2013 Malaysian Grand Prix

  2013 Malaysian Grand Prix

Race details[1]
Race 2 of 19 in the 2013 Formula One season
Date	24 March 2013
Official name	2013 Formula 1 Petronas Malaysia Grand Prix
Location	Sepang International Circuit Sepang, Selangor, Malaysia
Course	Permanent racing facility
Course length	5.543 km (3.444 mi)
Distance	56 laps, 310.408 km (192.879 mi)
Weather	Light rain clearing to cloudy and dry
Pole position
Driver	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull-Renault
Time	1:49.674
Fastest lap
Driver	Sergio Pérez	McLaren-Mercedes
Time	1:39.199 on lap 56
Podium
First	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull-Renault
Second	Mark Webber	Red Bull-Renault
Third	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes
Lap leaders

The 2013 Malaysian Grand Prix (formally known as the 2013 Formula 1 Petronas Malaysia Grand Prix)^[1] was a Formula One motor race that was held on 24 March 2013 at the Sepang International Circuit in Selangor, Malaysia.^[2] The race was the second round of the 2013 season, and marked the fifteenth running of the Malaysian Grand Prix as a round of the Formula One World Championship. Sebastian Vettel won the race for Red Bull Racing, having started from pole position.^[3]

The race was marked by controversy surrounding team orders issued by the Red Bull and Mercedes teams, with Vettel passing his team-mate Mark Webber to win against an order from his team to hold position,^[4] and Lewis Hamilton retaining third place in front of Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg on orders from team principal Ross Brawn.^[5][6][7]

Report

Background

As for the 2012 Malaysian Grand Prix, tyre supplier Pirelli brought its two hardest compounds, with the orange-banded hard compound tyre being the harder "prime" tyre, and the white-banded medium compound tyre as the softer "option" tyre.^[8] This was the first time the hard compound tyre was used during the 2013 season.

Qualifying

Q1

Toro Rosso's Jean-Eric Vergne, Williams' Valtteri Bottas, Marussia's Jules Bianchi, Caterham's Charles Pic, Marussia's Max Chilton, and Caterham's Giedo van der Garde were eliminated in Q1.^[9]

Q2

Lotus' Romain Grosjean, Sauber's Nico Hülkenberg, Toro Rosso's Daniel Ricciardo, Sauber's Esteban Gutierrez, Force India's Paul di resta, and Williams' Pastor Maldonado were eliminated in Q2.

Q3

Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel took pole position with a time of 1:49.674. Ferrari's Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso rounded out the three fastest drivers in the session. Lotus' Kimi Räikkönen qualified 7th but was given a penalty for blocking Mercedes' Nico Rosberg and was demoted to 10th.

Race

The race began with a damp track and tricky conditions, especially around Turn 3. Vettel led from the start with Alonso clipping his front wing on the back of the Red Bull. Alonso managed to stay ahead of Red Bull's Webber, but early on lap 2 the front wing broke off and sent Alonso into the gravel at Turn 1. Vettel made an early stop for slick tyres and fell back several positions in the still wet conditions, though he quickly regained them when he reached drier parts of the track. Webber subsequently took over the lead of the race and kept the lead through the next series of pit stops.

Both Force India drives were forced to retire after captive wheelnut failures. Paul di Resta had a very long stop and Adrian Sutil's next stop was also plagued with the same issue. The team believes the high temperatures might have caused the issue.^[10]

Jenson Button briefly led the race on laps 33 and 34 after Webber, Vettel, Hamilton and Rosberg pitted, and looked well positioned to pick up some useful points for the under-performing McLaren team. However, a disastrous pit stop in which a wheel was incorrectly fitted cost him a whole lap.

Jules Bianchi finished 13th for Marussia.

On lap 44, Webber made his last pit stop and emerged in the lead just ahead of Vettel. The two battled over the next two laps, including a very close call on the front straight, after which Vettel took the lead from this teammate. On the same lap, TV cameras caught Webber flipping the finger to Vettel. Red Bull team principal Christian Horner earlier came on the radio to say, "This is silly Seb(astian). Come on."^[4] Behind the race leaders it was the Mercedes pair of Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg battling for third. Rosberg was the faster of the two at this point, and he repeatedly asked the team to be allowed to pass Hamilton, but team principal Ross Brawn replied, "Negative, Nico, negative." He later explained that Hamilton could also go faster, but was under orders to ease off. When Rosberg stayed close to Hamilton, Brawn ordered him to drop back, saying that there was nothing to gain and the priority was to bring both cars home.^[11] Maldonado later retired after he was forced to stop the car for precautionary reasons due to a KERS problem,^[12] and although Button and Ricciardo also retired late in the race, they were both classified as finishers.

