Rosberg completes 2nd, Mercedes one-two; Vettel finishes third
Lewis Hamilton led from pole position to win the Malaysian Grand Prix on
Sunday ahead of Nico Rosberg in a Mercedes show of strength.
Four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel was third ahead of Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso.
It was a demonstration by Mercedes who have now won the season’s two
opening Formula One races and secured a first one-two since the 1955
Italian Grand Prix.
Hamilton cruised to his 23rd grand prix victory while Rosberg enjoyed
another podium place after winning the season opener in Australia two
weeks ago.
Red Bull were boosted by Vettel’s podium finish but team-mate Daniel Ricciardo’s race was ruined by a late tyre change blunder.
Hamilton took the chequered flag 17.133 seconds ahead of his team-mate,
with Vettel 24.334 seconds back. It was the Briton’s first win since
Hungarian GP in July and his first in Malaysia.
The remaining places in the top 10 were taken by Nico Huelkenberg (Force
India), Jenson Button (McLaren), Felipe Massa (Williams), Valtteri
Bottas (Williams), Kevin Magnusson (McLaren) and Daniil Kvyat (Toro
Rosso).
Heavy rain forecast for the start of the race at the Sepang
International Circuit held off and Hamilton was able to get away cleanly
from Rosberg, who moved past Vettel at the start.
Ricciardo also began well, overtaking Alonso and Vettel, before slipping back behind the German on lap four.
McLaren’s Kevin Magnussen was handed a five-second stop-go penalty for
hitting Kimi Raikkonen’s Ferrari, causing a puncture, while Force
India’s Sergio Perez failed to start due to a software problem.
Engine reliability proved a problem for Lotus driver Pastor Maldonado,
who was forced to retire, while Toro Ross’s Jean-Eric Vergne retired
reporting a lack of power, and both Saubers of Adrian Sutil and Esteban
Gutierrez also pulled out in quick succession.
Hamilton was untroubled at the front, building up a lead of around 10
seconds by the half-way mark, with only the threat of rain a possible
concern for the 2008 world champion.
Ricciardo was lying fourth when he pitted with 15 laps to go, but
mechanics failed to secure his left front tyre properly and the
Australian had to stop in the pit lane and be pushed back for the tyre
to be fixed.
He then almost immediately had to return to the pits with a broken front
wing and was then punished with a 10-second stop-go penalty for an
unsafe release in the first pit stop before he finally retired with four
laps remaining.
As skies darkened, drivers reported drops of rain with some 20 laps of
the 56 laps to go, but the feared downpour failed to materialise and any
potential late drama was avoided.