Off the line it was the same story for Webber who saw most of the pack of cars pass him as he got bogged down at the start with a failed KERS  system, while Vettel made a text book start to the race ensuring a clear track ahead entering turn one.

It was the Lotus-Renault’s of Nick Heidfeld and Vitaly Petrov that immediately impressed as the red lights went out at the start of the race, Heidfeld going the long way round both McLaren’s in an extraordinary move at turn one to grab second place, while Petrov’s heroics in the same corner put him into fifth place.

With rain threatening to liven up an already exciting race the first round of pit stops saw Heidfeld get jumped by both McLaren’s and the Ferrari of Fernando Alonso, dropping to fifth in the proceedings.

Hamilton began making inroads into Vettel’s lead while Alonso mounted a charge, passing Button with both drivers pulling a substantial lead on Heidfeld.

It was all change again following the second round of pit stops with Button moving back past Alonso and mounting pressure on his team mate Hamilton in a fight for second place.

Hamilton’s pursuit of a podium place was fast disappearing after his third stop for tyres, the harder compound rubber causing all sorts of problems for the Brit and the faster Ferrari of Alonso looming large in his mirrors.

With Hamilton clearly struggling for grip Alonso tucked the Ferrari close in behind the McLaren but was unable to haul his car out of the slipstream quick enough to pass, and caught the rear tyre of his former team mate damaging his own front wing.

With Alonso needing to pit for a new nose cone Heidfeld, Massa and Webber mounted their own final charges on Hamilton who by now was easy meat for the baying pack.

A wonderful overtake on Hamilton with five laps remaining took Heidfeld into third with Webber breathing down the German’s neck as he appeared to at last find some pace in the car with his final set of tyres.

Sebastian Vettel finished another flawless race in first place followed home by Jenson Button and the final podium place going to a richly deserving Nick Heidfeld.

Malaysian Grand Prix 2011 Results:

1.     Sebastian Vettel     Germany     Red Bull-Renault     56     1h37m39.832
2.     Jenson Button     Britain     McLaren-Mercedes     56     3.261
3.     Nick Heidfeld     Germany     Renault     56     25.075
4.     Mark Webber     Australia     Red Bull-Renault     56     26.384
5.     Felipe Massa     Brazil     Ferrari     56     36.958
6.     Fernando Alonso     Spain     Ferrari     56     57.248*
7.     Kamui Kobayashi     Japan     Sauber-Ferrari     56     1m06.439
8.     Lewis Hamilton     Britain     McLaren-Mercedes     56     1m09.957**
9.     Michael Schumacher     Germany     Mercedes GP     56     1m24.896
10.     Paul di Resta     Britain     Force India-Mercedes     56     1m31.563
11.     Adrian Sutil     Germany     Force India-Mercedes     56     1m41.379
12.     Nico Rosberg     Germany     Mercedes GP     55     1 Lap
13.     Sebastien Buemi     Switzerland     Toro Rosso-Ferrari     55     1 Lap
14.     Jaime Alguersuari     Spain     Toro Rosso-Ferrari     55     1 Lap
15.     Heikki Kovalainen     Finland     Lotus-Renault     55     1 Lap
16.     Timo Glock     Germany     Virgin-Cosworth     54     2 Laps
17.     Vitaly Petrov     Russia     Renault     52     DNF, Accident

The incident involving Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton led to both drivers being penalised by the race stewards. Both drivers were given a twenty second time penalty on their finishing position, while this did not affect the outcome for Alonso* who retained his sixth place, Hamilton** was not so lucky and slipped to eighth in the final reckoning.

In these interviews former World Champions Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton give their own views about the Sepang circuit, including the extreme racing and weather conditions in Malaysia and the excellent hospitality enjoyed during the race weekend.

Both drivers will be looking to build up some points during the first half of the season, in the knowledge that the team has been stronger in the second half of the season historically.

