Vettel wins the 2011 Malaysian Grand Prix

Sebastian Vettel won his second consecutive race this year after another dominant performance on the Sepang International Circuit, making it two out of two for both him and his Red Bull Racing team in 2011.

Although the winning margin wasn?t as big as in Australia two weekends ago, the reigning world champion did not look in trouble at any time while in the lead, crossing the finish line a little over 3 seconds ahead of McLaren?s Jenson Button. And just as it happened at Albert Park, the last step of the podium was taken by a Lotus Renault driver, only this time it was Nick Heidfeld who got to enjoy that position.

Vettel kept 1st place from pole position early on and built a comfortable time margin ahead, while Heidfeld started off great and jumped from 6th to 2nd by the first corner, ahead of McLaren duo Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button. Renault enjoyed a great race start, as Vitaly Petrov also jumped a few positions to 5th place, ahead of Ferrari duo Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso.

Mark Webber?s nightmare was again the race start, as he lost no more than 5 positions and dropped to 8th overall.

While Vettel did his race undisturbed in the front, positions in the back changed after the first round of pit stops, where Heidfeld and Massa lost a huge amount of time and returned to the track in 6th and 7th respectively. The two McLarens and Fernando Alonso were easily the beneficiaries going into their 2nd stint, as the trio started putting in fast lap times and threaten Vettel?s leading position.

Alonso moved quickly to pass Jenson Button for 3rd place, before the second round of pit stops messed with the leading pack once more. The Spaniard lost plenty of time in the pits ? while staying more on the track and pitting last ? and returned to the track behind Hamilton and Button.

Again, while finally closing down on the two McLarens, the field began their 3rd pit stop entries, causing Alonso to further lose some positions to Petrov and Webber, while Button and Hamilton switched positions behind Vettel.

Once Petrov and Red Bull?s Webber pitted (the latter for the 4th time on Sunday), Alonso began closing down on Hamilton and, with some 10 laps to go, set up the stage for the most exciting duel of the afternoon. It didn?t last for too long however, as the Spaniard ? whose rear wing stopped working after his 3rd pit stop ? clipped the rear of Hamilton?s car when trying to overtake him and damaged his front wing.

As he was forced to pit for the 4th time, he returned to the track in 7th place, behind teammate Felipe Massa. Hamilton, however, also hit trouble late in the race and, after losing two positions to Heidfeld and Webber, decided to pit and take on a new set of tires.

While Vettel and Button ran undisturbed for 1st and 2nd, Heidfeld had to really struggle to keep his position ahead of Webber, despite having the advantage of using KERS (which neither of the two RBR drivers used on Sunday).

Felipe Massa finished in 5th place, ahead of his teammate Alonso, while Hamilton returned to the track in 7th place after his 4th stop. Sauber?s Kamui Kobayashi scored a great 8th place, at the end of a race that say him overtake Michael Schumacher a handful of times, while the German had to settle for 9th place.

Rookie Paul di Resta (Force India) managed his second point-scoring performance in F1 in 2 races and finished in 10th place, ahead of his much more experienced teammate Adrian Sutil.

-By Ovidiu Panzariu


The Race as it happened via f1livetweets




2011 Malaysian Grand Prix Race times

Pos	No	Driver	Team	Laps	Time	Grid	Pts
1	1	Sebastian Vettel	RBR-Renault	56	Winner	1	25
2	4	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	56	+3.2 secs	4	18
3	9	Nick Heidfeld	Renault	56	+25.0 secs	6	15
4	2	Mark Webber	RBR-Renault	56	+26.3 secs	3	12
5	6	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	56	+36.9 secs	7	10
6	5	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	56	+37.2 secs	5	8
7	3	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	56	+49.9 secs	2	6
8	16	Kamui Kobayashi	Sauber-Ferrari	56	+66.4 secs	10	4
9	7	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes	56	+84.8 secs	11	2
10	15	Paul di Resta	Force India-Mercedes	56	+91.5 secs	14	1
11	14	Adrian Sutil	Force India-Mercedes		+ 1 Lap	17
12	8	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes		+1 Lap	9
13	18	Sebastien Buemi	STR-Ferrari		+1 Lap	12
14	19	Jaime Alguersuari	STR-Ferrari		+1 Lap	13
15	20	Heikki Kovalainen	Lotus-Renault		+1 Lap	19
16	24	Timo Glock	Virgin-Cosworth		+2 Lap	21
17	10	Vitaly Petrov	Renault		+4 Lap	8
Ret	23	Vitantonio Liuzzi	HRT-Cosworth		+10 Lap	23
Ret	25	Jerome d'Ambrosio	Virgin-Cosworth		+14 Lap	22
Ret	21	Jarno Trulli	Lotus-Renault		+25 Laps	20
Ret	17	Sergio Perez	Sauber-Ferrari		+33 Laps	16
Ret	11	Rubens Barrichello	Williams-Cosworth		+34 Laps	15
Ret	22	Narain Karthikeyan	HRT-Cosworth		+42 Laps	24
Ret	12	Pastor Maldonado	Williams-Cosworth		+48 Laps	18

Fastest lap:
Mark Webber Australia Red Bull-Renault 1m 40.571s lap 46

Championship points:

Drivers? championship				Constructors? championship
Pos	Driver	Points		Pos	Team	Points
1	Sebastian Vettel	50		1	Red Bull	72
2	Jenson Button	26		2	McLaren	50
3	Lewis Hamilton	24		3	Ferrari	36
4	Mark Webber	22		4	Renault	30
5	Fernando Alonso	20		5	Toro Rosso	4
6	Felipe Massa	16		6	Sauber	4
7	Nick Heidfeld	15		7	Force India	4
8	Vitaly Petrov	15		8	Mercedes	2
9	Sebastien Buemi	4		9	Lotus	0
10	Kamui Kobayashi	4		10	Virgin	0
11	Adrian Sutil	2		11	Williams	0
12	Michael Schumacher	2		12	HRT	0
13	Paul di Resta	2
14	Jaime Alguersuari	0
15	Nico Rosberg	0
16	Jarno Trulli	0
17	Jerome d?Ambrosio	0
18	Heikki Kovalainen	0
19	Timo Glock	0
20	Rubens Barrichello	0
21	Sergio Perez	0
22	Narain Karthikeyan	0
23	Vitantonio Liuzzi	0
24	Pastor Maldonado	0

Lorenzo Bandini Henry Banks Fabrizio Barbazza John Barber