Vettel wins incident filled Malaysian GP

F1 Grand Prix, GP Malaysia, Sepang International Circuit

Sebastian Vettel secured another top spot on the podium today at the Malaysian GP at Sepang. Just like in Australia he had a great start and pushed to the end to keep rivals at distance. Jenson Button drove consistently to second while Nick Heidfeld secured a second podium for Lotus Renault.

The weather is completely different from yesterday with temperatures a bit lower and clouds threatening with rain. The start however is dry and turns out brilliantly for Sebastian Vettel.

The world champion launched away with Hamilton closely behind him. Mark Webber completely missed his moment off the line and dropped down several places even before the first corner.

As Vettel arrived to the first tight righthander, he easily kept the inside of the corner to stay in front. Hamilton however got passed by Heidfeld who took the outside line through turn one, a move that paid off in the following left hander. Vitaly Petrov did pretty much the same and ended up just behind Button in 5th place. In the mix behind the Renaults, Massa moved up ahead of Alonso.

After 5 laps, Vettel has pulled a lead of 4 seconds to Heidfeld. Hamilton is right behind the Renault, followed closely by Button as well. Felipe Massa moved up to 5th, Alonso 6th, Petrov 7th after a slight error in turn 7. Schumacher 8th, Kobayashi 9th and Webber 10th.

The problem at this time for Webber is obviously the DRS and his KERS that is apparently not working since qualifying yesterday. As soon as the Australian manages to pass Kobayashi, the latter is allowed to use his DRS and has repeatedly been able to easily re-pass Webber on the start finish line.

On lap 13 Hamilton is the first of the front runners to make a stop, taking on a new set of option tyres. Half a lap later Hamilton is saying it's raining on the back of the track, but it doesn't prevent Vettel and Button and Heidfeld to make a stop for new options.

Massa's stop ended up poorly after a wheelnut on the left front didn't come off at it should. Heidfeld also had a difficult stop and dropped back behind Button and Alonso as well.

On lap 17 Alonso makes a pass on Button and easily makes it stick. The Spaniard's Ferrari appears to work marvelously better than the McLaren in these slightly wet conditions.

The differences at the front are still not huge. Vettel has 5.7 seconds ahead of Hamilton and another 5 to Alonso. Behind the Ferrari is Button, Heidfeld and Webber all with nearly a second between each of them. Massa is three more second behind and Petrov down another 4 on the second Ferrari.

On lap 22 Massa made perfect use of his KERS and sailed past Webber in a quick righthander at the back of the track. At the end of that lap Webber pits for another set of options. Button does the same on lap 24, both are now looking at 3 stops during the race.

One lap later Hamilton makes his stop and changes to the prime tyres. Red Bull immediately covered that stop the next lap but changed for new options. The German however rejoined the track behind Massa. Fortunately for him he managed to pass the Ferrari two lap later as Lewis Hamilton was closing quickly after he passed Petrov after his own stop.

As Massa pitted one lap later, Hamilton did not have to make that pass and reduced the gap to Vettel to 4 seconds.

At the same time Vettel is told not to use KERS anymore. It will be vital for him to stay ahead of the McLarens because he will no doubt be a sitting duck if Hamilton and Button end up closely behind him.

Towards the end of the second third stint, Vettel appears to have found some additional pace and with a few fastest laps has increased his advantage to Hamilton to nearly 9 seconds, even though he's lacking KERS.

On lap 38 Hamilton surprisingly made a new pitstop and took on a new set of primes again. The pitstop itself wasn't great with a problem at the front left, but considering his times weren't slowing quickly it appears a bit strange for McLaren to make this stop so early.

One lap later Button pits as well, but as his stop went 3 seconds faster he ends up ahead of Hamilton after the stop. Webber meanwhile is right up the back of Hamilton, but without KERS he will have to rely on his DRS system to beat Hamilton's KERS device. And even if he would get past, Hamilton shouldn't have much trouble to regain his position with the DRS enabled for him in that case.

As Webber made his fourth stop and ended up behind Petrov, Alonso came up close behind Hamilton. With Hamilton struggling, Alonso was early on in a position to overtake the McLaren, even though his Ferrari's rear wing adjuster wasn't working. Hence he has to do it old school. At the crucial lap, Alonso had a great run out of turn 2 and found himself so much quicker than Hamilton that he was unable to get aside of Hamilton in time and broke his front wing on the rear wheel of Hamilton. It really was a misjudgement from Alonso and in the end will cost him a lot of points as he drops from 3rd to 7th after stopping for a new front wing.

On lap 52 Heifeld takes thid place easily as his DRS, contrary to Alonso's is working perfectly. The Renault driver has a clear run on the pit straight and could easily pass the McLaren. That same lap Hamilton is off track, allowing Webber to pass and then enters the pitlane for another set of new tyres. Hamilton is now down into 8th, behind Alonso.

3 laps from the end Petrov is slightly off the circuit, and upon trying to rejoin he drives through a rain drain, causing his car to fly off and breaking his steering wheel support. This obviously marks the end of the Russian's race and will trigger interest from the FIA to see how that support really could break.

The remaining Renault of Heidfeld is in 3rd place but Mark Webber is right behind and on tyres that are 4 laps fresher. Heidfeld is absolutely struggling but needs to keep it tidy to make that podium place stick.

In the end, he kept it together and secured the second podium for Renault this season, now behind Vettel and Button.