Vettel's controversial pass during the race. Vettel (left) overtook team-mate Mark Webber (right) despite team orders telling him to hold position behind the Australian.

Vettel went on to finish first and win the race followed by Webber, Hamilton, Rosberg, Massa, Grosjean, Räikkönen, Hülkenberg, Pérez, and Vergne. Following the race Webber and Vettel had a brief exchange before the podium ceremony. Webber commented, "Multi-21, Seb. Multi-21," which is in reference to the team order issued, which specifies that car no. 2 (Webber) is to finish the race in front of car no.1 (Vettel) .^[13]

During the post-race podium questions Webber said that "I want to race as well but in the end the team made the decision ... we look after the tyres, get the car to the end. In the end Seb made his own decisions today, not respected team orders, but will have protection as usual and that's the way it goes."^[14] Horner later acknowledged Vettel had ignored team orders as well as Webber's own history of following similar orders.

When Hamilton was asked about his podium finish, he admitted that Rosberg had deserved it more, adding, "If I'm honest I really feel that Nico should be standing here."^[5]

Classification

Qualifying

Pos.	No.	Driver	Constructor	Q1	Q2	Q3	Grid
1	1	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull-Renault	1:37.899	1:37.245	1:49.674	1
2	4	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	1:37.712	1:36.874	1:50.587	2
3	3	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	1:37.314	1:36.877	1:50.727	3
4	10	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:37.513	1:36.517	1:51.699	4
5	2	Mark Webber	Red Bull-Renault	1:37.619	1:36.449	1:52.244	5
6	9	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1:37.239	1:36.190	1:52.519	6
7	7	Kimi Räikkönen	Lotus-Renault	1:36.959	1:36.640	1:52.970	10^1
8	5	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	1:37.487	1:37.117	1:53.175	7
9	15	Adrian Sutil	Force India-Mercedes	1:36.809	1:36.834	1:53.439	8
10	6	Sergio Pérez	McLaren-Mercedes	1:37.702	1:37.342	1:54.136	9
11	8	Romain Grosjean	Lotus-Renault	1:37.363	1:37.636		11
12	11	Nico Hülkenberg	Sauber-Ferrari	1:37.931	1:38.125		12
13	19	Daniel Ricciardo	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	1:37.722	1:38.822		13
14	12	Esteban Gutiérrez	Sauber-Ferrari	1:37.707	1:39.221		14
15	14	Paul di Resta	Force India-Mercedes	1:37.493	1:44.509		15
16	16	Pastor Maldonado	Williams-Renault	1:37.867	no time		16
17	18	Jean-Éric Vergne	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	1:38.157			17
18	17	Valtteri Bottas	Williams-Renault	1:38.207			18
19	22	Jules Bianchi	Marussia-Cosworth	1:38.434			19
20	20	Charles Pic	Caterham-Renault	1:39.314			20
21	23	Max Chilton	Marussia-Cosworth	1:39.672			21
22	21	Giedo van der Garde	Caterham-Renault	1:39.932			22
107% time: 1:43.585
Source:[15]

Notes:

• ^1  — Kimi Räikkönen was given a three-place grid penalty for blocking Nico Rosberg during qualifying.^[16]

