2013 Malaysian Grand Prix

 2013 Malaysian Grand Prix

Racing data
2nd of 19 races in the 2013 Formula 1 World Championship
Surname:	2013 Formula 1 Petronas Malaysia Grand Prix
Date:	March 24, 2013
Place:	Sepang
Course:	Sepang International Circuit
Length:	310.408 km in 56 laps of 5.543 km
Weather:	At first damp, later cloudy and dry
Pole position
Driver:	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull-Renault
Time:	1: 49.674 min
Fastest lap
Driver:	Sergio Perez	McLaren-Mercedes
Time:	1: 39.199 min (lap 56)
Podium
First:	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull-Renault
Second:	Mark Webber	Red Bull-Renault
Third:	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes

The Malaysian Grand Prix 2013 (officially 2013 Formula 1 Petronas Malaysia Grand Prix ) took place on 24 March at the Sepang International Circuit in Sepang instead and was the second race of the Formula 1 World Championship in 2013 . Sebastian Vettel won the race ahead of Mark Webber (both Red Bull-Renault ) and Lewis Hamilton ( Mercedes ).

Reports

backgrounds

After the Australian Grand Prix , Kimi Raikkonen led the drivers' standings with seven points from Fernando Alonso and ten points from Sebastian Vettel . Ferrari led the constructors' championship with four points ahead of Lotus-Renault and with seven points ahead of Red Bull-Renault .

At the Malaysian Grand Prix, Pirelli provided the drivers with the tire compounds P Zero Hard (orange) and P Zero Medium (white), as well as Cinturato Intermediates (green) and Cinturato Full Wets (blue) for wet conditions .

With Alonso (three times), Raikkonen, Vettel (twice each) and Jenson Button (once) four former winners competed for this Grand Prix.

The race stewards were Paul David (MAS), Paul Gutjahr (SUI), Nish Shetty (SIN) and Derek Warwick (GBR).

training

In the first free practice, which took place on a completely dry track, Mark Webber set the fastest time ahead of Raikkonen and Vettel. With his best time, Webber undercut the fastest lap from last Friday's training session by over a second. Raikkonen had KERS problems during training, so the KERS battery was changed during training and he was in the pits for a long time. Several teams used new parts. Among other things, Lotus used a new exhaust system and a new front wing. In Adrian Sutil's case , the right end plate of the front wing came loose during training without any previous incident.

In the second free practice session the weather was changeable. First dry, then heavy rain and then dry again at the end. Raikkonen set the fastest time ahead of Vettel and Felipe Massa . It stayed dry in the third free practice session. Vettel was the fastest pilot ahead of Lewis Hamilton and Sutil. Red Bull also completed long run tests in third free practice because the team lacked data. The racing team does not normally hold long runs on Saturday.

Qualifying

Sutil set the fastest lap in the first section of qualifying. The Caterham and Marussia pilots as well as Valtteri Bottas and Jean-Éric Vergne were eliminated. In the second segment it started to rain in the area of ​​turns seven, eight and fifteen, so that it was no longer possible to improve the times towards the end. Rosberg set the fastest time on a dry track. The Sauber pilots as well as Pastor Maldonado , Paul di Resta , Daniel Ricciardo and Romain Grosjean did not make it into the last segment. In this section the track was so wet that the pilots used intermediates. Vettel achieved the fastest lap time in front of the Ferrari drivers Massa and Alonso.

Raikkonen, who qualified for seventh place on the grid, was subsequently moved three positions back because he blocked Rosberg on a fast lap at turn fourteen.

Maldonado changed his engine after qualifying. This change had no effect on the starting line-up. However, Maldonado is only allowed to use the engine in training sessions.

run

Controversy in the Red Bull Racing team: Vettel overtakes Webber ...

... in the 46th round, disregarding the team's instructions ...

... to hold the position and drive to the finish in a manner that is gentle on the material.

Hamilton and Rosberg took third and fourth place.

