Malaysian GP 2012 - Sepang International Circuit

[Hail22]

Katikeyan should get a penalty for not respecting blue flags and ruining the race for two top drivers.

Looked to me like Vettel was in the wrong there.

Vettel was in the wrong he basically did exactly what Alonso did last year behind Hamilton...if you get too close you can only blame yourself thereafter.

[Lorenzo_Bandini]

Congratulations to Alonso and to Perez who found a courageous race strategy and made it stick.

Red Bull and McLaren beaten well under value. The race never made it under 1:40 per lap which denied them the usual advantage they would have had in the dry. Red Bull were not particularly clever with the tyre strategy and always 1 step behind the best stopping teams.

Schumacher, Button and Vettel were all pushed out of the top ranks by inexperienced newbies. Katikeyan should get a penalty for not respecting blue flags and ruining the race for two top drivers.

Hamilton suffered two imperfect pit stops. He could have got a better result. Webber and Räikkönen got very solid results, well done to them as well.

Senna got some nice points for Williams.

Rosberg and Massa had bad races which will not help Massa to keep his seat. Sutil could be lucky when Ferrari have some management capacity available to think about a replacement. They would be well advised to react quickly to this situation. It is something that can be done relatively easy to avoid criticism.

Kartikeyan did nothing wrong with Button. Nothing.

[Giblet]

It wasn't a deliberate off-track excursion, but the radio message was definitely a key factor as to why he went off. He was simply doing too good before the message to think that it didn't have an impact. I won't say he went off track deliberately, but the message unnerved him massively.

I would agree with this.

It was a very negative sounding message that even left me feeling a bit down, let alone the driver.

We don't hear all the messages, not even close. They might have been talking constantly.

Its like trying to understand an interview by only listening to one question from the interviewer, and no answer from the subject.

Also, the messages are delayed, so he had that message long before the incident.

The guy was driving the pants off that car, and made a mistake. He made the mistake in the dirty air of the Ferrari as well.

[Websta]

I don't think Sergio would have complied with any request to back off anyway, there is nothing to suggest that he had any intention of holding station after his off - He had the hammer down hard and reeled back 4 odd seconds off Alonso's lead. Whilst it is undeniable that this sort of tactic is right out of the Scuderia's play book and, as Shrieker points out, they have a lot of influence over Sauber, there's little evidence to suggest that they were ordering Sauber to reign Sergio in today. At least at the moment.

The fact that he was so good vs Alonso until the message should speak for itself (he did recover afterwards though). At the very least it unnerved him, he won't admit it obviously, but it obviously played a part on his mindset under the helmet.

He was lighting up green/purple sectors on that lap IIRC, his mistake was pushing unnecessarily hard. I don't see how a "bad mindset" would make him push harder. I don't understand this "mindset" business either really, he isn't a sensitive child, he is a professional racer and it sounded like a fairly clear message to me - stop throwing the car around. He should have listened to it.

EDIT: As someone else has pointed out and I assumed was common knowledge - the message would have been transmitted to him at the end of the previous lap.

[Moanlower]

Alonso did nothing special today, if anything his team earned the win more than he did, good pit stops at the proper times, much more than what can be said for McLaren.
Hamilton should demand his engineers back from Button, because his side of the garage suck.

Drivers of the race Perez and then Senna.

Both Button & Vettel destroyed their own races.

You clearly did not follow the laptimes or watched the race at all. In the wet he was setting fastest lap after fastest lap hence the gap he took. He didn't gain that much during the pitstops which were similar to most competitors on tyre choice and timing, his laptimes made the difference. Now all thats left for you is to look for an excuse for these laptimes. Suck it up.

[Powershift]

Schumacher, Button and Vettel were all pushed out of the top ranks by inexperienced newbies. Katikeyan should get a penalty for not respecting blue flags and ruining the race for two top drivers.

KAR did nothing wrong in either instance, and no penalties should be awarded. We've seen Vettel prematurely cutting people off before(Turkey 2010 vs Webber) and it is the passing driver's responsibility to pass safely and to give proper racing room. Neither Button nor Vettel did so and if anyone should be penalizedz it should be them.

[Shrieker]

When you're in the zone and have complete confidence that you're about to win your first GP ever and then get a message that you're possibly doing something wrong and you need to be careful, it would definately add some extra worries or tentativeness that wasn't there before.

Its a shame that this is an issue though and will stop Perez from truly enjoying his immensely awesome drive.

