Watch out for Vettel
German ready to fight Lewis for the lead
THE stage is set for a cracking final Petronas Malaysia Formula 1 Grand Prix race at the Sepang International Circuit this weekend, with Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel raring to take the fight to Mercedes championship leader Lewis Hamilton.
The heat is on the German who threw away a golden chance to regain the championship lead from Hamilton after crashing out on the first lap, despite starting from pole, at the Singapore Grand Prix two weeks ago.
Vettel is now 28 points behind and needs to rein in Briton Hamilton, who leads with 263 points. There are only six rounds to go.
Vettel, who collided with teammate Kimi Raikkonen of Finland and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen of Holland in Singapore, said that he has already “cast the incident off my mind”.
“I’m not too fussed about the amount of points lost. It doesn’t change anything for how we tackle the last races. It’s part of racing.
“Not much point looking at it over and over again. Your energy is best spent looking forward,” said Vettel, who, however admitted that the last two races – in Italy, where he finished third, and Singapore – were below par for a team like Ferrari.
“If you look at the last two races, we’re not happy and we’re not proud of them.
“But there are still a lot of races left and we have a strong car. It’s been very tight the whole season.”
Hamilton is taking nothing for granted either, despite the big points cushion.
“The next few races will be tight. We just have to stay on our toes and extract everything out of this car,” he said as he expects Vettel to bounce back at Sepang.
“Greats generally bounce back. So I have to anticipate this weekend that he’ll bounce back,” said three-time world champion Hamilton.
Vettel will be encouraged by the fact that he is the most successful driver at Sepang, having won the Malaysia GP four times – in 2010, 2011, 2013 and 2015.
The weather will also be a determining factor. It rained yesterday afternoon and things could change in a blip if the heavens open up during qualifying for the 56-lap race.
“The conditions can be very unpredictable and there’s always a chance of rain, especially during the qualifying session at 5pm.
“The conditions are very similar to what we saw in Singapore, with extreme heat and humidity. The main difference is the start time of the race. The Singapore race starts at night. Here it starts in the heat of the day at 3pm,” said Raikkonen, who bagged his first career win with McLaren in Sepang back in 2003.
Last year’s race saw Red Bull taking a onetwo finish, with Australian Daniel Ricciardo holding off Verstappen.