team orders to win the race from his incandescent Red Bull team-mate Mark Webber.The Australian had led after the final round of pit stops and the drivers were instructed to hold position until the end of the race, but Vettel passed Webber after the tensest of tussles with 13 laps remaining. Within Red Bull, the fallout from the duel was acrimonious and immediate.
Vettel, the triple world champion, waited in the podium green room with Red Bull technical director Adrian Newey, who appeared to be sternly admonishing him. In the profoundly hostile press conference that followed, the German was candid in his admission: “I f----- up.”
He also described himself as the “black sheep” of his team. Lewis Hamilton took his maiden podium finish for Mercedes in third as stablemate Nico Rosberg was also controversially compelled to obey an order to stay behind. Seldom has the internecine warfare of two teams been played out so vividly or absorbingly.
The battle within the Red Bulls was drawn in a decisive scrap as Webber rejoined from his final pit stop. Vettel was warned by team principal Christian Horner that he was being “stupid”, but the two proceeded to fight one another wheel-to-wheel around Turns One and Two and finally, on Turn Four, Webber seemed finally to yield to the 25-year-old despite having the inside line.
Webber, demonstrating much chagrin, acknowledged that it had been a clear case of team orders. “After the last stop the team told me that the race was over and we turned the engines down and go to the end. The team made their decision. Seb made his own decision and he will have protection as usual.”Vettel, who kept stern-faced on the podium, had already been given a dusty dressing-down via the in-car radio link: "Good job, Seb. Looks like you wanted it bad enough. Still you’ve got some explaining to do.”
Webber had initially moved into the lead before the drivers came in to fit dry-weather tyres following a wet start. He had led the race throughout, as the two Red Bulls employed the two available tyre compounds in different sequences. Vettel ended his race on the softer ‘medium’ tyre, with Webber on the hard. Vettel, whom many wondered had had his brain addled by the intense Malaysian heat, said: “Obviously it is very hot and if there is something to say we need to say it internally.”
Helmut Marko, Red Bull’s head of motorsport and typically a strident advocate of Vettel’s, conceded that the battle had "got out of control". But consternation also engulfed Mercedes as Rosberg tracked Hamilton closely until the final laps. Rosberg tersely asked the team to let him pass Hamilton, but was told “negative” by team boss Ross Brawn.
As he protested once more, Brawn told him that Hamilton – who had earlier been instructed to save fuel – was also being "controlled" and could go faster. Hamilton acknowledged: "I can't say it's the best feeling being up here today. If I'm honest I really feel Nico should be standing here."
Hamilton had at least provided the one lighter diversion on a day of bad blood when, coming in for his second stop, he dived straight the pit box of former team McLaren before being waved on towards Mercedes. "I did a Jenson," he said. "He did it a couple of years ago and I've done it today. Apologies to my team."
All this memorable drama was detonated on the first very first lap, as Fernando Alonso suffered a broken first wing and unwisely opted to drive on rather than take a pit stop. It was a decision that came back to bite him as the wing gave way and lodged itself underneath his car, disabling his steering and causing him to plough straight through Turn One into the gravel. He implored the marshals for a push but soon recognised he was going nowhere as a race that the Spaniard had won three times before was brought to the most premature end.
Replays indicated that Alonso had been the author of his own downfall, twice nudging his car into that of Sebastian Vettel in front.
But he was not the only driver failing to think straight on a manic afternoon. Astonishingly, Hamilton, having enjoyed a superb start from third and successfully fending off a charging Button in fourth, experienced an unfortunate reacquaintance with his former team as he drove directly into the McLaren pit box.
As the mechanics bashfully ushered him on, it indeed seemed that while you could take the boy out of McLaren, you could not take McLaren out of the boy. After all the tensions around his departure last summer from the house that Ron Dennis built, it was difficult to envisage how Hamilton could have made a more glaring gaffe.
At least girlfriend Nicole Scherzinger, smiling as she watched it all unfold on the monitors, appeared to see the amusing side. So, too, did McLaren, who described the moment on Twitter as an “unexpected twist”, before adding: “Feel free to pop in and say ‘hi’ any time!”
Finally a semblance of order emerged as Webber made his first stop and emerged clearly in the lead from Vettel, but Hamilton found some similarly remarkable pace, closing on the Australian at the rate of one second per lap and dragging Rosberg along with him.
Hamilton continued to press, and it is arguable he could even have challenged Webber for the lead but for his spectacularly botched pit-stop. Vettel’s race engineer urged him to keep pushing in second.
The Force Indias were enduring a nightmare as Paul di Resta’s support men struggled to replace his left front tyre, causing the Scot to lose half a minute and any hope of finishing in the points. Team-mate Adrian Sutil experienced almost the same problem, prompting those in Vijay Mallya’s threw up their notepads in disbelief.
Vettel’s race engineer instructed him to conserve his tyres as he was drifting too close to Webber and becoming affected by the dirty air.
But the German plainly detested being caught behind his stablemate, shouting over the car radio: “Mark is too slow, get him out of the way!” His advisors on the pit wall counselled that there was still half of the race left to run but Vettel’s irritation was plain.
Behind, Rosberg took up the baton in pursuit of the Red Bulls and found himself lapping around six tenths quicker. Meanwhile, there was misery for Button as McLaren struggled to replace a front right tyre and had to stop in the middle of the pits.
Vettel was on the move, harnessing the drag reduction system to fly around Hamilton and assume second spot on the start-finish straight.
The first attack on Webber came on Lap 44, as they jostled hard into Turn Two, only for the Australian to stay ahead and then repeat the same defensive trick at Turn Three to force his team-mate wide.
The breakthrough arrived on Lap 46, after Webber had defended robustly, only for Vettel to try his luck on the inside on Turn One.
Webber led into Turn Two but his rival would not relent, and when he could not get on to the power fast enough on the outside Vettel drove around on the inside. Horner labelled the move “silly” as Newey put his head into his hands. The race was not yet over and yet the inquest had already begun.
Relationship split: When team-mates fall out
Kurtley Beale v Cooper Vuna: Australia’s Kurtley Beale was accused of punching Cooper Vuna and both players were sent home after the Melbourne Rebels’ record 64-7 Super Rugby loss in South Africa on Saturday. Vuna had alleged in a later-deleted Tweet that Beale had hit him.
David Batty v Graeme Le Saux: David Batty lost his temper after colliding with Graeme Le Saux as the ball ran out for a throw-in during Blackburn’s match at Spartak Moscow in 1995. Le Saux responded by throwing a punch.
Mehdi Baala v Mahiedine Mekhissi Benabbad: The Olympic medallists came to blows after finishing the 1500m at a Diamond League meeting in Monaco in July 2011. Baala appeared to butt his fellow Frenchman, sparking a fight which was broken up by officials.
Kevin Pietersen v Jason Gallian: Pietersen may have fallen out with Andrew Strauss last season, but his most dramatic row was in 2003 when he tried to leave Nottinghamshire. His captain, Gallian, responded by throwing the future future England batsman’s kit off the dressing balcony at Trent Bridge.
2013 Malaysian Grand Prix standings
2013 Formula One team standings
2013 Formula One driver standings
