Reflections on the Malaysian Grand Prix

[Irisado]

The main talking point is being discussed here, so I'll avoid mentioning Webber, and Vettel in this thread.

It had been a bit of a better race up until 'the incident', but there were still too many easy passing manoeuvres with DRS, and the order all became a bit predictable as the race became drier.

The early loss of Alonso made the race somewhat less interesting up front.  It seemed like a bit of a racing incident, but Ferrari must be cursing that they didn't decide to call him into the pits earlier.  It was a surprise for me that they didn't.  Also surprising was the relative lack of pace from Lotus.  I also thought that Raikkonen made a few rather elementary mistakes by going off the track while pushing hard.  He's lucky that there's no longer a gravel trap at that corner (there should be in my view).

McLaren looked better, and Button was very unlucky.  As were Force India.  What was going on in the pits?  Was the Malaysian heat getting to the nuts and wheel guns?

Another good drive from Bianchi, a better performance from Sauber, and another really terrible meeting for Williams.  Maldonado also looks like he's driving in 2011 mode, which isn't good news for the team either.

[Scott]

The Farce India (credit to Vintly for coming up with that one) problems apparently stem from a new wheel nut system, and they were reportedly overheating.

From Autosport

The wheelnut and insert (sleeve) are designed to be attached to and removed from the axle as one, but in Force India's case they became separated.

"We simply had a problem with the sleeves probably because of the high temperatures that we haven't seen previously," said Fernley.

"We've run this in testing and in Australia and it's obviously a tolerance issue.

"The wheel and insert [usually] come off together but because the axle was expanding it was holding the insert and the wheel was separating from it.

"So when you pull the wheel off you can't get the other one on in its place [because the old insert remains] so it was a safety thing for us to stop."

[Scott]

I think the rest of the race, even (unfortunately) with Alonso gone, there was some sort of excitement almost every lap.  And that's something to say for a (mostly) dry race without even a SC. 

Back and forth of Rosberg - Hamilton, Vettel - Webber, Grossjean - Perez.  Even Chilton got some airtime.  I liked the Kimi/Hulk battle, and like you said, Button was doing quite well until the problem in the pits.  In all I had a great time watching today even though things didn't go the way I would have liked (for one thing, a bit of rain).

The post race interviews really surprised me.  I missed Kimi, but the fact that Hamilton was so humble with regards to Rosberg deserving his spot on the podium and laughing at himself for the drive-thru at Mclaren.  Button was also upbeat considering his circumstances and finally it almost looked like someone scared the life out of Vettel, he was so apologetic (wonder if Newey leaned over to him on the way off the podium and asked 'Do you WANT to drive my car anymore???'.