Sebastian Vettel, a Red Bull-Renault pilot, took first on Sunday at the Malaysian Grand Prix, the third event of the season in the Formula One World Championship.

The result overturned a poor performance at the season’s prior events at Bahrain and Australia, where Vettel managed to take pole position, but mechanical problems kept him out of the lead. The pilot finished fourth in the first competition and was unable to finish the second.

The German’s excellence began to show on Saturday in the qualifying round. Vettel, together with his teammate Mark Webber, made superb time, and the two positioned themselves in third and first place, respectively, with Nico Rosberg slipping into second place.

The drivers, however, made several tactical errors which reversed the order in which the race was started, pushing both the Ferrari and McLaren pilots back into the last places, forcing them to work even harder to move up in the event’s standings.

Vettel made a near-flawless start. He advanced at full speed and quickly placed himself as the leader after hitting the first curve. The German kept himself ahead of the competition for many laps; in fact, the only time Vettel was not in first place was when he paused in the pits to change his tires.

Vettel took over the lead again when he returned to the track, and from that moment on, the competition became a demonstration of talent and a battle between the two Red Bull drivers.

Lap after lap, Vettel stayed in the lead. The German didn’t want to give Webber any chance to get ahead. The two pilots created a considerable distance from the rest of the cars behind them.

Fernando Alonso briefly applied pressure, advancing from nineteenth place. His attempts seemed to work, but his car engine began to fail, and he fell down several places in the race. The Spaniard faced two opposing tensions to advance the car while yet avoiding pressuring and damaging it further. Alonso struggled to maintain control of the vehicle and reach his teammate, Felipe Massa, after changing tires during lap 36.

A few laps later, after Massa had surpassed Jenson Button, Alonso tried to do the same, but his car’s smoking engine led him to retire just two laps before he had completed the 56 scheduled laps. The situation must have been a very difficult one for the Spanish driver.

Meanwhile, Vettel was still comfortably ahead of most of the competition, although he was closely followed by his teammate Webber. As much as Webber tried, he could not pass the German, but remained constant and focused on not losing his position - he wanted a podium place at the end.

Unsurprisingly, Vettel took first. The victory at the Malaysian Grand Prix is the sixth of his career as a professional Formula One driver. Webber came in second; Nico Rosberg completed the podium in third.

With these results, Fernando Alonso dropped to second place in the drivers’ standings with 37 points, followed by Vettel, with the same number of points. At the top position is the Brazilian Massa with 39 points.