At the start of the Malaysian Grand Prix, the track was half wet and half dry. All drivers started on intermediate tires. Vettel kept the lead at the start from Alonso. The two touched in the second corner after Alonso had braked himself. Alonso damaged the front wing of his Ferrari, but drove on lying in second position. In third place went Webber, who had started from fifth place. With the damaged front wing, Alonso did not pit, but fell by the wayside. After being overtaken by Webber on the start-finish straight, the front wing came off and slid under the car. Alonso therefore lost control of his vehicle and drove straight through turn one without touching another car. The car came to a halt in the gravel, and that ended the race for Alonso. Ferrari and Alonso announced after the race that they had made the decision against the early pit stop together, as it was assumed that the attachment of the front wing would have lasted until the track was dry enough for slicks.

The Red Bull drivers were in the lead, ahead of the Mercedes drivers Hamilton and Rosberg. As the track dried up, Vettel and Massa were the first of the leading group to pit on lap five to put on slicks. Two laps later, the now leading Webber and second-placed Hamilton pitted, followed by Rosberg another lap later. Webber was able to overtake Vettel through the pit stop. The positions of the Mercedes drivers remained unchanged. Hamilton made a faux pas during his pit stop: Instead of heading for the Mercedes pit, he drove to the pit of his former racing team McLaren , where the mechanics were ready for Jenson Button's pit stop. However, the McLaren mechanics waved Hamilton through so that he drove to the correct pit immediately. All drivers switched to slicks during this racing phase. There was a collision between Charles Pic and Vergne in the pits because Vergne received the signal too early from his mechanics to be able to drive off. With Force India there were difficulties when changing tires on the car of Sutil. Since he pitted at the same time as di Resta, he too had to wait.

After the pit stop, a group of four made up of the Red Bull and Mercedes drivers formed, with the drivers not in direct striking distance. Räikkönen, who started from tenth place, was behind Sergio Pérez for several laps after the pit stop , but eventually overtook him. Di Resta first overtook Sutil and stood out in midfield with fast laps. There was another problem with Force India during the second pit stops, which started on lap 19. This time di Resta was affected. He stopped for about a lap and gave up the race completely a little later. A little later the situation repeated itself with Sutil, who initially stood in the pits for a long time, was sent out with a long delay and finally gave up. After the race, Force India stated that there were problems with the wheel nut system and that both vehicles had been withdrawn from the race for safety reasons. The first four positions remained unchanged during the pit stop. Behind them Massa and Grosjean managed to overtake Nico Hülkenberg .

After the second pit stops, the gaps at the front of the field narrowed. Vettel complained over the radio that Webber was driving too slowly and asked Red Bull for a stall order. However, Webber countered with faster laps, so that the duel between the Red Bull drivers was over. At the third pit stops of the leading group, which Hamilton began in the 30th lap, there was a position shift between Vettel and Hamilton. Button, whose strategy was one stop less, was now in the lead, but was overtaken by Webber after a few laps and then pitted. A member of the McLaren pit crew made a mistake, so that the stop signal incorrectly jumped to green for 0.12 seconds, even though the right front wheel was not sufficiently attached. Button, who had reacted to the green light signal, drove off, but then stopped in the pit lane to be pushed back. Button went back on track one lap behind and outside of the points. He gave up in the pits shortly before the end of the race.

In the back of the field, Marussia driver Jules Bianchi once again managed to outperform the other drivers of the two rear teams. Until Maldonado's failure for technical reasons, Bianchi was also ahead of the Williams driver. Maldonado parked his vehicle at the edge of the track with a KERS problem.

Before the final pit stops, Vettel passed Hamilton to take second position. After the fourth and final pit stops, internal duels between the Red Bull and Mercedes drivers developed. With the Red Bull drivers, Webber used the harder and Vettel the softer tire compound in the final phase. Webber kept the lead over Vettel at the pit stops. After the pit stops, the Red Bull team management decided to hold their positions, slow down and drive to the finish without damaging the material. Up to this point there were no team orders to the drivers. While Webber adhered to the specifications of the racing team, Vettel initially disregarded the instruction and put Webber under pressure. On the 46th lap, Vettel, who took advantage of a narrow gap between the pit wall and Webber's driving line, prevailed against his team-mate and pulled out a lead on Webber. Vettel was immediately reprimanded on the radio for his overtaking maneuver by Red Bull team boss Christian Horner , who described the action as "stupid".

