Vettel victorious over hampered Hamilton

[Seb Scott]

Sebastian Vettel managed to take Scuderia Ferrari to their 1st win since Spain 2013 today in what was largely a fair and square race.

Vettel, able to make 1 less pit stop than the very agitated Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton which enabled him to win the race by over 8 seconds. The 4 time world champion appeared to be very emotional when he took his landmark 40th top step on the Malaysian podium and the Italian national anthem played.

Mercedes came in to take 2nd (Hamilton) and 3rd (Rosberg), with Hamilton leading until a safety car came out in the early stages of the race due to Marcus Ericsson beaching his Sauber at turn one. Hamilton sounded very irritated and confused on team radio at one point telling his Race Engineer Pete “Bono” Bonnington not to talk to him when he’s going round corners. Both of the Mercedes cars were on different tyre management strategies, towards the end of the race with Lewis on a set of used hards and Nico Rosberg on a set of used medium compound tyres. The fact Mercedes altered their strategy so late on in the race and their policy on fair strategies between both drivers shows they were clutching at straws to try and beat Ferrari.

McLaren seemed to have found some improvement with their Honda engine as at one point through the race they were catching up to the mid pack, with Jenson Button even taking to the radio to ask the team what was going on! However this new found form wasn't to last as Alonso was called in by them team and Jenson's pace dropped dramatically due to a turbo failure, and he joined his teammate in the garage.

Kimi Räikkönen had to pit on lap 2 for a rear tyre puncture, however his car largely remained undamaged and finished in 4th position largely due to the early safety car.

Williams came in to finish 5th and 6th with Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa respectively, however the big surprise was Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz for Torro Rosso finishing 7th and 8th ahead of the senior Red Bull pairing Daniil Kvyat and Daniel Ricciardo in 9th and 10th. Helmut Marko and maybe even Dietrich Mateschitz will surely have something to say about this as Red Bull continue to slip down the grid.

Lotus still remain pointless in the constructors standings as Pastor Maldonado had to retire early from the race. Romain Grosjean had a very lucky escape as he came together with Sergio Perez, causing the French man to spin 360 degrees at 170mph and narrowly miss other drivers in the process.

Manor were able to field Roberto Merhi and come home to take 15th place, two laps down on 14th place Force India Nico Hulkenberg. Will Stevens didn't even make the start due to a fuel issue the team were unable to repair.

Official Race Classification

1 SEBASTIAN VETTEL, FERRARI, 1:41:05.793

2 LEWIS HAMILTON, MERCEDES, +8.569s

3 NICO ROSBERG, MERCEDES, +12.31s

4 KIMI RÄIKKÖNEN, FERRARI, +53.822s

5 VALTTERI BOTTAS, WILLIAMS, +70.409s

6 FELIPE MASSA, WILLIAMS, +73.586s

7 MAX VERSTAPPEN, TORO ROSSO, +97.762s

8 CARLOS SAINZ, TORO ROSSO, +1 lap

9 DANIIL KVYAT, RED BULL, +1 lap

10 DANIEL RICCIARDO, RED BULL, +1 lap

11 ROMAIN GROSJEAN, LOTUS, +1 lap

12 FELIPE NASR, SAUBER, +1 lap

13 SERGIO PEREZ, FORCE INDIA, +1 lap

14 NICO HULKENBERG, FORCE INDIA, +1 lap

15 ROBERTO MERHI, MANOR MARUSSIA, +3 laps

RT PASTOR MALDONADO, LOTUS, DNF

RT JENSON BUTTON, MCLAREN, DNF

RT FERNANDO ALONSO, MCLAREN, DNF

RT MARCUS ERICSSON, SAUBER, DNF

DNS WILL STEVENS, MANOR MARUSSIA, DNS

Are Red Bulls claims of Mercedes being too dominant still valid? Should Manor be racing if they're so far off the pace? Are McLaren showing significant improvements by catching the middle pack? Can Ferrari win the title with Vettel now and have we got a momentous battle ahead of us this season between Mercedes and Ferrari and Hamilton Vs. Vettel?

Do leave your comments below as I'd love to hear your thoughts and opinions especially from Lewis and Seb fans!

 

[Yuri]

I feel like Verstappen deserves a mension. Amazing qualifying yesterday for a 17 year old rookie, in difficult conditions 6th. Today he struggled a bit before the safetycar at the start, but after that he showed very good pace and some really good race craft to get back to 7th, which realisticly is the highest possible behind the Mercs, Ferrari and Williams. He was in his go karts under 2 years ago and he drove like he's been in F1 for years!

