2011 Malaysian Grand Prix

2011 Malaysian Grand Prix
Race 2 of 19 in the 2011 Formula One World Championship ← Previous race Next race →
Race details
Date	10 April 2011
Official name	2011 Petronas Malaysia Grand Prix
Location	Sepang, Selangor, Malaysia
Course	Permanent racing facility
Course length	5.543 km (3.444 miles)
Distance	56 laps, 310.408 km (192.879 miles)
Weather	Cloudy, dry
Attendance	105,018 (Weekend) [1]
Pole position
Driver	Sebastian Vettel	Renault
Time	1:34.870
Fastest lap
Driver	Mark Webber	Renault
Time	1:40.571 on lap 46
Podium
First	Sebastian Vettel	Renault
Second	Jenson Button	Mercedes
Third	Nick Heidfeld	Renault
Lap leaders

The 2011 Malaysian Grand Prix (formally the 2011 Formula 1 Petronas Malaysia Grand Prix)

As a consequence of the race, Vettel extended his lead in the World Drivers' Championship to 24 points over Button. Button's McLaren teammate Lewis Hamilton, who finished eighth in Malaysia, fell 4 points behind Button in third, tied on points with Mark Webber who finished fourth in the race. In the World Constructors' Championship, Red Bull's 37-point haul from the weekend allowed them to extend the championship lead over McLaren to 24 points, with Ferrari a further 12 points behind in third position.

This was Heidfeld's last podium and also Renault's last podium until the 2020 Eifel Grand Prix.

After failing to qualify in

Tyre supplier Pirelli brought its silver-banded hard compound tyre as the harder "prime" tyre and the yellow-banded soft compound as the softer "option" compound. This was the same tyre selection that Bridgestone had chosen to bring to the Malaysian Grand Prix for the past two years.^[5][6][7]

The high temperatures in Malaysia and the abrasive surface of the Sepang circuit led to tyre supplier Pirelli making predictions of high wear rates throughout qualifying and the race to the extent that pit stop strategy would be the deciding factor in the outcome.^[8] The tyre manufacturer also supplied an experimental harder compound of rubber for use during free practice with a view to introducing the tyre for the Turkish Grand Prix, but rejected it following feedback from the teams.^[9]

Shortly after qualifying, the FIA moved the pole position slot from the left- to the right-hand side of the circuit.^[10] The pole slot had traditionally been on the left-hand side of the circuit because it offered the optimal racing line into the tight first corner, but was moved because of the build-up of marbles from the Pirelli tyres off the racing line, which runs over the right-hand side of the circuit.

Before the race, winner of

The first practice session was run in humid but dry conditions, despite forecasts of heavy rain. Mark Webber was the fastest driver in the first session, over a second and a half faster than Lewis Hamilton and two seconds faster than Michael Schumacher. In the second Red Bull Racing car, Sebastian Vettel finished seventeenth overall, four seconds off Webber's pace; however, with comments from team principal Christian Horner in the build-up to the event suggesting that the unraced KERS device would be essential, Vettel's program was focused on developing the KERS unit rather than outright pace. Overall lap times were considerably slower at the circuit than in 2010, with Webber's fastest time over two and a half seconds slower than Lewis Hamilton's time in the same session a year previously.^[8]

The session was scattered with incidents;

Hamilton came first in the final practice session, ahead of Webber and Button. The session was free of incidents, aside from several spins by Paul di Resta, while Liuzzi was held up in the pits for most of the session with a mechanical fault and only took to the circuit in the last fifteen minutes.

The qualifying session was closely fought among the Red Bull and McLaren drivers, with the difference between pole and second place just one tenth of a second, as opposed to the eight tenths seen in Melbourne.

