2012 Malaysian Grand Prix fastest laps

31 comments on “2012 Malaysian Grand Prix fastest laps”

1. 

   Slr (@slr)
   25th March 2012, 20:06

   Perez really did get it together in the race, he was faster than his team-mate virtually every lap (though brake problems and traffic didn’t help Kamui). It was amazing to see him faster than Alonso lap after lap, during the race you’d think that Alonso would have found a way to go faster than him eventually, but it didn’t happen. I really hope Sauber can improve over the year because both of their drivers deserve a good and consistent car.
2. 

   M.M.C (@mmc)
   25th March 2012, 20:20

   Caterham still a good second off the midfield… disappointing, to say the least.
   1. 

      foleyger (@foleyger)
      25th March 2012, 22:41

      yeah,I agree. Seems like they will be struggling around in 10th place in the constructors. lucky the race restarted after the stoppage as HRT cud have got a half point with a 10th place finish for Kartheikyhan
   2. 

      Bleeps_and_Tweaks (@bleeps_and_tweaks)
      25th March 2012, 23:23

      @mmc Yeah I’m really disappointed that Caterham haven’t been able to close up on the midfield a bit more. But it might rather be due to the midfield teams getting closer to the front runners rather than Caterham not closing the gap. The improvements made by Williams and Sauber may be examples of this.
      1. 

         Antonio Nartea (@tony031r)
         26th March 2012, 1:13

         Take a look at the statistics. There are some fun facts there. In 2011 (first two races) the gap between the last midfield car and the first Lotus/Caterham in fastest dry lap times was around 0.2-0.3 sec. In 2012 that gap is 1.3 sec., give or take.

         Take into account: their relative race pace, the way the new regulations and Pirelli tyres affect the lap times in general and the gap between them and the fastest lap record holder per each race and you’ll find out they haven’t actually improved much since last year. The midfield teams, however, did. And to make matters worse for T. Fernandez, Marussia seems to have closed the gap on them.

         Another year with no (or a few lucky) points in store for them, I’m afraid.
      2. 

         AndrewTanner (@andrewtanner)
         26th March 2012, 13:52

         I think we expected an improvement from Williams and no doubt Caterham did as well. However, their improvement has been better than I thought! @bleeps_and_tweaks
3. 

   BasCB (@bascb)
   25th March 2012, 20:20

   I think that had Perez and Hamilton pitted right at the time Alonso did, Perez could have gotten in front of Alonso and won. But on the other hand, the we wouldn’t have hat that amazing reeling in of Alonso by Checo at a second per lap canter.
   1. 

      bosyber (@bosyber)
      25th March 2012, 20:50

      I agree, he was just that fast, and HAM was not quite as fast for most of it, though halfway the last stint Brundle and Crofty just seemed to miss his good pace as it was drowned out by the great effort by Perez :) Alonso really started to fade a bit (well, compared to 2nd-6th guys) around that same time.
4. 

   AmirAnuar (@amiranuar)
   25th March 2012, 20:21

   hope that f1 fanatic could make the graph zoom-able so it easier to compare the lap time in a smaller interval rather than the whole race
   1. 

      hays33d (@hays33d)
      26th March 2012, 0:02

      Yeah would be nice. What would provide that would be a way to select the beginning lap and end lap of the chart. So if you wanted to see the last 5 laps, you entered 52 and 56. Essentially that would act as a zoom.
   2. 

      Mr. Pink
      26th March 2012, 9:56

      Completely agree. We need more precision in lap times…
5. 

   AdrianMorse (@adrianmorse)
   25th March 2012, 21:56

   Interestingly, in both his stints he started out lapping quicker than Hamilton but his times dropped off.

   This is what is most mysterious to me: is the pace that Button showed at the beginning of the stints the pace that the McLaren ‘should’ have been able to do consistently? For instance, on Button’s first timed lap after colliding with the HRT, he posted a 2m00.94, almost 2.5s faster than Hamilton, and comfortably setting the fastest lap of the race. Was he asking too much of the tyres in only a handful of laps? McLaren and Button declared after the race that he lost tyre temperature behind other cars, but what I find strange is that he was unable to overtake those slower cars while his tyres were still warm and 4 seconds faster than the cars directly in front of him.

