KUALA LUMPUR // It leaves the steering wheel. It points to the sky. It marks another race win.
The index finger of Sebastian Vettel protruded upwards once more last night at the Sepang International Circuit after Red Bull Racing's reigning world champion coasted to victory in the Malaysian Grand Prix.
"In the heat, we kept our heads cool," said the 23-year old over his team radio after finishing 3.2 seconds ahead of Jenson Button's McLaren-Mercedes to secure his fourth successive race win and become the first driver to defend his title in Malaysia since Michael Schumacher in 2001.
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Nick Heidfeld, the Lotus-Renault GP driver, finished third.
"I don't think I can be happier," Vettel said. "Perfect. Couldn't be better."
With the triumph, the German driver maintained his 100 per cent record this season and extended his lead at the top of the drivers championship to 24 points.
He conceded he had benefited from his compatriot Heidfeld's explosive start.
Heidfeld, starting in sixth, had jumped to second by the first turn and his presence at the front of the chasing pack kept McLaren pair Button and Lewis Hamilton at bay.
"I thought I had a really good start," Vettel said. "I was surprised going into turn one — all of a sudden I had something black in my mirror and I knew it was a Lotus [Renault] and realised it was Nick. It was a good thing to happen because I could pull away lap by lap."
After nine laps, Vettel had generated a 5.2-second gap and, two laps later, that lead had increased to 8.3 seconds.
However, while he rarely looked like being caught, his race engineer, Guillaume Rocquelin, was forced to inform him midway through the 56-lap race that the RB7's bulky Kinetic energy recovery system (Kers) was not reliable enough to continue operating.
"[Kers] saved our life at the start, without it the race would have been completely different," Vettel said. "It gave us what we needed, but at a later stage, I was told not to use it. I don't know what the problem was."
Both Vettel and teammate Mark Webber had raced without Kers in the season-opening race in Australia after Christian Horner, the Red Bull team principal, asked his engineers to remove the energy-saving device following reliability issues during the first day's practice at Albert Park.
Horner played down the need for the system at the Melbourne circuit, but admitted both cars would have to be fitted with Kers for the season's second race in Sepang. Webber called the refitting a "no-brainer".
Yet it was the Australian who suffered, his Kers device not working at the start and resulting in him slipping from third to seventh.
He fought back to finish fourth.
"For the first three or four laps, I was trying to pass people, but they were coming back at me on the straights; it was tough to clear people when I didn't have Kers," said Webber, who defied his car's lack of acceleration to clock the day's fastest lap. "I fought back with good strategy and was disappointed not to get on the podium."
Webber was denied a podium by veteran Heidfeld, who held him off to secure his first top-three finish since the 2009 Malaysia Grand Prix. The 33-year-old, who had been called upon to replace Robert Kubica when Renault's Polish driver was seriously injured in a rally crash during the off-season, marked his new team's second successive podium following Vitaly Petrov's third-place finish in Australia.
"It was great fun fighting," said Heidfeld."In the final few laps, Mark was close behind me, but we had the pace to stay ahead. It's another great result for us and it's clear we have take a big step forward this year."
gmeenaghan@thenational.ae
Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
The biog
Hobby: Playing piano and drawing patterns
Best book: Awaken the Giant Within by Tony Robbins
Food of choice: Sushi
Favourite colour: Orange
Specs
Engine: Dual-motor all-wheel-drive electric
Range: Up to 610km
Power: 905hp
Torque: 985Nm
Price: From Dh439,000
Available: Now
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
At a glance
Global events: Much of the UK’s economic woes were blamed on “increased global uncertainty”, which can be interpreted as the economic impact of the Ukraine war and the uncertainty over Donald Trump’s tariffs.
Growth forecasts: Cut for 2025 from 2 per cent to 1 per cent. The OBR watchdog also estimated inflation will average 3.2 per cent this year
Welfare: Universal credit health element cut by 50 per cent and frozen for new claimants, building on cuts to the disability and incapacity bill set out earlier this month
Spending cuts: Overall day-to day-spending across government cut by £6.1bn in 2029-30
Tax evasion: Steps to crack down on tax evasion to raise “£6.5bn per year” for the public purse
Defence: New high-tech weaponry, upgrading HM Naval Base in Portsmouth
Housing: Housebuilding to reach its highest in 40 years, with planning reforms helping generate an extra £3.4bn for public finances
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
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The rules on fostering in the UAE
A foster couple or family must:
- be Muslim, Emirati and be residing in the UAE
- not be younger than 25 years old
- not have been convicted of offences or crimes involving moral turpitude
- be free of infectious diseases or psychological and mental disorders
- have the ability to support its members and the foster child financially
- undertake to treat and raise the child in a proper manner and take care of his or her health and well-being
- A single, divorced or widowed Muslim Emirati female, residing in the UAE may apply to foster a child if she is at least 30 years old and able to support the child financially
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
The major Hashd factions linked to Iran:
Badr Organisation: Seen as the most militarily capable faction in the Hashd. Iraqi Shiite exiles opposed to Saddam Hussein set up the group in Tehran in the early 1980s as the Badr Corps under the supervision of the Iran Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC). The militia exalts Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei but intermittently cooperated with the US military.
Saraya Al Salam (Peace Brigade): Comprised of former members of the officially defunct Mahdi Army, a militia that was commanded by Iraqi cleric Moqtada Al Sadr and fought US and Iraqi government and other forces between 2004 and 2008. As part of a political overhaul aimed as casting Mr Al Sadr as a more nationalist and less sectarian figure, the cleric formed Saraya Al Salam in 2014. The group’s relations with Iran has been volatile.
Kataeb Hezbollah: The group, which is fighting on behalf of the Bashar Al Assad government in Syria, traces its origins to attacks on US forces in Iraq in 2004 and adopts a tough stance against Washington, calling the United States “the enemy of humanity”.
Asaeb Ahl Al Haq: An offshoot of the Mahdi Army active in Syria. Asaeb Ahl Al Haq’s leader Qais al Khazali was a student of Mr Al Moqtada’s late father Mohammed Sadeq Al Sadr, a prominent Shiite cleric who was killed during Saddam Hussein’s rule.
Harakat Hezbollah Al Nujaba: Formed in 2013 to fight alongside Mr Al Assad’s loyalists in Syria before joining the Hashd. The group is seen as among the most ideological and sectarian-driven Hashd militias in Syria and is the major recruiter of foreign fighters to Syria.
Saraya Al Khorasani: The ICRG formed Saraya Al Khorasani in the mid-1990s and the group is seen as the most ideologically attached to Iran among Tehran’s satellites in Iraq.
(Source: The Wilson Centre, the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation)
Formula Middle East Calendar (Formula Regional and Formula 4)
Round 1: January 17-19, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 2: January 22-23, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 3: February 7-9, Dubai Autodrome – Dubai
Round 4: February 14-16, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 5: February 25-27, Jeddah Corniche Circuit – Saudi Arabia
The Perfect Couple
Starring: Nicole Kidman, Liev Schreiber, Jack Reynor
Creator: Jenna Lamia
Rating: 3/5