And me from witnessing an immensly awesome scrap all because Ferrari want to win at ALL costs and they're allowed to do so whichever way they like.

[King Six]

It wasn't a deliberate off-track excursion, but the radio message was definitely a key factor as to why he went off. He was simply doing too good before the message to think that it didn't have an impact. I won't say he went off track deliberately, but the message unnerved him massively.

I would agree with this.

It was a very negative sounding message that even left me feeling a bit down, let alone the driver.

We don't hear all the messages, not even close. They might have been talking constantly.

Its like trying to understand an interview by only listening to one question from the interviewer, and no answer from the subject.

Also, the messages are delayed, so he had that message long before the incident.

The guy was driving the pants off that car, and made a mistake. He made the mistake in the dirty air of the Ferrari as well.

It'll unnerve you either way. One minute they're saying good, keep up with the pace etc.. next they're saying hold station. When you're catching someone at xyz tenths a lap, you have to drive different to hold position. It threw him off guard and sent him wide. The way his engineer said the message was wrong, he should have just told him to exercise extreme caution or something. As for the hidden politics, I can't really comment on that.

[raymondu999]

Schumacher, Button and Vettel were all pushed out of the top ranks by inexperienced newbies.

Buuuuuuut, Vettel ran over his wing.

It was on the exit of 8, right? Vettel was already alongside him, then got better traction and accelerated in a straight line. Karthikeyan went on the diagonal racing line between 8 and 9 - and cut Vettel's tyre.

Re Karthikeyan vs Button - my eyes weren't on my telly at the time, so I honestly can't comment

[NathanOlder]

It was definatly Vettel's fault. For Karthikeyan to avoid this he would have had to lift. on the exit of a corner you dont lift, your acceleration.

Anyone see or hear an interview with Seb yet ?

[GrizzleBoy]

Schumacher, Button and Vettel were all pushed out of the top ranks by inexperienced newbies.

Buuuuuuut, Vettel ran over his wing.

It was on the exit of 8, right? Vettel was already alongside him, then got better traction and accelerated in a straight line. Karthikeyan went on the diagonal racing line between 8 and 9 - and cut Vettel's tyre.

Re Karthikeyan vs Button - my eyes weren't on my telly at the time, so I honestly can't comment

Really?

As far as I remember, Vettel did what Hamilton did to Kobayashi in Spa last year.

Got the overtake done and tried to rejoin the racing line too early, not noticing that the car behing was still there.

[Hail22]

It was definatly Vettel's fault. For Karthikeyan to avoid this he would have had to lift. on the exit of a corner you dont lift, your acceleration.

Anyone see or hear an interview with Seb yet ?

Seb is currently in his autohome having a sook with a box of cookies and a glass of warm milk, rumour has it he will be out in 20 minutes or so.

Just kidding, check Youtube or SkyF1?

[Giblet]

He didn't turn onto his tire IIRC, Vettel finished his turn out and ran over his wing with his tire.

Vettel was going faster, and should have left more room. I honestly need to re-watch it, but that was my take when I saw it.

Going off past history, he runs over front wings, and turns in on cars that are not passed yet.

EDIT: a little in out

[Shrieker]

Ferrari may have ordered McLaren to hold Lewis, as some experts predict that they have certainly ordered Sauber to hold off Perez.

You have no idea about the politics in F1 which more often than assumed ruins racing.

Have a nice day.

Going off past history, he runs over front wings, and turns in on cars that are not passed yet.

No offence Giblet but I'm going off past history aswell regarding Ferrari and Sauber Surely, you wouldn't begrudge me that

[raymondu999]

Really?

As far as I remember, Vettel did what Hamilton did to Kobayashi in Spa last year.

Got the overtake done and tried to rejoin the racing line too early, not noticing that the car behing was still there.

There was a car width between Vettel and the track boundary if I saw it correctly. Just. Vettel was taking a line parallel to the left track boundary; while the racing line is meant to see you moving away from the left track boundary. The racing line there takes you diagonally across a short straight towards the right side of the track. Vettel was going straight; with a car's width to his left. Karthikeyan started taking the normal racing line. It was a bit like Turkey 2010 between the bulls if I'm honest.

He didn't turn onto his tire IIRC, Vettel turned in

They had just exited the right-hander of 8. Vettel was to Narain's right. To go to the racing line would have meant Vettel drifting to the right of the track.