At Mercedes, Rosberg initially prevailed against Hamilton, but then fell behind him in the counterattack. Rosberg continued to put pressure on Hamilton, who had to save fuel while Rosberg still had reserves. He was instructed by team boss Ross Brawn over the pit radio to hold the positions. Rosberg stuck to it and did not attack Hamilton in the final laps. After the race there was a dispute in front of the cameras between Mercedes shareholders Niki Lauda and Toto Wolff . While Lauda found the team order incomprehensible, Wolff defended the decision from the team management around Brawn.

Vettel finally won the race ahead of Webber, Hamilton and Rosberg. In fifth place followed Massa, who after an additional pit stop with fresh tires made up all the positions he had previously lost. The remaining points went to Grosjean, Räikkönen, Hülkenberg, Pérez and Vergne. Pérez changed tires again two laps before the end, as his set of tires deteriorated significantly and he had so much lead over Vergne that he was ahead of Vergne even after the stop. With the fresher tires, he set the fastest lap of the race on the final lap.

After the race, Vettel and Webber avoided each other. Webber arrived late in the anteroom of the podium and reminded Vettel of Agreement 21 ( "Multi Twenty-One" ), which states that the vehicle with the two in front of the vehicle with the one should cross the finish line. Vettel admitted his mistake after the race and apologized to his teammate and the racing team. At the award ceremony, all participants were in a bad mood due to the incidents within the team. Hamilton said during the interviews on the podium that Rosberg actually deserved third place and not him.

In the drivers' world championship, Vettel took the lead from Raikkonen, who dropped to second place. Webber moved up to third place. Red Bull also took the lead from Lotus and Ferrari among the designers.

Comments from the first three drivers

“I screwed up today. I would love to come up with a nice apology for why I did this, but I can't. I can understand Mark's frustration and the fact that the team is not happy with what I did today. I owe him and the entire team an explanation. I'll try to explain to you later.
We talk about how this situation happens a lot and what we do when it happens. It happened today and I should have carried out the order. I got the announcement and ignored it.
Mark and I are used to fighting each other when we are close together, but given the tires as they are right now and you don't know how long they'll last, ignoring the instruction was an extremely high risk, To stay second.
It could have happened that we crossed the finish line in eighth and ninth after we destroyed our tires on these two laps. I resisted a decision by the team myself, which was wrong. I didn't mean to, and I apologize.
I'm not happy that I won, I made a mistake and if I could undo it I would. It's not that easy at the moment, and I owe Mark and the team an apology. "

- Sebastian Vettel

“I think Sebastian respects me and I respect him. However, the situation today has not been handled well. It's hard to point your finger after the race. If you drive to the limit and apply as much pressure as we can, then it's the worst situation for the team.
I'm sure they wall themselves in and know that things can go wrong. There is also a little story about this. I've been thinking about tons of things over the last 15 laps, but I was happy with the way I drove. I ended up trying to put what happened and we got something out of it today. But of course I'm not happy with the result.
That puts a few people under pressure, and unfortunately there is no button to rewind. I know that people want to see real emotions from us after these situations, and they are there, but we have to stay cool. There are now three weeks until the next race, so we have time to work on these things. "

- Mark Webber

“The team did a fantastic job today. You worked very hard over the winter and this podium finish in the second race of the season is a nice reward for this work, especially at one of our home races here in Malaysia.
I also have to thank Nico. He drove the race smarter and more controlled than me and would have deserved my place on the podium today. The team decided that we should hold the positions and we both respected that.
It was a tough race in which we gave everything in the fight against Red Bull. We were aggressive with our petrol strategy, but it was just too good today. Third and fourth places are a great result for us and drive us to work hard and keep the gap closer. "

