That was a bad race for Kimi. But he also had pretty bad luck, slow pitstops and they were always at the wrong time. He seemed to have terrible traction.
But the car was still fast the few times Kimi had clean air. It is just very difficult to start so far down, Kimi cant always make up the places. Of course things just really went wrong yesterday, with rain in qualifying and the penalty.
Zitat von Jalumidont like Nando but this is funny: Fernando Alonso @alo_oficial 59s Today that I'm not in the podium I'm missing a good moment..! I will try not leave them alone again ... )) #goodMood
Hmm Alonso is taking things quite well so far.
Atleast Kimi outscored Alonso, and Kimi is now 2nd in the WDC.
Romain Grosjean finished sixth and Kimi Räikkönen seventh in today’s Malaysian Grand Prix from the Sepang International Circuit. A wet but rapidly drying track saw all competitors start on Pirelli’s intermediate tyres, with both Romain and Kimi moving to medium then hard compound dry tyres as the race progressed. Kimi keeps up his run of consecutive points finishes but falls to second in the Drivers’ Championship, behind today’s race winner Sebastian Vettel. The team maintains second position in the Cosntructors’ Championship, with third placed Ferrari on an equal 40 points.
[list][*]Kimi and Romain both started on new intermediate wet tyres. [/*:m][*] Kimi pitted for new medium tyres on lap 6, scrubbed mediums on lap 19 then new hard tyres on lap 34. [/*:m][*] Romain pitted for new medium tyres on laps 7 and 20 then new hard tyres on lap 35.[/*:m][/list:u] Kimi Räikkönen, P7, E21-03 “Although the car felt very good on Friday, yesterday and today have been pretty difficult. Since Saturday morning it has not been behaving as we expected for some reason, especially in the wet where we really struggled for grip. It was a tough race and I lost part of my front wing at the start which didn’t help, but at least we scored a few points which is better than coming away with nothing. If we can get the car back to how it was in Australia then I’m sure we’ll be at the front again.”
Romain Grosjean, P6, E21-01 “I think we can be quite happy with the result today. It was a tough race, starting wet and finishing dry, but that’s what you expect in Malaysia. I spent a lot of time stuck behind Felipe [Massa] in the middle phase of the race and I’m sure if I could have passed him earlier then I would have stayed ahead, but by the end my tyres were finished so it was best just to let him through. It’s not the result we would have wanted at the beginning of the weekend, but at the end of the day it’s more points for the team and we’ll try to come back stronger in Shanghai.”
Eric Boullier, Team Principal "It’s not been the best day for us, but when you take into account our qualifying positions and the difficult start for both drivers I think the points we take for sixth and seventh is a solid result. Unfortunately with the conditions today we didn’t see the full potential of the car, and the time we lost at the start was always going to be difficult to catch up. To finish within a reasonable distance of the leaders was a good effort from both drivers and also the team in terms of our strategy. With a normal weekend I’m sure we can expect some stronger results.”
James Allison, Technical Director “This weekend feels like a case of what might have been. We had a car on Friday which looked extremely promising, but unfortunately that didn’t translate into the sort of result we’d expect. Qualifying tenth and eleventh – particularly in the wet – was not an ideal start, with the consequence that within seven laps we were around thirty seconds from the front. Our progress thereafter was actually quite respectable so it’s frustrating to have lost touch with the race at such an early stage, but I’m confident we’ll be delivering some stronger results in the coming races.”
Ricardo Penteado, Renault Sport F1 Team Support Leader “A double points finish today for the team after some good racing. Sepang is a hard challenge for the engines with high top speeds needed for the straights and low speed driveability for the hairpin turns, plus managing the fuel consumption is tricky considering the changeable weather. We moved to a second engine this weekend to give more flexibility later in the season – looking at how tight things are at the front having this margin could be useful later on.”
Good thing about these early starting races, is that I can watch them live before work! :D
Anyhow, the race was not bad, quite bland until the last round of pit stips, where the Mercedes drivers closed in on the Red Bull's, and then all the shit that happened afterwards.
First let's get the team battles out of the way.
