Malaysian GP 2012 - Sepang International Circuit

[MuseF1]

Fair enough langwadt I guess they would have to determine why they retired

Or maybe we should forgive Hamilton for his impossible overtaking attempt on the hairpin in Monaco?

Also, JENSON WAS RACING FOR POSITION. Karthikeyan had no obligation to move over for him for any reason.

I hope not to start an old argument..

But the 'impossible hamilton overtake' at monaco hairpin was not impossible, because Schumacher did the exact same move on hamilton at the hairpin in the same race. Massa was trying to do the same move on Webber when Hamilton hit him at the hairpin.
Incidentally... the move Hamilton did on Maldonado at the 1st corner @monaco that ended in disaster, Hamilton had successfully done the same move on Schumacher. I believe Maldonado turned in on LH
(I support LH so of course i would see it that way)

Also I think Jenson admitted it was his fault?

[PlatinumZealot]

Sry Guys, i can't agree with the most of you. In the folowing image u will see a comparison of Schumi's an Hamilton's race. In special the last stint on dry tires. I've maked a average time of there last stint (with and without the outlap) and of the last 7 laps. Michael was only a tenth of a second behind Hamilton on the last 7 laps and a hundreth on the hole stint. And there was nothing to see about a bad tire degeneration, Michael's stint was actually 3 laps longer than Hamilton's.

Furthermore Button was more than half a second off the pace of Schumacher. The fastest on the last 7 laps was Kimi, and on the hole stint it was Webber and Perez if u ignore his failure. But Webber was still only two tenth of a second faster than Michael. So the Mercedes is not that bad, it was just a crazy race^^ But there is still the question why Nico and Janson were so much slower than there teammates.

And sry for my english, its not so good^^

So the pace was about equal then. But it certainly comes at the wrong time. Let's use the next race to see the true picture. Rosberg faded like Wesley Snipes in China Last year, lets see how much they have improved.

[Giblet]

I think everyone can agree that this was wet race affected by Na-Rain.

Ok I'll see myself out.

[andartop]

So glad I watched this race on BBC, as I gained the 50min wait under the red flag and only missed 2 laps near the end. Does anyone know what specific percentage of laps or race time they are allowed to air? I would have thought "highlights" would mean much less than 54 out of 56 laps?!

My take on the race:

The red flag was justified and it came at the right time, that is before losing 3-4 cars due to aquaplaning rather than after. Tough decision and obviously not popular with any fan, but aquaplaning is not racing.

What is completely idiotic though is having to red flag a race every year for the same reason and still not moving it in the calendar or at least earlier in the day. Well done FIA.

Massa should quit rather than wait for Ferrari to sack him. What else is there for him to do in China, drive the wrong way around the track for the duration of the race?

McLaren did their fair share of messing up but the rain master Lewis had plenty of laps behind Perez and Alonso to try and close the gap, which he didn't. Cause he couldn't. That's why the gap kept increasing. Then he locked his wheels when coming in for the second stop and missed his parking spot. Then he couldn't leave as there was traffic. It happens.

With regards to Karthikeyan moving out of the way, well, with Button he didn’t have to. WB may keep ignoring the fact, but it's still a fact. Not to mention JB took full responsibility. As for the incident with Vettel, based on the videos, photos and opinions here I would go for 50-50% blame and wouldn’t hand out any penalty.

Alonso drove a fantastic race, probably one of the best in his career, and no amount of hating can take that away from him. He was fast when he had to, had the right strategy but didn’t take any gambles (there goes the “luck” argument), overtook when he had to and defended when he had to. He established a comfortable gap in the most crucial phase of the race, and most importantly made no mistakes whatsoever, as opposed to so many others today (including Vettel, Button, Lewis, Perez etc.). With this car, a win must feel like a championship!

Perez also drove a brilliant race, and indeed would have deserved the victory if he had only managed to keep his head cool. I’m not buying any of that “race fixing” accusations. Everybody saw what Maldonado managed last time around, and the conditions today were far too treacherous for any small team to want to risk their best ever result in a season with so much competition. Plus, the specific point in the track where Perez made his little trip is a clear indication to anyone who knows the track layout that it was just an error; there are plenty of safer places for “race fixing”.

Last but not least, let's all laugh together at the RBR radio to Vettel in the last lap! Instant classic, all the way up there with "Alonso is faster than you", "like a horse with horns" and "I can't go any slower; I can't go any faster"!

[raymondu999]

Does anyone know what specific percentage of laps or race time they are allowed to air?:

1 hour AFAIK.