   I was also surprised that Hamilton was so fast in the wet before the safety car, but unable to make any impression on Alonso and Perez after the safety car. Lewis drove with laudable consistency (and even managed some pretty impressive sector times on the lap of his stop to dry tyres), but I find it hard to believe to that he would let two cars drive away from him if he had pace to spare.
   1. 

      Peter
      25th March 2012, 22:20

      I think both Ferrari and Sauber have been light on their tyres for years, everyone talked about tyre
      degradation being a big issue at Sepang prior to the race, and that the fastest teams over one lap
      faded away while Ferarri and Sauber ended up in front ….

      Not really that surprising with the benefit of hindsight. Lots was of course mixed up with weather,
      smart choices from Sauber, hesitancy to pit from those in front. But, suspect degradation was a bigger factor here than most are saying.
   2. 

      @HoHum (@hohum)
      26th March 2012, 0:49

      I think Lewis is trying very hard, maybe to hard, to follow the JB plan of consistent points by reducing risk, looking at the points it’s working.
      1. 

         Michael
         27th March 2012, 10:36

         correction! Lewis Hamilton is desperately trying to repeat 2007, as he ctually stated live on air in round-up interview on sky!
6. 

   Postreader
   25th March 2012, 23:15

   Schumi’s pace in the final stint was actually pretty good. Maybe the tyre issue was partly solved, at least in his car and on a dry track, too bad it rained.
   1. 

      Eric Morman (@lethalnz)
      26th March 2012, 4:20

      might have been because they emptied the pipe of water that carries air to the front wing.
      i was wondering when a down pour like we had would the water get into that devise they are running and foul it up every time they tried to use DRS.
7. 

   naullsy (@naullsy)
   25th March 2012, 23:58

   Perez did an amazing job and he was very consistent all the way through. Outstanding job and a very good effort for a job interview. I’m going to go ahead and guess that it will be following the European GP Ferrari will make their announcement.

   Goodbye Massa, Hellllooooo Perez
8. 

   timi (@timi)
   26th March 2012, 0:55

   Woah, looking at the whole time set of just Button and Hamilton it appears Hamilton is learning to nurse his tyres better this season, whereas Button ate his the whole way through the race.
9. 

   Jean
   26th March 2012, 10:15

   Not trying to take away anything from Perez , who had a really great race under the conditions , but I imagine they had gambled on a full wet set-up for his car while Kamui’s was possibly not so much. Also explains why the front (slick) tyres of Perez took such a battering in the latter part . So I would not yet say Perez is ready to take Massa’s seat and be the world champion next year……
   1. 

      fedERROR
      26th March 2012, 12:03

      Dont know about Perez, but Alonzo’s ferrari was definitely wet-tuned. So, if indeed Checo’s Sauber was wet-setup too, he certainly was not going any slower than the dry set-up cars( except Webber’s RedBull and Raikkonen’s Lotus ). And for a sauber to qualify in 9th with wet set-up in a dry( and HOT ) qualifying session, even ahead of FI’s and TR’s, would be a little far-stretched idea, I feel! It looks more like providence( weather ), gamble( early wet tyres ) and some extremely inspired wet driving by Checo was the real reason behind his 2nd place showing.

      Regarding tyre wear, I remember seeing some close-up shots of Lewis’s front left tyre, that was probably more worn-out than Perez’s, and yet Lewis was deffo on a dry weather set-up. I guess, the taste of a historic( first mexican? ) win somehow inspired Perez to put his Sauber on rails!

      Given that Filipe is struggling for balance and tyre wear, the same things that Perez was able to control the best, plus with both drivers subscribing to the Latin geography, only makes it a very logical decision to replace Massa with Perez, maybe even before midway of 2012 season!
10. 