Red Bull tried to tame their firey Red Bull, but it just wasn't happening. Vettel felt he was faster than Webber throughout the whole race and was getting held up, made his move on Webber giving us a great battle. As soon as this happened, you knew the mood wasn't great at the team due to the odd radio messages. Webber was cruising around saying he was 'saving the tyres', while Vettel felt that Webber was just 'going to slow'. Vettel shouldn't have done what he did if he acknowledged what was going on, but even so it wasn't as if Webber backed down, Webber fought hard in defence, and the next lap tried to overtake Vettel, in my opinion Webber was slower on the day. Vettel wasn't allowed to fully unleash, Webber drove a great race, both probably could have taken the victory today. Neither go away pleased with the result, but it gave us a good battle .
Now on to Mercedes, I personally feel Rosberg should have had 3rd today, as do many of you. I found it refreshing that Rosberg was arguing back with the big bearboss (Ross Brawn). Can't say it's Rosberg's fault that Hamilton's side of the garage underfuelled if that was the case or whatever the fuel issue was for Hamilton. They two had a battle for a while with Rosberg getting past Hamilton into the final corner, with Hamilton re-passing him in the final corner. After that, they were told to hold station, must have been painful for Rosberg to do a Massa for 10 or so laps and kept pushing the big man for the move. Following Hamilton to the end, and the team rightly so should in Rosberg's words 'remember this one'.
Now on to the race winner. Pulled a sneaky one didn't he? :snigger: Probably was the fastest out there today, but was let down by the strategy. Looked fiesty once he fell back, and pulled a brave manouevre on Webber down the pit straight, even though Webber defended hard, Vettel was lucky it wasn't Schumacher that was defending at that part of the track " title="" />. Pulls aways from his main rival from the championship (Alonso). Looked sorry, did he mis-read the situation? Judging by his reaction I wouldn't rule it out, neither the opposite.
Woop woop! Let's have a party! Mark Webber actually had a great start for once, and since 10 races he's finally finished ahead from where he qualified. He looked up for it in this race, had a Ferrari-like start, had the optimum strategy. Seemed slower than Vettel in the stints ahead. Might have been caught off guard by Vettel coming at him, but he seemed to have chosen his line early on, defended and raced hard against him, and tried to get past next lap after flipping him the finger. At the end, it was Vettel flipping the index finger up at the end. (or did he? didn't notice :D).
Hamilton was lucky to have third, kept the Red Bull's honest, but again, had fuel problems. The car doesn't look too bad, was looking strong compared to the lead McLaren, even with his team-mate until the end. His first podium for the team, but not in great circumstances judging by his mood on the podium. His girlfriend talked some sense, "wonder why they hold the race at 4pm". But in hindsight, if they started the race earlier, it would have been a wet race.
Rosberg hard done by? I think so. Drove a controlled race, looked to be biding his time behind Hamilton for most of the race, his chance came at the last stint, but was told to hold station, 3rd should have definitely been his as he clearly had the pace, but could have also challenged for Mark Webber's second if he was let through. Took one for the team, Britney needs to MAN up!
Massa was anonymous,he and Alonso where my favourites for the race, but just did not have the pace. For once he had an average start, and then was too cautious going into Turns 1 and 2, some may say because he didn't want to hassle Alonso " title="whistle" />. Confused on the pace of Ferrari, they looked like the all round car in Australia, front two rows in qualifying, yet Massa only managed 5th racing himself.
Starting from 11th, 6th must feel like a good result for Grosjean, especiallly after the bad start in Australia. Once he cleared Perez and Hulkenberg he was on his on, leading those from 7th-9th with a little gap.
The three place grid drop for Raikkonen didn't help his race. Started in 10th from the dirty side, lost places, and just got frustrated first behind Perez, then a ding dong battle with Hulkenberg. Once in clear air, he had the pace. Starting further back was a problem for Lotus last season, seems like it's going to be the same again this season.
Hulkenberg started his season off with a great start in Malaysia, hooked the revs up and got as high up as 6th in the race. But once on the dry tyres he started slipping back. Might have had a wet setup, but got some needed points for Sauber, who look to be the only serious challengers to Force India at the moment.
A so-so race for Perez, gets his first points for McLaren, looks all over the place at the moment. Did McLaren make the right decision? Only time will tell.
Vergne gets Toro Rosso off the mark with a point, even after a clash in the pits with Charles Pic. Nearly got 9th in Australia until he went off in the last lap, he's looking strong. His team-mate though, is having the lion share of the problems.
Bottas misses out on a point by a second.
Bianchi is proving that the three drivers he's competing against are shit, while he's good.