[Med4224]

Sry Guys, i can't agree with the most of you. In the folowing image u will see a comparison of Schumi's an Hamilton's race. In special the last stint on dry tires. I've maked a average time of there last stint (with and without the outlap) and of the last 7 laps. Michael was only a tenth of a second behind Hamilton on the last 7 laps and a hundreth on the hole stint. And there was nothing to see about a bad tire degeneration, Michael's stint was actually 3 laps longer than Hamilton's.

Furthermore Button was more than half a second off the pace of Schumacher. The fastest on the last 7 laps was Kimi, and on the hole stint it was Webber and Perez if u ignore his failure. But Webber was still only two tenth of a second faster than Michael. So the Mercedes is not that bad, it was just a crazy race^^ But there is still the question why Nico and Janson were so much slower than there teammates.

And sry for my english, its not so good^^

http://oi43.tinypic.com/zvshp5.jpg

1. It is not we who are saying that, they are saying that, read the quotes on the previous page. 2nd race in a row, they blame it on the tyres.

2. Dry stint, Michael was on hards, Rosberg was on options. Which is why Michael was able to be faster at the end since his tyres still had some life in them.

3. Mercedes' tyre issue is a fact, they admit it themselves. They need to sort that out which is gonna suck out resources and again they will have to sort out a problem instead of developing aggressively. Lets hope they do...

[GrizzleBoy]

BBC HIGHLIGHTS WITH VETTEL ONBOARD CAM OF KARTHIKEYAN INCIDENT
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b ... ighlights/

Check 1:42.35

Here, you can see Karthikeyan getting out of the way for another car ahead of him and then proceeding to get back upto speed for the exit of the turn, not knowing Vettel was rocketing towards him.

At the exit of the corner, Karthikeyan as far as he is aware, has just let a guy past him and is trying to regain some momentum, meanwhile Vettel is on a divebomb maneouver taking an unconventional line and ends up cutting across where Karthikeyan intends to go.

It's not like Vettel was making himself big in Karthikeyans mirrors for him to know there was someone who needed to come past, he just blew past out of nowhere across the racing line of another car.

The Sky commentary shows the incident in slow mo and its easy to make comments, but the BBC coverage shows it in full speed and the whole thing is over in an instant.

Seb also shows his true self in his comments shortly after.


Watching from 1:37:00 will also show how the McLaren garage completely raped Hamiltons race, which for some reason the Sky team absolutely refused to comment on.

[raymondu999]

Narain Karthikeyan has apologised to Jenson Button and Sebastian Vettel for getting involved in incidents with them during the Malaysian Grand Prix.

The HRT driver tangled with Button at Turn 9 shortly after the race restart as they battled for position, and then later on tagged Vettel's left rear as he was being lapped in the closing stages.

Although he said he was not to blame for either collision - and Button later took responsibility for his incident - Karthikeyan has expressed regret at what happened.

"The first stage of the race was brilliant," Karthikeyan told AUTOSPORT. "It was a new place for us, and we had never experienced anything like this. Obviously when the race restarted we knew we were going to go backwards, because the car is not so good anyway.

"Then I was turning in, there was a bang and I am sorry for Jenson. I didn't think he would pass there, because you really don't want to get in their way, and if I had seen him coming I would have moved over. But I didn't in the chaos, and I kept continuing.

"Then there was the incident with Vettel. I was letting everyone through on blue flags because I was being told on the radio. I got on the white line, which was still damp, and I was on slicks obviously so I had a lot of wheelspin. I then had to come back on the track from the kerb, and he was there unfortunately and I could not do anything."

Karthikeyan said he spoke to both men to say sorry after the race and, although aware of how costly the tangles could be, he believes backmarkers are sometimes not given enough respect.

"Some of these guys when they lap you, they take the Mickey out of you," he said. "They come and try to push you out of the way to get back on the racing line.

"For me, the conditions were bad, the kerbs were wet and unfortunately this guy was there, so I could not help much."

The Indian was penalised with a post-race drive-through penalty for his collision with Vettel, dropping him behind team-mate Pedro de la Rosa in 22nd place.

"It's harsh," he said of the penalty. "The kerb was wet. I had wheelspin so I had to move right."

So in the case of Vettel - he ran wide and got up on the kerb; and to avoid the wheelspin he jinked right. Right, into Vettel.

[GrizzleBoy]

Narain Karthikeyan has apologised to Jenson Button and Sebastian Vettel for getting involved in incidents with them during the Malaysian Grand Prix.

The HRT driver tangled with Button at Turn 9 shortly after the race restart as they battled for position, and then later on tagged Vettel's left rear as he was being lapped in the closing stages.

Although he said he was not to blame for either collision - and Button later took responsibility for his incident - Karthikeyan has expressed regret at what happened.

