Four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel achieved his first victory for Scuderia Ferrari in a thrilling Malaysian Grand Prix.
The Ferrari driver took advantage with track position thanks to staying out during a safety car period and assumed the lead.
Vettel then made a two-stop strategy work while Mercedes did three stops with Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg.
It proved to be the wrong strategy call for the world champion team as neither Hamilton nor Rosberg had the speed, tyre longevity or enough laps to catch and pass Vettel in the final stint.
This was Ferrari’s first victory since the 2013 Spanish Grand Prix, with Vettel’s first since that year’s season finale in Brazil.
Hamilton maintains the championship lead with 43 points, with race winner Vettel three points adrift and Rosberg, who finished third, seven further back.
Following a dominant Mercedes performance in Australia, this result was well deserved for the sport and Ferrari. The Manarello-based team provided a challenge to the reigning world champion squad.
Vettel held onto second at the start, behind Hamilton, and chose to stay out when the safety car was called into action following Marcus Ericsson’s spin into the Turn 1 gravel on lap four, while Hamilton and Rosberg, in third, pitted for the hard compound.
Vettel pitted at the end of lap 17 and fitted the medium compound before chasing down and passing both Rosberg and Hamilton on their older Pirelli.
The Mercedes had needed to fight back through traffic as several midfield cars followed Vettel’s strategy and Rosberg was delayed in the pits queuing behind Hamilton.
The Brackley-based team then decided to split the strategy when it pitted Hamilton and Rosberg for the second time, with Hamilton taking the mediums and Rosberg the hards.
Vettel only made his final pitstops with 14 laps to the flag after a long middle stint, taking on the hards and crucially rejoining ahead of Rosberg in second.
The Ferrari driver then regained the lead when Hamilton pitted and had hard tyres fitted a lap later.
Hamilton was unhappy with the choice, with the defending world champion saying on team radio: “This is the wrong tyre, man,” but being told Mercedes only had used mediums as an alternative.
While Mercedes assured him that he would be in a position to catch and pass Vettel for the win, it soon became clear that that wasn’t the case, with Hamilton unable to close in.
Kimi Raikkonen recovered from a poor start with a solid fourth position having dropped to the back of the field following a puncture sustained in contact with Felipe Nasr’s Sauber on the first lap.
Valtteri Bottas passed his Williams team-mate Felipe Massa with a brilliant late move around the outside at Turn 5 to finish fifth, with the duo followed by Max Verstappen, who passed Toro Rosso team-mate Carlos Sainz late on.
Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo and Daniil Kvyat, who recovered from a spin having made contact with Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg, completed the top ten.
And yet, Red Bull faced some embarrassment by being lapped by their former driver during the race. While Toro Rosso scored some championship points to be ahead of the main factory team in the constructors’ standings.
Romain Grosjean had an eventful race, the Lotus driver trying an ambitious move around the outside of Sergio Perez at the fast Turn 12, only to clip the Force India and spin.
Though he rejoined, Grosjean finished outside the points in P11, with Perez receiving a 10-second time penalty for causing the incident and ultimately finishing P13. Felipe Nasr in between them.
Hulkenberg was P14 in the Force India, having been given a 10-second time penalty for hitting Kvyat at Turn 2, with Manor’s Roberto Merhi the last driver to see the chequered flag in P15.
At least Manor made the finish considering a complete lack of testing. A remarkable achievement for everyone at this little team.
Pastor Maldonado retired the Lotus, having run well down the field after picking up a puncture on the first lap, while the McLaren-Hondas showed improved form but had nothing to show for it as Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button retired with mechanical problems.
Will Stevens did not start the race – his Manor team was unable to cure the fuel system issue that stopped his car running in qualifying.
So a brilliant result for Sebastian Vettel and Ferrari. After a period of Mercedes victories, it’s refreshing to see the four-time world champion put on a fight and won. Ferrari have a good car and can mount a challenge to the Silver Arrows.