The first session was interrupted when

The second qualifying period saw

The third period began with the remaining ten drivers divided into two distinct groups: the Red Bull and McLaren drivers, who all set two flying laps, and everyone else, only going out once, many with the hope of saving an extra set of tyres for the race. Lewis Hamilton set the early benchmark with a time of exactly 1:35.000, followed by the Red Bulls and Jenson Button. Fernando Alonso was the next driver to set a time, but he was over half a second off Hamilton's pace. The top four drivers emerged again to set their final times, with each driver getting progressively faster. Jenson Button improved on his initial time, but remained fourth. Mark Webber bested him, but was still two tenths of a second off Hamilton's time. Hamilton himself improved in kind, and looked as if he had secured pole position before Sebastian Vettel crossed the line, a tenth of a second faster than Hamilton. With Vettel first and Hamilton second, followed by Webber, Button and Alonso, the top five drivers lined up in the same order as they did in Melbourne. Nick Heidfeld qualified in sixth place for Renault, followed by Massa in the second Ferrari and teammate Petrov in the second Renault in eighth. Nico Rosberg and Kamui Kobayashi completed the top ten.

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 built a 5.2 second lead over his fellow German,^[12] and was able to comfortably bring his car home in first in spite of KERS problems that plagued the second half of his race.^[3] 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.^[13] 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".^[14] 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.^[3] Further back, D'Ambrosio pulled off the track with an electronics failure, and later Petrov crashed out from eighth place.

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Part 1	Part 2	Part 3	Grid
1	1	Sebastian Vettel	Renault	1:37.468	1:35.934	1:34.870	1
2	3	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:36.861	1:35.852	1:34.974	2
3	2	Mark Webber	Renault	1:37.924	1:36.080	1:35.179	3
4	4	Jenson Button	Mercedes	1:37.033	1:35.569	1:35.200	4
5	5	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	1:36.897	1:36.320	1:35.802	5
6	9	Nick Heidfeld	Renault	1:37.224	1:36.811	1:36.124	6
7	6	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	1:36.744	1:36.557	1:36.251	7
8	10	Vitaly Petrov	Renault	1:37.210	1:36.642	1:36.324	8
9	8	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1:37.316	1:36.388	1:36.809	9
10	16	Kamui Kobayashi	Sauber-Ferrari	1:36.994	1:36.691	1:36.820	10
11	7	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes	1:36.904	1:37.035		11
12	18	Sébastien Buemi	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	1:37.693	1:37.160		12
13	19	Jaime Alguersuari	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	1:37.677	1:37.347		13
14	15	Paul di Resta	Mercedes	1:38.045	1:37.370		14
15	11	Rubens Barrichello	Williams-Cosworth	1:38.163	1:37.496		15
16	17	Sergio Pérez	Sauber-Ferrari	1:37.759	1:37.528		16
17	14	Adrian Sutil	Mercedes	1:37.693	1:37.593		17
18	12	Pastor Maldonado	Williams-Cosworth	1:38.276			18
19	20	Heikki Kovalainen	Renault	1:38.645			19
20	21	Jarno Trulli	Renault	1:38.791			20
21	24	Timo Glock	Virgin-Cosworth	1:40.648			21
22	25	Jérôme d'Ambrosio	Virgin-Cosworth	1:41.001			22
23	23	Vitantonio Liuzzi	HRT-Cosworth	1:41.549			23
24	22	Narain Karthikeyan	HRT-Cosworth	1:42.574			24
107% time: 1:43.516
Source:[15]

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	1	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull Racing-Renault	56	1:37:39.832	1	25
2	4	Jenson Button	Mercedes	56	+3.261	4	18
3	9	Nick Heidfeld	Renault	56	+25.075	6	15
4	2	Mark Webber	Renault	56	+26.384	3	12
5	6	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	56	+36.958	7	10
6	5	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	56	+57.2481	5	8
7	16	Kamui Kobayashi	Sauber-Ferrari	56	+1:06.439	10	6
8	3	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	56	+1:09.9572	2	4
9	7	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes	56	+1:24.896	11	2
10	15	Paul di Resta	Mercedes	56	+1:31.563	14	1
11	14	Adrian Sutil	Mercedes	56	+1:41.379	17
12	8	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	55	+1 Lap	9
13	18	Sébastien Buemi	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	55	+1 Lap	12
14	19	Jaime Alguersuari	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	55	+1 Lap	13
15	20	Heikki Kovalainen	Renault	55	+1 Lap	19
16	24	Timo Glock	Virgin-Cosworth	54	+2 Laps	21
17	10	Vitaly Petrov	Renault	52	Accident3	8
Ret	23	Vitantonio Liuzzi	HRT-Cosworth	46	Rear wing	23
Ret	25	Jérôme d'Ambrosio	Virgin-Cosworth	42	Electrical	22
Ret	21	Jarno Trulli	Renault	31	Clutch	20
Ret	17	Sergio Pérez	Sauber-Ferrari	23	Electrical	16
Ret	11	Rubens Barrichello	Williams-Cosworth	22	Hydraulics	15
Ret	22	Narain Karthikeyan	HRT-Cosworth	14	Mechanical	24
Ret	12	Pastor Maldonado	Williams-Cosworth	8	Engine	18
Source:[16]

