F1 2015 – Malaysian Grand Prix

The second race of this year's Formula 1 carousel has a single denominator – Ferrari is back! Thanks to Sebastian Vettel , the Italian team was able to win the race for the first time since 2013, and it also came unexpectedly early for the German competitor, already in his second start for the horse from Maranello.

Ferrari was closing in on Mercedes all weekend, but it was Kimi Räikkönen who managed to be faster than his teammate in practice. However, the qualification completely reversed the distribution of forces within the team, but it should be noted that this was mainly due to the rain right after the first laps of the second part of the qualification. After all the vicissitudes, the Manor Marussia single-seaters, or Robert Merhi's single-seater, also started the first one. Will Stevens was ruled out by technical problems. Together with the Spaniard, the McLarens did not pass through the sieve of the first part again, and their troubles thus deepened. Sebastian Vettel gained a decisive advantage in the second part. He was the first to go out on the track in the rapidly changing conditions and did a clean and, above all, qualifying lap . For example, his team-mate, who was only eleventh at the start, or Lewis Hamilton, who somehow advanced to the last qualifying segment, paid for the operation. It started a few minutes late due to the monsoon rain , but in the end it was worth the wait. Hamilton was able to set a very very good time in his first lap on the tires in the transitional conditions. In the end, no one was able to surpass him, Vettel was the closest to him, slower by 0.074 seconds . The third Rosberg already lost a little more. Ricciardo finished fourth, Kvyat fifth, Verstappen sixth, Massa seventh, Bottas eighth, Ericsson ninth, Grosjean tenth (but he was penalized two places at the start), Räikkönen eleventh, Maldonado twelfth, Hülkenberg thirteenth, Pérez fourteenth, Sainz fifteenth, Nasr sixteenth, seventeenth Button, eighteenth Alonso and nineteenth Merhi.

The start of the race went perfectly for Hamilton, Vettel and Rosberg also maintained their positions, although the latter had a tendency to slip into second place. Things didn't go well for Pastor Maldonado , whose tire was punctured by Valtteri Bottas, and a few corners later also Kimi Räikkönen , whose tire was punctured by Felipe Nasr at the end of the first lap. The Finnish pilot later had a tire "explode" and crawled into the pit lane. Felipe Nasr also had to pit with a damaged front wing. His teammate Marcus Ericsson provided further excitement in the fourth round. With a schoolboy mistake, he went off the track in the first corner, got into the gravel zone and the race was over for him. A Safety Car even took to the track, one would almost say it was a godsend for Ferrari.

Both Mercedes, like most of the field, pitted for the harder compound , but Vettel stayed on track and took the lead. In addition, the double pitstop strategy did not work out for the German team, and Rosberg fell to the bottom of the top ten after another loss of time while waiting for Hamilton's check-in. Hamilton circled in sixth place . After the restart on the seventh lap, both Mercedes drivers pushed forward – Hamilton faster, Rosberg slower. Four laps later, the Briton was already in second place with a ten-second loss to Vettel . To the slight astonishment of all concerned, the loss stabilized at ten seconds. Everything broke in the fourteenth lap, when the gradual deformation of the German's tires occurred and Hamilton began to tighten them. Two laps later, Vettel drove to his mechanics , even thanks to a super-fast stop, he was able to stay in sight behind the third Rosberg.

In the second half of the top ten, the drivers of Red Bull and Toro Rosso were fighting each other, Kimi Räikkönen, who was the fastest man on the track around the eighteenth lap, started to approach from behind at great speed! In the twenty-first lap, Vettel got close behind Rosberg and overtook his compatriot on the approach to the following lap. The race was very unfortunate for Fernando Alonso . Although he was on the points for a while, six laps before the halfway point of the race, he had to withdraw due to a technical fault.

After overtaking Rosberg, Vettel went to chase Hamilton and on the fresh softer tires (Hamilton was driving on the older hard compound at the time) he did quite quickly. Just three laps after Rosberg, the Ferrari driver overtook the Briton in the Mercedes in an almost identical place, but the latter immediately drove off for a fresh, softer set, thanks to heavy tire wear. The twenty-sixth lap brought drama in Ricciardo, Kvyat and Hülkenberg. The first-named was instructed to let his team-mate in front of him, but he was immediately "taken down" by Hülkenberg quite unsparingly. He later received a 10-second stop & go penalty for his actions. On the 27th lap, Rosberg pitted for a harder compound and relinquished second place in the race to Hamilton. He lost 22.6 seconds to Vettel!

After half the race , Vettel was leading ahead of Hamilton, Rosberg, Räikkönen and Massa. In the thirty-first lap, Pérez collided with Grosjean in a dangerous place, the Mexican received the same penalty as Hülkenberg for his actions. Although Hamilton was pulling Vettel quite quickly and lost only about 14 seconds when the German stopped on the 37th lap, his tires could not last until the end of the race. This was confirmed two laps later, when it quickly worked its way into the Mercedes pit . Nevertheless, the British competitor came out with a bigger loss to the first place, in addition, he was given slower, orange-marked harder shoes. Another three laps and the German team was working again, this time on Nico Rosberg's car, which received a softer set of tires. However, his loss in third place was difficult to recover from.

Although the Mercedes engineers set a strategy for Hamilton, in which he should have overtaken the first Vettel five laps before the end , the pilot himself, however, rather spoke on the team's radio and complained about the behavior of the car. This was also reflected in the gap, which was constantly around ten seconds . In the 44th lap, McLaren finished the race, because Button also had his formula terminated. About six laps before the finish line, the Toro Rosso pilots were mainly in charge of the entertainment, fighting with each other and with the parent Red Bull. However, the gap between first and second was still around ten seconds, sometimes a tenth less, sometimes a tenth more. The last excitement was brought by a sharp fight between the Williams drivers for fifth place before the end. The latter sounded better for Bottas on slightly fresher tyres.

The last lap was a triumphant pass by Sebastian Vettel , who in his second race for Ferrari was able to take the Maranell horse to the top of the podium. It was the first win for both Ferrari and Vettel since the 2013 season and the German thoroughly enjoyed the euphoria. The Italian fans thus got a new hero, the Italian media got a supply of articles for the next few days and the fans of the entire Formula 1 an indication that things may not be so hot again with the dominance of Mercedes . China will see the next round of the battle for the title of world champion in two weeks . You are looking forward? We do!

VC Malaysia 2015 Results

Running standings after the second of the nineteen races – drivers

Provisional standings after the second of the nineteen races – teams

Source: formula1.com