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Okay people, the second race of the 2011 Formula 1 Grand Prix had just concluded and reigning world champion Sebastian Vettel has won the 13th Malaysian Grand Prix held on Sunday, the 10th of April 2011. Two races on and Vettel is faultless to date. After Melbourne a couple of weeks ago he has done it again. Second place went to McLaren's Jenson Button and third place to Nick Heidfield of Renault, who must have surprised some F1 pundits as he was a last minute replacement for Robert Kubica, who suffered a pre-season rally car accident that was pretty bad. The top 10 grid positions at the start was as follows: 1.Vettel, 2.Hamilton, 3.Webber, 4.Button, 5.Alonso, 6.Heidfeld, 7.Massa, 8.Petrov, 9.Rosberg and finally, 10.Kobayashi. The race started off with concerns of rain but as the lights went out everyone was moving in on everyone. Third grid spot Mark Webber had a fault with his KERS and was overtaken by quite a few people behind him till he ended up ninth. Michael Schumacher from eleventh ended up eighth. Heidfield from sixth up to second place. I suppose the amazing thing was there was no major accidents or damage towards all the participants with the exception of Rubens Barrichello who unluckily suffered an early tire puncture. One of the newer drivers, Kamui Kobayashi, driving the Sauber Ferrari drove spiritedly. I suppose this was to make up for Sauber's disqualification in Melbourne for an illegal sized rear wing. He was in a skirmish from the start. On Lap 4 to Lap10 he was involved in a scuffle for position with Mark Webber . It only ended when Webber pitted for tires. This was one of the first few tire changes of the race due to everyone predicting that it was going to rain soon. By Lap 12 just about everyone came in as there was sign of rain on the track. It did rain but those that thought it was going to be a long and heavy one were disappointed. Those that changed to intermediates or wets must have been truly disappointed as it rained lightly and it dried up quickly due to the heat on the track. It was a little chaotic but nothing really dramatic happened. I suppose some teams wanted rain to even up the playing field. That didn't happen and things were seemingly the same from this point onwards. The only piece of accident excitement that happened was when Vitaly Petrov driving the Renault went airborne after running wide and then crashing. There wasn't any real threat towards race leader Sebastian Vettel at all throughout the race. At the very best, Lewis Hamilton, who was second behind Vettel tried a push but he was at best, 6 seconds behind. This attempt was thwarted when Hamilton's car suffered problems with his left tire. Hamilton's troubles left him with a seventh placing at the end of the race. Sebastian Vettel/Red Bull had won a rain free Malaysian Grand Prix. Jenson Button finished second some 3 seconds behind with Heidfield, Webber, Massa and Alonso coming up after that. It was quite a good race that showed off a lot of Pirelli tire changes -with three to four tire changes due to the teams unsure whether it was going to rain or not and also because the tires were temperamental with some strange handling characteristics. It looks like Pirelli is still getting some slack for their tires in their first year of being the sole tire supplier in F1. Some also had problems with the DRS wings and some had KERS that decided to take a holiday instead of working on the track. But sometimes, especially during Formula 1, it is better for us viewers, fans and enthusiasts that things don't go as planned. But can I add some non-race issues to this year's Malaysian Grand Prix at Sepang? The first is that if you drove there from Kuala Lumpur you'd expect a 10 minute drive from the toll booth as you exit the ELITE highway. But what I cannot fathom is how can things get so bad in the middle of nowhere (Yes, Sepang IS in the middle of nowhere) you need over an hour to park your car and it isn't close to the track. Then you add the humidity and overall temperature to the situation it gets close to unbearable. And secondly, parking during F1 events are usually expensive, but a jump from RM5 to RM50? That's a tenfold increase. And if most are aware, a successful event needs regular people to fill up an event and local Malaysians do not earn in Euro, US Dollars or even Singapore Dollars. I can bet you that the locals will stay away from next year's F1 because of these two issues. Imagine battling through the traffic jam and then reaching the parking only to find out that it costs a bomb. You already know that a cheap 'night market' standard burger will not cost RM1.50 but at least RM5-10. It may be cheap to the tourists from Europe but as I said, its the locals who actually make up most of the crowd on the hillstands and cheaper grandstands. The Malaysian man on the street who drives a normal Perodua or a Proton to Sepang isn't too happy actually. Oh, by the way, it is great to see Ol' man Schumacher still able to duke it out with the younger boys. Ninth position is pretty good in my