Red Bull & Renault - Flying High In Malaysia

There's a few points to consider following today's entertaining Malaysian Grand Prix, but the enduring image of the race for millions of worldwide viewers, will be this. Brilliance.

Yep, not to be outdone by Mark Webber's somersault in Valencia last season, Vitaly Petrov took to the kerbs, the grass, and then the skies while being chased by the dogged Aussie earlier today. For all those who reckon F1 just isn't interesting any more, and that contrived tech like movable wings and KERS is making the racing artificial, I implore you to watch this, and I further defy you not to be entertained.




While Petrov was treating his £multi-million motor like a BMX bike, elsewhere there was actual racing going on as usual. And, as usual, this involved world champion Sebastian Vettel capitalising on a scintillating performance in qualifying to remain untouchable from lights to flag. I came across a statistic earlier regarding his dominance which shocked and impressed me in equal measure: the last time a car not driven by Sebastian Vettel was in the lead of a Formula One Grand Prix, it was South Korea last October.
And all this has been achieved with a persistently unreliable KERS system. The question that fans and rival drivers alike are now scratching their heads over is this: with or without the boost button, can anyone touch him?

One predictable contender did himself and another no favours today; Alonso's ill judged swipe on Lewis Hamilton ruined the Spaniard's potentially promising race. Hamilton's disappointment at falling back to seventh after suffering massive tyre degradation due to tactical errors, from a podium finish, and the Alonso incident, was further compounded after the chequered flag. Post race, the ever-wise stewards ruled he had over-defended his position and was to receive a 20 second penalty on his finishing time, along with Alonso for causing the contact. This ridiculous and unjustified enforced delay drops Hamilton to eighth, and is most unlikely to improve his "despondent" mood.

At least teammate Jenson Button will be smiling. He recovered well from a frustrating Australian race and a disappointing fourth in qualifying yesterday to earn a richly-deserved second place finish at Sepang today. So McLaren obviously have a decent, challenging car in both qualifying and over a race distance. Only the invaluable luck that keeps shining down on Vettel's side of the Red Bull garage is elluding them.

Just how do McLaren, Ferrari, Renault et al close that gap?

Other noteworthy roles were played by a strong-starting, impressively resurgent Nick Heidfeld, beginning to justify his controversial receipt of Kubica's Lotus Renault seat, and another solid point scoring finish for Force India rookie Paul di Resta. Good on much-maligned Felipe Massa for pipping the impatient Alonso to the finish also.

But the spoils for most honourable 'DNF' ever have to go to Vitaly Petrov. Doing his best to overturn his under the radar reputation, he certainly launched himself (briefly) into the fore today. And then he snapped his steering. If ever there was a graphic demonstration of coming back down to Earth with a bump, his Malaysian heroics would be it.

Good work Sir.

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