Ferrari vs Mercedes
The foundations for Ferrari's win were laid down during Saturdays qualifying, with Vettel qualifying in second place, just 0.074 down from Lewis Hamilton's Mercedes and ahead of Hamilton's team mate Nico Rosberg. At the start of the race Vettel maintained his second place but it was all change on lap four when Marucs Ericsson spun his Sauber into the gravel at turn one after an optimistic move on Nico Hulkenburgs Force India. The safety car came out and as the two Mercedes dived for the pits, Vettel stayed out. By the the time Hamilton and Rosberg had fought through the traffic, Vettel had a 10 second lead and, on his older medium tyres (the options for the weekend), he was matching if not going quicker than Hamilton who was on a new set of hard tyres (the primes for the weekend.
Vettel stopped on lap 17 and rejoined third on a new set of option tyres, behind the two Mercedes, but within 13 laps had passed both Mercedes drivers. The Silver Arrrows were struggling with tyre wear and were forced into a three stop strategy, Ferrari could afford to carry on with a two stop strategy. Hamilton stopped on lap 24 for a new set of options but would have to pit again for another set of prime tyres, crucially when Vettel was running the same. Rosberg meanwhile made a visit to the to the pits on lap 27 for a set of prime tyres, but again Rosberg would have to pit again with the tyre wear being to good for Rosberg to try a two stop stint.
Vettel meanwhile continued onto lap 37 and made his final visit to the pits at the end of the lap for the prime tyres. Crucially, Vettel rejoined infront of Nico Rosberg, meaning he could go on chasing Hamilton who he knew would have to pit. Rosberg did not have the pace to catch the Ferrari and all he could do was watch Vettel race into the distance. Hamilton made his final visit to the pits at the end of lap 38 and put on the prim tyres. Rosberg pitted for the option tyre on lap 41 and hoped he could catch and pass his team mate, but sadly Nico couldn't and would finish around five seconds behind his team mate. Hamilton meanwhile carried on chasing Vettel, but couldn't catch the Ferrari and finished the nearly nine seconds behind Vettel. It was an incredible performance from a team recovering from its first win-less season in 21 years.
A special mention as well to Vettel's team mate Kimi Raikkonen, who suffered a puncture at the end of lap 1 but recovered brilliantly to fourth, all this after qualifying eleventh during the rain affected qualifying on Saturday. Raikkonen's race underlined the step forward Ferrari have made and also showed the Kimi himself is a different driver this year. Who knows what might have been had he qualified where he more than likely would have been, in the top four...
The rest of the pack
Behind the lead battle there was some fantastic racing. Williams drivers Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa finished 5th and 6th, 5th for Bottas being a brilliant effort after recovering from the back injury that put him out of the season opener in Melbourne and he pulled off a stunning move around the outside of his team mate on the penultimate lap of the race, as well as doing the same earlier to Max Verstappen. Bottas did well to recover to fifth after dropping to 14th at the start. Williams will be disappointed to finish so far down on the winner (70 seconds) but don't count them out, expect the FW37 to soon be closer to the front than it is now. Whilst it is disappointing to see Williams behind Ferrari and Mercedes after finishing 2014 as the Silver Arrows closest challenger, they are clearly one of the top three teams in the sport right now and they have a decent buffer to the rest of the grid so they can take some comfort from that.
Toro Rosso had an excellent race, Max Verstappen becoming the youngest point scorer in Formula 1's history after qualifying a superb sixth and his team mate Carlos Sainz finished just one place behind in eight place. The Toro Rosso STR10 is clearly a solid little midfield car and its two drivers are both impressing, with solid drives from both of them in the first two races. Expect these two young guns to carry on impressing as the season goes on.
Red Bull meanwhile had a horrible race. The team qualified a great fourth for Daniel Ricciardo and fifth for Danill Kvyat but both cars were hampered with brake issues during the race and Kvyat made contact with Hulkenburg into turn 2, earning the Force India driver a 10 second stop go penalty. The RB11's eventually limped home in ninth and tenth places, but a woeful race for Red Bull who no doubt hope that Renaults power unit upgrades come sooner rather than later.
The less said about Sauber's race the better. Ericsson as mentioned earlier beached his C34 into the gravel at turn one after attempting to pass Hulkenburg, and Felipe Nasr had to pit at the end of lap two for a new front wing, as he was the cause of Raikkonen's puncture. Nasr eventually finished in twelfth place, but after the highs of Melbourne, it all came crashing down to earth for Sauber in Malaysia.
Despite a double retirement for the returning Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button, McLarens race was full of promise. They qualified on the penultimate row of the grid but Alonso was running in eighth place before his retirement and Button was also running well before he himself retired. The Honda powered MP4-30 was fighting with the Saubers, Force India's, Lotus and Toro Rosso's, Alonso saying he was even catching the Red Bulls before he retired on lap 21. Things are still tough for the Woking squad but there are definite signs of improvement. Keep an eye on McLaren, they are getting there.
Like Sauber, the less said about Force India's race the better. Sergio Perez made contact with the Lotus of Romain Grosjean and Nico Hulkenburg with Danill Kvyats Red Bull, after running as high as second after the safety car. After benefiting from the high attrition rate in Melbourne to achieve a double points finish, Force India had the race they should have had in Melbourne. No points with a car that was late to the party. Still, always next time.
Lotus were another team that had a horrible race, after the car showed much promise over the weekend. Pastor Maldonado retired late on and as mention earlier, Romain Grosjean made contact with Perez, ending any chance he had gaining points for the team. Grosjean was as high as third after the early safety car.The E23 though does show a lot of promise and hopefully the team will get the points they crave in China.
Finally, a massive round of applause to Manor Marussia F1, who got Roberto Mehri's car to the end of the race. Both cars ran in practice, although Will Stevens sadly couldn't run in qualifying or the race due to a fuel system issue, and Mehri did qualify out of the 107% rule but for a team that only fired its engine up on the Thursday before the race, a team that was in administration only a couple of months ago and a team that is still working to get the car running at 100% and full power, it is a huge achievement. So well done to them. Will Stevens set a time of 1m45.704 in Free Practice 2 on Friday, which was over a second within the 107% rule of the fastest time (a 1m39.790 from Hamilton), showing that when the car runs well, they shouldn't have an issue with it. Heres hoping that both cars can start the race in China and the cars run at 100%. Here's hoping that they can soon run their new MR04 (which was rumored to be a good car) and maybe, just maybe, get into the midfield.
So a there we are,great race in Malaysia, and we can leave the Sepang circuit knowing one thing...Ferrari are back! The last time the German and Italian National Anthems were heard together was in China 2006, Michael Schumacher's last Formula 1 win. Here's to more of the same for the rest of the season, and hopefully we can hear the Finnish and Italian National Anthem together to. Until next time, ciao everyone.
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