Sebastian Vettel - Malaysian Grand Prix 2010

Sebastian Vettel took his Red Bull across the line to claim his first victory of the season at this weekends Malaysian Grand Prix after passing his team-mate Mark Webber at the first corner to dominate the race.

Nico Rosberg finished in third position for Mercedes ahead of Robert Kubica in the Renault and Adrian Sutil for the Force India team.

Lewis Hamilton was in sixth place for the McLaren team followed by Felipe Massa in the Ferrari and Jenson Button in the second McLaren.

The Renault team made a complaint against Lewis Hamilton’s style of driving during the race, accusing the British driver of weaving ahead of their driver Vitaly Petrov on the straight, resulting in the McLaren driver being given a warning.  The BBC commentator Anthony Davidson told the BBC radio;

“I don’t know what Lewis was doing, weaving all over the track. I think he thought he was playing a Playstation rather than real life.”

Petrov was another retiree after his car stopped on track midway through the race, it is thought a gearbox problem caused the Renault to stall.

Vitantonio Liuzzi had a problem with the throttle on his Force India and was forced to park his car after just 12 laps.

Fernando Alonso suffered a gearbox problem with his Ferrari from the start of the race, and it all ended on the penultimate lap when the engine finally blew.

Spanish driver Jaime Alguersuari claimed ninth place for the Toro Rosso team ahead of the Williams driver Nico Hülkenberg in tenth position.  The second Mercedes GP driver Michael Schumacher was unable to finish the race after a wheel nut came off of the left rear, leaving the car unstable and impossible to steer.

Rubens Barrichello in the second Williams car appeared to be a non-starter as the race got underway and the other drivers were forced to go around the stricken vehicle.  He finally got going but was pushed to the back of the grid, finally finishing the race down in twelfth place.

Timo Glock in the Virgin Racing car was a non-finisher after hitting the Lotus F1 Racing car of Jarno Trulli as he tried to overtake.  Glock admitted that the accident was his fault after locking his rear wheels during the move but for some reason the anti-stall devise failed to work.

Both Pedro de la Rosa and Kamui Kobayashi for the BMW Sauber team failed to finish the race and both were surprised by the failure.  De la Rosa’s car broke down as he was waiting to exit the pit lane while his team-mate was out on lap 9, after both cars suffered engine failure due to the pneumatic system.

Here are the results;

POS	DRIVER	NATIONALITY	ENTRANT	LAPS	TIME/RETIRE
1.	Sebastian Vettel	Germany	Red Bull-Renault	56	1h33m48.412
2.	Mark Webber	Australia	Red Bull-Renault	56	4.849
3.	Nico Rosberg	Germany	Mercedes GP	56	13.504
4.	Robert Kubica	Poland	Renault	56	18.589
5.	Adrian Sutil	Germany	Force India-Mercedes	56	21.059
6.	Lewis Hamilton	Britain	McLaren-Mercedes	56	23.471
7.	Felipe Massa	Brazil	Ferrari	56	27.068
8.	Jenson Button	Britain	McLaren-Mercedes	56	37.918
9.	Jaime Alguersuari	Spain	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	56	1m10.602
10.	Nico Hulkenberg	Germany	Williams-Cosworth	56	1m13.399
11.	Sebastien Buemi	Switzerland	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	56	1m18.938
12.	Rubens Barrichello	Brazil	Williams-Cosworth	55	1 Lap
13.	Fernando Alonso	Spain	Ferrari	54	DNF
14.	Lucas di Grassi	Brazil	Virgin-Cosworth	53	3 Laps
15.	Karun Chandhok	India	HRT-Cosworth	53	3 Laps
16.	Bruno Senna	Brazil	HRT-Cosworth	52	4 Laps
17.	Jarno Trulli	Italy	Lotus-Cosworth	51	5 Laps
R	Heikki Kovalainen	Finland	Lotus-Cosworth	46
R	Vitaly Petrov	Russia	Renault	32	Gearbox
R	Vitantonio Liuzzi	Italy	Force India-Mercedes	12	Throttle
R	Michael Schumacher	Germany	Mercedes GP	9	Wheel Nut
R	Kamui Kobayashi	Japan	BMW Sauber-Ferrari	8	Engine
R	Timo Glock	Germany	Virgin-Cosworth	2	Spin
R	Pedro de la Rosa	Spain	BMW Sauber-Ferrari	0	Engine
FASTEST LAP:
	Mark Webber	Australia	Red Bull-Renault	53	1:37.054