"The first stage of the race was brilliant," Karthikeyan told AUTOSPORT. "It was a new place for us, and we had never experienced anything like this. Obviously when the race restarted we knew we were going to go backwards, because the car is not so good anyway.

"Then I was turning in, there was a bang and I am sorry for Jenson. I didn't think he would pass there, because you really don't want to get in their way, and if I had seen him coming I would have moved over. But I didn't in the chaos, and I kept continuing.

"Then there was the incident with Vettel. I was letting everyone through on blue flags because I was being told on the radio. I got on the white line, which was still damp, and I was on slicks obviously so I had a lot of wheelspin. I then had to come back on the track from the kerb, and he was there unfortunately and I could not do anything."

Karthikeyan said he spoke to both men to say sorry after the race and, although aware of how costly the tangles could be, he believes backmarkers are sometimes not given enough respect.

"Some of these guys when they lap you, they take the Mickey out of you," he said. "They come and try to push you out of the way to get back on the racing line.

"For me, the conditions were bad, the kerbs were wet and unfortunately this guy was there, so I could not help much."

The Indian was penalised with a post-race drive-through penalty for his collision with Vettel, dropping him behind team-mate Pedro de la Rosa in 22nd place.

"It's harsh," he said of the penalty. "The kerb was wet. I had wheelspin so I had to move right."

So in the case of Vettel - he ran wide and got up on the kerb; and to avoid the wheelspin he jinked right. Right, into Vettel.

Nope. Check the footage I linked to in the post above yours at 1hr 42mins 34sec.

Karthikeyan goes on the curb and lets a car past on the entry to the turn.

After the other car has gone, he sets about getting back on track. Vettel was not the car he had moved over for.

Karthikeyan accelerates out of the corner normally while Vettel is still turning. Vettel is not in his mirrors.

Karthikeyan proceeds to resume as normal and get back onto the racing line, not expecting Vettel to use his extra momentum to divebomb out of nowhere with an unorthodox line that cuts right across him.

Vettel came from a long way back to make the move. It's not like he was always in Karthikeyans mirrors and he was ignored. He made an aggressive passing move on someone who already had their hands full and hardly had any time to realise he was there, let alone going to cut across him as he accelerated out of the corner.

It wasn't a side by side overtake. Vettel was approaching at an angle that was basically on a collision course with Karthikeyan and didn't change that angle till there was actually no space for Karthikeyan to go but off the track.

[speedsense]

Sorry, but someone needs to get some new guys in the McLaren garage......absolutely horrible show from them.

So far this season, Hamilton has lost places in the race literally every time he went into the pit lane. Not a good statistic at all.

They also struggled with Button too.


Away from all that, PEREZ!!!!! WOW!

Excellent race, I'm happy to see the young guys being given REAL opportunities this season as opposed to just being in a car that gets lapped constantly.

It was a great race to watch and I'm truly happy for Perez and to see the guy on top of the podium have a REAL smile as opposed to the "yeah...we won again..woo!" of yesteryear.

F1!

His engineer is no good and the team has no more interest in him. Sort of like the forgotten step child. Those mechanics were not even trying to get the guy out of the pits quick enough either. Hamilton has to beat his TEAM to win this WDC. How will he do it I don't know.

According the FIA's media report for pitstop times,

Hamilton,Alonso,Perez total pitstop time (all times include drive in and out)for the three stops was:
For first two stops:
Alonso- 47.517
Perez- 50.191
Hamilton 52.237 (Hamilton's first stop was 1/10th better than Button's)

For three:
Alonso10.051
Perez- 1:14.73
Hamilton 1:18.570


So the pitstops don't tell all of the story.

[dbwmhn]

...

1. It is not we who are saying that, they are saying that, read the quotes on the previous page. 2nd race in a row, they blame it on the tyres.

2. Dry stint, Michael was on hards, Rosberg was on options. Which is why Michael was able to be faster at the end since his tyres still had some life in them.

3. Mercedes' tyre issue is a fact, they admit it themselves. They need to sort that out which is gonna suck out resources and again they will have to sort out a problem instead of developing aggressively. Lets hope they do...

to 1.: Sometimes they tell the truth, somtimes not, i don't belive what they say. (same for the other teams)

to. 2. There was only one lap on the dry stint where Nico was faster than Michael and that only about a half tenth. And it wasn't the end of the stint where Michael was realy faster, it was the beginning of the stint, where Nico was about 1 second off Michaels pace (lap 41-47). So it's no explanation that Nico was on softs.

to 3. Yep Mercedes have tyre issue's, thats a fact. But it's not the degeneration as everboady is telling here (Mercedes by the way din't), it's just the issue that they become the tyres not in the working window. But in my opinion its resonable by the wet conditions. Lets wait for the next two races...

