Vettel outduels Webber in Red Bull 1-2
Date published : 04 Apr 2010 - 10:45:19
Sebastian Vettel outduelled Mark Webber to head a resounding Red Bull one-two in the Malaysian Grand Prix putting the missed opportunities of Bahrain and Melbourne behind him and kick-starting his world championship challenge.It was a textbook drive from the young German, who made a lightning start, outbraked his team-mate into the first corner and controlled the race from the front.Webber shadowed him through the opening stint but lost touch after a slower pit stop delayed by a slight problem changing the right-front wheel and was unable to mount a challenge thereafter.It was an emphatic response from Red Bull after the reliability and other self-inflicted problems that cost it potential wins and points in the first two grands prix, and sent a clear message to the rest of the field that it and not Ferrari is the team to beat this season.The Maranello squad had a torrid race fighting traffic and technical gremlins, but Felipe Massa's seventh place gave him a two-point championship lead over team-mate Fernando Alonso and the menacing Vettel after three rounds of the 19-race campaign.Nico Rosberg had a quiet and uneventful drive to third in the home race of Mercedes GP's title partner Petronas, pursued surprisingly closely by Robert Kubica's Renault for the entire 56-lap distance.The Pole again capitalised on a great getaway off the line but the fact that he was able to all but match Rosberg's pace will be a great source of encouragement for the Enstone-based team as it attempts to close the gap to the established top four of Red Bull, Ferrari, McLaren and Mercedes.Adrian Sutil took a hard-earned fifth place for Force India after keeping his friend and former Formula 3 team-mate Lewis Hamilton at bay for more than 20 laps.The 2008 world champion drove a storming race from 20th on the grid, carving through the field in the early laps, but found the straightline speed of the Force India too much even for the McLaren with its drag-reducing F-duct.Massa initially made slower progress from the 21st starting berth, but flew once he switched to soft tyres and snatched seventh from Jenson Button with 12 laps remaining.Alonso looked set to leave Malaysia with his championship lead still intact, but the advantage swung to Massa when the Spaniard's Ferrari gave up the ghost at the start of the penultimate lap.Alonso had coped brilliantly with a clunky gearbox throughout the race and was still harrying eighth-placed Button when the F10 expired in a cloud of smoke.Toro Rosso's Jaime Alguersuari drove an inspired race to score his first F1 points in ninth place, pulling off a series of spectacular overtaking manoeuvres including a breathtaking outside pass on Nico Hulkenberg's Williams in the 150mph turn five.Rookie Hulkenberg also opened his F1 points account with 10th after fighting a rearguard action against faster cars for most of the afternoon.The third race of Michael Schumacher's F1 comeback ended early when the German's Mercedes suffered a hair-raising left-rear wheel failure through the fast turn 5/6 sweepers on lap 10 apparently caused by the wheel nut having worked loose.Schumacher was lying a solid sixth at the time, having moved up two places from his starting position, and now trails team-mate Rosberg by some 26 points in the drivers' table.The widely anticipated rain never materialised, but there was still plenty of action and excitement much assisted by the jumbled grid as the McLarens and Ferraris battled through the field.At the front, however, it was almost a demonstration run by the two Red Bulls. If they run as reliably as they did at Sepang, it is likely to be a tall order for the competition to stop the championship turning into a private battle between Vettel and Webber¦Malaysian Grand Prix result (56 laps) 1 VETTEL Red Bull 2 WEBBER Red Bull +4.8s3 ROSBERG Mercedes +13.5s4 KUBICA Renault +18.5s5 SUTIL Force India +21.0s6 HAMILTON McLaren +23.4s7 MASSA Ferrari +27.0s8 BUTTON McLaren +37.9s9 ALGUERSUARI Toro Rosso +70.6s10 HULKENBERG Williams +73.3s11 BUEMI Toro Rosso +78.9s12 BARRICHELLO Williams +1 lap13 ALONSO Ferrari +2 laps14 DI GRASSI Virgin +3 laps15 CHANDHOK HRT +3 laps16 SENNA HRT +4 laps17 TRULLI Lotus +5 lapsR KOVALAINEN Lotus +10 lapsR PETROV Renault +24 lapsR LIUZZI Force India +44 lapsR SCHUMACHER Mercedes +47 lapsR KOBAYASHI Sauber +48 lapsR GLOCK Virgin +54 lapsDNS DE LA ROSA Sauber +56 lapsFastest lap: WEBBER 1m37.054s (lap 53)
