Malaysia : Red Bull rewarded at last

Sebastian Vettel put on a superb performance to win the Malaysian Grand Prix, third round of this year's Formula 1 World Championship, on the Sepang circuit.

Red Bull, having at long last shaken off their reliability-related problems, is asserting itself as this season's N°1 team with a fifth double in the team's short history. Vettel, who started third on the grid, overtook team mate Mark Webber, who started on pole, at the first corner, leapfrogging Nico Rosberg's Mercedes in the same manoeuvre.

The young German then, literally, took off, just as he did in Bahrain and in Australia. This time, however, there was to be no mercy for his adversaries. Webber kept pace with him better than the rest, and finished second. Rosberg also clung on for a place on the podium, although he was never in a position to threaten the supremacy of the two front-runners.

Kubica does the business again

The good deal for Red Bull was that the other three top teams were all beset with difficulties. Mercedes only had one car at the finish. Michael Schumacher had a problem very early in the race with his left rear wheel. Ferrari, after a botched qualifying round (19^th place for Alonso, 21^st for Massa, now Championship leader), lost Alonso's engine, which failed on the penultimate lap. McLaren, also ensnared by the rain during Q1 on Saturday, missed out on scoring any big points in spite of Hamilton's impressive comeback from 20^th to 6^th at the flag.

Moreover, you can't afford to serve up that kind of opportunity to Robert Kubica. The Renault team's Pole once again had a fantastic week-end, starting sixth on the gird to finish fourth after a flawless race. The other Renault driver, Vitaly Petrov, retired after 24 of the 56 laps, but until then had been having a great race. Things are looking promising for China, in a fortnight's time.