Race

Pos.	No.	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	1	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull-Renault	56	1:38:56.681	1	25
2	2	Mark Webber	Red Bull-Renault	56	+4.298	5	18
3	10	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	56	+12.181	4	15
4	9	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	56	+12.640	6	12
5	4	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	56	+25.648	2	10
6	8	Romain Grosjean	Lotus-Renault	56	+35.564	11	8
7	7	Kimi Räikkönen	Lotus-Renault	56	+48.479	10	6
8	11	Nico Hülkenberg	Sauber-Ferrari	56	+53.044	12	4
9	6	Sergio Pérez	McLaren-Mercedes	56	+1:12.357	9	2
10	18	Jean-Éric Vergne	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	56	+1:27.124	17	1
11	17	Valtteri Bottas	Williams-Renault	56	+1:28.610	18
12	12	Esteban Gutiérrez	Sauber-Ferrari	55	+1 Lap	14
13	22	Jules Bianchi	Marussia-Cosworth	55	+1 Lap	19
14	20	Charles Pic	Caterham-Renault	55	+1 Lap	20
15	21	Giedo van der Garde	Caterham-Renault	55	+1 Lap	22
16	23	Max Chilton	Marussia-Cosworth	54	+2 Laps	21
17	5	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	53	Wheel	7
18	19	Daniel Ricciardo	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	51	Exhaust	13
Ret	16	Pastor Maldonado	Williams-Renault	45	KERS failure	16
Ret	15	Adrian Sutil	Force India-Mercedes	27	Wheel nut	8
Ret	14	Paul di Resta	Force India-Mercedes	22	Wheel nut	15
Ret	3	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	1	Collision damage	3
Source:[17]

Championship standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings Pos. Driver Points 2 1 Sebastian Vettel 40 1 2 Kimi Räikkönen 31 3 3 Mark Webber 26 1 4 Lewis Hamilton 25 1 5 Felipe Massa 22

Constructors' Championship standings Pos. Constructor Points 2 1 Red Bull-Renault 66 2 Lotus-Renault 40 2 3 Ferrari 40 4 Mercedes 37 5 Force India-Mercedes 10

• Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.

References

1. "2013 Formula 1 Petronas Malaysia Grand Prix". Formula1.com. Formula One Administration. Archived from the original on 15 December 2012. Retrieved 17 March 2012.
2. "FIA Formula One calendar". FIA.com. Fedération Internationale de l'Automobile. Archived from the original on 8 February 2013. Retrieved 17 March 2013.
3. "Sebastian Vettel leads home Mark Webber for dramatic Malaysian GP win". Guardian UK. 24 March 2013. Retrieved 25 March 2013.
4. "Sebastian Vettel in Mark Webber apology after Malaysia win". BBC Sport. 24 March 2013.
5. "Lewis Hamilton admits Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg deserved podium finish". Sky Sports F1. 24 March 2013.
6. "Malaysian Grand Prix 2013: live". Daily Telegraph. 24 March 2013. Retrieved 25 March 2013.
7. "Webber gives Vettel the finger as world champion IGNORES team orders to win Malaysian Grand Prix". Daily Mail. 24 March 2013. Retrieved 25 March 2013.
8. "Supersofts for Australia as Pirelli reveal first 2013 tyre choices". formula1.com. Formula One Administration. 13 February 2013. Archived from the original on 16 March 2013. Retrieved 18 March 2013.
9. Matt, Beer (23 March 2013). "Malaysian GP: Vettel on pole as rain hits qualifying". Autosport. Retrieved 23 March 2013.
10. Straw, Edd (24 March 2013). "Force India to persist with troubled wheelnut system". Autosport. Retrieved 24 March 2013.
11. "Malaysian GP: Nico Rosberg deserved third — Lewis Hamilton". BBC Sport. 24 March 2013.
12. "Malaysian GP: Race notes — Williams". Pitpass. 24 March 2013. Retrieved 24 March 2013.
13. "Sebastian Vettel apologises to Mark Webber for winning by 'mistake'". The Guardian. 24 March 2013. Archived from the original on 25 March 2013.
14. "Webber 'raw' over race outcome". ESPN. 24 March 2013. Retrieved 24 March 2013.
15. Collantine, Keith (23 March 2013). "Malaysian rain can't keep Vettel from pole again". F1 Fanatic. Keith Collantine. Retrieved 23 March 2013.
16. Noble, Jonathon; Beer, Matt (23 March 2013). "Malaysian GP: Raikkonen handed three-place grid penalty". Autosport.com. Haymarket Publications. Retrieved 23 March 2013.
17. "2013 FORMULA 1 PETRONAS MALAYSIA GRAND PRIX". Archived from the original on 4 May 2013. Retrieved 13 May 2013.

External links