Hamilton discusses his own performance in the last round in Melbourne as well as Jenson Button’s win in Australia – the first for the McLaren team this year.

Jenson Button 2010

The McLaren driver Jenson Button took the victory at the Australian Grand Prix at the weekend while his team-mate was heard angrily calling his team on the public radio over his second pit-stop decision.  Button took a massive risk coming in for slick tyres after just seven laps on a drying track but the move paid off and he proved his point by taking the chequered flag.

The weekend was a disaster for Hamilton after having his road car impounded outside of the circuit on Friday.  The McLaren driver apologised for the “silly  mistake” he made after he was pulled over by the police and charged for driving in an “over-exuberant manner”.

The Red Bull driver Sebastian Vettel, was forced to retire from the lead of the race after suffering a mechanical problem with the left front wheel.  The German driver reported a problem with his brakes on lap 26 of the race before sliding off track and into the gravel trap.

As the yellow flags were waved after Vettel’s car went off circuit, a battle was beginning between Nico Rosberg in the Mercedes, Hamilton and Mark Webber in the second Red Bull.  Hamilton made a move on Rosberg, taking the Mercedes driver around the outside of turn 12 and was then chasing down the Renault of Robert Kubica.  Kubica held his ground leaving Hamilton to return to the pits for another set of tyres and the loss of a place on the podium.

Mark Webber ploughed into the back of the McLaren just as Hamilton was lining-up Alonso for a pass, taking the both into the gravel and allowing the Ferrari driver to make his break.

Kubica finished in second place ahead of the two Ferrari drivers Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso.  The Mercedes of Rosberg came in fifth followed by Hamilton, Vittonio Liuzzi in seventh and Rubens Barrichello in eighth.  Mark Webber managed to recover and took ninth place ahead of Michael Schumacher in tenth place.

The Formula 1 teams and drivers now head to Sepang for this weekends Malaysian Grand Prix, however, the weather reports have not been great so far leading to the a repeat of last years race which was abandoned.

POS	DRIVER	NATIONALITY	ENTRANT	LAPS	TIME/RETIRE
1.	Jenson Button	Britain	McLaren-Mercedes	58	1h33m36.531
2.	Robert Kubica	Poland	Renault	58	12.034
3.	Felipe Massa	Brazil	Ferrari	58	14.488
4.	Fernando Alonso	Spain	Ferrari	58	16.304
5.	Nico Rosberg	Germany	Mercedes GP	58	16.683
6.	Lewis Hamilton	Britain	McLaren-Mercedes	58	29.898
7.	Vitantonio Liuzzi	Italy	Force India-Mercedes	58	59.847
8.	Rubens Barrichello	Brazil	Williams-Cosworth	58	1m00.536
9.	Mark Webber	Australia	Red Bull-Renault	58	1m07.319
10.	Michael Schumacher	Germany	Mercedes GP	58	1m09.391
11.	Jaime Alguersuari	Spain	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	58	1m11.301
12.	Pedro de la Rosa	Spain	BMW Sauber-Ferrari	58	1m14.084
13.	Heikki Kovalainen	Finland	Lotus-Cosworth	56	2 Laps
14.	Karun Chandhok	India	HRT-Cosworth	53	5 Laps
R	Timo Glock	Germany	Virgin-Cosworth	41	Suspension
R	Lucas di Grassi	Brazil	Virgin-Cosworth	26	Hydraulics
R	Sebastian Vettel	Germany	Red Bull-Renault	25	Brakes/Spin
R	Adrian Sutil	Germany	Force India-Mercedes	9	Engine
R	Vitaly Petrov	Russia	Renault	9	Spin
R	Bruno Senna	Brazil	HRT-Cosworth	4	Hydraulics
R	Sebastien Buemi	Switzerland	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	0	Accident
R	Nico Hulkenberg	Germany	Williams-Cosworth	0	Accident
R	Kamui Kobayashi	Japan	BMW Sauber-Ferrari	0	Accident
R	Jarno Trulli	Italy	Lotus-Cosworth	0	Hydraulics
FASTEST LAP:
	Mark Webber	Australia	Red Bull-Renault	47	1:28.358

