The Petronas Malaysia Grand Prix 2012

[Quiet One 15]

http://www.f1zone.net/news/angry-vettel-calls-karthikeyan-a-cucumber/13262/

Now, Seb...a cucumber, really??? (Is "cucumber" actually used as an insult in English?)

[Massa 0]

Pérez choked when it mattered, and we're calling him Driver of the Day? What a stiff.

[Quiet One 15]

Ah, finally. It took almost 4 hours for the conspiracy theorists to bring this up (on some other websites):

Sauber FERRARI told Perez (a young driver for FERRARI Academy) to preserve position (that's not what they said but anyways). And what better way of doing it than getting almost past Nando and then ruining your own chances and risking a disqualifying excursion off the track instead of merely controlling the race pace?

They also forgot to mention that probably that-fat-guy-from-Santander was at the same time reminding McLaren that they have the money. And LdM reminding Pirelli that they are an Italian company and he might someday become Prime Minister and...and...

[Argento Reloaded 1]

I agree with all of you: Alonso is overated and despite only MSC, Prost, Senna and Mansell won more GP tham him in F1 history, he never delivers! And you all saw him today; with rain when the driver matters the most... remember he didn´t win RED BULL LOST....AGAIN!!!

[Argento Reloaded 1]

sorry I forgot to mention: Ferrari is considering to replace Felipe with one of the truck guys of the team... at least in wet races. On saturday night the 5 truck drivers and Felipe will play cards and the winner will drive on sunday. (source: the team chef who was also in danger cause Felipe is capable of make a pair of good dishes - with the help of his father!)

[Argento Reloaded 1]

Perez made Peter Sauber cry. That's even more of an accomplishment than arriving second.

Take that guy to Ferrari now!

In public? He will not be allowed to return to Swiss,,, never!!!!!! He lost his citizenship!

[JHS18 0]

Pérez choked when it mattered, and we're calling him Driver of the Day? What a stiff.

Just because he didn't win the Barber Championship in 2004....

[Rainmaster 7]

a lap and a half of bloody replays of the start???????????????? shoot the damn director

My thoughts at the time too.

Alonso's experience made the difference.

I think this is true. It was a great drive from Alonso, he showed again why he's the best and to lead the championship with the 3rd/4th(?) best car is a testament to his status. Perez should have won but his mistake came at a bad time, let's call it nerves from being in such a high position (hardly something to be crucified over on a difficult track). Sauber were also clearly in a conservative mood as they could have pit him earlier and their chances for the win would have been much higher. Conspiracy theories do not apply here. Regardless, it was a good performance from the team and an impressive performance from Perez; some people will still deny his ability but it's been hinted at for a while and for me it's very clear now.

It was also a great story in the context of Massa's troubles, Ferrari really got shown what they could have in their other car (and he'll be better next year still). On the rest: I'd give Senna due credit, too many people write him off for irrelevant reasons but there's something there, he just needs to work on it. Grosjean? You are in danger of being added to my list of fast racing drivers who are limited by a lack of intelligence. I seriously feel he could give Kimi trouble in the race if he could only stay on the track for more than a few corners. What the hell happened to Hamilton? Button and Vettel for me were both to blame for their collisions. Vergne did a great job too!

All in all an almost classic race, this season is great so far. I still can't get over that Alonso is leading the championship though, could be crucial if Ferrari improve their car for the European season.

[AleHop 0]

Why is this place so quiet!?!!???!!!?

I bet Sauber had still very fresh in his mind Maldonado in Australia crashing on the last few corners when trying to overtake Alonso. It would have been a BIG ****-up if it had happened today to Pérez so they just want to warn him to not to take too much risk, do it cleanly if you can or stay where you are.

I'm still surprised with Lewis, he doesn't look himself. He obviously didn't look happy because he always wants to win but he didn't look frustrated either as it would have been in the past. As I said last week he knows he's got a WDC winner car if he can keep doing podiums. I see no other candidate for the title unless he gets mad as in the past or Alonso gets a competitive car pronto.

