RaceRevo

Malaysian Grand Prix is now over, Sebastien Vettel has recorded a 100 percent success from the two Grand Prix. Two poles and two wins. Maximum of 50 points for Vettel, in 2nd, Jenson Button with 26 points and 3rd Lewis Hamilton on 22 equal points with Webber in 4th. After the dust has settled, we contacted a long time experienced Grand Prix snapper Hazrin Yeob Men Shah to get his collection of the recent Malaysian GP images. After some dealings that were made, we managed to bring forth a special F1 column for our readers. It is named “through the lens of H.Y.M.S”.

Fernando Alonso’s garage at night. Usually there’s not much goings-on at this hour as most of the crews have gone to bed. Nevertheless the thought of Montezemolo sleeping well after poor qualifying performance and Alonso’s mistake in the race is rather a slim assumption. In one week time, there is not much Ferrari can do in Shanghai to make a difference, but rest assured there will be less sleeping time on the card for the crews.

The shutter is off at Sebastien Vettel’s pit garage at night. I wonder what takes place inside. Whether they were calling it off for the day or still trying to figure out KERS reliability issues, no one really knows. Anyhow, they didn’t manage to work it out on Webber’s car on Sunday resulting him crossing the line in 10th place after the first lap despite qualifying 3rd on the grid while Vettel was lucky his KERS failed later on in the race.

This is a shot of Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull Racing on the grid before the start of the race. Vettel exudes an aura of a matured driver, long gone are the days where he seems pretty excited at almost everything. As one commentator recently pointed out, he is now becoming more like a philosopher. Calm, calculative and deadly at the last minute.

Jenson is not a qualifying expert by all means, nonetheless he will always be there in the race. With a solid race strategy on Sunday, Jenson took them all save for Vettel. He was coming from nowhere and suddenly there he is, ahead of his teammate in the race and in the championship table.

Rubens Barrichello is still a hungry veteran, began his F1 life with Jordan in 1993 and now the lead driver at Williams. Despite his experience, Williams in 2011 is still on a back foot. The front end upgrades in Malaysia doesn’t help their cause to made further progress in midfield.

Heikki Kovalainen of Team Lotus showed that this one year old team is definitely on the rise. Leaving the ranks of what many called a third division of F1. Team Lotus qualified well few tenths of a second at the back of midfield and continues the good performance on Sunday’s race. Mike Gasgoyne promised big aero updates for Barcelona, a blown exhaust diffuser. And with KERS onboard sometimes later, Team Lotus will be a complete F1 car. Non handicapped or rather a properly equipped F1 car.

The DRS and the KERS. In Melbourne we saw glimpse of the controversial devices. Many agreed that it helped a lot in closing in on the cars, but most weren’t prepared to see the pronounced effect of those devices combined. It was impossible for the front car to defend its position.

Sergio Perez of Sauber F1 Team in action during the qualifying session. Sauber is a weird case. While all teams suffered heavily from degradation and marbles causing 4 or even 5 pit stops, Sauber managed its tyres rather well stopping very late and taking fewer pit stops in the race.

Fernando Alonso, the golden boy of Ferrari made a mistake and broke his front wing by running into the back of Lewis Hamilton. He lost a crucial podium and he was slapped with 20 seconds penalty that did nothing to his position. Hamilton on the other hand was demoted one place due to weaving while trying to defend against Alonso. Many were shocked by the decision of the race steward, and the netizens are still debating or rather fighting on this issue. This little conflict spice the season up, it adds depth to this continuing documentary. Well at least there is a positive outcome from the unfortunate event in my humble opinion.

Mercedes GP blast past the main grandstand in one of the practice days. In Melbourne it was a setup problem according to Ross Brawn, here in Malaysia it might just prove that the overall aero package leaves a lot to be desired.

Quick Nick ran the outside of Turn 1 after a terrific start on Sunday’s race and jump as high as 2nd position in the race. A superb podium performance in front of the home crowd. It gets better and better for Lotus Renault this year. Seeing the level of competitiveness it possess, one is kept wondering how will it fare at the hands of the highly regarded Robert Kubica.

Lewis Hamilton’s race strategy was out of the windows without the extra set of soft tyres. He made two stops on hard and as a result was under attack from that point on.

Bernie Ecclestone is a busy man. The current issue affecting his dollars is the state of Bahrain GP. F1 paddock waits for his decision whether to postpone or cancel the round for good. Prominent F1 journalist, Joe Saward is of the opinion that F1 fraternity must distance itself from an unjust undemocratic regime which resort to murdering its own citizens in order to protect the ruling elites. Many agrees to his views, while F1 should remain apolitical, it is unhealthy to run a lavish sport in a country where majority of the citizens live well below the poverty lines.

A lonely race for Sebastien Vettel at the front. Many hoped that this will not be a common sight in the instant future.

Nico Rosberg joined F1 fraternity in 2006, driving for 4 years with Williams. Mercedes saw his rising talent and signed him in 2010. He showed flashes of brilliance with the outfit in early season last year and it is said that this year will be his biggest chance to battle it out with Red Bull and McLaren. But that presumption does not hold water at this stage of the season.

This picture of Michael says it all.

An artistic shot of Torro Rosso. You can feel the sense of dynamics here. This picture conveys a feeling of a F1 car attacking and growling fiercely as it enters the pit. Scuderia Torro Rosso finished the race in 13th and 14th one lap down from the leaders.

The bosses of Ferrari were summoned back home! Stefano Domenicali, Aldo Costa and Pat Fry flown back to their base at Maranello to run an investigation at the numbers produced by the wind tunnel.

Sebastien Vettel, “We cannot stop pushing. We have seen how close it is, much closer here than in Australia, so that’s how quickly things can change. We have to keep our heads cool, keep working, keep pushing, but I am not worried to be honest. All the guys, they know that this is the only way forward so for today we all enjoy and we can be very proud”.

The victor deserved the victory in Malaysia. Superb performance, super show, very entertaining, lots of drama. In a week’s time, we will be served with one more heart stopping, adrenaline pumping race in Shanghai. Will Vettel continue his domination? That is the one million dollar question we need to ask.

Editorial : Mu’az Zakaria

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