2013 Malaysian Grand Prix
The Malaysian Grand Prix 2013 ( officially 2013 Formula 1 Petronas Malaysian Grand Prix ) was held on March 24, held at the Sepang International Circuit in Sepang and was the second race of the Formula 1 season 2013. Sebastian Vettel won the race ahead of Mark Webber (both Red Bull - Renault) and Lewis Hamilton ( Mercedes).
- 3.1 qualifying
- 3.2 race
- 4.1 Drivers' Championship
- 4.2 Constructors' Championship
Reports
Background
According to the Australian Grand Prix, Kimi Raikkonen led the drivers' standings with seven points ahead of Fernando Alonso and ten points ahead of Sebastian Vettel. Ferrari resulted in the Constructors' Championship with four points ahead of Lotus -Renault and seven points ahead of Red Bull-Renault.
At the Grand Prix of Malaysia introduced the Pirelli P Zero tire compounds drivers the hardware (orange) and P Zero medium ( white), as well as for wet conditions Cinturato Intermediates (green) and Cinturato Full Wets (blue ) are available.
With Alonso ( three times), Raikkonen, Vettel (each twice) and Jenson Button (once ) occurred four former winners of this Grand Prix.
As race stewards acted Paul David (MAS ), Paul Gutjahr (SUI ), Nish Shetty (SIN) and Derek Warwick ( GBR).
Training
In the first free practice session, which took place on a completely dry track, Mark Webber set the fastest time ahead of Raikkonen and Vettel. Webber undercut with his best time set the fastest lap of the Friday practice last year by over a second. Raikkonen had KERS problems in the training, so that the KERS battery was changed during training and he got a lot of time in the box. Several teams were a new part. Among other things, used Lotus, a new exhaust system and a new front wing. With Adrian Sutil broke up in the course of training the right end plate of the front wing, without that there was an incident before.
In the second session the weather was changeable. First dry, then stronger rain and dry again at the end. Raikkonen set the fastest time ahead of Vettel and Felipe Massa. In the third free practice session it stayed dry. Vettel was the fastest rider ahead of Lewis Hamilton and Sutil. Red Bull completed in the third free practice tests and long run, as the team were missing data. Normally, the team does not perform long runs through Saturday.
Qualifying
In the first phase of qualifying Sutil set the fastest lap. The Caterham and Marussia pilots and Valtteri Bottas and Jean- Éric Vergne dropped out. In the second segment, it began to rain on the bends seven, eight and fifteen, so that an improvement of the times towards the end was no longer possible. Rosberg scored on a dry track the fastest time. The Sauber drivers and Pastor Maldonado, Paul di Resta, Daniel Ricciardo and Romain Grosjean could not reach the last segment. In this section, the track was so wet that the pilots used Intermediates. Vettel posted the fastest lap time in front of the Ferrari drivers Massa and Alonso.
Raikkonen, who had qualified for seventh grid position was subsequently added three positions to the rear, as he had Rosberg blocked on a fast lap at turn fourteen.
Maldonado joined after qualifying his motor. For the starting grid, this change had no effect. However, Maldonado must the motor only use in training sessions.
Race
At the start of the Grand Prix of Malaysia, the track was half wet and half dry. All riders started on intermediate tires. Vettel held the lead at the start ahead of Alonso. In the second curve touched the two after Alonso had braked himself. Here, Alonso damaged his front wing of his Ferrari, but went to the second position on lying. In third place went Webber, who started from fifth place. With the damaged front wing Alonso did not go to the box, but fell by the wayside. After he was overtaken on the start -finish straight of Webber, broke the front wing and slid under the car. Alonso thus lost control of his vehicle and drove into turn one straight without touching another car. The car came to a halt in the gravel, the race was over so for Alonso. Ferrari and Alonso declared after the race, we made the decision against the early pit stop together, since it was assumed that the attachment of the front wing would have held until the track had been dry enough for slicks.
At the top of the Red Bull drivers were in front of the Mercedes drivers Hamilton and Rosberg. As the track dried out, Vettel and Massa were the first of the top group in the fifth round to the box in order to use slick tires. Two laps later, the now leading Webber and second-placed Hamilton went to the box, another round later followed Rosberg. The pit stop Vettel Webber was able to overtake. The Mercedes driver, the positions remained unchanged. Hamilton underwent during his pit stop gaffe: Instead of driving the Mercedes- box, he went to the box of his former racing team McLaren, where the mechanics were ready for the pit stop, of Jenson Button. However, the McLaren mechanic waved through Hamilton so that it went to the correct box immediately. All drivers exchanged in this phase of the race on slicks. It came in the box to a collision between Charles Pic and Vergne, since Vergne too soon received of his mechanics the signal to leave. In Force India there were difficulties when changing a tire on the vehicle of Sutil. Since he had come at the same time with di Resta in the box, had to wait for this.
After the pit stop was formed a group of four from the Red Bull and Mercedes drivers, the drivers were not in direct striking distance. Raikkonen, who started from tenth place, were after the pit stop for several laps behind Sergio Pérez, but overtook him finally. Di Resta and Sutil overtook first fell in midfield with fast laps on. In the second pit stops, which began in the 19th round, there was another problem with Force India. This time di Resta was affected. He remained in about a round stand and gave little later the race completely. A little later, the situation repeated with Sutil, who is also first long stood in the pits, was sent out with a large residue, and finally gave up. After the race, said Force India, that there were problems with the wheel nut system and both vehicles for safety were taken out of the race. The first four positions remained unchanged during the pit stop. Behind succeeded Massa and Grosjean to overtake Nico Hulkenberg.