- Lewis Hamilton

Registration list

team	No.	driver	chassis	engine	tires
Infiniti Red Bull Racing	01	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull RB9	Renault 2.4 V8	P
	02	Mark Webber
Scuderia Ferrari	03	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari F138	Ferrari 2.4 V8	P
	04th	Felipe Massa
Vodafone McLaren Mercedes	05	Jenson Button	McLaren MP4-28	Mercedes-Benz 2.4 V8	P
	06th	Sergio Perez
Lotus F1 Team	07th	Kimi Raikkonen	Lotus E21	Renault 2.4 V8	P
	08th	Romain Grosjean
Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team	09	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes F1 W04	Mercedes-Benz 2.4 V8	P
	10	Lewis Hamilton
Sauber F1 Team	11	Nico Hulkenberg	Clean C32	Ferrari 2.4 V8	P
	12	Esteban Gutiérrez
Sahara Force India F1 Team	14th	Paul di Resta	Force India VJM06	Mercedes-Benz 2.4 V8	P
	15th	Adrian Sutil
Williams F1 team	16	Pastor Maldonado	Williams FW35	Renault 2.4 V8	P
	17th	Valtteri Bottas
Scuderia Toro Rosso	18th	Jean-Éric Vergne	Toro Rosso STR8	Ferrari 2.4 V8	P
	19th	Daniel Ricciardo
Caterham F1 team	20th	Charles Pic	Caterham CT03	Renault 2.4 V8	P
	21st	Giedo van der Garde
Marussia F1 Team	22nd	Jules Bianchi	Marussia MR02	Cosworth 2.4 V8	P
	23	Max Chilton

Classifications

Qualifying

Item	driver	constructor	Q1	Q2	Q3	begin
01	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull-Renault	1: 37.899	1: 37.245	1: 49.674	01
02	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	1: 37.712	1: 36.874	1: 50.587	02
03	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	1: 37.314	1: 36.877	1: 50.727	03
04th	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1: 37.513	1: 36.517	1: 51.699	04th
05	Mark Webber	Red Bull-Renault	1: 37.619	1: 36.449	1: 52.244	05
06th	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1: 37.239	1: 36.190	1: 52.519	06th
07th	Kimi Raikkonen	Lotus Renault	1: 36.959	1: 36.640	1: 52.970	10
08th	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	1: 37.487	1: 37.117	1: 53.175	07th
09	Adrian Sutil	Force India-Mercedes	1: 36.809	1: 36.834	1: 53.439	08th
10	Sergio Perez	McLaren-Mercedes	1: 37.702	1: 37.342	1: 54.136	09
11	Romain Grosjean	Lotus Renault	1: 37.363	1: 37.636	-	11
12	Nico Hulkenberg	Clean Ferrari	1: 37.931	1: 38.125	-	12
13	Daniel Ricciardo	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	1: 37.722	1: 38.822	-	13
14th	Esteban Gutiérrez	Clean Ferrari	1: 37.707	1: 39.221	-	14th
15th	Paul di Resta	Force India-Mercedes	1: 37.493	1: 44.509	-	15th
16	Pastor Maldonado	Williams-Renault	1: 37.867	no time	-	16
17th	Jean-Éric Vergne	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	1: 38.157	-	-	17th
18th	Valtteri Bottas	Williams-Renault	1: 38.207	-	-	18th
19th	Jules Bianchi	Marussia-Cosworth	1: 38.434	-	-	19th
20th	Charles Pic	Caterham-Renault	1: 39.314	-	-	20th
21st	Max Chilton	Marussia-Cosworth	1: 39.672	-	-	21st
22nd	Giedo van der Garde	Caterham-Renault	1: 39.932	-	-	22nd
107 percent time : 1: 43.585 min (based on Q1 best time of 1: 36.809 min)

Remarks

1. ↑ Kimi Raikkonen was moved three positions back because of the blocking of Nico Rosberg.