And, never the less, there laptimes wasn't so bad. At least in Michaels case. By the way, Nico was the slower one the hole race (it's nothing against Nico, i realy like him, i only wanna show, that it's not only the last stint).

[Pierce89]

So glad I watched this race on BBC, as I gained the 50min wait under the red flag and only missed 2 laps near the end. Does anyone know what specific percentage of laps or race time they are allowed to air? I would have thought "highlights" would mean much less than 54 out of 56 laps?!

My take on the race:

The red flag was justified and it came at the right time, that is before losing 3-4 cars due to aquaplaning rather than after. Tough decision and obviously not popular with any fan, but aquaplaning is not racing.

What is completely idiotic though is having to red flag a race every year for the same reason and still not moving it in the calendar or at least earlier in the day. Well done FIA.

Massa should quit rather than wait for Ferrari to sack him. What else is there for him to do in China, drive the wrong way around the track for the duration of the race?

McLaren did their fair share of messing up but the rain master Lewis had plenty of laps behind Perez and Alonso to try and close the gap, which he didn't. Cause he couldn't. That's why the gap kept increasing. Then he locked his wheels when coming in for the second stop and missed his parking spot. Then he couldn't leave as there was traffic. It happens.

With regards to Karthikeyan moving out of the way, well, with Button he didn’t have to. WB may keep ignoring the fact, but it's still a fact. Not to mention JB took full responsibility. As for the incident with Vettel, based on the videos, photos and opinions here I would go for 50-50% blame and wouldn’t hand out any penalty.

Alonso drove a fantastic race, probably one of the best in his career, and no amount of hating can take that away from him. He was fast when he had to, had the right strategy but didn’t take any gambles (there goes the “luck” argument), overtook when he had to and defended when he had to. He established a comfortable gap in the most crucial phase of the race, and most importantly made no mistakes whatsoever, as opposed to so many others today (including Vettel, Button, Lewis, Perez etc.). With this car, a win must feel like a championship!

Perez also drove a brilliant race, and indeed would have deserved the victory if he had only managed to keep his head cool. I’m not buying any of that “race fixing” accusations. Everybody saw what Maldonado managed last time around, and the conditions today were far too treacherous for any small team to want to risk their best ever result in a season with so much competition. Plus, the specific point in the track where Perez made his little trip is a clear indication to anyone who knows the track layout that it was just an error; there are plenty of safer places for “race fixing”.

Last but not least, let's all laugh together at the RBR radio to Vettel in the last lap! Instant classic, all the way up there with "Alonso is faster than you", "like a horse with horns" and "I can't go any slower; I can't go any faster"!

That is is treacherous corner where Perez went off. It's an almost flat out left into en equally quick right which soon tightens up very quickly into an almost hairpin like exit. I can't imagine how tough it is to wring the neck of an actual F1 car through there in changing conditions. Perez was incredible regardless.

[siskue2005]

2. Dry stint, Michael was on hards, Rosberg was on options. Which is why Michael was able to be faster at the end since his tyres still had some life in them.

No you are wrong
see the pic below, both Mercs were on HARD tyres

Its the ipad app , its fantastic ! during race i can see who where on which tyres etc etc and above that i can download the race later and watch the entire live timings (thats how i just took the photo
We can also download practice 1,2,3 and qualy also
its 30$ but is worth every penny, i would suggest it for any f1 fan

[MuseF1]

@speedsense

The issue isn't really the length of the pitstops, its more that the engineer is keeping LH out too long for tyres. They should have pitted hamilton at earlier for the inters and the dry tyres

[lillschumi]

Sry Guys, i can't agree with the most of you. In the folowing image u will see a comparison of Schumi's an Hamilton's race. In special the last stint on dry tires. I've maked a average time of there last stint (with and without the outlap) and of the last 7 laps. Michael was only a tenth of a second behind Hamilton on the last 7 laps and a hundreth on the hole stint. And there was nothing to see about a bad tire degeneration, Michael's stint was actually 3 laps longer than Hamilton's.

Furthermore Button was more than half a second off the pace of Schumacher. The fastest on the last 7 laps was Kimi, and on the hole stint it was Webber and Perez if u ignore his failure. But Webber was still only two tenth of a second faster than Michael. So the Mercedes is not that bad, it was just a crazy race^^ But there is still the question why Nico and Janson were so much slower than there teammates.

And sry for my english, its not so good^^

So the pace was about equal then. But it certainly comes at the wrong time. Let's use the next race to see the true picture. Rosberg faded like Wesley Snipes in China Last year, lets see how much they have improved.

The lighter the car gets the more competitive it is. It will be of no worth if it has pace in the last 10 laps.