Race 1: Mullers impressive ride and Huffs comeback

Yvan Muller was starting from Pole ahead of his teammate Tom Chilton and Bamboo Engineering driver Alex MacDowall.

The two Lukoil Lada Grantas couldn’t start the race because Dudukalo crashed into the side of Thompsons Lada at Qualifying, the cars were to badly damaged.

Rob Huff started the race in 22nd because he had an odd collision with Fredy Barths BMW into the 2nd chicane. The WTCC champion of 2012 damaged his front suspension and had to retire.

The field started the race behind the safety car due the wet conditions.

Muller had a good start and held the lead until the end.

Teammate Chilton gave him some pressure from behind, but was never in the position to overtake him.

Even at the restart after the big crash from Stefano D’Aste, he didn’t managed to overtake him.

So Muller won ahead of Chilton and MacDowall, the two new Honda Civic S2000 were on 4th and 5th position.

Rob Huff had a incredible comeback and came from 22nd position on 6th position at the end.

Results Race 1:

1	12	Y. Muller	Chevrolet	Cruze 1.6T	30:02.783		12
2	23	T. Chilton	Chevrolet	Cruze 1.6T	0.923		12
3	9	A. MacDowall	Chevrolet	Cruze 1.6T	5.101	4.178	12
4	3	G. Tarquini	Honda	Civic	8.053	2.952	12
5	18	T. Monteiro	Honda	Civic	15.261	7.208	12
6	1	R. Huff	SEAT	Leon WTCC	17.349	2.088	12
7	14	J. Nash	Chevrolet	Cruze 1.6T	19.964	2.615	12
8	5	N. Michelisz	Honda	Civic	20.338	0.374	12
9	15	T. Coronel	BMW	320 TC	28.837	8.499	12
10	73	F. Barth	BMW	320 TC	37.740	8.903	12
11	13	J. Dayraut	BMW	320 TC	39.226	1.486	12
12	19	F. Monje	SEAT	Leon WTCC	41.656	2.430	12
13	55	D. O’Young	BMW	320 TC	48.116	6.460	12
14	38	M. Basseng	SEAT	Leon WTCC	50.920	2.804	12
15	7	C. Ng	BMW	320 TC	54.412	3.492	12
16	37	R. Münnich	SEAT	Leon WTCC	58.733	4.321	12
17	25	M. Bennani	BMW	320 TC	2:05.913	1:07.180	12
18	22	T. Boardman	SEAT	Leon WTCC	2 Runden		10
19	6	F. Engstler	BMW	320 TC	3 Runden		9
20	17	M. Nykjaer	Chevrolet	Cruze 1.6T	3 Runden		9
DNF	74	P. Oriola	SEAT	Leon WTCC			8
DNF	26	S. D’Aste	BMW	320 TC			3

Race 2: Mullers 2nd win and fantastic battle between Tarquini and Basseng

Darrel O’Young was starting from Pole in his ROAL-BMW.

Tarquini was starting from 4th spot and had a incredible start to the race.

After only three corners he was overtaking O’Young for the lead.

But Muller made a great comeback from 6th position and overtoke Tarquini later for lead.

Than the battles began. Tarquini had fantastic battle with Nika Racing driver Michael Nykjaer, but the Chevrolet Cruze was way better than the Civic so Nykjaer overtoke him finally.

Tom Boardman lost his front suspension after he made contact with James Nash.

Boardman was standing in the middle of the track and brought out the safety car.

After the restart there was a battle for third between Tarquini and Basseng.

This battle continued until the last lap.

Basseng was fighting but it he was to late. Tarquini was just ahead of him at the finish line, that was great racing!!!

Muller won ahead of Nykjaer and Tarquini.

Results Race 2:

1	12	Y. Muller	Chevrolet	Cruze 1.6T	23:27.254		10
2	17	M. Nykjaer	Chevrolet	Cruze 1.6T	2.482		10
3	3	G. Tarquini	Honda	Civic	4.994	2.512	10
4	38	M. Basseng	SEAT	Leon WTCC	5.081	0.087	10
5	23	T. Chilton	Chevrolet	Cruze 1.6T	5.612	0.531	10
6	74	P. Oriola	SEAT	Leon WTCC	6.755	1.143	10
7	14	J. Nash	Chevrolet	Cruze 1.6T	14.445	7.690	10
8	18	T. Monteiro	Honda	Civic	20.573	6.128	10
9	26	S. D’Aste	BMW	320 TC	23.722	3.149	10
10	1	R. Huff	SEAT	Leon WTCC	25.442	1.720	10
11	15	T. Coronel	BMW	320 TC	37.126	11.684	10
12	55	D. O’Young	BMW	320 TC	41.394	4.268	10
13	6	F. Engstler	BMW	320 TC	43.904	2.510	10
14	73	F. Barth	BMW	320 TC	45.921	2.017	10
15	19	F. Monje	SEAT	Leon WTCC	50.678	4.757	10
16	22	T. Boardman	SEAT	Leon WTCC	53.591	2.913	10
17	7	C. Ng	BMW	320 TC	59.157	5.566	10
18	13	J. Dayraut	BMW	320 TC	66.537	7.380	10
19	25	M. Bennani	BMW	320 TC	86.721	20.184	10
20	9	A. MacDowall	Chevrolet	Cruze 1.6T	1 Runde		9
21	37	R. Münnich	SEAT	Leon WTCC	1 Runde	62.256	9
22	5	N. Michelisz	Honda	Civic	1 Runde	23.306	9

Overall: More action to come!!!