Australia has now been chosen as the second round, allowing the race to begin at 5pm to fit in with the television broadcasters who favour racing in ‘twilight’ rather than the dark.  However, the Singapore round will still be under full floodlights when it takes place in late September.

Although as yet no contract has been signed, the Canadian Grand Prix has been pencilled in for the 13 June, if the contract fails again this year the Turkey Grand Prix will be held later to compensate.

South Korea is a new circuit on the calendar, set to take place in mid-October with the final round being held in Brazil as usual but it will be held in November.

Here is the calendar;

Australia          March 28
Malaysia           April 4
China              April 18
Spain              May 9
Monaco             May 23
Turkey             May 30
Canada*            June 13
Europe (Valencia)  June 27
Great Britain      July 11
Germany            July 25
Hungary            August 1
Belgium            August 29
Italy              September 12
Singapore          September 26
Japan              October 3
Korea              October 17
Abu Dhabi          October 31
Brazil             November 14

*Subject to the completion of contract negotiations with Formula One Management. If these are not completed then the Turkish Grand Prix will be moved to 6 June.

Note: The race in Australia will start at 1700 local time, in Malaysia at 1600 local time, in Singapore at 2000 local time, and in Abu Dhabi at 1700 local time.

Everyone from fans to drivers were left frustrated by the spectacle on Sunday as the race was stopped under the red flag on lap 32 of  56 as torrential rain made conditions too dangerous to continue. By the time that the race could be restarted darkness was descending, with no chance of even reaching the compulsory three quarter race mark, where full points would be awarded.

“It was not just the fans who were dissatisfied with a shorter race but I think everyone involved in F1 also lost money,”  said chief executive of Sepang International Circuit Razlan Razali, adding “We definitely need to propose a more suitable time for our race.”

Many of the drivers had already expressed their opinions about the safety of the race during the week before, having suffered problems with fading light and sunset in the closing stages of the Australian race, which had also been moved to accommodate European tv schedules.

Jenson Button who took his second win of the season in Malaysia spoke for everyone when he said after the race “I don’t think we thought it was a great idea before (the race)”. Ferrari’s Felipe Massa called the late start ‘crazy’ saying “The race should either be held at night or in the day. Not somewhere in the middle.”

Are you listening Formula One Management (FOM)?

Jenson Button - Malaysia 2009

Jenson Button took the victory for the second time for the Brawn GP team in a shortened 31 lap Malaysian Grand Prix after a heavy rain shower made the race impossible to complete.

Williams driver Nico Rosberg took the lead as the race got underway followed by the Toyota of Jarno Trulli. Button has tried to stay with the leader but ran wide on the first corner moving himself back to fourth place.

Button soon passed Renault driver Fernando Alonso who was in third position after a great start, and began to chase down the two car in front, both of which were running on lighter fuel loads.

On lap 18 and with rain imminently predicted, Kimi Raikkonen took a gamble by having full wets put on the Ferrari as the skies darkened.  This resulted in the team losing up to 20 seconds a lap on a dry track, however, just 4 laps later the rain did begin seeing cars diving into the pits for their wet tyre sets.

