F1: Vettel Makes It Two-For-Two In 2011

Formula 1

F1: Vettel Makes It Two-For-Two In 2011

Sebastian Vettel backed up his Australia win with another dominant victory in Sunday's Malaysian GP...

Jared Turner | Posted April 10, 2011 Sepang (MAS)

Sebastian Vettel, surrounded by his Red Bull team, emerges victorious in Malaysia. (Photo: LAT Photographic)

It might be early, but it's already starting to look like the 2011 World Championship race might be for second place.

Sebastian Vettel certainly gave further credence to such a possibility in Sunday's Malaysian GP.

Looking to back up his commanding victory in Melbourne two weeks ago, the reigning World Champion looked only slightly less dominant at Sepang as he won with relative ease to open the season with consecutive victories.

Jenson Button finished a distant second, his McLaren some 3.2 seconds off the bumper of Vettel's Red Bull RB7. Surprisingly stout Nick Heidfeld finished third — a whopping 25 seconds behind Vettel — to give Lotus Renault GP two straight podium finishes to start the season.

"It was never never easy until the last stint," said German Vettel, who started from the pole just as he did in Australia. "Very pleased. I love what I do and I don't think I can be happier at this stage."

Mark Webber rallied from a horrible start on Sunday to come home fourth, followed in fifth by Ferrari's Felipe Massa.

While Vettel was never challenged for the lead at Sepang after building a quick advantage when the lights went out, the 23-year-old's day wasn't perfect.

The much-discussed KERS system that Red Bull didn't use in Melbourne proved troublesome for Vettel and teammate Webber in Sunday's race.

Both suffered issues with the energy-recovery technology, prompting a Red Bull team member to order Vettel after 29 of 56 laps to "not use KERS anymore. We'll tell you what to do next."

What Vettel did next was begin pulling away from then second-place Lewis Hamilton, who had made up noticeable ground on the German during the race's middle stages.

Vettel maintained a lead of more than five seconds over the closing laps before a late surge by Button yielded the final margin of victory.

"My pace was much better in the last stint," Button said. "Happy to come away with a second. I had a lot of fun out there, and it's great to get 18 points."

Vettel later indicated that his KERS system's problems weren't too big of a concern.

"Obviously it was not according to plan but then it was coming back," he said. "It was a little on/off during the race. It's obviously something we have to work on. It was giving us what we needed."

Webber, the other Red Bull, meanwhile didn't fare so well.

The Australian lost multiple spots in the opening laps, falling all the way to 10th from his third-place starting position. He bounced back nicely but fell short in a spirited battle with Heidfeld for third in the closing laps.

Heidfeld, subbing this season for injured Robert Kubica, was pleased with his result.

"The start was fantastic," said the German, who made up several positions when the lights went out to move into second. "Good fun. After that I did the best I could but Sebastian was obviously quite a bit quicker."

Hamilton and Fernando Alonso spent considerable time in the top three but both saw promising runs go by the wayside.

Their fortunes were linked as Alonso was forced to pit late with a damaged front wing from running into the back of Hamilton's McLaren. Hamilton's car subsequently began falling off and he pitted a few laps later.

Sebastian Vettel celebrates with Red Bull team members after winning in Malaysia. (Photo: LAT Photographic)

Alonso and Hamilton were both hit with 20-second penalties following a postrace stewards' review of their run-in.

Alonso's penalty was for causing the collision; Hamilton's for changing direction more than once to defend his position. It was not enough to cost Alonso sixth place, but the penalty dropped Hamilton below Sauber's Kamui Kobayashi into eighth in the final order.

Michael Schumacher and rookie Paul di Resta completed the rest of the top 10.

Vettel remained the championship leader, stretching his points advantage to 24 over now second-place Button.

Hamilton (-28), Webber (-28) and Alonso (-30) complete the top five in points.

Despite a semi-comfortable cushion back to second, Vettel isn't ready to declare himself the title frontrunner.

"We can be happy today and enjoy and try to keep that momentum and take that into the next race," he said. "Two out of two obviously is perfect. It couldn't be any better ... but the championship is far away.

"We can't stop pushing."

The cars of Vitaly Petrov, Jerome d'Ambrosio, Tonio Liuzzi, Jarno Trulli, Sergio Perez, Rubens Barrichello, Narain Karthikeyan and Pastor Maldonado all failed to finish.

The Formula One circus reconvenes next weekend at Shanghai International Circuit for the 2011 Chinese Grand Prix.

Jared Turner is an Associate Editor for SPEED.com, covering NASCAR and Formula One, and is an Editor for TruckSeries.com. His professional motorsports writing career began in 2005.