Penalised Karthikeyan sorry for Button, Vettel accidents during Malaysian GP

Narain Karthikeyan has apologised to Jenson Button and Sebastian Vettel for getting involved in incidents with them during the Malaysian Grand Prix.

The HRT driver tangled with Button at Turn 9 shortly after the race restart as they battled for position, and then later on tagged Vettel's left rear as he was being lapped in the closing stages.

Although he said he was not to blame for either collision - and Button later took responsibility for his incident - Karthikeyan has expressed regret at what happened.

"The first stage of the race was brilliant," Karthikeyan told  "It was a new place for us, and we had never experienced anything like this. Obviously when the race restarted we knew we were going to go backwards, because the car is not so good anyway.

Ferrari boss Domenicali vows to protect Massa after difficult start to F1 season

Ferrari needs to rally around Felipe Massa in order to lift his performances in future grands prix, according to team principal Stefano Domenicali.

Massa finished only 15th in Malaysia on Sunday, more than 95 seconds adrift of his winning team-mate Fernando Alonso.

The result extended his streak without a Formula 1 podium to 23 races.

With Ferrari Academy driver Sergio Perez - who has already been linked with a race seat with the Italian team in 2013 - finishing second, the speculation surrounding Massa's future has continued to grow.

But Domenicali refused to condemn his driver, instead insisting that it was up to the team to help re-establish the Brazilian's confidence behind the wheel and to improve the F2012 car that he has to drive.

Sauber denies suggestions that Perez was ordered to not attack Alonso in Malaysian GP

Peter Sauber has denied any suggestions that Sergio Perez was ordered to not attack Fernando Alonso for victory in Malaysia - because it would prevented engine partner Ferrari taking an important win.

Perez was closing in on Alonso for the lead of the race in Sepang when a call came on the radio late on for him to take care.

His engineer told him: "Checo, be careful, we need this position, we need this position"

Shortly after that order was made, Perez ran off the track and lost valuable time – which cost him any chance of overhauling Alonso for a shock win.

Fernando Alonso holds off Perez to win sensational Malaysian Grand Prix

Fernando Alonso held off Sergio Perez to take victory in a remarkable Malaysian Grand Prix, that saw changing weather, a long red flag, and a sensational lead battle between two unlikely contenders.
Alonso's victory took the Ferrari driver into the world championship lead, despite the team's tough start to the season, but only a late error prevented Perez passing the double champion to take what would have been one of Formula 1's most surprising wins ever for Sauber.

Lewis Hamilton completed the podium, with his McLaren team-mate Jenson Button outside the points after a disastrous race. Sebastian Vettel also failed to score due to a clash in traffic, though his Red Bull team-mate Mark Webber claimed fourth ahead of Kimi Raikkonen (Lotus) and Bruno Senna (Williams).

Most of the field used intermediates for the start, which took place on a track dry in some parts but extremely wet in others.

The McLarens held their grid formation into the first corner, as Romain Grosjean and Michael Schumacher battled for third until making contact and both spinning as the Lotus slid into the Mercedes, allowing the Red Bulls of Mark Webber and Vettel into third and fourth, ahead of Alonso. Grosjean would put the Lotus into the gravel for good on lap three.

Jenson Button says the Malaysian Grand Prix will be unpredictable

Australian Grand Prix winner Jenson Button reckons that quick thinking in the pits and being flexible on strategy will be vital in Sunday's race at Sepang, after admitting that he still does not know which Pirelli tyre compound will perform better in the race.

Button, who once again qualified second to McLaren team-mate Lewis Hamilton by just 0.15s, said that the extreme heat and humidity has made it impossible to predict the rate of tyre degradation on the medium and hard tyres Pirelli has brought to Malaysia.

"It's a tough one for us," he said. "Physically it's tough, but also it's tough on the tyres, and for strategy because the humidity and the heat is so high that you really don't know how long the tyres are going to work.

"So you really have to be thinking on your toes, and I think we are pretty good at that.
"Going into the race it is so difficult to know what to do in terms of the set-up, in terms of the front wing, the tyre pressures. You can get it so wrong and then you are screwed really, and that's not down to looking after the tyres, it's down to having the wrong balance.

"So a lot of hard work tonight to work out where we should be for tomorrow's race. And strategy we have really got to think on our toes because at the moment we don't know which tyre we should be using for most of the race."

Lewis Hamilton beats Jenson Button to Malaysian Grand Prix pole position

Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button maintained McLaren's 2012 qualifying superiority as they repeated their Melbourne grid result and filled for the front row for the Malaysian Grand Prix.

Michael Schumacher produced the best qualifying performance of his Formula 1 comeback as he took third for Mercedes, while world champion Sebastian Vettel chose to run the harder tyre and will start fifth for Red Bull.

Just as had been the case in Australia, Hamilton's first pole shot in Q3 was sufficient to secure the top spot, as his 1m36.219s proved unbeatable.
Button was second fastest after those runs, but was pushed back by Schumacher. Mercedes had left it late in Q2 and looked in danger of being eliminated before surging into the top 10, and then went for just one run in Q3.

That meant Schumacher was back in the pits by the time Button launched his retaliation, the McLaren edging the Mercedes off the front row by just 0.023 seconds. Schumacher beat his team-mate Nico Rosberg by five places and a little under 0.3s.

Majority' of Formula 1 teams commit to new Concorde deal

Formula 1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone has announced that a 'majority' of teams have committed to the sport beyond 2012.

In a statement issued on his official website shortly before the start of final free practice, Ecclestone said that a number of outfits including Ferrari, McLaren and Red Bull Racing had agreed to a new Concorde Agrement.


"I am very pleased to announce that we have reached commercial agreements with the majority of the current Formula 1 teams, including Ferrari, McLaren and Red Bull Racing, about the terms on which they will continue competing in Formula 1 after the current Concorde Agreement expires at the end of this year," said Ecclestone.

The news comes after a week of speculation that Ecclestone had offered terms to teams - which included extra payments to Ferrari and Red Bull Racing, plus the possibility of some outfits taking a shareholding if the sport was floated.