F1 Malaysia GP: Vettel takes his first Ferrari win in a thriller

After a winless season, Ferrari returned at the forefront of F1 with Sebastian Vettel winning the Malaysian Grand Prix ahead of the Mercedes pairing of Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg on Sunday.

When the safety car was deployed on lap , majority of drivers dived into the pits for a fresh set of tyres. Sebastian Vettel decide not to follow the bandwagon and enjoyed a clear track ahead of him while rivals Hamilton and Rosberg lost a heap of time in traffic.

This laid down the foundation of the win for Vettel who comfortably took the cheuqered flag by a 10 second margin to his nearest rival. It was Ferrari’s first triumph since Spain 2013 and Vettel’s first visit to the top step of the podium since the 2013 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg finished in second and third places respectively for Mercedes, having struggled in comparison to Ferrari in managing their tyres. Having won the previous race in Australia by a 35 second margin, a long debrief session awaits in the Mercedes hospitality unit at Sepang.

Behind the duo came the Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen who made his way from the back of the grid, after an early race puncture necessitates an extra pit stop. His result further underlined the turnaround by the Scuderia over the course of the winter.

Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa scrapped for the fifth position in an intra-team battle for Williams, with the Finn eventually finishing ahead.

A similar battle at Toro Rosso made Max Verstappen F1’s youngest point scorer at a tender age of 17. The Dutchman executed a beautiful pass over teammate Carlos Sainz Jr to finish in eighth place.

Toro Rosso finish ahead of senior team

Red Bulls found themselves behind their juniour squad in ninth and 10th places respectively, suggesting the team can’t simply blame the Renault power unit for their dismal results. Daniil Kvyat crossed the chequered flag in 9th place while Daniel Ricciardo salvaged the final points scoring position in 10th. Both Red Bull Racing machines suffered heavy brake wear with a noticeable amount of carbon brake dust coming out of the wheels of Ricciardo and Kvyat's machines at the heavy braking zones.

Romain Grosjean ran as high as third at one stage but couldn’t keep up to pace with his rivals, eventually finishing in 11th position.

Force India return home empty handed

Neither of the Force Indias finished in the top 10 with Perez classified in 13th place and Hulkenberg a position behind in 14th. Both the drivers were handed a 10 second stop/go penalty for causing two separate accidents.

Roberto Merhi made it to the finish in the sole Manor but hardly featured on FOM’s World Feed due to suspicious reasons.

And finally, McLaren suffered a double DNF with Button and returnee retiring from the race due to undisclosed car problems. However, it was clear that the team has made some progress since Australia, where they finished two laps down on the race winner.

Concluding thoughts

Malaysia was in stark contrast to the snore fest of Melbourne with wheel-to-wheel battles all around the field. An early race safety car led way to different strategies and tyres were put to the edge in the Sepang heat.

The swift and negative reactions to the events of Melbourne were possibly blown out of proportion as arguments generally tend to be in F1. At a more traditional circuit and in much hotter and testing conditions 15 cars made it to the finish line and with Rosberg's fastest lap of 1:42.062 being almost a second faster than the one set by Hamilton in last year's event.

Sebastian Vettel was the only driver to two-stop on his way to the chequered flag and Ferrari’s ability to manage tyres better than the rest of the field will certainly pay dividends for the remainder of the season.

F1 Malaysia Grand Prix - Results

1. Sebastian Vettel (Ferrari) 1:41:05.793
2. Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes AMG F1) +8.5
3. Nico Rosberg (Mercedes AMG F1) +12.3
4. Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari) +53.8
5. Valtteri Bottas (Williams Racing-Mercedes) +70.4
6. Felipe Massa (Williams Racing-Mercedes) +73.5
7. Max Verstappen (Toro Rosso-Renault) +97.7
8. Carlos Sainz (Toro Rosso-Renault) +1 lap
9. Daniil Kvyat (Red Bull Racing-Renault) +1lap
10. Daniel Ricciardo (Red Bull Racing-Renault) +1 lap
11. Romain Grosjean (Lotus F1-Mercedes) F1 +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