Crazy race. Some good action. Good luck, bad luck... A bit of everything really. A lot of young drivers in the top ten... And now 3 weeks for China to let Ferrari work on some neew parts to make my boy happy or he will kick asss, a lot of red asss he will kick if he don't get a much better car soon. You hear me Domenicalli? Fry?

[whiskee 0]

"Sergio, Fernando is faster than you. Can you confirm you understood that message?"

[Caesar 0]

Andrew Benson ‏ @andrewbensonf1

Turns out @alo_oficial's car lost telemetry in race - so he had to read fuel levels to team, manage Kers etc. even more impressive

[Delta 0]

Alonso got lucky with this one, if he'd had someone like Kimi, Lewis, Button or Schumi chasing him down the outcome of this GP may have been different. Still, a great result for Sauber.

Also have to say I'm slightly mystified by the lack of race pace Lewis had (although again the team must take some of the blame for once again messing up his pit stops), and also at Jenson's apparent lack of judgement in sticking his nose into a gap that was only ever going to close. Also find it amusing that Red Bull were blatantly trying to get Seb to retire his car to get a free gearbox change even though it was functioning reasonably well.

All in all a disappointing race from a silver POV.

[HandyNZL 1]

"Sergio, Fernando is faster than you. Can you confirm you understood that message?"

Er...you do know that Perez was over a second a lap faster????

[Quiet One 15]

Er...you do know that Perez was over a second a lap faster????

Pssst...I think he knows...he was merely being sarcastic, you know, about team orders and such!

[HandyNZL 1]

Alonso got lucky with this one, if he'd had someone like Kimi, Lewis, Button or Schumi chasing him down the outcome of this GP may have been different. Still, a great result for Sauber.

Also have to say I'm slightly mystified by the lack of race pace Lewis had (although again the team must take some of the blame for once again messing up his pit stops), and also at Jenson's apparent lack of judgement in sticking his nose into a gap that was only ever going to close. Also find it amusing that Red Bull were blatantly trying to get Seb to retire his car to get a free gearbox change even though it was functioning reasonably well.

All in all a disappointing race from a silver POV.

I think you're only part right...I don't think it would matter the driver, more the team following Alonso. Had Sauber pitted WITH Ferrari, then Perez would have won. At the time he was right on his tail, but as they pitted a lap later, he ended up 5 or 6 or 7 seconds behind Alonso. The script would have been entirely different if Sauber had done the right thing; but one can not blame a team for making a call that they have never had to call before. This then of course left it all down to Perez, who lost laps closing the gap back up, laps he could have used more beneficially to pester Alonso by being on his gearbox.

But that is why they say racing is an exercise in futility

[HandyNZL 1]

Pssst...I think he knows...he was merely being sarcastic, you know, about team orders and such!

Pssst.....nah....he's been on the whiskey.....and such!

[Caesar 0]

great page were you can find time comparisson between drivers during the race and many extra stuff http://en.mclarenf-1.com/index.php?page=chart&gp=865&graf=3&dr1=Fernando%20Alonso&dr2=Sergio%20Perez

[freaky2 1]

What Red Bull did with Vettel did in fact sound disgraceful. How come he gets to "retire the car now", do all the midfield outside the top 10 ever do that? I guess it must have been sort of illegal because they changed their minds midway, but still...

[HandyNZL 1]

What Red Bull did with Vettel did in fact sound disgraceful. How come he gets to "retire the car now", do all the midfield outside the top 10 ever do that? I guess it must have been sort of illegal because they changed their minds midway, but still...

Its called taking an "unfair advantage".

Remember a few seasons back they were all doing it.

[Kopite Girl 0]

Jenson, you idiot.

@tanita - I only said it in jest because LR had said earlier that he'd wanted Button to tangle with Massacre and that Jens was evil. Jay knows I him more than a double chocolate cream cake!! But still. Michael Schumacher

[Quiet One 15]

What Red Bull did with Vettel did in fact sound disgraceful. How come he gets to "retire the car now", do all the midfield outside the top 10 ever do that? I guess it must have been sort of illegal because they changed their minds midway, but still...

