Petronas Malaysia Grand Prix 2013

[cformula1]

Petronas Malaysia Grand Prix 2013
Round 2 of the 2013 Formula One World Championship



Timetable (Local time)
Practice 1 Fri 10:00
Practice 2 Fri 14:00
Practice 3 Sat 13:00
Qualifying Sat 16:00
Race Sun 16:00

Timetable (GMT)
Practice 1 Fri 02:00
Practice 2 Fri 06:00
Practice 3 Sat 05:00
Qualifying Sat 08:00
Race Sun 08:00

Championship:

Code: Select all

Drivers:                    Constructors:             
 1.  Raikkonen      25        1.  Ferrari                    30
 2.  Alonso         18        2.  Lotus-Renault              26
 3.  Vettel         15        3.  Red Bull-Renault           23
 4.  Massa          12        4.  Mercedes                   10
 5.  Hamilton       10        5.  Force India-Mercedes       10
 6.  Webber          8        6.  McLaren-Mercedes            2
 7.  Sutil           6       
 8.  Di Resta        4       
 9.  Button          2       
10.  Grosjean        1   

Don't forget the prediction competition

Hulkenberg will use a new chassis
http://www.f1zone.net/news/hulkenberg-t ... sia/18179/

Pirelli is expecting three stops
http://www.f1zone.net/news/pirelli-expe ... sia/18186/

It'll probably deluge at some point, but when, where and how much?

[Joey Zyla]

Based on his previous performances at Malaysia (and in this year's season opener), I predict an ice cream and a victory for the Iceman.

[Ferrari92]

Tyres:
Medium and Hard

[tderias]

Big fan of Sepang. Can't wait!

[phil1993]

That first race really made me realise just how difficult judging a car can be.

For example, had Raikkonen not been driving for Lotus we'd be looking at a tenth place finish and wondering what they did wrong with the E21.

What I think has happened this year - and this race may prove me totally wrong - is that Marussia has closed the gap slightly. I think they've been aided by Williams falling into a gap between the midfield and the back but it's really encouraging. But like with Lotus, is it the driver? Put two Chiltons in the car and we'd barely have noted progress.

What will also be interesting is to see the battle at the back. Both Chilton and Van der Garde have raced in Malaysia before while I don't think Bianchi has. How Chilton fares this weekend will shed a little more light on his potential. But if Bianchi puts in another good performance this weekend and into China/Bahrain then we've certainly got a star on our hands. He was very impressive. Gutierrez was difficult to judge because Nico didn't start. Bottas did well because Maldonado decided to regress and decide gravel traps are fun.

[tderias]

I've never been more excited watching the bottom teams compete.

I think Marussia have a genuine opportunity to grab a point this year. The number of cars are down to 22, they look to have jumped Caterham, Williams are in complete disarray, and Bianchi looks like a man on a mission.

Lotus seem to have mastered the Pirellis. If they can go 25 laps on a medium tyre, surely they can do a 1 stopper on the hard compound. I know the track surface and layout is different and all, but a 3 stopper?? Can't see it happen in a dry race...

[phil1993]

The number of cars is down to 22. But seeing as it was the 23rd and 24th best cars that went, it doesn't help Marussia at all. Williams still has sufficient time on them.

Caterham/Marussia finished Brazil in 11th and 12th. It was a race of high attrition but maybe one of them will nick a point in a crazy race. The other issue for them is that there's fewer crazy races because of high reliability, lots of run-off and more red flags for rain. Think how often in recent years a driver has gone off on a track like Bahrain, Shanghai or Korea. They can rejoin but if it was Monaco it'd be goodnight Vienna.

--

And yes, that's logical. But conversely Mercedes treated their SuperSoft tyres very well and could run them longer than the others, yet on the medium compound the struggled a lot more than Lotus/Ferrari/Red Bull.

[sejtur]

Can't wait for the 2nd Kimi victory this year!

[Vlad-SRB]

Tires will be RAIN!

[majidasadi]

I think Malaysia will tell us more about Red Bull's pace,they were almost 1 second faster than others (which is not surprising,last season the only team that could challenge them in qualifying was McLaren,teams like Lotus & Ferrari were not major threats on saturdays).
in Melbourne they were slower on Mediums (may be because of track temperatures) and this weekend we'll have only Medium and Hard
and the question is: are Red Bulls quick enough on harder compounds?

[sportingcp]

Taking in consideration the tyres and the temperature Kimi should be able to win another race. I think it´s gonna be Alonso vs Kimi for victory again.

Malaysia winners by year:
2012 ALONSO Fernando Ferrari Ferrari
2011 VETTEL Sebastian Red Bull Renault
2010 VETTEL Sebastian Red Bull Renault
2009 BUTTON Jenson Brawn GP Mercedes
2008 RAIKKONEN Kimi Ferrari Ferrari
2007 ALONSO Fernando McLaren Mercedes
2006 FISICHELLA Giancarlo Renault Renault
2005 ALONSO Fernando Renault Renault
2004 SCHUMACHER Michael Ferrari Ferrari
2003 RAIKKONEN Kimi McLaren Mercedes
2002 SCHUMACHER Ralf Williams BMW
2001 SCHUMACHER Michael Ferrari Ferrari
2000 SCHUMACHER Michael Ferrari Ferrari
1999 IRVINE Eddie Ferrari Ferrari

[naiego]

Alonso won in Malaysia with 3 different teams, seems that the circuit becomes him!!!

[Ether]

I could see pretty much Alonso will win this one... But not starting on pole for sure... Ferrari has developed the car to be fast in race, not in quali. not to forgot their amazing start on every race! even they had to start on P4 or P5, they could easily grab 2-3 positions ahead just on the start before the 1st corner! I'll predict another pole for Vettel, but a win for Alonso. I don't know where Kimi probably is, but if Lotus could do another tire preservation show just like in Melbourne, he might have another win here in Malaysia! But let's see.. because I believe that last race might not be conclusive for Lotus car yet, because Grosjean was pretty much very far behind... which is not usual!

The tire is different, probably different performance too on track? Red Bull and Mercedes could be tweaking their cars so that suitable for the harder compounds? And for Mercedes probably splitting their strategy? trying 2 and 3 pit stops? (Hamilton 3 and Rosberg 2?) We'll see.. Teams are probably trying to understand the tires more this year. Because Lotus had shown almost double mileage on harder compounds than Ferrari, Red Bull, and Mercedes. and contrary, Mercedes shown longer mileage on softer compounds which is quite confusing! I still couldn't understand why mercedes could preserve 12 laps in SS, and only about 15-16 laps on mediums! with pretty much not a fast laps either! (with lower fuel loads in mediums on 2nd stint, it might be I could say if mercedes had run on mediums on first stint, they might ended almost the same laps as in SS!)

[kals]

Williams' performance seems to be the focus of a few here when discussing the opportunity being presented to Marussia. But you're forgetting Toro Rosso who were also less competitive in Australia than before. The gap between Marussia and the leaders has grown, yet as has been noted the gap between them and the midfield has shrunk.

[Adam]

I think this time Alonso could be the winner while Kimi second. I really hope Hamilton takes third.

I really hope that the experience in Australia made Ferrari to consider strategies based on a conservative race pace and a nice tire extrategy. I think both Ferrari and Lotus are about the same in terms of speed and who knows if tire management too.

In Australia we could see how Kimi did not push much in the beggining, so maybe it was him and not the car being specially good with tires. Ferrari should take that aproach for Malaysia IMO.