Red Bull get off the mark with a dominant one-two in Sepang

Sebastian Vettel got his title charge firmly back on course with a resounding victory in Sepang. The Red Bull driver finally led his team to the type of dominant victory they have threatened all year as he led home his teammate in a one-two finish.

 This race was won at the start as Vettel managed to get by pole sitting teammate, Mark Webber, into turn one. From there on the Red Bull’s ran in formation with the Australian unable to get close enough to even attempt to retake the lead. Webber tried to keep the gap as small as possible to the leader but when Vettel pitted first for new tyres the result was a foregone conclusion as he would now have more grip and therefore pace until Webber pitted a lap later. For Webber the relative time lost for pitting later was compounded by a problem fitting the right front tyre and he lost yet more time and came out third behind Lewis Hamilton who had yet to make his stop.

Hamilton fought his way up from 19^th on the grid after the rain affected qualifying and eventually finished 6^th after a spirited driver from the former world champion. After McLaren botched their strategy for Hamilton in Australia they made amends here with their decision to run the majority of the race on the harder compound tyres and Hamilton was able to set very competitive lap times even at the end of his stint. He chased down Adrian Sutil to the flag but was unable to make the crucial overtaking move.

Nico Rosberg converted his first front row start into Mercedes first podium in their current incarnation. It was a quiet day for the young German but ended another satisfying weekend as he yet again outpaced Michael Schumacher throughout. Schumacher retired with a wheel nut failure after making a good start and comfortably running inside the top six. Rosberg’s day was quiet as he was unable to match the pace of the Red Bull’s but could pull away Robert Kubica who backed up his solid second from Melbourne with fourth today. The Renault driver has now climbed to seventh in the driver’s championship and will be looking forward to China where the traction of his car should prove beneficial.

After the disappointment of the season opening Bahrain Grand Prix this race provided evidence that Formula 1 in 2010 has the potential for exciting racing in the dry with overtaking and strategic variance providing an enthralling race. This was shown perfectly with the battle between Melbourne winner Jenson Button and the Ferrari’s. Their tussle raged for 15 laps and was only settled when Alonso blew his Ferrari engine. Massa had been involved prior to this and overtook the reigning world champion before pursuing Hamilton. Button had a trying race, needing to pit early for tyres after suffering oversteer from the start. This decision meant that he needed to complete nearly the entire race distance on one set of tyres and as a result he was easy prey for Massa. Even so he put up a spirited defence from Alonso and while the Spaniard managed to get by into turn one he out braked himself and then retired with engine failure.

The final point’s scorers were Jamie Algasuari and rookie Nico Hülkenberg. Both had eventful races with Hülkenberg struggling for pace after qualifying at the front of the field. Formula 1 will now move onto China and the expectation has to be that another exciting race should transpire. The weather has the potential to play a pivotal role once again but just like each race so far the favourite must be Red Bull and Vettel, the victors last year in China, to be best placed to win again.