Malaysian Grand Prix, 56 laps:
1 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1h41m05.793s
2 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 8.569s
3 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 12.310s
4 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 53.822s
5 Valtteri Bottas Williams-Mercedes 1m10.409s
6 Felipe Massa Williams-Mercedes 1m13.586s
7 Max Verstappen Toro Rosso-Renault 1m37.762s
8 Carlos Sainz Toro Rosso-Renault 1 Lap
9 Daniil Kvyat Red Bull-Renault 1 Lap
10 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull-Renault 1 Lap
11 Romain Grosjean Lotus-Mercedes 1 Lap
12 Felipe Nasr Sauber-Ferrari 1 Lap
13 Sergio Perez Force India-Mercedes 1 Lap
14 Nico Hulkenberg Force India-Mercedes 1 Lap
15 Roberto Merhi Manor-Ferrari 3 Laps
– Pastor Maldonado Lotus-Mercedes Retirement
– Jenson Button McLaren-Honda Retirement
– Fernando Alonso McLaren-Honda Retirement
– Marcus Ericsson Sauber-Ferrari Retirement
– Will Stevens Manor-Ferrari Withdrawn
Drivers’ standings:
1 Lewis Hamilton 43
2 Sebastian Vettel 40
3 Nico Rosberg 33
4 Felipe Massa 20
5 Kimi Raikkonen 12
6 Felipe Nasr 10
7 Valtteri Bottas 10
8 Daniel Ricciardo 9
9 Nico Hulkenberg 6
10 Max Verstappen 6
11 Carlos Sainz 6
12 Marcus Ericsson 4
13 Daniil Kvyat 2
14 Sergio Perez 1
15 Romain Grosjean 0
15 Jenson Button 0
17 Roberto Merhi 0
Constructors’ standings:
1 Mercedes 76
2 Ferrari 52
3 Williams-Mercedes 30
4 Sauber-Ferrari 14
5 Toro Rosso-Renault 12
6 Red Bull-Renault 11
7 Force India-Mercedes 7
8 Lotus-Mercedes 0
8 McLaren-Honda 0
10 Manor-Ferrari 0
Next race: Chinese Grand Prix, Shanghai. April 10-12.
Making his comeback with McLaren-Honda, Fernando Alonso was running in the points. But alas, he was forced to retire with technical problems. Still the double world champion is feeling positive despite early retirement. Reuters has the details.
Fernando Alonso’s first race of the season ended with a 21st lap retirement at the Malaysian Grand Prix on Sunday but the Spaniard saw positive progress at misfiring McLaren.
Alonso missed the season opener in Australia two weeks ago on medical grounds after a crash in testing last month and Sunday marked his race return to the team he had an unhappy campaign with in 2007.
The Honda-powered team were way off the pace in Melbourne, team mate Jenson Button finishing 11th and last, but Alonso had battled up to ninth before he was called into the pits by engineers.
“It went better than expected,” the double world champion told reporters. “To be able to run with the pack and even catching the Red Bulls at the end before the pitstops was a nice surprise.”
McLaren have begun a new partnership with Honda, who have struggled to get their V6 turbo hybrid power unit running reliably.
The team hit repeated problems in pre-season testing, completing far fewer laps than others with the cars well off the pace.
“We had some technical issues that we are still investigating but this is normally what you find in winter testing,” said Alonso, who joined McLaren from Ferrari.
“Because we didn’t have winter testing, unfortunately, we will find this in the first couple of races but it definitely has been a very nice weekend for me and a very nice surprise how the team progressed from Australia to here.
“If we keep this rate we will enjoy it very soon.”
Button also retired from Sunday’s race at Sepang.
Manor Marussia withdrew British driver Will Stevens from the Malaysian Formula One Grand Prix just an hour before the start on Sunday due to a fuel system problem.
“Sadly Will is unable to start today’s race as we have not been able to get on top of the fuel system problem from yesterday,” the team said on Twitter.
The team, who emerged from administration only last month, failed to turn a wheel in the Australian season-opener in Melbourne two weeks ago but Stevens and Spanish team mate Roberto Merhi finally made it on track in Malaysia.
Both cars were well off the pace in practice and Stevens was unable to participate in qualifying on Saturday due to the problem that ultimately prevented him from racing.
Despite failing to clock times within 107 percent of the fastest car in the first phase of qualifying, both Merhi, who will start 19th and last on the grid, and Stevens were permitted to start by stewards.
Stevens, who raced in the 2014 season-ender in Abu Dhabi with now defunct Caterham, had been due to start in 20th place. He will now have to wait until the Chinese Grand Prix in Shanghai on April 12 for his Manor debut.
Source: Reuters
The McLaren Formula 1 team says problems with power unit components were to blame for the retirements of Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso in the Malaysian Grand Prix.
Button was stopped by a turbo problem, while Alonso was called into the pits after the team discovered an ERS cooling issue.