run

Item	driver	constructor	Round	Stops	time	begin	Fastest lap
01	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull-Renault	56	4th	1: 38: 56.681	01	1: 40,446 (45th)
02	Mark Webber	Red Bull-Renault	56	4th	+ 4.298	05	1: 40.685 (45th)
03	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	56	4th	+ 12,181	04th	1: 41.001 (32nd)
04th	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	56	4th	+ 12,640	06th	1: 40.755 (44th)
05	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	56	4th	+ 25.648	02	1: 39,805 (50th)
06th	Romain Grosjean	Lotus Renault	56	3	+ 35.654	11	1: 41.226 (37.)
07th	Kimi Raikkonen	Lotus Renault	56	3	+ 48.479	10	1: 41.769 (37th)
08th	Nico Hulkenberg	Clean Ferrari	56	4th	+ 53.044	12	1: 40.727 (46.)
09	Sergio Perez	McLaren-Mercedes	56	4th	+1: 12.357	09	1: 39.199 (56.)
10	Jean-Éric Vergne	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	56	3	+1: 27.124	17th	1: 40.492 (45th)
11	Valtteri Bottas	Williams-Renault	56	3	+1: 28.610	18th	1: 41.373 (54th)
12	Esteban Gutiérrez	Clean Ferrari	55	4th	+ 1 lap	14th	1: 40.929 (54th)
13	Jules Bianchi	Marussia-Cosworth	55	4th	+ 1 lap	19th	1: 42,423 (47th)
14th	Charles Pic	Caterham-Renault	55	4th	+ 1 lap	20th	1: 42.942 (51st)
15th	Giedo van der Garde	Caterham-Renault	55	4th	+ 1 lap	22nd	1: 43,157 (44.)
16	Max Chilton	Marussia-Cosworth	54	4th	+ 2 rounds	21st	1: 43,150 (44.)
17th	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	53	3	DNF	07th	1: 40.556 (43.)
18th	Daniel Ricciardo	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	51	3	DNF	13	1: 42,581 (35.)
-	Pastor Maldonado	Williams-Renault	45	3	DNF	16	1: 43.465 (34th)
-	Adrian Sutil	Force India-Mercedes	27	2	DNF	08th	1: 42.791 (24.)
-	Paul di Resta	Force India-Mercedes	22nd	2	DNF	15th	1: 43.094 (19.)
-	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	01	0	DNF	03	-

World Cup stands after the race

The first ten of the race got 25, 18, 15, 12, 10, 8, 6, 4, 2 and 1 point (s) respectively.

Driver ranking

Item driver constructor Points 01  Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 40 02  Kimi Raikkonen Lotus Renault 31 03  Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault 26th 04th  Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 25th 05  Felipe Massa Ferrari 22nd 06th  Fernando Alonso Ferrari 18th 07th  Nico Rosberg Mercedes 12 08th  Romain Grosjean Lotus Renault 9 09  Adrian Sutil Force India-Mercedes 6th 10  Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes 4th 11  Nico Hulkenberg Clean Ferrari 4th

Item driver constructor Points 12  Sergio Perez McLaren-Mercedes 2 13  Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 2 14th  Jean-Éric Vergne Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1 15th  Valtteri Bottas Williams-Renault 0 16  Esteban Gutiérrez Clean Ferrari 0 17th  Jules Bianchi Marussia-Cosworth 0 18th  Charles Pic Caterham-Renault 0 19th  Giedo van der Garde Caterham-Renault 0 20th  Max Chilton Marussia-Cosworth 0 21st  Daniel Ricciardo Toro Rosso-Ferrari 0 -  Pastor Maldonado Williams-Renault 0

Constructors' championship

Item constructor Points 01  Red Bull-Renault 66 02  Lotus Renault 40 03  Ferrari 40 04th  Mercedes 37 05  Force India-Mercedes 10 06th  Clean Ferrari 4th

Item constructor Points 07th  McLaren-Mercedes 4th 08th  Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1 09  Williams-Renault 0 10  Marussia-Cosworth 0 11  Caterham-Renault 0

