Lewis Hamilton wins 2014 Malaysian GP

Lewis Hamilton has continued Mercedes AMG’s strong early season form by driving to a comfortable victory at the Malaysian Grand Prix today. He finished 17 seconds ahead of teammate Nico Rosberg. Amazingly, it’s the first Mercedes 1-2 finish since the 1955 Italian Grand Prix.

Sebastian Vettel collected Red Bull’s first official points for 2014 by coming home third, ahead of a largely anonymous Fernando Alonso. The dual world champion did have to fight hard for that P4, enjoying a nice late race scrap with Nico Hulkenberg.

Jenson Button came home in sixth for McLaren. While the Williams intra-team rivalry went up a notch with Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas fighting on track and over the radio waves. Once again Felipe got the “your teammate is faster than you” radio call, but he’s learnt not to be pushed around so easily since his Ferrari days and did not let Bottas through as instructed and held on for P7.

The top 10 was rounded out by rookies Kevin Magnussen and Daniil Kvyat who have both continued their promising Formula 1 careers by collecting points in their first two grands prix.

Alas, once again the hard luck story was Daniel Ricciardo. At the start he made good ground dicing for position with Sebastian Vettel and claimed P3 in the early stages of the race. Vettel soon got past with the benefit of DRS but Daniel was looking safe for a solid fourth place finish. Then, on lap 41, through no fault of his own, it all went horribly wrong.

Daniel came in for what should have been his final pit stop. The wheel change seemed to go to plan but he was released without his right front wheel being secured properly. He was forced to stop in pit lane and then get pushed back into his pit box so the team could see to his wheel. Worse was to come. On his out lap his front wing broke and he had to pit again for a replacement.

The hard luck was still not done with as under new regulations he was given an automatic 10 second stop-go penalty for an unsafe release, wihch also brings with it a 10 place grid penalty for the next race. The disappointment was complete when he retired from the race seven laps from the end.

So once again Mercedes AMG showed it is the team to beat and Red Bull is the best placed team to challenge for race wins. We can expect that form to continue in Bahrain next weekend.

2014 Malaysian Grand Prix final placings

1. Lewis Hamilton Mercedes AMG – 56 Laps, 1:40:25.974 (25 pts)
2. Nico Rosberg Mercedes AMG – +17.3 secs (18 pts)
3. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull – +24.5 secs (15 pts)
4. Fernando Alonso Ferrari – +35.9 secs (12 pts)
5. Nico Hulkenberg Force India – +47.1 secs (10 pts)
6. Jenson Button McLaren – +83.6 secs (8 pts)
7. Felipe Massa Williams – +85.0 secs (6 pts)
8. Valtteri Bottas Williams – +85.5 secs (4 pts)
9. Kevin Magnussen McLaren – +1 Lap (2 pts)
10. Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso – +1 Lap (1 pt)
11. Romain Grosjean Lotus – +1 Lap
12. Kimi Räikkönen Ferrari – +1 Lap
13. Kamui Kobayashi Caterham – +1 Lap
14. Marcus Ericsson Caterham – +2 Laps
15. Max Chilton Marussia – +2 Laps

Retired/not classified
Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull Racing – +7 Laps
Esteban Gutierrez Sauber – +21 Laps
Adrian Sutil Sauber – +24 Laps
Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso – +38 Laps
Jules Bianchi Marussia – +48 Laps
Pastor Maldonado Lotus – +49 Laps
Sergio Perez Force India – DNS

2014 F1 world championship – Drivers (Top 10)

1. Nico Rosberg Mercedes AMG – 43
2. Lewis Hamilton Mercedes AMG – 25
3. Fernando Alonso Ferrari – 24
4. Jenson Button McLaren – 23
5. Kevin Magnussen McLaren – 20
6. Nico Hulkenberg Force India – 18
7. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull – 15
8. Valtteri Bottas Williams – 14
9. Kimi Räikkönen Ferrari – 6
10. Felipe Massa Williams – 6

2014 F1 world championship – Constructors

1. McLaren-Mercedes – 38
2. Mercedes – 68
3. Ferrari – 30
4. Williams-Mercedes – 20
5. Force India-Mercedes – 19
6. Red Bull Racing – 15
7. STR-Renault – 7