Vettel Delivers for Red Bull on Third Attempt.

By Charles Oladeji

Sebastian Vettel has won the Malaysian GP  third 2010 Formula One race with a time of 1.33.48s, after being the favourite in two previous races (Bahrain and Australia) in which he failed to deliver a podium position for Red Bull.  On this occasion the Red Bull Driver once again proved that he is a dominant force in a race where he audaciously snatched pole position off his team mate Mark Webber on the first lap at Kuala Lumpur.  

Webber ,  favourite after a daring qualifying lap that had him sitting on pole Saturday, came in 2nd behind Vettel making it a Red Bull 1-2. Nico Rosburg of Mercedes GP came in third while the fans favourite  German Driver (aside from Vettel),  Michael Schumacher failed to finish the race retiring earlier on. Robert Kubica in Renault was close to the top again finishing behind Nico Rosburg in 4th.  Rain had been expected but unusually for Kuala Lumpur did not fall.

Astonishingly Fernando Alonso blew out on the last lap in a last ditch attempt to pass Jenson Button for 8th position. The Ferrari ace had been experiencing mechanical difficulties which had impeded his natural aggressive racing style.  The McLarens team of Button and Lewis  were able to move up the track after starting at the back of the grid in 17th and 20th position,  with Lewis starting behind Button  and pulling out another good performance while Button kept it steady all  the way.  Lewis finished in 6th passing eight cars and once again putting on a great driving performance; while Button who was passed by Massa’s Ferrari held off Alonso’s last ditch attack and brought his car in 8th. Button later confessed to have probably adopted the wrong tire strategy starting off on soft compound tires and pitting very early.

The outcome of this Malaysian GP race, which saw Vettel dominating from start to finish had been expected in the two previous races based on Vettels’ natural talent and the Red Bulls’ pace during qualifying,  but mechanical problems had set Vettel  and Red Bull back. There’s no denying Vettels’ natural talent but the cars had been slightly unreliable and fragile and criticised as being so.

The Malaysian race put Red Bull and Christian Horner back in the mix. More importantly Red Bull is back in contention for the Championship.  The pace of the Red Bull cars is such that both team mates were racing against each other up front for a short period with Vettel winning out.

 With Felipe Massa passing Jenson Button during the race and subsequently finishing in 7th place, he moves above hitherto championship leader Fernando Alonso by two with 39 points. Alonso and Vettel are locked in 2nd and 3rd respectively with 37 points each while current Champion Jenson Button with 35 points remains above his demon-driver-team-mate Hamilton Lewis.  Nico Rosberg also has 35 points while Lewis has 31 and is in 6th overall behind Button in 5th and Rosberg in 6th.