Vettel Victorious in Marvellous Malaysian GP

by Adam Milleneuve on Apr 10th, 2011

The best way to defend your world title would be to dominate every grand prix and so far in 2011, Sebastian Vettel has had two pole postions and two victories - the best possible start to a season, well done.

The race itself was a great one, with plenty of overtaking and battling, along with some good tactics and strategy.  The only worry for the other teams is that both Red Bull cars had issues with their KERS, yet they still came home in 1st and 4th - impressive.

Renault had another strong race with Heidfeld grabbing a podium and Petrov looking good for a top 6 position until a error that left his car damaged in the closing few laps.

Hamilton was understandably gutted with 7th place - he was chasing down Vettel for the lead during one phase of the race, but had to pit for new tyres with less than 5 laps left and dopped down the rankings.  McLaren had  his team mate Jenson Button on the podium to grab some of the points left after Red Bull's pickings.

Our full race highlights will follow later today, for now, here's the provisional result...

POS	DRIVER		TEAM	LAPS	TIME/DIFF
1		Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull	56	1:37'39.832
2		Jenson Button	McLaren	56
3		Nick Heidfeld	Renault	56
4		Mark Webber	Red Bull	56
5		Felipe Massa	Ferrari	56
6		Fernando Alonso*	Ferrari	56
7		Kamui Kobayashi	Sauber	56
8		Lewis Hamilton**	McLaren	56
9		M.Schumacher	Mercedes	56
10		Paul Di Resta	Force India	55	1 Lap
11		Adrian Sutil	Force India	56	1 Lap
12		Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	55	1 Lap
13		Sebastien Buemi	Toro Rosso	55	1 Lap
14		J.Alguersuari	Toro Rosso	55	1 Lap
15		H.Kovalainen	Lotus	55	1 Lap
16		Timo Glock	Virgin	54	2 Laps
17		Vitaly Petrov	Renault	52	Took off (!)
18		Vitantonio Liuzzi	HRT	46	Retirement
19		J.D'Ambrosio	Virgin	42	Retirement
20		Jarno Trulli	Lotus	31	Retirement
21		Sergio Perez	Sauber	23	Retirement
22		R.Barrichello	Williams	22	Retirement
23		N.Karthikeyan	HRT	14	Retirement
24		Pastor Maldonado	Williams	8	Retirement
	*Alonso awarded 20s penalty for causing a collision (remains 6th)
	**Hamilton awarded 20s penalty for moving around too much when Alonso was behind (dropped him to 8th)

Driver character graphics by Unlap - purveyors of fine motorsport themed threads and BadgerGP tshirts!