Sebastian Vettel drove a near perfect race to win the F1 Malaysian Grand Prix at Sepang.
The German driver, who started his Red Bull RB7 from pole position, led throughout, barring the pit stops, and eventually finished 3.2 seconds up on Jenson Button’s McLaren. Nick Heidfeld took the final place on the podium for Renault, despite a late challenge from Mark Webber in the second Red Bull.
Vettel made a perfect start as co-front row sitter Hamilton went with him along with third-placed Mark Webber who’s Kinetic Energy Retrieval System (KERS) failed and was overtaken by the pack, slipping to ninth position. With the KERS not operating on the number 2 Red Bull, Webber set about limiting the handicap by having to make four pit stops as he went past Ferrari’s Felipe Massa and on new tyres towards the end of the race overtook the ailing McLaren of Lewis Hamilton.
The Australian then went after Nick Heidfeld for third, but he ran out of laps and eventually had to settle for fourth. Former F1 World Champions, teammates and bitter sparring-partners Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton have both been penalised following their scrap and come together during the race. Battling tyre fade and closely tracking the McLaren-Mercedes, the Ferrari of Alonso the front wing of his F150° Italia touched the right rear wheel of the McLaren just enough to put Hamilton out of contention.
The resultant damage saw Alonso and Hamilton take the chequered flag in Kuala Lumpur respectively sixth and seventh, but FIA stewards have since handed down 20-second post-race penalties to both, the Spaniard for causing the collision and Lewis for having been deemed to have made more than one change of direction in defending his position. The time penalty did not affect Alonso’s finishing position, but Hamilton, dropped to eighth spot behind the Sauber of Kamui Kobayashi.