Everyone except Timo Glock in the second Toyota opted for full wet tyres, he went for intermediates as the rain at this point was still relatively light.  Glock appeared to have made a good choice and was 10 seconds a lap faster than the leading cars, moving the Toyota into second place and the other drivers returning to the pits for their intermediates.

As the Brawn team took on intermediates, Button not only caught Glock but passed him just as the heavens opened and the pits were flooded with cars yet again, returning to full wet tyres.

However, the rain was so severe that even on full wet tyres the cars struggled to stay on track and on lap 31 the safety car was deployed and the red flag was waved to stop the race.

After almost an hour of the cars lined up on the grid waiting to see if the race would restart, it was announced that the race would not continue and the results would be taken from the last full lap completed.

Button was followed in top spot by Nick Heidfeld in the BMW Sauber and Glock in the Toyota in third.  Trulli finished in fourth place in the second Toyota ahead of Rubens Barrichello in the second Brawn GP car and Mark Webber in the Red Bull.

Rosberg lost so many places due to the pit stop chaos he finally finished down in eighth place, however, the Ferrari team end the second round of the Championship still without a single point.  Raikkonen retired from the race as the red flag was waved after suffering a problem with the KERS system, while team-mate Felipe Massa finished down in ninth position.

Robert Kubica was one of the first to retire in the BMW Sauber just after the race began with an engine problem.  Also on the first lap, Heikki Kovalainen spun the McLaren, putting himself out of the race while Hamilton finished in seventh.

As the race was stopped before it was completed, the drivers were awarded just half of the normal points.  The teams and drivers now head to Shanghai for the Chinese Grand Prix on the 19th April.

Here are the results;

Pos  Driver        Team                      Time
 1.  Button        Brawn GP              (B)  55:30.622
 2.  Heidfeld      BMW Sauber            (B)  + 22.722
 3.  Glock         Toyota                (B)  + 23.513
 4.  Trulli        Toyota                (B)  + 46.173
 5.  Barrichello   Brawn GP              (B)  + 47.360
 6.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault      (B)  + 52.333
 7.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes      (B)  + 60.733
 8.  Rosberg       Williams-Toyota       (B)  + 71.576
 9.  Massa         Ferrari               (B)  + 76.932
10.  Bourdais      Toro Rosso-Ferrari    (B)  + 102.164
11.  Alonso        Renault               (B)  + 109.422
12.  Nakajima      Williams-Toyota       (B)  + 116.130
13.  Piquet        Renault               (B)  + 116.731
14.  Raikkonen     Ferrari               (B)  + 142.841
15.  Vettel        Red Bull-Renault      (B)  +  1 lap
16.  Buemi         Toro Rosso-Ferrari    (B)  +  1 lap
17.  Sutil         Force India-Mercedes  (B)  +  1 lap
18.  Fisichella    Force India-Mercedes  (B)  +  2 lap

Fastest lap: Button, 1:36.641

Not classified/retirements:

Driver        Team                      On lap
Kubica        BMW Sauber            (B)     1
Kovalainen    McLaren-Mercedes      (B)     0

An agreement between the organisers and Bernie Ecclestone has been reached whereby the Malaysian Grand Prix will take place at 17.00hrs local time.  Sepang International Circuit chairman Mokhzani Mahathir believes that in the current economic climate, the cost of lighting the circuit would be ‘prohibitive’, the organisers are already having to offer special packages and activities to attract spectators. The late afternoon start should attract more local spectators to the track as the daytime temperature starts to cool.

Malaysia signed a contract with F1 in 2008 in which it agreed to be prepared to stage night racing, but with the economic problems being faced globally, the decision not to hold a night race in 2009 has been made for all the right reasons.

It made a changed not to see the McLaren’s up at the front but that was only due to the fact that they were penalised after their qualifying dirty tricks.

Kimi Raikkonen took the lead after following his team mate from the start line. Felipe Massa span out half-way through the race. He was seen challenging Raikkonen on the first corner after being in pole position on the grid and managed to stay a couple of seconds ahead until the pit stop. Raikkonen managed to stay out another full lap which allowed him to get out in front of Massa. On lap 30 and 5 seconds behind his team mate, Massa lost the rear of his car and slid into the gravel which is where he stayed.