After the second pit stops, the distances to the front of the field decreased. Vettel complained on the radio that Webber driving too slow and called on Red Bull to a team order. However, Webber countered with faster laps, so that the duel between the Red Bull drivers had initially done. In the third pit stops of the top group that began in Hamilton in the 30th round, there was a shift in position between Vettel and Hamilton. Button, the strategy envisaged a stop less, was now in the lead, but was overtaken after a few laps of Webber and then went to the box. Here, a member of the McLaren pit crew made a mistake, so the hold signal for 0.12 seconds erroneously jumped to green, although the right front wheel was not tightened sufficiently. Button, who had responded to the green light sign, drove off, then stopped but still in the pit lane in order to be possible to push back. Button was one lap behind and out of the points back on the track. He gave up on the box shortly before the end of the race.
In the back of the pack succeeded Marussia driver Jules Bianchi again to let the other drivers of the two rear teams far behind. Until the technical failure Maldonado, Bianchi was also against the Williams driver. Maldonado turned his vehicle with a KERS problem from the side of the track.
Even before the last pit stop Vettel went to Hamilton over to the second position. After the fourth and final pit stops to internal Duels of the Red Bull and Mercedes drivers developed. At the Red Bull drivers Webber used in the final phase, the harder and the softer tire compound Vettel. Webber kept at the pit stops the lead from Vettel. The team led by Red Bull decided after the pit stops to hold the positions to take out pace and gently to drive to the finish. Until that time, there were no team orders to the drivers. While Webber held to the requirements of the racing team, Vettel disobeyed the instruction first and sat Webber under pressure. In the 46th lap, Vettel, who took advantage of a small gap between the pit wall and Webber driving line continued through to his teammates and drove up a gap on Webber. Vettel was immediately blamed on pit radio for his overtaking the Red Bull team boss Christian Horner, who described the action as "stupid".
At Mercedes Rosberg is set initially by against Hamilton, but then fell in the counter-attack behind him back. Rosberg continued to practice pressure on Hamilton because this had to save fuel, while Rosberg was not empty. Per team radio he received from team boss Ross Brawn told to hold the positions. Rosberg clung to it and reached Hamilton in the final rounds not more. After the race there was in front of cameras a dispute between the Mercedes -owner Niki Lauda and Toto Wolff. While Lauda team orders not found comprehensible, Wolff defended the decision of the team management to Brawn.
Vettel eventually won the race ahead of Webber, Hamilton and Rosberg. In fifth place followed by Massa, who with fresh tire again made good by an additional pit stop all positions he had previously lost. The remaining points went to Grosjean, Raikkonen, Hulkenberg, Pérez and Vergne. Pérez joined with two laps once the tires, since its set of tires degraded strong and he had so much ahead of Vergne, that he was also after stop before that. With fresher tires, he scored in the last lap of the race 's fastest lap of the race.
After the race, Vettel and Webber went out of the way. Webber arrived late to the hall of the podium and reminded Vettel on the deal 21 ( "Multi Twenty-One" ), which states that the vehicle with the two with the one should finish in front of the vehicle. Vettel admitted his error after the race and apologized to his teammates and the team. At the medal ceremony, all participants were due to the team-internal incidents in a bad mood. Hamilton said during the interview on the podium, that Rosberg would have deserved third place and not him.
In the drivers' world championship Vettel took the lead from Raikkonen, who dropped back to second place. Webber moved up to third place. In the constructors Red Bull was also the lead from Lotus and Ferrari.
Comments of the first three riders
"I blew it today. I would like to arrive with a nice excuse why I did it, but I can not. I can understand Mark's frustration and the fact that the team is not happy about what I did today. I owe him and the entire team for an explanation. I'll try to explain to them later. We talk about the fact that this situation is common, and what do we do when it happens. Today it happened and I would have to implement the command. I got the message and ignored it. Mark and I are accustomed to fight each other when we are close together, but in light of the tires, as they are at the moment, and you do not know how long they will hold, it was an extremely great risk to ignore the statement, Second to stay. It could happen that we come in eighth and ninth place after we destroy ourselves in these two rounds of the tires. I myself oppose a decision of the team, what was wrong. I did not, and I apologize. I am not happy that I've won, I've made a mistake, and if I could undo it, I would do that. It is actually not very easy, and I 'm Mark and the team owe you an apology. "
" I think that Sebastian respects me, and I have respect for him. The situation today, however, was not handled well. It is difficult, after the race to show it with your finger. If you drive at the limit and so does pressure as we can, then it is the worst situation for the team. I am sure that it walled in yourself and know that things can go wrong. In this regard, there is also a little story. In the last 15 laps I 've been thinking about a lot of things, but I was on the way, as I drove happily. I tried to repress what happened, and we have brought out something today at the end. But of course I 'm not satisfied with the result. That puts a few people under pressure, and unfortunately there is not a button, with which we can rewind. I know that people want to see from us in these situations, real emotions, and which is also available, but we need to stay cool. There are now three weeks until the next race, so we have time to work on these things. "
"The team did a fantastic job today. They have worked very hard over the winter and this podium in the second race of the season is a nice reward for this work, especially with one of our home races here in Malaysia. I must also thank Nico. He finished the race smarter and more controlled than I and would have deserved my place on the podium today. The team has decided that we should hold the positions, and that we both respected. It was a tough race in which we have given everything in the fight against Red Bull. We have gone to work aggressively with our fuel strategy, but they were simply too good. The third and fourth places are a great result for us and drive us to work hard and the residue further downsize. "
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).