Lewis Hamilton salutes
the crowd and his Mercedes crew after winning the Malaysian Grand Prix.
Photograph: Ed Jones/AFP/Getty Images
Lewis Hamilton
won the Malaysian Grand Prix from lights out to chequered flag on
Sunday to earn his 23rd win, and his first at the Sepang circuit. It was
also his first Formula One race victory since Hungary last summer.
Nico Rosberg came second to confirm the early dominance of the Mercedes team, their first one-two since the heady days in the 1950s – the Italian Grand Prix of 1955 to be precise.
But just like the rain, which sprinkled over some areas of the track like a blessing in the latter stages of the race, the excitement never really came.
It was another very encouraging day for Sebastian Vettel, who followed up his second place in qualifying on Saturday with third place to prove that his earlier performance was not merely down to the wet weather.
But it was not all good news for Red Bull.Daniel Ricciardo had to retire after part of a wing fell off, one of seven drivers to drop out of the race.
Fernando Alonso, whose Ferrari showed real pace at times, was fourth while Nico Hulkenberg once again punched above his weight to come fifth in his Force India.
It was also a decent afternoon for two other teams with Mercedes engines; Williams and McLaren saw both their drivers come home in the top 10. There was a sometimes feisty battle between the two Williams men, Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas.
At one point Massa was told to move over because "Bottas is faster than you", which must have brought back unhappy memories of his Ferrari days when he was often given the same message relating to Alonso.
But the race was all about Hamilton, who won by 17 seconds and also recorded the day's fastest lap to capitalise on his pole position, earned on Saturday. "I'm so grateful to the team for all their hard work," he said. "They were spot-on with the pit stops, spot-on with everything." Hamilton also dedicated his win to the victims of the still missing Malaysian Airlines flight MH370.
Rosberg was behind Hamilton all the way, but afterwards shrugged: "Lewis was too quick today."
Nico Rosberg came second to confirm the early dominance of the Mercedes team, their first one-two since the heady days in the 1950s – the Italian Grand Prix of 1955 to be precise.
But just like the rain, which sprinkled over some areas of the track like a blessing in the latter stages of the race, the excitement never really came.
It was another very encouraging day for Sebastian Vettel, who followed up his second place in qualifying on Saturday with third place to prove that his earlier performance was not merely down to the wet weather.
But it was not all good news for Red Bull.Daniel Ricciardo had to retire after part of a wing fell off, one of seven drivers to drop out of the race.
Fernando Alonso, whose Ferrari showed real pace at times, was fourth while Nico Hulkenberg once again punched above his weight to come fifth in his Force India.
It was also a decent afternoon for two other teams with Mercedes engines; Williams and McLaren saw both their drivers come home in the top 10. There was a sometimes feisty battle between the two Williams men, Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas.
At one point Massa was told to move over because "Bottas is faster than you", which must have brought back unhappy memories of his Ferrari days when he was often given the same message relating to Alonso.
But the race was all about Hamilton, who won by 17 seconds and also recorded the day's fastest lap to capitalise on his pole position, earned on Saturday. "I'm so grateful to the team for all their hard work," he said. "They were spot-on with the pit stops, spot-on with everything." Hamilton also dedicated his win to the victims of the still missing Malaysian Airlines flight MH370.
Rosberg was behind Hamilton all the way, but afterwards shrugged: "Lewis was too quick today."
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