The 10 Pillars of the 2011 Malaysian GP

And here we are with the second edition of the 2011 'Pills'. The Circus aired in Sepang, where everyone was waiting for the rain which never came. While the Pirellis of any compound inexorably collapsed.

This time the Pills coincide with the order of arrival of the GP. Let's begin.

1 – Sebastian Vettel
Whoever says that this boy wins exclusively thanks to mechanical means must recite a heavy mea culpa. He spent the entire race waiting for information on the Kers from the pits, maintaining control of the race and concentration even when the device didn't work and his opponents recovered. Ever-increasing maturity, as is HIS speed.

2 – Jenson Button
Nobody slipped away for the entire race and, to thank him, he placed a very heavy second place. Demonstration of how he treats tires like a man should treat a woman. Domenicali was talking about a possible second place for Alonso, but he probably didn't realize that the blond was on track, and even going fast. More than a curbstone.

3 – Nick Heidfeld
Nick the Quick makes regularity his main characteristic. He is not a phenomenon, this is known, but today we must give to Caesar what is Caesar's. Great start, great race and well-deserved podium. The Black Lotus appears to be a truly formidable car, probably the third force in the World Championship. Robert, the Black one is waiting for you!

4 – Mark Webber
If the Kers was working at times for Seb, things went even worse for him. Sucked up by other people's batteries at the start, he had to make do as he could to recover positions and, despite ALSO problems with the mobile wing, he still managed to find an unthinkable fourth place at the start of the race. Too bad for Kers, the podium would have been more than certain.

5 – Felipe Massa
We catechized him after Melbourne, and we also give him his due today. He starts better than his teammate, overtakes more than his teammate, is considered less than the same (not so much in the pits but by those on commentary) and deservedly finishes ahead of him. All this despite a 'small' problem in the pits which, at the first stop, caused him to lose NINE seconds NINE. He screws around with unknown people as soon as he leaves, and he has good reason for it.

6 – Fernando Alonso
They ask him to push and he responds with a confident 'I'm pushing, don't worry'. It's a shame that he then applies the verb literally, trying to seriously push Hamilton, leaving himself without half a front wing. There's nothing to be done, when the Englishman is around Nando sees Red (some call him 'Competitive Ardor'). Yet another slow-motion start in which he sees Massa strip him on the straight and in turn 2 and the first points wasted of the year. They penalize him twenty seconds for the accident with Lewis (absurd, ok he's at fault but it's a race accident) but the position doesn't change.

7 – Kamui Kobayashi
The Japanese gives us the first series of overtakings of the 2011 season. He battles extensively with Webber, showing teeth, knives and hooks. Mobile winger or not, Kers or not, he always tries no matter what. A joy to watch him run. He takes points by finishing behind the big teams and then gains a position due to Hamilton's penalty. Excellent test.

8 – Lewis Hamilton
He tries to break the pit stop record but fails. It was expected that he would suffer with these Pirellis, but today he definitely went into crisis. Maybe a wrong strategy, but you couldn't have thought that the hard ones held up almost less than the soft ones. Lucky not to suffer any damage from the collision with Alonso, unfortunate because the stewards penalized him 20 seconds for having changed line on the straight. An absurd decision to say the least given the past on this track.

9 – Michael Schumacher
At this point it would be better to stay at home. Because if they promise you an SLS and then you end up with a Sprinter, there's nothing else you can do. As in 2010, he started much better than Rosberg, finding himself close to the Ferraris. Then he collapses together with a W02 which seems even worse than the W01 in terms of race pace. The DRS doesn't work in practice and perhaps not even in the race. He arrives a minute and twenty behind Vettel, almost a second and a half per lap on average, edging out about twenty seconds from Rosberg. Crazy.

10 – Paul di Resta
The Force India rookie has a lot of talent. In the second race he gets behind his teammate Sutil and earns the second World Championship point. Guy to watch. Force India, on the other hand, seems not to be up to the 2010 car's level.

Out of Competition – Bernd Maylander
They found him crying in the Safety Car garage, where he remained for three days waiting to be able to enter the track and earn points in the standings. The weather was against him and, despite the threat of universal floods, no rain in Malaysia. Still at zero points.

SPECIAL MENTIONS

The decisions of the Commissioners
The absurd Stop and Go imposed on Buemi for having exceeded the limit in the pitlane (usually it is decided for the DT) anticipated the pearl of the day, namely the incomprehensible penalty for normal brain-gifted people inflicted on Hamilton and Alonso. They impose Kers and Ala Mobile on us to be able to overtake, and then one cannot defend himself and the other cannot attempt to overtake. Without prejudice to Fernando's fault in the contact, a normal race accident cannot be penalised. It had already happened in Spa with the crash between Button and Vettel. Among other things, little changes for Nando (he remains in sixth position), while Hamilton loses a position to Kobayashi. Question, when he zigzagged in front of Petrov last year, didn't anyone see him? Or are these 20 seconds for last year's maneuver?

Jean Alesì and Hamilton's sins
Ok, Ferrari is Italian and he has it in his heart, but you can't feel that in the contact between Alonso and Hamilton the Englishman was being clever, suggesting some fault. If so, then let it be said that Spa '98 was an attempted murder of Coulthard, given that he admitted to having raised his foot in the way under the water as Schumacher arrived.

Vitaly Petrov, the flying Russian
We had called him 'Flying Russian' in Melbourne pills, and he took us literally. Also penalized by the tyres, he starts very well, led by Heidfeld, and then makes some mistakes. It's eighth when he goes for meadows and, with an angel's flight, he falls hard enough to break the steering of his Lotus and be forced to retreat. We will talk about the memories that the words 'broken steering' evoke later.

The mobile wing
There have been a few more overtakings, but we are certainly not talking about the invention of the century. We have had confirmation that this is an artifice among the artifices of current F1. Furthermore, it is the second weekend in which some teams have experienced problems with its functioning (Mercedes first and foremost) and this heavily penalizes the lap time. We remain in solidarity with Rag. Fantozzi.

The mystery of the Kers Red Bull, act two
The only pretext that opponents can cling to is the malfunction of the Kers of the Cans, which apparently do not digest electric batteries badly. On a real track their problems were seen. In other words... stick to Kers!

The Pirellis
As widely expected, the Pirellis really suffered from the Malaysian heat. It had been defined as the most difficult race for the Italian tyres, and in fact the conditions were worse than in Melbourne. One suspects whether the colors of the soft and hard tires were reversed, given that the latter lasted less.
However, it remains an unknown that is too imposing compared to the rest.

See you at the Chinese GP, in 7 days.

Alessandro Secchi
F1Grandprix.it