    OOliver
    26th March 2012, 11:28

    The tyres are just too inconsistent.
    I am sure Button and Rosberg had the same kind of problems with the intermediates. Rosberg reported his were worn out, he had them changed, the pit called him that they wered still brand new.
    Button was unable to get his first set to work or they appeared to wear out.

    The irony is that Mercedes appear to be very hard on their tyres. If they can’t get the inters to wear out, then the inters are probably not consistent.
    Right now, these tyres are just a lottery.
11. 

    OOliver
    26th March 2012, 11:43

    Mclaren appears to have good qualifying pace but very average race pace.
    The car goes well when you have smooth flowing curves and not so tight corners.
    But when you have sudden change of direction, one corner directly following an accute angled turn, the car becomes lethargic, almost like drivng a long bus.
12. 

    OOliver
    26th March 2012, 13:01

    @ FedERROR.
    That shot of Lewis left tyre was his inters before he switched to slicks. He had done quite a good number of laps on them.
    During a red flag, the teams are allowed to change the setup on the cars. I remember a team came on the radio to one of their drivers that they were switching to dry setup for the rest of the race as that was what they expected the track condition to improve to.
    1. 

       fedERROR
       26th March 2012, 19:40

       yep, u r rite about Lewis’ tyre.
13. 

    AndrewTanner (@andrewtanner)
    26th March 2012, 13:56

    That’s a very comfortable lead from Raikkonen right there.

    There’s a 1s gap between Marussia, Caterham and Williams. Looks like it could be another lonely season at the back for Marussia and Caterham.
    1. 

       OOliver
       26th March 2012, 15:52

       Williams is the reference point for Caterham.

       They were both with Cosworth, Williams scored points. Although, Caterham were new and had to rush the design. So their first year was understandable.

       2nd year:
       Caterham switched to Renault. Williams remained with Cosworth.
       Williams barely managed to scrape through with 4 points. Yes Williams had years of experience and a history.
       Caterham could be excused for still getting their design department and certain infrastructure together. But they did hire some experienced hands and Gascoyne himself is a former high profile aerodynamicist.
       Okay, they didn’t have KERS and had a case in court.

       It is only 2 races into their third year.
       Caterham and Williams have the same engines.
       Caterham took time out and designed a brand new car adopting the current trend.
       Williams have a car that can operate just below the top level and consistently in the upper mid field.

       Caterham on the other hand are still trouncing their peers. But they have not made any progress in getting consistent battles with the mid field.
       The fact both their drivers are setting similar times makes me believe the car is already reaching the limits of its potential and they probably need a rethink of their rear end design.

       If the remaining races suffer fewer attrition, they will finish 11th in the championship.

       I know it isn’t easy, but the’ve made too much noise.
       1. 

          fedERROR
          26th March 2012, 20:13

          All the more reason why customer cars should be welcomed back into F1. Vendor concerns himself with the technical nitty-gritty and Teams concentrate on racing! Imagine, if RedBull were ‘officially’ allowed to help TorroRosso, we would have had so much closer racing. After all, at the end of the day, who really cares if a driver put his finger in a hole to enable f-duct( 2009 ), if and despite that, the only action on the track was the noise grunted out by the cars, with very rare spots of actual racing!
          Caterham and the other new teams seem to be taking two steps backwards for every one step forward, and because a team like ForceIndia bought their way into an existing setup, it was relatively easier for them to make the transition, the same effect a customer concept will replicate. But then again, maybe F1 is no longer a sport, it’s only business now :-(
          1. 

             AndrewTanner (@andrewtanner)
             26th March 2012, 22:59

             F1 is still a sport, I wouldn’t worry about that.

             Yes, undoubtedly we would see closer racing with customer cars, however, your ‘who cares’ point about things like the f-duct is a bit contradictory. That’s the kind of innovation that does provide a significant advantage.
14. 

    darth.mikey (@darth-mikey)
    27th March 2012, 8:16

    Fastest lap nr. 36 for Kimi in his career. :)
    1. 

       Adam Tate (@adam-tate)
       28th March 2012, 1:01

       Glad to see he’s still got it. A great race for Kimi, only overshadowed by Alonso and Perez.

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