opinion. Makes a good role model for people in their forties (which is actually just around the corner for yours truly). BUT...This isn't the end. Both Fernando Alonso of Ferrari and Lewis Hamilton of McLaren were each handed a 20 second penalty for overly aggressive driving against each other. Their jostle for third place was actually quite a jostle. Alonso's front wing made contact with Hamilton's car and forced Alonso to the pits to finish in sixth as well as forcing the stewards to slap him with the penalty. Hamilton's penalty came as a result of very aggressive defensive driving on the previous lap. But since both were given penalties, but the race results have not changed as somehow both of them had quite a buffer from the car right behind them. Look towards the end of this article for the official results. The ones below were the results at the end of the race not at the end of the race stewards final decision. Actually they shouldn't have been given any penalty as it did make the race slightly more interesting. Somehow racing as if their lives depended on it isn't allowed anymore. Race Results 01. Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1h37:39.832 02. Button McLaren-Mercedes + 3.261 03. Heidfeld Renault + 25.075 04. Webber Red Bull-Renault + 26.384 05. Massa Ferrari + 36.958 06. Alonso Ferrari + 37.248 07. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes + 49.957 08. Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari + 1:07.239 09. Schumacher Mercedes + 1:24.896 10. Di Resta Force India-Mercedes + 1:31.563 11. Sutil Force India-Mercedes + 1:45.000 12. Rosberg Mercedes + 1 lap 13. Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari + 1 lap 14. Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari + 1 lap 15. Kovalainen Lotus-Renault + 1 lap 16. Glock Virgin-Cosworth + 2 laps 17. Petrov Renault + 4 laps Not classified/retirements: Liuzzi HRT-Cosworth 47 D'Ambrosio Virgin-Cosworth 43 Trulli Lotus-Renault 32 Perez Sauber-Ferrari 24 Barrichello Williams-Cosworth 23 Karthikeyan HRT-Cosworth 15 Maldonado Williams-Cosworth 9 Revised Results 01. Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1h37:39.832 02. Button McLaren-Mercedes + 3.261 03. Heidfeld Renault + 25.075 04. Webber Red Bull-Renault + 26.384 05. Massa Ferrari + 36.958 06. Alonso Ferrari + 57.248 07. Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari + 1:07.239 08. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes + 69.957 09. Schumacher Mercedes + 1:24.896 10. Di Resta Force India-Mercedes + 1:31.563 11. Sutil Force India-Mercedes + 1:45.000 12. Rosberg Mercedes + 1 lap 13. Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari + 1 lap 14. Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari + 1 lap 15. Kovalainen Lotus-Renault + 1 lap 16. Glock Virgin-Cosworth + 2 laps 17. Petrov Renault + 4 laps photo source: planetf1

It seems the pre-F1 promotion has begun in Kuala Lumpur with the people at Lotus-Renault GP showing off their Lotus Renault R31 Formula 1 car at the Pavillion Shopping Mall over there recently. There was only the car, an LCD Screen stating some facts and the stand on which the car sits. This is a prelude of the F1 promotions and Lotus Renault are starting it off in line with the Malaysian Formula 1 Grand Prix which is set for the 8th, 9th and 10th of April 2011. The Lotus Renault R31 on display must have been the car they used for its official unveiling as it is different from the car that is currently on the official website. This car has a smaller nose cone and some of the rear wing slats are missing. It is pretty obvious as in F1, everything moves ridiculously fast and week after week of wind tunnel testing would result in aerodynamic improvement that changes the design of the car. The 2011 season will be the team's inaugural season after the Renault GP team was bought over by Lotus. Since Proton owns Lotus, the Malaysian company seems to feel that the Sepang F1 is the 'home' race for Lotus Renault GP. Hence the very early start in promotions. Now note that PETRONAS, the Malaysian oil & gas giant also feels that since they are the main sponsors of the Mercedes GP Petronas team, they will surely ramp up promotion and events over at the Petronas Twin Towers soon. Last year, it was like a carnival there, with Michael Schumacher and Nico Rosberg driving their cars as well as giving interviews then. And we also have to add that little fact that the previous Lotus sanctioned team Team Lotus will also think of Sepang as its home race too. Formerly Lotus Racing and also referred to by the company name 1Malaysia F1 Team by the Malaysian media and parliament is a Formula One team, which made its debut in the 2010 F1 season. The team was set up by a group of Malaysian businessmen, using a licence from Lotus Cars owner Proton to use the Lotus name in Formula One. After having that licence terminated for further seasons, the team will use the historic Team Lotus name in the 2011 season,but are now facing legal action from Group Lotus and parent company Proton over the use of the Lotus name. On 24 January 2011, a judge at the