2011 Malaysian Grand Prix
The Malaysian Grand Prix 2011 took place on April 10 at the Sepang International Circuit in Sepang and was the second race of the Formula 1 2011 season.
- 3.1 qualifying
- 3.2 race
- 4.1 Drivers' Championship
- 4.2 Constructors' Championship
Reports
Background
According to the Australian Grand Prix Sebastian Vettel led the drivers' standings with 7 points ahead of Lewis Hamilton and 10 points ahead of Vitaly Petrov. Red Bull -Renault led the Constructors' Championship with 9 points ahead of McLaren -Mercedes and 17 points ahead of Ferrari.
At the Malaysian Grand Prix turned Pirelli riders the Hard tire compounds (silver) and soft (yellow), as well as for wet conditions Intermediates (light blue ) and Full - Wets (orange ) are available. On Friday, the teams received for testing in addition two sets of tires the mixture Supersoft (red), which were first used.
With Michael Schumacher ( three times), Fernando Alonso ( twice), Jenson Button and Vettel ( once each ) were four former winners of this Grand Prix.
Training
In the first free practice Mark Webber posted the fastest lap before Hamilton and Schumacher. He had about 1.6 seconds ahead of Hamilton. Davide Valsecchi drove in this training the Lotus of Heikki Kovalainen and participated for the first time in a Formula 1 training meeting. Moreover, took over in this training Nico Hülkenberg the Force India of Paul di Resta and Daniel Ricciardo Toro Rosso of Sebastien Buemi. Nick Heidfeld, Vitaly Petrov ( Renault both ) and Jerome D' Ambrosio (Virgin ) suffered in this training technical problems with the brakes. In the second free practice Webber kept the lead. Button, who finished second, but reduced the gap to five thousandths of a second. Hamilton was third.
In the third free practice McLaren driver Hamilton took the lead ahead of Webber and Button.
Qualifying
The first qualifying section was interrupted after eight minutes, as Buemi had lost some of its side box panel. When qualifying resumed scored Felipe Massa set the fastest lap. The HRT, Virgin and Lotus pilots and Pastor Maldonado could not reach the second segment. All pilots remained with their time under the 107- percent - time. In the second section, Button took the lead of the field. The Force India and Toro Rosso pilots and Sergio Pérez, Rubens Barrichello and Schumacher dropped out. In the final phase of qualifying Vettel finally achieved the fastest lap and secured the pole position ahead of Hamilton and Webber.
Race
Before and during the race forecasters expected rain. Except for a few drops of rain but the entire time remained dry and the pilots used throughout slicks.
At the start of the race the third-placed Webber dropped to the tenth position. Good contrast launched the Renault: Heidfeld moved up from sixth place starting to second place behind Vettel and Petrov from eighth to fifth place. In the early rounds, there were already some overtaking and both Ferrari drivers drove past Petrov. In addition, first took over Webber, the ninth position of Kamui Kobayashi. However, it was back obsolete because he had problems with his KERS. However, there a little later, he managed to pass by one more time to Kobayashi.
After Maldonado had given up with a technical problem, the phase of the first pit stops began in the eleventh round by Webber. In the next round, all pilots came to the pits. Vettel had to leave it only for a round of Alonso his leadership. Heidfeld, however, fell through the pit stop back from second to fifth place. Hamilton finally was on the second place ahead of Alonso, who had overtaken shortly after his pit stop button. While Narain Karthikeyan gave up with cooling problems, Buemi received a drive-through penalty. He was too fast at the pit stop in the pit lane.
In Webber, who had stopped from the top group to only the tire built from on and he also began the second phase of pit stops. During this Vettel lost the lead again for a round of Alonso. Up to the second-placed Hamilton all drivers kept the softer compound tire in the front part of the field. In the meantime, Barrichello had failed with hydraulic problems and Pérez with a electrical problems.
In the 28th round Kobayashi, who had graduated from a pit stop as opposed to the other drivers only overtook Schumacher in an overtaking in the first sector. Jarno Trulli fell in the round of 31 with a technical problem. At the top of Vettel increased his lead to Hamilton, who did not seem to benefit from the harder tire and turned off to his last stop in the pits ahead of Vettel. In Hamilton's pit stop there was a delay, so that he fell back through the stop behind Button, who had already overtaken Alonso 's second stop. Vettel kept even after his final pit stop the lead.
While D' Ambrosio rolled out with technical problems, a duel between Hamilton and Alonso developed. Alonso, who caught up on Hamilton, had problems with his DRS. It finally came to a contact of the two racers because Alonso einschätzte his pace when accelerating wrong and drove into Hamilton. He damaged thereby his front wing and had to pit for repairs. Heidfeld was a beneficiary of this contact, as he took the fourth position behind Vettel, Button and Hamilton.
Vitantonio Liuzzi While abandoned the race with technical problems, some overtaking occurred. Petrov overtook Kobayashi and took the eighth position. Webber came up with fresher tires at Massa and finally drove past him. In addition, Heidfeld managed in a duel for the podium overtaking against Hamilton. He used his DR system. After Hamilton had also fallen behind Webber, he moved one more time his tires and dropped back to seventh place.
Four rounds before the end of the race crashed Petrov. When a ride broke his steering column and the race was over for him. His team-mate Heidfeld under braking, although shortly before the race, but remained about one second ahead of Webber.
Vettel eventually won the race ahead of Button and Heidfeld. Webber was fourth, Massa fifth.
After the race, Alonso and Hamilton each received a 20 -second time penalty. Alonso sixth place remained unchanged, Hamilton dropped from seventh to eighth. Alonso received the penalty, since he had ascended in a duel with Hamilton on the vehicle, Hamilton was penalized for frequent lane changes in a duel against Alonso. Thus Kobayashi was seventh. The other points went to Schumacher and di Resta.
In the world championship Vettel and Red Bull -Renault built from their existing lead. Button took the second position of Hamilton, who was now in third place.
Message list
Classifications
Qualifying
Race
WM stands after the race
, The first ten of the race were 25, 18, 15, 12, 10, 8, 6, 4, 2 and 1 point (s).