The 2011 Malaysian Grand Prix turned into another easy win for F1 World Champion Sebastian Vettel.
While Qualifying was a close affair the same could not be said for the race, it was only really close at the start and through the first couple of corners after that Vettel easily managed the race from the front.
The same cannot be said for Vettel’s team mate Mark Webber who had a terrible start dropping from third to ninth after the KERS system failed in his car right at the start of the race. Webber didn’t give up and with some good Pit stop strategy and some aggressive driving Webber finally made it back up into fourth place after challenging for the last place on the Podium during the last couple of laps of the race.
Malaysian Grand Prix Results (Top Ten)
| Position | Driver Nationality | Driver | Team | Championship Points Earned |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  | Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull Racing | 25 |
| 2 |  | Jenson Button | McLaren | 18 |
| 3 |  | Nick Heidfeld | Lotus Renault GP | 15 |
| 4 |  | Mark Webber | Red Bull Racing | 12 |
| 5 |  | Felipe Massa | Ferrari | 10 |
| 6 |  | Fernando Alonso | Ferrari | 8 |
| 7 |  | Kamui Kobayashi | Sauber F1 | 6 |
| 6 | | Lewis Hamilton | McLaren | 4 |
| 9 | | Michael Schumacher | Mercedes GP | 2 |
| 10 | | Paul Di Resta | Force India | 1 |
Sunday April 10th, 2011
Animated flag images by 3DFlags.com
The Lotus Renault GP cars of Petrov and Heidfeld made incredible starts with Heidfeld momentarily challenging Vettel for First place until slotting into second position. While he finally lost that position to Jenson Button he managed to hang on and claim his first podium finish since 2009.
At one point in the race it looked as though it was going to be Lewis Hamilton in second but bad luck and a collision with Fernando dropped him down to finishing in seventh place and them after the Race he was penalized 20 seconds for blocking Alonso and Alonzo was penalized 20 seconds for causing the collision with Hamilton. While not effecting Alonso’s final position the Penalty dropped Hamilton down one spot into eighth place.
Overall a pretty good race and the new Pirelli tires have added another level of complexity for the teams when planning race strategy.
Only a few more days to go before the Chinese Grand Prix at the Shanghai circuit, If Malaysia is anything to go by it should be another cracking race.
