Sebastian Vettel wins bitter Red Bull battle in Malaysia

Sebastian Vettel prevailed over Mark Webber in what became a bitter battle of the fast and the furious in the Malaysian Grand Prix.

In a race which will be remembered for Vettel’s curious remarks over the radio, the German took the victory over Webber with Lewis Hamilton third in the Mercedes.

Webber’s only words to Vettel before the podium ceremony was :”Multi 21 Seb” which is believed to be code for hold station and has raised the question that the German may have gone against team orders.

Hamilton’s team-mate Nico Rosberg, frustrated that he was told to hold station behind the Brit, finished fourth ahead of Felipe Massa (Ferrari) and Romain Grosjean (Lotus).

The Red Bull pair had dominated the 56-lap race with the high-speed jousting reaching its climax on lap 43 when Vettel pitted for medium compound tyres.

On the next lap Webber pitted and was launched back into the fight just was the triple World Champion swept past the blend line, leaving the pair to fight out the lead.

In a brilliant piece of resilient driving Webber managed to ward off the attack however on the next lap Vettel made his move after a series of moves and counter moves by the Red Bull pair.

Vettel had complained earlier in the race about holding him up and then again about Webber having the audacity to ‘race’ him.

Red Bull had both its drivers on different tyre strategies but it did not stop the pair from completely dominating the grand prix.

Earlier Vettel pitted for dry tyres on lap six, leading a flood of drivers who also came in for service to replace the intermediates.

By lap 16 Webber, who stayed out for an extra two laps on the intermediates, held sway from Vettel however the Mercedes pair of Hamilton and Rosberg started to make sizeable gains on the pair of Red Bulls.

Webber then pitted on lap 20, handing the lead to Vettel and took on a set of medium compound Pirellis. Vettel pits three laps for hard compound tyres and once he rejoined the running order was the same with the Australian holding the advantage.

Vettel then closed up on Webber with the German saying on his radio: “Mark is too slow get him out of the way. He’s too slow.”

In contrast to Melbourne Webber had a belter of a start from fifth when he launched an attack on the two Ferraris in the first couple of corners.

He squeezed through on a wet track and came out second behind Vettel.

Fernando Alonso emerged with a broken front wing after contact with Vettel after the pair diced through the first couple of corners.

At the start of lap two Webber loomed up beside Alonso who bizarrely stayed out but as Webber eased in front of the Spaniard the front wing of the Ferrari disintegrated causing the double world champion to skid off into the gravel at turn one.

Both of the Force India’s of Adrian Sutil and Paul di Resta were forced into retirement with the team stricken seemingly with wheel nut problems, the first time both cars have failed to finish since Japan in 2010.

Result

Pos	No	Driver	Team	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Pts
1	1	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull Racing-Renault	56	Winner	1	25
2	2	Mark Webber	Red Bull Racing-Renault	56	+4.2 secs	5	18
3	10	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	56	+12.1 secs	4	15
4	9	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	56	+12.6 secs	6	12
5	4	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	56	+25.6 secs	2	10
6	8	Romain Grosjean	Lotus-Renault	56	+35.5 secs	11	8
7	7	Kimi Räikkönen	Lotus-Renault	56	+48.4 secs	10	6
8	11	Nico Hulkenberg	Sauber-Ferrari	56	+53.0 secs	12	4
9	6	Sergio Perez	McLaren-Mercedes	56	+72.3 secs	9	2
10	18	Jean-Eric Vergne	STR-Ferrari	56	+87.1 secs	17	1
11	17	Valtteri Bottas	Williams-Renault	56	+88.6 secs	18
12	12	Esteban Gutierrez	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	+3 Laps	7
18	19	Daniel Ricciardo	STR-Ferrari	51	+5 Laps	13
Ret	16	Pastor Maldonado	Williams-Renault	45	+11 Laps	16
Ret	15	Adrian Sutil	Force India-Mercedes	27	+29 Laps	8
Ret	14	Paul di Resta	Force India-Mercedes	22	+34 Laps	15
Ret	3	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	1	+55 Laps	3

 Points after 2 of 19 rounds 

Pos	Driver	Nationality	Team	Points
1	Sebastian Vettel	German	Red Bull Racing-Renault	40
2	Kimi Räikkönen	Finnish	Lotus-Renault	31
3	Mark Webber	Australian	Red Bull Racing-Renault	26
4	Lewis Hamilton	British	Mercedes	25
5	Felipe Massa	Brazilian	Ferrari	22
6	Fernando Alonso	Spanish	Ferrari	18
7	Nico Rosberg	German	Mercedes	12
8	Romain Grosjean	French	Lotus-Renault	9
9	Adrian Sutil	German	Force India-Mercedes	6
10	Paul di Resta	British	Force India-Mercedes	4
11	Nico Hulkenberg	German	Sauber-Ferrari	4
12	Sergio Perez	Mexican	McLaren-Mercedes	2
13	Jenson Button	British	McLaren-Mercedes	2
14	Jean-Eric Vergne	French	STR-Ferrari	1
15	Valtteri Bottas	Finnish	Williams-Renault	0
16	Esteban Gutierrez	Mexican	Sauber-Ferrari	0
17	Jules Bianchi	French	Marussia-Cosworth	0
18	Charles Pic	French	Caterham-Renault	0
19	Giedo van der Garde	Dutch	Caterham-Renault	0
20	Max Chilton	British	Marussia-Cosworth	0
21	Daniel Ricciardo	Australian	STR-Ferrari	0
22	Pastor Maldonado	Venezuelan	Williams-Renault	0