2014 Malaysian GP: Hamilton cruises to win in Mercedes one-two

Lewis Hamilton started the 2014 Malaysian GP at the Sepang International Circuit from pole position. He led all 56 laps, set the fastest lap and won ahead of team-mate Nico Rosberg and world champion Sebastian Vettel in the Red Bull. The race was effectively decided at the first corner: Hamilton pulled away immediately, and nobody got near him after that. For Mercedes it was the first one-two since the 1955 Italian GP.

Rosberg had started from grid position three. According to the FIA, he got past Vettel at the start even though the Red Bull driver tried to close the door. Behind them, Daniel Ricciardo fought his way forward from grid position five, first passing Fernando Alonso. When Rosberg made a mistake at turn three, Ricciardo also slipped past his team-mate Vettel. Vettel soon reclaimed third place, though.

After that, the leading quartet of Hamilton, Rosberg, Vettel and Ricciardo pulled away from the rest. On lap 9, according to the FIA, Hamilton was 5.4 seconds ahead of Rosberg, with Vettel a further 3.8 seconds back. The only real tension came in the fight for second place: around lap 35, Vettel closed to within half a second of Rosberg. The Mercedes driver hit back, however, and rebuilt a 1.2-second lead within two laps. Later, according to formula1.com, Vettel eased off to save fuel.

All three podium finishers made three pit stops. Hamilton stopped on laps 15, 33 and 51 and kept the lead every time. At the finish he was 17.313 seconds ahead of Rosberg, according to formula1.com, with Vettel 24.534 seconds behind. Afterwards Hamilton said, according to the FIA: “It's my eighth year here and I finally got that win.” It was his first win in Malaysia, his first of the season and his 23rd in Formula 1.

The best midfield battle came courtesy of Nico Hülkenberg, who had made a strong start from grid position seven. Force India were the only team in the top 5 to go for two stops (laps 16 and 34), while their rivals stopped three times. As a result, Hülkenberg was even running second before each of his pit stops.

The final stint got tight: Alonso, in the Ferrari, made his third stop on lap 42 and had much fresher tyres. According to the FIA, he halved his deficit of more than ten seconds while Hülkenberg's tyres faded. On lap 53, Alonso went past at the exit of turn two to take fourth. Hülkenberg still collected 10 points in fifth. His team-mate Sergio Pérez didn't even make the start: his car developed a technical problem on the way from the pit lane to the grid – in the gearbox, according to Wikipedia.

For a long time Ricciardo looked set for a strong fourth place. Then came his third stop, on lap 40: the crew had not properly fitted the left front wheel. Ricciardo came to a halt in the pit lane and had to be pushed back to his box. In total, he spent 109.3 seconds in the pit lane on that visit. On top of that, according to the FIA, a jack damaged his front wing. The wing later broke, slashed the right front tyre and forced another stop. Ricciardo was also handed a 10-second stop-and-go penalty for an unsafe release and dropped to 16th place. Red Bull retired the car after 49 laps, according to formula1.com, to protect the power unit.

That wasn't the end of it: after the race, Race Control handed Ricciardo a ten-place grid penalty for the Bahrain GP. Having lost 11 places relative to his grid position, he was the big loser of the day.

There was contact on the very first lap: Jules Bianchi in the Marussia collided with Pastor Maldonado in the Lotus F1. According to formula1.com, the incident began when Bianchi's rear tyre touched the front wing of Jean-Éric Vergne. Bianchi became the first driver ever to receive the new five-second penalty, along with two penalty points. At the start, Kevin Magnussen in the McLaren also damaged the right rear tyre of Kimi Räikkönen and his own front wing. Räikkönen had to pit as early as lap 2 and dropped to the back of the field. Magnussen received a five-second stop-and-go penalty and two penalty points. He still finished ninth. Räikkönen crossed the line twelfth, just a tenth of a second behind Romain Grosjean, according to formula1.com.

Retirements at a glance (official reason):

• Pastor Maldonado (Lotus F1): after 7 laps, engine
• Jules Bianchi (Marussia): after 8 laps, brakes
• Jean-Éric Vergne (Toro Rosso): after 18 laps, power unit
• Adrian Sutil (Sauber): after 32 laps, electrics
• Esteban Gutiérrez (Sauber): after 35 laps, gearbox
• Daniel Ricciardo (Red Bull): after 49 laps, technical failure
• Sergio Pérez (Force India): did not start

Valtteri Bottas gained the most places. He had started only 18th after a three-place grid penalty for impeding Ricciardo in qualifying. He ended up eighth, ten places higher. But it was his team-mate Felipe Massa who got people talking. The two Williams drivers were battling Jenson Button for sixth place when Massa received the radio message “Felipe, Valtteri is faster than you” (according to Wikipedia). It was reminiscent of the 2010 German GP, when Massa had to make way for Alonso at Ferrari. This time he refused and stayed ahead of Bottas. Button finished sixth, just around 1.3 seconds ahead of Massa, according to formula1.com.

There were climbers further back too: Marcus Ericsson gained eight places, Kamui Kobayashi seven. Both drove for Caterham. Thanks to his two-stop strategy, Kobayashi even ran as high as ninth at one stage. Max Chilton was the only Marussia driver to reach the finish, in fifteenth. Daniil Kvyat took the final point for Toro Rosso. Besides Ricciardo, Vergne (ten places) and Räikkönen (six places) lost the most ground.

In the 2014 standings, Rosberg stayed on top with 43 points. Having retired at the season opener in Australia, Hamilton was now second on 25 points, just ahead of Alonso (24), Button (23) and Magnussen (20). In the constructors' standings, Mercedes led with 68 points, well clear of McLaren (43) and Ferrari (30). After two races, Red Bull were only sixth with 15 points.

Sepang confirmed what the new turbo-hybrid era had hinted at: Mercedes were the benchmark. With pole position, leading every lap and the fastest lap, Hamilton claimed his first Grand Chelem. And after 2013, Malaysia saw a team-orders row for the second year running – this time at Williams.