Despite not making the chequered flag, both drivers said they were hugely encouraged by their pace in the race and how close they had been to the midfield.
“We are actually racing people and closing on the pack in front,” said Button. “In the last stint it was quite a lot of fun.
“You can see where the strengths and weaknesses are, and it is quite apparent compared to the Force India.
“But then you also compare us to the Sauber and even some of the quicker cars.”
“Fighting with the pack is the important thing. It is what I enjoy and hopefully race by race we will start to pick them off.
“Finishing 13th or 14th is not important to me, it is more information collecting [right now].”
Alonso said McLaren’s race pace was “better than expected” for him as well.
“To be able to run with the pack, even catching Red Bull at the end before the stops, was a nice surprise,” he said.
“Maybe one point today was possible. The real positive thing is that we were able to run with everybody else, and were not just the last two cars fighting each other – this was the first step we had to do.”
Source: Autosport.com
Mercedes drivers Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg have blamed race strategy and car balance as the reason for not challenging Sebastian Vettel for the Malaysian Grand Prix victory. Autosport.com has the story.
Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg blamed poor strategic choices and balance problems for the Mercedes Formula 1 team’s defeat by Ferrari and Sebastian Vettel in the Malaysian Grand Prix.
Mercedes chose to pit both of its drivers during an early safety car period, which resulted in problems with traffic and tyre degradation.
According to the team’s two drivers, it was those factors that stopped them from keeping Mercedes’ winning streak alive.
“It was the plan from before the race, if safety car came on that lap then we would box,” explained Rosberg, who dropped from third to ninth following that first stop as several midfield drivers joined Vettel in staying out and he lost further time queuing behind Hamilton.
“We didn’t expect so many to stay out, and we didn’t expect to lose time in the pitstop waiting for people to go by because the pitlane was so wide. We thought we could go alongside.
“So those were the problems, and then just getting through the pack afterwards was very difficult and cost a lot of tyre deg.
“I tried to fight back as much as possible, but I couldn’t quite get back to Lewis.
“I lost a lot from that pitstop phase, but I’m happy I got close to Lewis.”
Hamilton, who finished second, said that poor balance played a part in the result as well as the early stop.
“I don’t know whether or not if I stayed out with [Vettel] if that would have made much of a difference,” he said.
“They were probably just as good if not a little better in terms of tyre deg, so it would have been very close.
“Naturally, after the first stop, I just had so much ground to catch up, it was pretty much impossible.
“All day I was struggling with the balance, I had a lot of understeer so I couldn’t really look after tyres.
“I was doing everything with the controls but couldn’t find a good balance.”
The world champion expressed frustration on team radio when he was given hard tyres rather than mediums for his final stint as he tried to chase down Vettel.
“When we went to the option [medium] tyre, the car was good, or better, so I could be a bit more consistent and close down the gap,” he said.
“I was told it was not going to be that tyre [at the final stop] but we went onto the other which I knew wasn’t good for me.
“I did the best I could. I think the team did the best choices they could today. We will analyse things tonight.”
Mercedes explained to Hamilton that it only had used mediums available for his last stint and thought fresh hards would be faster.
As for the race winner, Sebastian Vettel says the heat helped Ferrari to beat Mercedes. Autosport.com has the details.
Sebastian Vettel thinks the hot temperatures of the Malaysian Grand Prix were key in helping him and Ferrari beat Mercedes to a shock Formula 1 win.
The German delivered a stunning victory for Ferrari at Sepang on Sunday, as rival Mercedes did not have the pace or consistency to challenge him.
But although Ferrari has made a good step forward this season, Vettel thinks that its performance against Mercedes may have been flattered by the warm conditions.
“They probably struggled a bit with the heat, more than expected,” explained Vettel.
“We didn’t struggle as much as we probably expected. Both things made us competitive and able to beat them fair and square.
“In the next race, it’s a different type of track. It’s supposed to be a lot cooler. I think Mercedes will struggle in the hot conditions at this stage of season, but I expect them to be strong [in China].
“They are the ones who usually set the pace. Today we capitalised on their weakness a bit. For the next race, we will try to race as hard as we can and see where it takes us.”
Vettel was overwhelmed with emotions after his Malaysia triumph – which was helped by Mercedes electing to stop early for new tyres when the safety car was called out.
