Formula 1 Malaysia – The Race That Wasn’t Supposed to Be

On lap 43 a race broke out. Webber’s teammate, Sebastian Vettel, had fresh rubber and thoughts of winning the Malaysian Grand Prix at the Sepang International Circuit. His thoughts turned into reality, and Vettel brought home the 27th win in his career, tying Sir Jackie Stewart for career wins. He may wish he reached the milestone at a different track, a different race.

Lewis Hamilton brought home 3rd place in his Mercedes Benz ahead of teammate Nico Rosberg who finished 4th. Rosberg was magnanimous in finishing behind his teammate but certainly wasn’t pleased with the result, communicating with the team numerous times that he wanted to take the race to his teammate.

Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso crashed on the first lap of the race and on the second lap his front wing broke. The Spaniard failed to finish, just a year removed from winning the race.

Felipe Massa placed fifth for Ferrari.

The Lotus cars of Romain Grosjean and Kimi Raikkonen fell to 6th and 7th respectively after gambling on three stop strategies. Unlike Australia, the Lotus experienced significant tire wear and the two men suffered dearly at the end of the race.

Nico Hulkenburg, Sergio Perez , and Jean-Eric Vergne took the remaining point scoring positions.

The drama began on lap 43 when Webber emerged from the pits on the hard tire compound. The team had informed Webber that he was to enter fuel saving mode, look after the tires and bring the race win home.

Vettel stopped a lap earlier than Webber and emerged on the medium compound rubber. Red Bull instructed Vettel not to pass Webber and let his teammate take the win.

Webber had run the smarter race. He made the call earlier than every other driver to take off the intermediate wet weather tire, and proceeded to build a lead that should have translated into a race victory.

However, when Webber emerged on lap 43 Vettel was right behind him and the two went wheel to wheel throughout the first sector until Webber gave way to Vettel.

While the scrap between Webber and Vettel was playing out, the 3rd and 4th place finishers were involved in a fight of their own.

For the final Laps, Nico Rosberg followed his teammate, Lewis Hamilton, very closely. Rosberg asked team principle Ross Brawn if he could pass Hamilton, to which Brawn responded, “negative.”

Hamilton hadn’t looked after his tires, trying in vain to chase down the Red Bull’s of Vettel and Webber. When the race was nearing its conclusion, Hamilton didn’t have the grip that his teammate had and would have been passed by Rosberg if he, like Vettel, would have ignored team orders.

Rosberg communicated to the team that they should “remember this one,” and on the podium Hamilton admitted he wasn’t thrilled taking the third step when his teammate had run the smarter race.

Two races down and seventeen more to go.

Next round of the championship is in two weeks’ time in Shanghai.