Sunday 30 March 2014

Hamilton cruises to Malaysian win

The Malaysian Grand Prix can't go down as one of the best races we've ever seen can it? 

Lewis Hamilton romped away to a dominant victory with his Mercedes team mate Nico Rosberg keeping the rest at bay to record the first silver arrows 1-2 since the 1950s.

Lewis got a good start from pole position and from then on was never really troubled. A great performance and one in which he showed that any doubts he could perform well to these new regulations were brilliant quashed. 

In fact according to the new television graphics showing fuel consumption (a nice and essential innovation for understanding the races) he had one of the best. He had to get ground back on Rosberg after not scoring points in Australia, so it was job done.

Rosberg had a bit more competition but it was really a Mercedes demonstration. Equally as impressive though was Sebastian Vettel in the Red Bull.

After all their troubles he showed his fighting qualities. He never really let Rosberg get away and more than deserved his third place finish after a fantastic front row qualifying in the wet.

No rain on race day which might have spiced up the action but Vettel showed Red Bull are quickly getting on top of their problems. This is despite another non points showing from Daniel Ricciardo.

The Australian was again impressive and had made a fantastic start to actually get in front of Vettel after starting fifth.

However, more fuel sensor troubles, a dodgy pit stop and a failing front wing meant he retired and came away with no points. His opening performances though have shown he more than deserves his place in a top team.

As there was last year, there was more team order controversy. This time it was Williams.

They will definitely have annoyed Felipe Massa by mirroring the 'faster than you' message he so controversially received in 2010 from Ferrari.

But Massa isn't taking that kind of thing it seems as he remained steadfast in his refusal to let Valtteri Bottas ahead in the closing laps. 

There had already been radio messages exchanged earlier in the race when Bottas was heard to tell the team to get Massa to get a move on.

Bottas did have the pace but couldn't get by at the end leaving them in seventh and eighth. Sixth was on the table, they'd been catching Jenson Button, but Massa probably cost Bottas and the team a shot at that. It's a shame Williams haven't been able to demonstrate their full potential yet. 

Qualifying was wet and their car seems very unsuited to the conditions so they were out of position for the race, so an extra place would have been good. It'll be a heated debrief this evening.

Hulkenberg produced another impressive drive for Force India. He had a nice scrap with Fernando Alonso on his way to fifth. 

Alonso took fourth but looks more and more disillusioned, especially as he stared into the cockpits if both Red Bull and Mercedes after the race.

He obviously expects more from Ferrari but it already looks like this will be another year lost for him as he strives for that elusive third title.

It won't have helped that Kimi Raikkonen showed the first signs that he'll be giving him a headache this year. In general Kimi looked quicker in the dry practice sessions only falling foul of the wet qualifying to line up behind Alonso.

Kimi's race was compromised by an early puncture after Kevin Magnussen hit him and it was a mission just to fight back up to 12th. I want to see a fair and equal battle between the Ferrari duo in Bahrain.

Ron Dennis said McLaren had found half a second. Well sixth for Button and ninth for Magnussen doesn't really match their double podium. They had obviously slipped back but at least for Button he got one over on Magnussen in the race after being out qualified again although the youngster did have to change his nose cone after the Kimi incident.

Daniil Kvyat in the Toro Rosso scored points again with another impressive display from the rookie.

Other impressive displays came from Caterham's Kamui Kobayashi who showed a lot of fight on his way to 13th. Better than that though was Romain Grosjean who got the troublesome Lotus to the finish after barely completing a lap in practice. Great stuff.

But nothing is more brilliant than the silver arrows. Mercedes top both championships, but even they must be thinking that Red Bull could be on level terms sooner rather than later or are they racing well within themselves? We'll find out more next week in Bahrain.

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