“I have definitely missed not just the champagne but the top step,” he said. “So it’s great to come back after a tough season where I just didn’t get on top of the car.
“This year, the balance of the car seems to suit me and come my way and also Kimi [Raikkonen]’s way more than last year in general.
“The strategy was obviously ace, so big thanks to the guys. When they [Mercedes] pulled in, I think we were a bit surprised.
“We saw on Friday they weren’t too happy on the medium compound, and Lewis [Hamilton] was struggling in the first stint so I was able to keep up, which I enjoyed a lot.
“Then I knew I had to deliver: try to make the tyres last as long as I can.
“The second stint, he was chasing me down which was tough. In the end I was able to rebalance the car a bit more and have a solid gap in the last couple of laps.”
Mercedes Formula 1 boss Toto Wolff thinks it would be wrong to blame his team’s Malaysian Grand Prix defeat on the early stop for new tyres under the safety car.
Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg were powerless to prevent Sebastian Vettel taking his first win for Ferrari on a day when their rival was faster.
But although the early stop to change tyres did not help, Mercedes insists that was not key to it losing the race.
“It is always easy afterwards to regret and say in hindsight we could have done this or that better, but we are taking these decisions together,” said Wolff.
“We haven’t done any strategic mistakes in the last two years and this is why it doesn’t make sense to point the finger to a single event.
“We need to find out why we were struggling for long-run pace in these hot conditions because I think that is the main point to look at.”
Wolff concurs with Vettel’s belief that warm temperatures hampered Mercedes’ form – although other factors were not up to scratch either, which left its drivers frustrated over the radio.
“I think that was a complicated race to read from the drivers’ perspective,” Wolff said.
“There were so many stops, your main competitors came out behind and then in front, and you need to lap cars, and you lose track.
“We weren’t particularly good on radio messaging today. We had a couple of weird calls.
“Lots of action on the radio internally is something we need to look at.
“I guess if you see you are not able to catch up, there is a certain frustration that grows on you.”
He said there was “no panic” at Mercedes but admitted the team had not been able to “control” the grand prix as has become its habit.
“We had a new situation that we haven’t had for a while in that we were not in control of things,” Wolff said.
“We had new information which was different from what we assessed over the weekend.
“Today things didn’t pan out the way we expected them to pan out.
“It is not one particular thing; it is a couple of things we can improve.
“It is clear the winning streak was not going to go on forever, but today we were beaten fair and square.”
Source: Autosport.com
Ferrari put a dismal 2014 Formula One season behind them on Sunday with a tactical masterclass that allowed Sebastian Vettel to upset the odds and sweep to victory at the Malaysian Grand Prix.
“After the difficulties of last year, the amount of effort that has gone in to turn this team around…is just extraordinary,” said the Italian team’s jubilant technical director James Allison after Ferrari’s first win since 2013.
“You can’t find the words to explain how good this feels,” added the Briton.
“This sport is mainly misery and every now and again you get an incredible rush that makes all the misery worthwhile and it sets you up and makes you just feel utterly fantastic.”
Ferrari’s 2014 blank was their first season without a win since 1993 while four times world champion Vettel failed to triumph at Red Bull.
Maurizio Arrivabene was then drafted in as team principal, with the Italian saying in December that Ferrari had a hard road ahead to catch champions Mercedes and he would be happy with two wins.
“Of course the team is super happy. I have to say I was super happy too. I promised two races (wins), now we make one,” said Arrivabene.
“Sometimes it’s an advantage and sometimes it’s a disadvantage to win so early but I’m very happy.”
Vettel had finished third in the Australian season-opener but Ferrari’s hopes were raised in Friday practice at Sepang when world champion Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes team mate Nico Rosberg struggled on the softer medium tyres.
An early safety car period saw Hamilton and Rosberg pit for hard tyres while Vettel stayed out and laid the foundation for victory on his mediums.
“The confidence we had from our tyres on Friday meant we knew we didn’t have to dive into the pits and that allowed us to get track position and then stretch our legs,” Allison added.
“It made the race easier, but I think we would have made a very good race of it in any situation.”
Vettel’s team mate Kimi Raikkonen, the 2007 world champion, showed the car’s pace when the Finn climbed from 11th on the starting grid to fourth at the flag despite a puncture.
“After the podium I was running to look for Kimi and to hug him because he did an unbelievable race and for us it’s important. He demonstrated how strong the car is,” said Arrivabene.
Source: Reuters