 

[Bram Hengeveld]

Stunning drive from Vettel today. Seems that today is the first time he really gets some recognition for his driving talent, which is kind of strange seeing the bloke already has four world titles under his belt.

Hopefully the RBR and Williams teams will make some progression so the run for the podium gets even more exciting as it was today.

Best Grand Prix of the last 12 months for me.

 

[AndrewBo]

And:
Max Verstappen cemented his place in Formula 1 history today by becoming the youngest driver in the history of the sport to score points.

 

[Ryan Ogurek]

I keep saying Ferrari is due for another good season. Love it.

 

[RoMaN14]

Stunning drive from Vettel today. Seems that today is the first time he really gets some recognition for his driving talent, which is kind of strange seeing the bloke already has four world titles under his belt.

Hopefully the RBR and Williams teams will make some progression so the run for the podium gets even more exciting as it was today.

Best Grand Prix of the last 12 months for me.

This.

 

[Enzo Fazzi]

I was afraid Verstappen would do a Maldonado at the pit entry.
Also I think the penalties a bit weird, both were just racing accidents if you'd ask me.
If the marshalls want to discourage unsafe driving, I would've given Kvyat a penalty for cutting off Hulkenberg.

 

[Manuel De Samaniego]

Hampered Hamilton?

Vettel won it fair and square on pure pace and good strategy.

It was great to see someone beat the Mercedes in the dry finally

 

[Samuel Fuller]

I just realised that we never saw the manor car on the broadcast I think someone is in Bernie's bad books.

 

[Philip Heck]

Sure we did. When it got lapped

 

[Omer Said]

Sure we did. When it got lapped

I agree with @Samuel Fuller there. Even when he was lapped, we did not get focuses on the car. We only saw it when camera was focusing on others. It was really strange...

 

[Diabolikpt]

I think they dont want to show a 2014 car on 2015 because it looks bad... Stupid Bernie

 

[John Jorell]

Glad to see Sebastian again on the podium top spot once more after a miserable performance last season.

 

[Chris]

I'd say they've got a good chance of winning in Singapore. But not much else from that.

I think a bit much has been made of Ferrari's pace in yesterday's race. Ferrari are very good at managing the temperature of their tyres when they were at critical levels, which is why they were suddenly faster than Mercedes on the long runs.

I don't expect this to continue because except for Singapore, no other race is as hot as Malaysia, so Mercedes will continue to trash the competition in anything that isn't 35C and 90% humidity, which is 17 out of the 19 races this year.

 

[Sheamus Power]

I really hope Mclaren and Honda sort things out, not just because it'd be great to see a little return to those 'old days' but because it might open up the field a little in F1 for other companies and engine manufacturers to come in. A failed venture this season with Honda might spell the end for any real 'new' things to come out of F1.

 

[Gert Snyman]

Nico was made to eat some of his words from Melbourne. LOL

 

[Seb Scott]

I'd say they've got a good chance of winning in Singapore. But not much else from that.

I think a bit much has been made of Ferrari's pace in yesterday's race. Ferrari are very good at managing the temperature of their tyres when they were at critical levels, which is why they were suddenly faster than Mercedes on the long runs.

I don't expect this to continue because except for Singapore, no other race is as hot as Malaysia, so Mercedes will continue to trash the competition in anything that isn't 35C and 90% humidity, which is 17 out of the 19 races this year.

I wouldn't rule out Bahrain or Abu Dhabi due to high temps and then also Spain, Italy, Canada and Japan which are high wearing circuits tyre wise.

 

[Chris]

I wouldn't rule out Bahrain or Abu Dhabi due to high temps and then also Spain, Italy, Canada and Japan which are high wearing circuits tyre wise.

Bahrain maybe. But it's generally reasonably cool during the night there.
It's not about tyre wear, it's about thermal degradation.

Mercedes will still manage their tyres better in the highloading circuits like Spa and Suzuka, but it's purely the hot races that Ferrari have a tyre advantage because they're able to manage the thermal deg better.

 

[Seb Scott]

We shall see throught the year, wouldn't be surprised if they steal a couple of the euros due largely due to tyres, they know that's their strong suit now and they'll make Merc know about it. Hopefully we've got a half competitive season this year! Also something I realised over night that's the first race Mercedes have been truly beaten without wet weather/mechanicals/accidents being factors in the race

 

[Ho3n3r]

Vettel victorious over hampered Hamilton

Bit of a misleading title there.