An Alonso DNF is quite rare, but we've seen 3 in 11 races. Seemed to be too fiesty at the start, damaged his front wing and oddly stayed out, surely he could have felt the car behaving strange. The team should have called him, they seemed ready in the pits when he went off. I originally thought it was Webber who took Alonso's front wing clear off, replays show it just came off and went under the car. What could have he done in the Ferrari?
Thought Button did well today, was unlucky with the pitstop. McLaren's pitstop woes started again?
The less said about Force India's pitstops the bettter. Missed oppurtunity for them, they looked very strong in the dry, but come out with no points.
Williams look as if they are in a battle with Toro Rosso.
A three week wait for the next race in China, with weather usually unpredictable there, will we finally see a non-affected rain weekend?!
They've done it before, and like any other team, they'll do it again.
And letting Raikkonen past when Grosjean's 10s ahead is a bit stupid, team orders occur when both cars from the same team are in close formation, usually 1-2s apart.
ZitatBUMPY RIDE FOR KIMI RÄIKKÖNEN IN SEPANG After a flying start to the weekend, Kimi had to dig deep to pull off a fighting seventh place in today’s Malaysian Grand Prix. Although a far cry from the heroics of Australia, the Iceman is taking the positives from a solid result
IT ALL STARTED SO WELL THIS WEEKEND, BUT NOT QUITE THE ENDING YOU WOULD HAVE LIKED… For sure it’s not what we expected, but sometimes that’s how it goes. Although the car felt very good on Friday, yesterday and today have been pretty difficult. Since Saturday morning it has not been behaving as we wanted for some reason, especially in the wet where we really struggled for grip.
HOW DID YOU SEE THE RACE FROM INSIDE THE COCKPIT? It was a tough race. The start was not good and then I lost part of my front wing on the first lap. The car didn’t handle too well after that and with the wet conditions it was pretty tricky. The pace wasn’t too bad, but it could have been a lot better when you look at our times on Friday.
YOU HAD SOME CLOSE TUSSLES OUT THERE, PARTICULARLY WITH NICO HULKENBERG… There were a few times where it got pretty close. There are things you should and shouldn’t do but this is racing and at the end of the day I don’t think it changed our result too much.
WHAT POSITIVES CAN WE TAKE FROM TODAY? It wasn’t the best weekend for us in the end but at least we scored a few points which is better than coming away with nothing. If we can get the car back to how it was in Australia then I’m sure we’ll be at the front again.
I just watched the replay, I have to say I don't know why everybody turned against Vettel after the race. Durinig the race I only heard Rocky said "Sebatian be careful" and later after Seb overtook Mark "That's a bit silly..." and both Crofty and Brundle (and everybody watching I assumed) were so excited about the duel.. That's what everybody wanted to see isn't it?? " title="huh" />
Zitat von YiNingI just watched the replay, I have to say I don't know why everybody turned against Vettel after the race. Durinig the race I only heard Rocky said "Sebatian be careful" and later after Seb overtook Mark "That's a bit silly..." and both Crofty and Brundle (and everybody watching I assumed) were so excited about the duel.. That's what everybody wanted to see isn't it??
I think it has a lot to do with the British media bias. When Webber ignored team orders in Silverstone 2011 he was a "racer" and RB were "evil"... why not the same now?
I think it was stupid of Seb to apologize. He ignored team orders so if he thinks he should apologize, he should spologize to the team not Mark. Mark was never a team player so why is he upset now? He made it very clear that he will never help Seb and was always against team orders... well always when team orders worked against him, that is " title="roll" /> . All this only makes Seb and the team look weak. Do you think Alonso would apologize? Do you think Domenicalli would issue that team order with Alonso behind? I don't think so.
Yeah, just see how the Sky Sports Team turned everything around after Webber's "temper tantrum"... and suddenly the fantastic RB duel they were so excited about became a "evil Vettel ignore team order and took matter into his own hands...."
Well, if every teams started using team order in similar situation then I think Formula 1 is dead.
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Sun Mar 24, 2013 12:19 pm
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" title="whistle" />. Confused on the pace of Ferrari, they looked like the all round car in Australia, front two rows in qualifying, yet Massa only managed 5th racing himself.
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" title="roll" /> . All this only makes Seb and the team look weak. Do you think Alonso would apologize? Do you think Domenicalli would issue that team order with Alonso behind? I don't think so.