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Danny cracks under pressure

Posted: 17 Apr 2011 10:07 AM PDT


Danny Chia nother collapsed bogey diarrhea in the final round after  bogeys at  on the fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, 13th and 18th. — Picture by Osman Adnan

Danny Chia nother collapsed bogey diarrhea in the final round after bogeys at on the fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, 13th and 18th. — Picture by Osman Adnan

DANNY Chia suffered a collapse in the final round of the Maybank Malaysian Open yesterday to finish four-over 76 for a four-day total of one-under 287 to finish tied-41st.

Danny was the sole Malaysian survivor to make the cut after 21 other locals were bundled out before the weekend's action.

In the rain-interrupted third round, the Malaysian returned with three birdies and an eagle-three in his remaining 11 holes to tie with playing partner and newly crowned Masters champion Charl Schwartzel of South Africa in 20th place on five-under 211.


However, yesterday's fourth round saw Danny bogey the fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, 13th and 18th. His birdies on the third and 12th saved his day to a certain degree.

Did the pressure of being the only Malaysian on the course affect his play?

"To a certain degree it did. However, my experience of playing with two Masters champions did teach me a lot, and I am not too disappointed with the end result," said Danny.


The 35-year-old played with South Africans Louis Oosthuizen and Schwartzel. Oosthuizen finished seven-over 295 while Schwartzel was seven-under 281.

"I learnt how they read the course, and also consulted their caddies before certain shots. This was another learning curve for me in the Malaysian Open," he added.

"However, my drives were erratic the entire tournament and that is why I had so many bogeys. My putting was okay, and it saved some of the bad approach shots."


Danny, who has one win on the Asian Tour, is also the first Malaysian to play in all four rounds of the British Open last year.

He was tied for the lead after the second of the Maybank Malaysian Open in 2008 before a disastrous third round 80. Danny came close again the following year where he took the halfway lead before signing off tied 11th.

Danny, who had finished tied-42nd, was promoted one spot when Danny Lee of New Zealand was disqualified for submitting an incorrect score.

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Gamble backfires on Red Bull

Posted: 17 Apr 2011 08:58 AM PDT

SHANGHAI: Red Bull team boss Christian Horner said Sebastian Vettel's bad start in yesterday's Chinese Grand Prix led them to switch the defending world champion to a two-stop strategy that failed to pay off.

Horner said that after the team saw Vettel, who started on pole, passed by McLarens driven by eventual winner Lewis Hamilton and fellow-Briton Jenson Button they decided they needed a new plan to try and rescue a win.

"If we had made just three stops behind them, we probably would have stayed behind both of them. So we decided to do something different to try and beat both of them and we thought we could make it work," Horner said.


"We came within four to five laps of doing so -- and P2 is still a great result. Points are still important and it's a long championship.

"It was a fascinating race that so nearly paid off for Sebastian. We made the decision based on him being P3 at the time behind the McLarens -- we felt that was the best way to beat them and very, very nearly did it."

Horner paid a warm tribute to Australian Mark Webber, who drove his Red Bull from 18th on the grid to third place on the podium.


"What a recovery from Mark," Horner said.

"With Mark, we ran the race in reverse and started him on the prime tyres and once he got on to the softer tyres he just got faster and faster on an aggressive three-stop strategy.

"He for sure was driver of the day."


Horner said that Red Bull continued to have problems with their Kinetic Energy Regeneration System (KERS), which sees energy generated under braking stored in a reservoir for use as the car later accelerates.

"It worked pretty well for the first half and then we became more intermittent with its usage," the Red Bull boss said.

"We still need to improve on it and we have got three weeks between now and Istanbul to make sure."

Third-placed Webber added: "It's a shame for us that McLaren won in a way, but also we can't let Seb get too far away so it was a good day for the racing, I think, and a good day for us in terms of points for the team." -- AFP

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