2010 Malaysian Grand Prix
| Race details | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Race 3 of 19 in the 2010 Formula One season | |||
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| Date | 4 April 2010 | ||
| Official name | XII Petronas Malaysian Grand Prix | ||
| Location |
Sepang International Circuit Sepang, Selangor, Malaysia |
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| Course | Permanent racing facility | ||
| Course length | 5.543 km (3.444 mi) | ||
| Distance | 56 laps, 310.408 km (192.879 mi) | ||
| Weather | Mainly cloudy, dry | ||
| Pole position | |||
| Driver | Red Bull-Renault | ||
| Time | 1:49.327 | ||
| Fastest lap | |||
| Driver |
 Mark Webber
|
Red Bull-Renault | |
| Time | 1:37.054 on lap 53 | ||
| Podium | |||
| First | Red Bull-Renault | ||
| Second | Red Bull-Renault | ||
| Third | Mercedes | ||
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The 2010 Malaysian Grand Prix (formally the XII Petronas Malaysian Grand Prix) was the third round in the 2010 Formula One season. It was held in Sepang, Malaysia on 4 April 2010.
The race was won by Sebastian Vettel leading a one-two finish for the Red Bull-Renault team with Mark Webber coming in second place.
Mark Webber took pole position for Red Bull Racing, on a wet and wild day of Qualifying for the Malaysian Grand Prix. The brave switch Webber made to intermediate tyres, after a delay during Q3, as a heavy storm lashed the circuit, proved pivotal – as the track started to dry in the last moments of qualifying.
The weather provided numerous high-profile casualties during the early period of the session, as both McLaren and Ferrari drivers inexplicably opted to remain in their garages while the rest of the field set banker laps, before the rain arrived. By the time they made their way onto the track, the rain had set in, and it proved impossible to complete a lap good enough to make it into Q2.
Jenson Button had set a lap time that was good enough to advance from Q1, but he ended up beached in the gravel, meaning that he would not take his place in Q2.
Mercedes GP team principal, Ross Brawn, believes that Saturday's wet qualifying session proved that teams rely too much on sophisticated weather radars, and do not use enough common sense when it comes to assessing the conditions.
"We learned a lesson there, because we almost got caught out,” he said.
“It [the radar] was so definitive that there wouldn’t be any rain for the rest of the session.
Prior to the race, Pedro de la Rosa's engine failed as the cars were making their way from the pit lane to their grid positions, and so he did not even take the formation lap.
At the start, Sebastian Vettel starting from third, got past Nico Rosberg immediately on the straight, and at the first corner came up the inside of polesitter and teammate Mark Webber to take the lead. Webber challenged in the next corner but Vettel held firm. Robert Kubica and Michael Schumacher also gained two places, and were fourth and sixth respectively. Rubens Barrichello who started seventh stalled on the grid and was last at the end of the first lap. Both McLarens and both Ferraris charged up the field from their lowly grid positions after failing to properly read the conditions in qualifying. Lewis Hamilton had got up from 20th to 13th, Felipe Massa from 21st to 14th, Jenson Button from 17th to 15th, and Fernando Alonso from 19th to 16th. At the end of lap 1, the top 10 were: Vettel, Webber, Rosberg, Kubica, Adrian Sutil, Schumacher, Nico Hülkenberg, Vitantonio Liuzzi, Vitaly Petrov and Kamui Kobayashi. Timo Glock retired on lap three after a collision with Jarno Trulli.
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