2011 Race Summary
In what would be a dominant race for the 2010 World Champion, Vettel made a clean break from the lights and quickly began developing a strong lead from the rest of the pack. The other big winner was Nick Heidfeld, who was able to move from sixth to second at the start. By lap 9 Vettel had build a 5.2 second lead over his fellow German, and was able to comfortably bring his car home in first in spite of KERS problems that plagued the second half of his race, while Pastor Maldonado retired with a misfire. Barrichello was the next retirement with a gearbox problem, which they later traced to the hydraulics. On lap 24, the Sauber of Sergio Pérez was struck by a piece of debris, possibly from an unidentified car. The debris damaged the front wing and floor of the Sauber before passing through both the chassis and the protective Zylon panel, and hitting the ECU. The ECU was rendered inactive, stopping the car. The debris then passed out of the car by smashing through the sidepod. Jarno Trulli slid across the gravel before retiring with a clutch failure on lap 31.
The Hispanias of Karthikeyan and Liuzzi were withdrawn by the team for "safety reasons". Karthikeyan experienced an abnormal spike in water temperature on lap 15, whilst Liuzzi's car was subject to vibrations from the rear wing. Although neither fault was terminal, the team elected to retire the cars rather than risk further damage.
Behind Vettel, the McLarens of Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button fought with Fernando Alonso for position, Button coming out on top and ultimately taking his first podium of the season, ahead of Nick Heidfeld who finished third, whilst both Hamilton and Alonso were penalised for their actions on track. Further back, D'Ambrosio pulled off the track with an electronics failure, and later Petrov crashed out from eighth place.
Circuit Info
[Click map for onboard lap]
Laps
56
Circuit length
5.543 km (3.444 mi)
Race length
310.408 km (192.878 mi)
Lap Record
Juan Pablo Montoya - Williams-BMW - 2004 - 1:34.223
Most Wins (Drivers) [Sepang]
Michael Schumacher (3)
Most Wins (Constructors) [Sepang]
Ferrari (5)
Previous Winners
Changes from 2011
-The verge on the exit of turn 8 has been re-worked in order to remove the bump in the grass which caused a problem in 2011.
-The entire debris fence around the outside of turn 1 has been renewed.
GP Facts
-The 1999 race ended in controversy. Thanks to Schumacher's pace-setting, Ferrari team-mate Eddie Irvine was able to take victory but afterwards both Ferraris were disqualified due to technical infringements. That handed the title to Mika Hakkinen but Ferrari successfully appealed and the championship battle rolled on to the final round in Japan. Hakkinen still managed to win.
-In 2001, Giancarlo Fisichella, driving for Benetton, had an embarrassing moment as the cars lined up for the race. The Italian seemed to forget where he had qualified and parked on the wrong side of the grid. Realising his error he tried to steer across to his proper 16th place but with no room to manoeuvre was left stranded across the grid at the start.
-Sepang should have good memories for Kimi Raikkonen. The Lotus driver took his first F1 victory in Malaysia in 2003. The Finn started from seventh but moved up to second in the first stint and then passed pole winner Fernando Alonso on in the first pit stop. Fernando's pole position made him, at the time, the youngest driver to start a race from the front of the grid. Sebastian Vettel then took that record at the 2008 Italian GP.
-Alonso had gained his race seat at Renault in '03 at the expense of Jenson Button, who had been controversially dropped. Jenson moved on to partner Jacques Villeneuve at BAR-Honda and the following year Button scored his first podium finish at the Malaysian Grand Prix, taking third place behind Juan Pablo Montoya and race winner Michael Schumacher.
Videos highlighting the Malaysian Grand Prix
Highlights from the 2003 Malaysian Grand Prix
Drivers Championship
Constructors Championship
Fantasy League Championship