VETTEL RETAINS TITLE IN SEPANG

SEPANG, April 11 (Bernama) -- After an outstanding performance in Saturday's
qualifying round, Red Bull Racing driver Sebastian Vettel, of Germany, clinched
his second title of the season.

The 23-year-old world champion continued his perfect start from pole
position, clocking an hour, 37 minutes and 39.832 seconds.

Vodafone McLaren Mercedes' Jenson Button took second position with the time
of 1:37:43.093s, a 21.814s ahead of Nick Heidfeld from Lotus Renault GP.

"I think I had a really good start when I had Lewis (Hamilton) behind me
quickly. And I was surprised when I came to turn one, I saw something black in
my mirror and I know it was a Lotus car.

"I realised it was Nick (Heidfeld) and obviously, it was a good thing to
happen
because I could pull away, lap by lap.

"The Grand Prix was quite different from what we saw, two weeks ago," said
Vettel at a press conference.

He won the season's opening race at Albert Park circuit in Melbourne,
Australia on March 27, while last year, he made a 1-2 win for Red Bull Racing.

"I will try to keep the momentum next week. We can be very proud of
ourselves,
we can't stop pushing and we can see how close it (the race) is,"
said Vettel.

After Sunday's race, he continues to top the leader board in the drivers'
standings with 50 points, with Button and Lewis Hamilton of Vodafone McLaren
Mercedes, trailing with 26 and 24 points, respectively.

Meanwhile, his team mate, Australia's Mark Webber, recovered from a poor
start
to storm back and finish fourth, ahead of the two Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro
drivers -- Brazilian Felipe Massa and two-time champion Fernando Alonso of
Italy.

Button, on the other hand, described the race as a confusing race but happy
with the outcome.

"It was a really confusing race, trying to understand the pit-stop and
whether to change tyres or not. It was pretty tricky situation but we did it
pretty well. Our realibility and consistency are much better with the car," said
Button.

His team-mate, 2008 world champion Lewis Hamilton, finished a disappointing
seventh after looking set for a podium spot, until a slow pit-stop and then a
struggle with his tyres in the closing stages.

Hamilton had to face a 20 second added to elapsed time due to breaching
Article 20.2 of the FIA Formula One Sporting Regulation, for making more than
one change of direction to defend a position.

The Lotus Renault claimed their second podium of the season with Heidfeld
claiming the third position. In the opening round, Vitaly Petrov too, snatched
the third position for the team.

"I had really a good race pace and we were able to fight with the cars ahead
of me. I got lucky with Alonso having a problem, but it was great fun fighting
and getting ahead of Lewis. In the final laps, Mark (Webber) was close behind
me but we have the pace to stay ahead," said Heidfeld.

Japan's Kamui Kobayashi of Sauber F1 Team was eighth ahead of seven-time
champion Michael Schumacher, who was ninth for Mercedes GP Petronas F1 team and
10th-placed British rookie Paul Di Resta, scored another point for Force India
in his second race.

After Sepang, the race will move to Shanghai, China for the 2011 Formula 1
Chinese Grand Prix next week (April 15-17).