Notes

1. ^ – Fernando Alonso was penalised 20 seconds post-race for contact while trying to pass Lewis Hamilton.^[17]
2. ^ – Lewis Hamilton was also penalised 20 seconds post-race, for weaving while being passed by Fernando Alonso.^[17]
3. Renault
   on lap 53 of the race, but was classified as he had completed 90% of the race-winner's distance.

Championship standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings Pos. Driver Points 1 Sebastian Vettel 50 4 2 Jenson Button 26 1 3 Lewis Hamilton 22 1 4 Mark Webber 22 1 5 Fernando Alonso 20 Source: [18]

Constructors' Championship standings Pos. Constructor Points 1 Renault 72 2 Mercedes 48 3 Ferrari 36 4 Renault 30 6 5 Sauber-Ferrari 6 Source: [18]

• Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.

References

1. ^ "Are tickets too dear? Where F1 race attendance fell in 2016 - F1 Fanatic". 8 February 2017.
2. ^ "2011 Formula 1 Petronas Malaysia Grand Prix". Formula1.com. Formula One Administration. Archived from the original on 15 May 2011. Retrieved 24 April 2011.
3. ^ ^{a b c} Holt, Sarah (10 April 2011). "Sebastian Vettel beats Jenson Button in Malaysian Grand Prix". BBC Sport. BBC. Archived from the original on 6 March 2012. Retrieved 10 April 2011.
4. Haymarket Publications
   . Retrieved 7 April 2011.
5. ^ "Pirelli announce tyre choices for remaining races". Formula1.com. Formula One Group. 7 October 2011. Archived from the original on 10 February 2012. Retrieved 2 June 2012.
6. ^ "Bridgestone announce tyre compounds for remaining races". Formula1.com. Formula One Group. 7 September 2010. Archived from the original on 22 February 2014. Retrieved 2 June 2012.
7. ^ "Bridgestone announce tyre compounds for remaining races". Formula1.com. Formula One Group. 24 August 2009. Archived from the original on 22 February 2014. Retrieved 2 June 2012.
8. ^ ^{a b} Collantine, Keith (8 April 2011). "Lap times much slower at Sepang this year". F1 Fanatic. Keith Collantine. Retrieved 9 April 2011.
9. Haymarket Publications
   . Retrieved 9 April 2011.
10. Haymarket Publications
    . Retrieved 10 April 2011.
11. Haymarket Publications
    . Retrieved 10 April 2011.
12. ^ Ornstein, David (10 April 2011). "Malaysian Grand Prix as it happened". BBC News. Retrieved 31 May 2011.
13. Haymarket Publications
    . Retrieved 21 April 2011.
14. Haymarket Publications
    . Retrieved 11 April 2011.
15. ^ "2011 FORMULA 1 PETRONAS MALAYSIA GRAND PRIX - Qualifying Results". formula1.com. Archived from the original on 13 July 2014. Retrieved 28 December 2015.
16. ^ "2011 FORMULA 1 PETRONAS MALAYSIA GRAND PRIX - Race Results". formula1.com. Archived from the original on 17 January 2015. Retrieved 28 December 2015.
17. ^
    Haymarket Publications
    . Retrieved 10 April 2011.
18. ^ ^{a b} "Malaysia 2011 - Championship • STATS F1". www.statsf1.com. Retrieved 19 March 2019.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to 2011 Malaysian Grand Prix.

• Official FIA race results^{[dead link‍]}

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