Apparently, they thought his rear brake was about to fail and that would have been disastrous. Or you can believe conspiracionists which say that they wanted to change the gearbox and/or engine of the car which is something they can do without penalization if they do it because of a failure that ends up in a DNF, so they'd rather sacrifice a few points for a better chance of a bigger half next time.

In any case it didn't mattered because the brakes didn't fail and his radio was out anyways so he didn't hear any of the calls. And, as usual, as you never know when exactly where those messages radioed (they are released after they were sent at race control/TV director discretion, don't know who decides what and when they are aired)

[HandyNZL 1]

WTF? Narain gets a penalty for causing an "avoidable accident" when Vettel cut in infront of him too soon???

FIA are the frigging cucumber - how the hell can that be Narains' fault? Vettel was lapping him. Vettel was going faster. Vettel pulled in BEFORE HE FINISHED THE PASSING MANEUVER!!

This is you conspiracy, folks...not that Perez was told by Ferrari not to pass Alonso, but that Red Bull and their new Concorde Agreement/F1 Commerical Deal got to influence the FIA stewards.

I know 20-seconds doesn't do anything really in the scheme of things for a HRT, but the precedent it sets is disgusting. Now Massa will cut in on everyone....

[freaky2 1]

Apparently, they thought his rear brake was about to fail and that would have been disastrous. Or you can believe conspiracionists which say that they wanted to change the gearbox and/or engine of the car which is something they can do without penalization if they do it because of a failure that ends up in a DNF, so they'd rather sacrifice a few points for a better chance of a bigger half next time.

In any case it didn't mattered because the brakes didn't fail and his radio was out anyways so he didn't hear any of the calls. And, as usual, as you never know when exactly where those messages radioed (they are released after they were sent at race control/TV director discretion, don't know who decides what and when they are aired)

So Red Bull made fools of themselves in front of all the world and nothing came of it. Sounds good to me

WTF? Narain gets a penalty for causing an "avoidable accident" when Vettel cut in infront of him too soon???

FIA are the frigging cucumber - how the hell can that be Narains' fault? Vettel was lapping him. Vettel was going faster. Vettel pulled in BEFORE HE FINISHED THE PASSING MANEUVER!!

This is you conspiracy, folks...not that Perez was told by Ferrari not to pass Alonso, but that Red Bull and their new Concorde Agreement/F1 Commerical Deal got to influence the FIA stewards.

I know 20-seconds doesn't do anything really in the scheme of things for a HRT, but the precedent it sets is disgusting. Now Massa will cut in on everyone....

Precedent = bad. Hopefully we will have a smarter steward next time (do they still have retired drivers be head steward for the race?). By the way, cucumber + FIA = Cucumber Agreement

[Quiet One 15]

WTF? Narain gets a penalty for causing an "avoidable accident" when Vettel cut in infront of him too soon???

FIA are the frigging cucumber - how the hell can that be Narains' fault? Vettel was lapping him. Vettel was going faster. Vettel pulled in BEFORE HE FINISHED THE PASSING MANEUVER!!

This is you conspiracy, folks...not that Perez was told by Ferrari not to pass Alonso, but that Red Bull and their new Concorde Agreement/F1 Commerical Deal got to influence the FIA stewards.

I know 20-seconds doesn't do anything really in the scheme of things for a HRT, but the precedent it sets is disgusting. Now Massa will cut in on everyone....

My sentiments, exactly. NK did a good job, he apologized for two accidents he did not cause. Jenson was gallant enough to recognize it, but Seb was really unfair placing the blame on Nk and the HRT, mostly because if Seb took the blame, it would have been just a bad day, but placing the blame on NK/HRT immediately raises calls to ban the HRTs or remove NK's license.

Not Seb's finest moment by any means. He acted like a damn cucumber.

[HandyNZL 1]

"Some people (Karthikeyan) need to look more where they are going"

Two guesses who said that ^^^^

Seriously Seb? Narain wasn't looking where he was going when you cut across him and drove over his front wing? Seriously?

Me thinks Mr Vettel is under the pump, and his usual demeanor is gone....he know's the RBR is not fast at the moment, and a threepeat is slipping away by the race weekend....