Vettel continues victory march

SEBASTIAN VETTEL maintained his perfect start to the new Formula One season with another crushing victory in Malaysia.

The world champion has so far been impeccable over the past two weeks, with none of his rivals able to hold a candle to the German and his Red Bull team.

The margin on this occasion around Sepang may only have been just over three seconds to McLaren’s Jenson Button, but it was by no means any less emphatic.

Taking the end of last season into consideration, Vettel has now won four races in-a-row, and five of the last six grands prix overall.

Yesterday’s triumph was also the 12th of his career, and second in succession at this Far East circuit.

Behind Button, who has now moved up to second in the standings, albeit already 24 points down on Vettel, Renault’s Nick Heidfeld grabbed third ahead of the second Red Bull of Mark Webber.

Lewis Hamilton was left to reflect on an “absolutely shocking” day.

After a race in which Hamilton was forced to pit four times, the 26-year-old was later given a retrospective drive-through penalty for making “more than one change of direction to defend a position”.

That came as he tried to fend off old rival Fernando Alonso on lap 43, the Briton blocking the Ferrari by weaving his McLaren across the racing line.

The punishment, in accordance with the FIA rulebook, resulted in 20 seconds being added to Hamilton’s time, enough to drop him from an initial seventh to eighth.

Further salt was rubbed into his wounds as Alonso also collected a penalty for running into the back of Hamilton as he made a hash of an overtaking manoeuvre soon after, yet the additional 20 seconds did not affect his sixth-placed finish.

“I’ve had a shocking race, absolutely shocking, terrible,” said a dejected Hamilton in the immediate aftermath.

Alonso described the incident and punishment as “no big drama”, whilst McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh felt it “harsh” both drivers were penalised.

After two races it leaves Hamilton 28 points adrift of Vettel, with Alonso 30 points down on the German, who has made the perfect start to the defence of his title with two wins from two.

Vettel finished 3.2secs ahead of Button, but in a race in which mayhem seemed to occur behind him given the plethora of pit stops that frequently changed the order, the 23-year-old appeared to handle everything effortlessly.

Even when he was told on lap 30 of 56 not to use his KERS power-boost system for the remainder of the race, Vettel then went and simply increased his lead anyway over Hamilton, who was running second at the time.

Over the radio after taking the chequered flag, Vettel said: “I love coming to work.”

He later added: “This was another great day. Two out of two is perfect, it couldn’t be any better, but there is still a very long way to go. The championship is far away. There are a lot of points still to get so we have to keep our feet on the ground, but at the moment things are looking good.”

Button’s first runner-up spot since Italy last year has elevated the 31-year-old to second in the standings, 24 points adrift of Vettel.

Button described the race as “fun”, if not a little “confusing” with all the pit stops, but was nevertheless “happy to come away with a second”.

Heidfeld scored his first podium since Malaysia two years ago to give Renault a second successive top-three finish this season.

Webber, who was without KERS all race after a fault was detected at the start, was fourth ahead of Ferrari’s Felipe Massa.

Paul di Resta again collected another point for Force India by coming home 10th just behind Mercedes’ Michael Schumacher.