should respect that. Webber backed off all the times the team told him to, Seb should do the same, Webber will ignore Horner's calls from now on

 

[Helder Filipe]

I hope Mr.Ross Brawn the same treatment for Nico! If not i want you too loose every race. Cmon Nico! Just outburst... What a GP was it (=

 

[Ruiner89]

Complete immaturity from Vettel, they work for the team not the other way around.

 

[SpaceWhaleJman]

Jules Bianchi is getting great results in the Marussia so far!

 

[Ricoow]

Good job from Seb, its called Racing, not following a car. Seb was faster as Webber and did what a racer should do, overtake. Nico should have done the same...

 

[Metalfreaky]

Seb was faster because Webber turned the engine down (as the team asked both of them to do). I don't know what you understand under "racing" but for me there is now racing involved when a driver takes advantage of exactly that situation and ignores that call in order to overtake Webber who is barley driving at 80%.

 

[Benedict Venturini]

I think the controversy started when Vettel tapped his brakes on the first lap, second corner and Alonso ran into the back of him

Lol

 

[Metalfreaky]

That is just speculation as we don't have any telemetry data to prove that. And I'm saying that as an Alonso fan.

 

[Hampus Andersson]

Good job from Seb, its called Racing, not following a car. Seb was faster as Webber and did what a racer should do, overtake. Nico should have done the same...

You think Webber just mysteriously lost pace as the end?

He was the quickest man out of anyone today.
Got told to turn down the engine and save tires then a little German came flying past that disobeyed orders completely.

At first Vettel could not even go past so like a little kid he said "get him out of the way"
As if someone manually will go out and take him out of Vettel´s way.
He´s 25 but acts like 10 sometimes.

 

[William Levesque]

There just shouldn't have been team orders, it's not like a few decades ago where the cars broke down all the time. Also, they had quite a big lead, so why not fight it out ? Surely they can do so without crashing.

But then since RB gave team orders, Vettel was a bit of a dick, abit like what Pironi had done to Villeneuve. Also, I feel the only reason Merc gave team orders was because they screwed up Hamilton's fuel and wanted to avoid pissing him off too much by letting him beat Rosberg.