Fantastic start to the 9th season of the still young WTCC series.

Hope that Lada can start in Marakesch beacause they have very good pace.

Thompson was in the Top 10 for Qualifying, so the Granta is very quick, but i still think that the Lada Granta is a bit of an underdog. Honda could be a real challenger for RML-Chevrolet this year, this is going to be very exciting.

The next round is in Marakesch (Marocco) on the 7th of April.

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F1 News, F1 Videos

Vettel wins controversial Malaysian GP

March 24, 2013 motorsporthead Leave a comment

Sebastian Vettel wins a controversial Malaysian GP ahead of his teammate Mark Webber and Lewis Hamilton.

Alonso crashes out at the start of the race

Vettel makes a good start, just as his teammate Webber, what was a bit unusual.

Alonso tried to overtake Vettel on the outside into Turn 1 but made contact in the entry to Turn 2.

Alonso’s frontwing was damaged.

In the 2nd lap on the start/finish line he drove over his frontwing and ended in the graveltrap at Turn 1. He had to retire.

Fights between teammates

Webber had a good strategy so he came ahead of Vettel. Vettel left a gap for a while, but it all changed very soon.

The team wanted Vettel to slow down, because he came closer and closer to Webber.

The most controversial moment of the race was the battle between Webber and Vettel.

Vettel made a attempt on Webber on lap 42 in the 2nd DRS zone.

They were side by side through the Turns 1-4 of this lap until Vettel overtoke Webber finally on the outside out of Turn 4.

But that wasn’t the only battle between teammates in this GP.

Rosberg and Hamilton battled for the final podium spot.

It was enjoyable for the fans, but not for Ross Brawn.

Brawn wanted Rosberg to slow down, so they can keep the postions until the end. In contrast to Vettel, Rosberg didn’t really try to overtake Hamilton and kept 4th.

Chaos in the pits

But the most action was in the pits. Hamilton was driving into the pits of McLaren to have a quick chat with them, but i don’t think that the McLaren mechanics were interested, so Hamitlon drove finally to his right box.

Pic and Ricciardo had a collision in the pits and Toro Rosso got a fine of 10,000 pounds for this unsafe release.

Hülkenberg and Raikkönnen were side by side in the pits and McLaren and Force India had their problems with the pitstops.

Overall: Best Malaysian GP yet!!!

This was fantastic race from start to finish. Fantastic battles in the whole race and not a single safety car (!) and that in Malaysia.

Red Bull will have to say some words with Webber and Vettel, it could have all ended like Istanbul 2010.

After two race weekends in a row , F1 is coming back in 3 weeks to the Chinese GP in Shanghai.

1	1	S. Vettel	Red Bull	56	1:38:56.681	–	188,231
2	2	M. Webber	Red Bull	56	+0:04.298	+0:04.298	188,095
3	10	L. Hamilton	Mercedes	56	+0:12.181	+0:07.883	187,846
4	9	N. Rosberg	Mercedes	56	+0:12.640	+0:00.459	187,831
5	4	F. Massa	Ferrari	56	+0:25.648	+0:13.008	187,422
6	8	R. Grosjean	Lotus	56	+0:35.564	+0:09.916	187,110
7	7	K. Räikkönen	Lotus	56	+0:48.479	+0:12.915	186,707
8	11	N. Hülkenberg	Sauber	56	+0:53.044	+0:04.565	186,564
9	6	S. Perez	McLaren	56	+1:12.357	+0:19.313	185,965
10	18	J. Vergne	Toro Rosso	56	+1:27.124	+0:14.767	185,509
11	17	V. Bottas	Williams	56	+1:28.610	+0:01.486	185,463
12	12	E. Gutierrez	Sauber	55	+1 Rnd.	+1 Rnd.	184,730
13	22	J. Bianchi	Marussia	55	+1 Rnd.	+0:53.934	183,068
14	20	C. Pic	Caterham	55	+1 Rnd.	+0:34.242	182,028
15	21	G. van der Garde	Caterham	55	+1 Rnd.	+0:08.984	181,757
16	23	M. Chilton	Marussia	54	+2 Rnd.	+1 Rnd.	180,966
17	5	J. Button	McLaren	53	+3 Rnd.	+1 Rnd.	185,380