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Stefan Ziegler: "Pirelli calls tire allocation for the first races of the season". Motorsport-Total.com, February 13, 2013, accessed February 18, 2013 . 
2. ↑ Christian Nimmervoll: "Malaysia: Webber drives the best time in the first training". Motorsport-Total.com, March 22, 2013, accessed March 22, 2013 . 
3. ^ "GP Malaysia in Sepang / 1st free practice". Motorsport-Total.com, March 22, 2013, accessed March 22, 2013 . 
4. ↑ Christian Nimmervoll: “Raikkonen best time to kick off in Malaysia”. Motorsport-Total.com, March 22, 2013, accessed March 22, 2013 . 
5. ^ "GP Malaysia in Sepang / 2nd free practice". Motorsport-Total.com, March 22, 2013, accessed March 22, 2013 . 
6. ^ Christian Nimmervoll: "Final training: Vettel first, Sutil third". Motorsport-Total.com, March 23, 2013, accessed March 23, 2013 . 
7. ^ "GP Malaysia in Sepang / 3rd free practice". Motorsport-Total.com, March 23, 2013, accessed March 23, 2013 . 
8. ^ Mario Fritzsche: "Marko pleads for new places for the winter tests". Motorsport-Total.com, March 23, 2013, accessed March 23, 2013 . 
9. ↑ Christian Nimmervoll: "Rain saves Vettel: Pole position in Malaysia". Motorsport-Total.com, March 23, 2013, accessed March 23, 2013 . 
10. ↑ Stephan Heublein: "Formula 1 - Rosberg blocked: penalty for Raikkonen". Only tenth left. Motorsport-Magazin.com, March 23, 2013, accessed March 23, 2013 . 
11. ↑ Frederik Hackbarth: "Formula 1 - Maldonado: changing the engine before the race". No further consequences. Motorsport-Magazin.com, March 24, 2013, accessed March 24, 2013 . 
12. ↑ ^{a b c} Kerstin Hasenbichler: "Formula 1 - Red Bull double victory in Malaysia". Heartbeat duel at the limit. Motorsport-Magazin.com, March 24, 2013, accessed March 24, 2013 . 
13. ↑ ^{a b c d e} "GP Malaysia in Sepang / Race - Chronology". Motorsport-Total.com, March 24, 2013, accessed March 24, 2013 . 
14. ↑ Fabian Hust: "Ferrari: Alonso with a clipped wing - points for Massa". Motorsport-Total.com, March 24, 2013, accessed March 24, 2013 . 
15. ↑ ^{a b c d e f} Christian Nimmervoll: "Controversial stall duels: Vettel wins in Malaysia". Motorsport-Total.com, March 24, 2013, accessed March 24, 2013 . 
16. ↑ Fabian Hust: "Force India at war with the wheel nuts". Motorsport-Total.com, March 24, 2013, accessed March 24, 2013 . 
17. ↑ Kerstin Hasenbichler: "Formula 1 - Human failure on McLaren box". Green for 120 milliseconds. Motorsport-Total.com, March 24, 2013, accessed March 24, 2013 . 
18. ↑ Marion Rott: "Formula 1 - Bianchi overjoyed after P13". Fight with Williams in the future. Motorsport-Total.com, March 24, 2013, accessed March 24, 2013 . 
19. ↑ Fabian Hust: "Williams leaves Sepang empty-handed". Motorsport-Total.com, March 24, 2013, accessed March 24, 2013 . 
20. ^ ^{A b} Frederik Hackbarth: "Formula 1 - Red Bull: Great controversy about Vettel's victory". Self-interest placed above that of the team. Motorsport-Total.com, March 24, 2013, accessed March 24, 2013 . 
21. ^ ^{A b} Robert Seiwert: "Formula 1 - The background to the Mercedes team order". Disagreement & many question marks. Motorsport-Magazin.com, March 24, 2013, accessed March 24, 2013 . 
22. ^ Matt Beer: “Malaysian GP: Sebastian Vettel beats Mark Webber amid team row”. autosport.com, March 24, 2013, accessed March 24, 2013 . 
23. ↑ ^{a b} Fabian Hust: "Mercedes with a 'tough decision': Hamilton before Rosberg". Motorsport-Total.com, March 24, 2013, accessed March 24, 2013 . 
24. ↑ ^{a b} Fabian Hust: "Red Bull: Vettel has to apologize". Motorsport-Total.com, March 24, 2013, accessed March 24, 2013 .