It is never too late to speak about this GP!
Actually yes, it could have been too late because the next GP is happening this weekend, so let's talk about this Malaysian round.
I am very late in this blog as I have been very busy the last two weeks. Business which will make me write some articles in this blog soon.
The third round of the championship was very interesting with a qualifying session during which McLaren and Ferrari showed again their arrogance. Their poor drivers did what they could in this conditions but it allows a great race to be shown 24h later. Now, my stars!
VETTEL: Eventually, Vettel got the best award for his great performances from the begining of the year. In qualifying, he did not risk the bet on tyres his teammate dared; and he was even outpaced by Nico Rosberg with the same tyres. Anyway, his third place and same place on the grid allowed him to do a great start. He was on the clean part of the grid, he took a perfect aspiration on poleman Webber. He tried his chance and overtook him perfectly and with a virile way, very important to confirm his domination on the second RedBull driver. Then he hadalready won the race. He could control and save his machine, especially because of a not impressive competition. 2 stars because he did not really impress me in qualifying on a wet track. **
WEBBER: After two terrible races, the Aussie had to correct himself to hush the rumors up. Indeed everybody see Raikkonen replacing the ageing Australian. If you add poor performances.. But Webber bet a great win on tyres and with a strong driving, got his first pole position of the season. Once again in race, he showed his young German teamate was definitely the number 1 in the team. So much the better! *
ROSBERG: Once again, Nico said goodbye to his old teammate Schumacher that his return to F1 would not be so easy. Very quick in qualifying, he could not do anything against the RedBulls so he controled a perfect race to take the best result possible: the first podium of the Mercedes team! **
KUBICA: Again a great drive for the Polish driver who confirm that he and Renault are the most surprising outsider of the year! **
SUTIL: For the first time this season, Sutil capitalised his speed in qualifying with a clean race. A great resistance to the very quick British guy behind him. **
HAMILTON: By far, he was the most impressive driver of the big four starting from the back of the grid. It's a shame Sutil did not commit any mistake, I would love to see how far could Hamilton go. **
MASSA: Where Hamilton needed half a lap to overtake Alguersuari, Massa had to wait for the pitstop strategy to pass the Spanish man. His tyres were not the same as Lewis, OK, but the pace of the Ferrari and especially Massa is a bit worrying. If you add the problems of reliability, it could be the big disappointment for Alonso. However, Massa overtook very well Button, to finish only one place behind Hamilton and took the lead of the championship, so one star for this. *
BUTTON: As in Australia a week before, the World Champion tried a different strategy because he was blocked behind the Ferraris. I really thought it would work but this time, keeping a high pace for a long run on hard tyres was difficult. Anyway Button is happy to bring very important points for the championship, especially after such a bad Saturday.
ALGUERSUARI: What a good confirmation for the youngest F1 driver. After an interesting Australian GP, Jaime impressed me in Malaysia. Very agressive, efficient in overtaking, his great race is rewarded by his first points. And new stars from me! **
HULKENBERG: The rookie had a great opportunity to show his talent as he was in the last 10 in the qualifying session. He did it! With a great drive, he took the fifth place on the grid, outpacing his old teammate Barrichello, who is not the slowest on wet track. Then bad and good luck for the young German. His Williams did not have a great pace in race and struggled a lot to maintain a good position. Fortunately, Alonso's retirement at the end offered him his first point. *
BUEMI: The second time in a row he is outpaced by his teammate Alguersuari. Buemi has to be careful and push a bit more if he wants to go higher in the RedBull organization. Especially if one interesting seat got free in 2011..
BARRICHELLO: Outpaced in qualifying, he could not show anything after his problem at the start. Anyway, the Williams had no pace in race.
ALONSO: He did a quite impressive race considering his gearbox problem. Hearing the noise it was doing on each braking, Alonso had to be quite brave to risk as much as he risked. Unfortunately his team showed again fragility and he lost two points. I hope they will not be important at the end of the championship. *
DI GRASSI: He is the first driver to finish a race with a Virgin. A great relief for the young British team and his driver. And quite comfortably in front of the other new teams. Well done!
CHANDHOK: Impressively, he beat Bruno Senna and brought the HRT car for the second time under the checked flag.
SENNA: He finished his first race of the season, despite being outpaced by his teammate.
TRULLI: The Lotus finish a lot of races but mostly very slowly and far from the head of the race and of the other new teams. A bit disappointing.
KOVALAINEN: This Lotus did not finish this time.
PETROV: Once again, the Russian is stricken by mechanical failure where his teammate's car finishes the race without problem. Still agressive and interesting to see at the begining of the race (with a great resistance to Lewis Hamilton); then Petrov started to show his limits to me. He was not able to conserve his tyres because of a very agressive driving I guess. He has been overtaken by several drivers and actually his retirement hides a bit this bad part of the race.
LIUZZI: Again a bit slower the Sutil, his teammate, this time he could not do a strong race because his machine decided differently. Too bad!
SCHUMACHER: Nowhere in qualifying, nowhere in race before his mechanical failure, once again the "Kaiser" is really not impressive..
KOBAYASHI: Another Ferrari engin broke in this race, really not a good sign for "la rossa"
GLOCK: He did the show with Kovalainen at the begining of the race but spun and could not start again.
DE LA ROSA: He did not start from the pits.. The third Ferrari engine failure this weekend.. Very frightening!
I did not give any "3 *" for this GP, but a lot of stars overall. Let's check the new ranking:
VETTEL 8
KUBICA 7
ALONSO 4
BUTTON 3
MASSA 3
HAMILTON 3
ALGUERSUARI 3
ROSBERG 2
SUTIL 2
LIUZZI 1
BARRICHELLO 1
WEBBER 1
HULKENBERG 1