The McLaren duo only managed to achieve third and fifth places with Kovalainen being the man to take the final step on the podium.

It was good to see Robert Kubica take the second place slot in the BMW Sauber. The Pole had jumped to third place at the start of the race and proved to be much faster than the rest of the field although unable to match the pace of the Ferrari’s.

Hamilton moved up from ninth on the grid to fifth by the first corner but could not pass Mark Webber. He could possibly have got ahead of Webber if not for a problem with removing the front right wheel in his pit stop which cost him over 10 seconds and put him right back into the traffic.

Kovalainen on the other hand had a great pit stop on the next lap which propelled him from seventh to fourth and with Massa’s already out of the equation, he took his first podium spot for the McLaren team.

Jarno Trulli was seen holding off Hamilton to take fourth spot for the Toyota team. On the first lap, Trulli banged wheels with Nick Heidfeld but kept control of his car and by the middle of the race he was challenging Kovalainen for the third spot but he could not hold the pace for long.

Nick Heidfeld in his final pit stop, sneaked ahead of Webber and into sixth place setting the fastest lap right at the very end.

Williams did not have such a great race after Nico Rosberg got in a tangle with Timo Glock on the first lap. The Toyota was taken out of the race and the Williams driver had to return to the pits for a new front wing and only managed to bring his car home in fourteenth spot. His team mate Kazuki Nakajima faired even worse and finished in last place. Nakajima lost the pace as the race progressed and followed the two Super Aguri cars to the end of the race.

The Toro Rosso team also had a disappointing race with Sebastien Bourdais crashing out on the opening lap while is team mate Sebastian Vettel running in twelfth had a late engine failure.

A very disappointing race to watch and maybe Patrick Head’s idea to improve the viewing prospects of Formula 1 should be a consideration.

The Williams Team co-owner suggested making the fastest cars start from the back with the slower cars at the front. “I would like to see the grids in reverse order of championship position.” said Head. “It’s the same for everybody, and over a whole season the right guy would still win the championship.”

Head knows that there will be number of objectors to his ideas with some upset drivers “The fastest might say: ‘Well, overtaking is a risk and it puts us more at risk than the guys who don’t have to do that’” he said.

However, there is some truth in what he says, people I know who have always been avid fans of F1, have lost interest in the sport as it has become so boring. “I do come across a lot of people who say they like watching motorbikes [more] and I have to say I’m a little bit in that camp because there isn’t a lot of overtaking in Formula one.” said Head.

Here are the results of the race:

Classified:

Pos  Driver        Team                      Time
 1.  Raikkonen     Ferrari               (B)  1h31:18.555
 2.  Kubica        BMW Sauber            (B)  +    19.570
 3.  Kovalainen    McLaren-Mercedes      (B)  +    38.450
 4.  Trulli        Toyota                (B)  +    45.832
 5.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes      (B)  +    46.548
 6.  Heidfeld      BMW Sauber            (B)  +    49.833
 7.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault      (B)  +  1:08.130
 8.  Alonso        Renault               (B)  +  1:10.041
 9.  Coulthard     Red Bull-Renault      (B)  +  1:16.220
10.  Button        Honda                 (B)  +  1:26.214
11.  Piquet        Renault               (B)  +  1:32.202
12.  Fisichella    Force India-Ferrari   (B)  +     1 lap
13.  Barrichello   Honda                 (B)  +     1 lap
14.  Rosberg       Williams-Toyota       (B)  +     1 lap
15.  Davidson      Super Aguri-Honda     (B)  +     1 lap
16.  Sato          Super Aguri-Honda     (B)  +    2 laps
17.  Nakajima      Williams-Toyota       (B)  +    2 laps

Fastest lap: Heidfeld, 1:35.366

Not classified/retirements: