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.

Malaysian Forecast

The Malaysian Grand Prix at the Sepang circuit near Kuala Lumpur usually produces a pretty decent race. Just look to last years multi-21 team orders fiasco from last year as an example. This year should be no exception as the teams arrive with so much still to learn about the 2014 machines they’ve created.

We still might not learn too much about the competitive order after this weekend. Malaysia is traditionally hot and humid, so it will place great stress on the cars cooling, something many of the Renault engine teams have had great trouble with in testing, particularly Red Bull.

The weather for the weekend is predicting storms throughout so it seems likely that we could be in for a topsy turvy qualifying and race, which is no doubt an exciting prospect but also disguises just which team is where when it comes to a normal dry race weekend.

The tyres Pirelli have brought are the medium and hard compounds. How much usage they’re going to get is hard to tell, it all depends on how much rain we’re going to get and at the  moment it looks like a lot of running will be done on the wet and intermediate tyres.

As is usual at most circuits these days there will be two DRS zones one on the back straight approaching the final corner and one on the start finish straight. These are unlikely to play a major role in the race should it be affected by precipitation as DRS is banned in wet conditions.

So what can we expect from the competitive order this weekend? Well a lot of teams are making bold claims about what they can achieve with many claiming Australia wasn’t a true reflection. As I’ve already said Malaysia may not provide a whole lot more information if you want the truth but McLaren for example through Ron Dennis have claimed they’ve found half a second for this race.

Can that be extrapolated for the wet conditions? It’s hard to say right now, but after a successful double podium opening weekend it’ll be interesting to see their progress. Jenson Button is great in wet conditions while new star Kevin Magnussen will be very keen to demonstrate his prowess in the wet stuff again after impressing with his rain affected qualifying performance in Melbourne.

Ferrari are well aware they need to work on the speed of their car. Fernando Alonso only just managed to get ahead of Nico Hulkenberg’s Force India last time out while Kimi Raikkonen suffered a myriad of issues mostly blaming set up problems. At least they have a reliable base to start from, although they were suffering from power issues in the race, so if all is well I expect to look far more racey this weekend.

I hope Williams can demonstrate their full performance. If Felipe Massa hadn’t have been taken out by Kamui Kobayashi’s brakeless Caterham at the first corner or Valtteri Bottas hadn’t have clunked the wall (although still recovered to sixth) then I feel sure they would have nabbed a podium fairly easily.

It’s important they do, as there should be no doubt the likes of Ferrari and McLaren will improve a great deal especially when we get back to Europe, now is the time for Williams to get the big points while the going is good.

Other teams with a lot to prove include Lotus. They’ll be happy just to get their car to the finish. They haven’t completed a race distance yet, but everyone was impressed that they managed to get two cars past half distance, which was a treat as they had barely strung five laps together. They’ve got an interesting car but I don’t expect them to show any great improvement until round five in Spain.

Marussia and Caterham look like they'll be battling at the back again after a few races of elevated position while I'm afraid Sauber look a bit slow at the moment.

One of the teams to look out I think is Force India. Nico Hulkenberg had an impressive drive (yet again) and will be looking for another top result. If it rains, look out for him and Sergio Perez (so impressive just two years ago in Malaysia). They are armed with the Mercedes power unit, so should always be one to watch over the next few race weekends.

Now we come to Red Bull. They were remarkable by getting to the end with Daniel Ricciardo’s car despite not having done a race distance before the opener. Ok, so they were disqualified for the fuel flow rate being consistently greater than the 100kg/h it should have been but they are appealing and feel confident they’ll get their points back but that’s another story.

What we can tell though is that once they iron out the reliability problems they’re once again going to be involved in the championship fight. They’ve barely tapped into the potential of this car, and after such a strong showing they’ll have been delighted. So Sebastian Vettel didn’t make it over five laps, that’s a niggle that was to be expected in many ways.

I expect a more coherent challenge from both cars, especially from Vettel as he seeks to put Ricciardo in his place after the Australian out-qualified him in Australia albeit with a down on power car. Red Bull and particularly Vettel are the ones to watch this weekend in regards to their pace and whether they can keep their Renault power unit cool enough in the extreme heat and humidity we expect.

Of course out in front we can still expect to see the silver of Mercedes leading the way. At the moment if they get far enough away in the early stages  it could  be a two horse race for the title between Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton.

As brilliant as Mercedes were in Australia they had their own problems with Hamilton retiring after only two laps. However, Rosberg went on to dominate the race. Lewis will want to assert his authority on this particular team mate battle sooner rather than later. He knows he has the edge in out and out speed, but in the races it could be a different matter, Malaysia is the time for Lewis to get a victory on the board and it’ll be game on. Even at this early stage he can’t afford to fall behind Rosberg any more especially if other teams begin to catch them…

Let's see how the engine noise continues to grow on us too. I think we'll be used to it in a few races and on TV it comes across fine. Live though it seems the feedback is it could be louder. I'm sure they'll sort something out, Formula 1 is about the spectacle and the awesomeness of the cars live. It's what everyone says if they attend a race. Ok the cars will still look great to watch, but it's the sound vibrating through your body that is the most amazing thing. That needs to be there.

So in short Mercedes will lead, McLaren and Williams will challenge them, Ferrari will disappoint and make Fernando annoyed, Hulkenberg will offer us a surprise while Red Bull I’m sure are about to make Mercedes wonder whether they really do have the best car. It’s going to be an exciting weekend of racing.

all photo's taken from autosport.com

Nico Rosberg unbeatable in Oz opener

We've been waiting since November to see this new generation of cars. Four months since Brazil, the Australian Grand Prix at Albert Park, Melbourne brought Formula 1 into a new era, one where you can hear the tyres squeal over the engine noise, where fuel management is key and fuel flow rates should be monitored at all times to prevent disqualification.

The Brake-by-wire system which feeds the Kinetic energy recovery is cause for concern for a lot of teams too which resulted in Kamui Kobayashi’s Caterham slamming into the back of a rather annoyed Felipe Massa who was making his debut for Williams and thought he had a shot at a podium.

There was a safety car brought out for the other Williams of Valtteri Bottas, which continued despite clouting the wall but did leave some debris on the racing line. A threat of rain hung around but didn’t materialise but through all this came the Mercedes of Nico Rosberg to claim the first victory of 2014.

He started third but launched himself into a lead he was never to lose. Without the safety  car intervention he would probably have doubled the 26.7second lead he held over Kevin Magnussen’s McLaren.

A perfect start was matched by a relentless pace which probably could have been faster if he wanted to. However, with the troubles his team mate Lewis Hamilton suffered over the weekend, it was probably best he did just what was required rather than push the limits.

All the teams suffered some sort of reliability problems over the weekend and Mercedes was no exception despite being the pace setters. Hamilton suffered a sensor problem which shut the car down in first practice then his engine suffered a problem they noticed on the warm up laps before the race. It dropped him down to five cylinders and it was immediately obvious from when the lights went out that he was in trouble, he lasted only two laps before retiring having started from pole position.

At the moment it looks like Mercedes are way out in front so Lewis’ retirement means he’s already dropped 25 points to his most likely challenger in the championship, but this won’t bother Nico who took the fourth win of his career and set himself up nicely for the year ahead.

Red Bull had looked like they’d worked a minor miracle. Both cars looked quick in practice but a problem for Sebastian Vettel with the engine software meant he was losing power from Saturday onwards. He could only qualify 13^th as a result and didn’t make more than three laps of the race to say he sounded frustrated was an understatement.

Daniel Ricciardo made his debut for the champion team this weekend and was just sensational. He was quick all weekend and almost grabbed pole position. He held second throughout the race holding off Magnussen’s McLaren for most of it to take a well deserved first podium.

Unfortunately this result has been stripped from the record books. Ricciardo was disqualified for his car consistently exceeding the maximum fuel flow rate of 100kg/h. The FIA warned the team during the race that this was happening but apparently this was ignored. Red Bull claim the fault lies with the sensor which monitors fuel flow and had already been replaced and then refitted during the weekend because of unreliable results.

It all seems a bit murky, but Red Bull has already announced their intention to appeal the decision. But perhaps more importantly for the rest of the year is the fact that despite all their winter testing struggles Red Bull have a fast car and one with which they have barely scratched the surface of in terms of performance. 

To bring a car home when they hadn’t even attempted a race distance should be satisfying in itself, to bring it home at a reasonable pace and on the podium means Mercedes shouldn’t count on this title battle being just between their own drivers. These Bull’s are getting ready to run and run fast.

Completing the podium after Ricciardo’s disqualification were the two McLaren’s. Kevin Magnussen was a true star this weekend. He out-qualified his far more experienced team mate Jenson Button and then managed to finish ahead too. Magnussen started fourth but was soon up to third and kept the pressure on Ricciardo throughout the Grand Prix. Button used his pit stops to jump the likes of Nico Hulkenberg and Fernando Alonso to claim fourth which became third.

It was impressive racing from the Woking squad, who get a double podium after not taking any in 2013. Their pace wasn’t too shabby either and they should be definite podium contenders in these opening rounds. If they can keep their development up who knows where this season will lead.

What we do know is that Magnussen is already a star of the sport. His calmness in the race was impressive and the way he went for Lewis on the opening lap was fantastic, even if the Merc was hobbled. I expect many more podiums from him this season, while Button certainly has his hands full.

Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen were disappointed with Ferrari’s double points finish, winding up fourth and seventh respectively. Alonso is already saying Ferrari should not be happy with where they are. They didn’t have the pace and he spent a lot of it trapped behind Hulkenberg, only passing him by staying out two extra laps at the second pit stops.

Kimi meanwhile spent a lot of time battling with the Toro Rosso’s and tyre graining. It wasn’t the best race for Kimi and he’ll want to step up his pace against Alonso quickly as the Spaniard looked a great deal quicker throughout the weekend.

Bottas rescued Williams’ race despite hitting the wall. If he hadn’t he may well have sneaked a podium such was his pace. He had started 15^th after getting a five place grid drop due to a gearbox change, but soon charged up the order. He was the most entertaining driver of the day, catching people at seconds per lap and then immediately making an incisive move.

It was such a disappointment he hit the wall as he caught up with Alonso ahead. Still, it showed Williams have made progress after not impressing in qualifying as much as might have been expected. On this showing a few Williams podiums can’t be far off.

Hulkenberg took sixth after battling with Alonso, while his Force India team mate Sergio Perez took 10^th after suffering a puncture on the opening lap. Toro Rosso also impressed by managing to hold on to their wet qualifying top 10s in the dry when in practice they had not looked good. Jean-Eric Vergne claimed eighth while new boy Daniil Kvyat was outstanding on his way to ninth to replace Sebastian Vettel as the youngest ever points scorer.

Behind the points scorers, Sauber failed to deliver much pace while Kobayashi’s brake problem denied Caterham a chance to shine, although he had got into Q2. Marussia had start line problems but got both cars home even if Jules Bianchi was eight laps down. It should be noted that Max Chilton actually out-qualifed Bianchi, which I thought was quite impressive.

Lotus was the most underprepared team coming into this race and it showed. They suffered problem after problem, with Romain Grosjean starting from the pit lane for which he got a drive through penalty for leaving the garage too early. Pastor Maldonado barely did a lap and started last. So surprisingly they got both cars past the halfway mark and showed a decent amount of speed too. Once they can eliminate their problems, of which there are many, they’ll soon move up the grid.

Round up

So what has this race told us? Mercedes are superfast but not without their problems. Williams missed an opportunity this weekend, McLaren have a new superstar on their hands, Ferrari and Alonso are going to go their separate ways if the team don’t improve quickly and Red Bull performed miracles this weekend so it was such a shame they weren’t rewarded.

I'd also like to say the engine noise is perfectly acceptable, the rolling deep thunder combines well with the whine of the turbo and electrical power. It's something we'll all get used to, although maybe it would be nice if it was slightly louder.

There were many questions before this weekend, there are still many questions but at least we’ve got a few more ideas as we head to Malaysia. Australia was a good race, but it’ll get even better when the teams get on top of their cars and they can all go on maximum attack.

Result:

1. Nico Rosberg - Mercedes

2. Kevin Magnussen - McLaren

3. Jenson Button - McLaren

4. Fernando Alonso - Ferrari

5. Valtteri Bottas - Williams

6. Nico Hulkenberg - Force India

7. Kimi Raikkonen - Ferrari

8. Jean-Eric Vergne - Toro Rosso

9. Daniil Kvyat - Toro Rosso

10. Sergio Perez - Force India

11. Adrian Sutil - Sauber

12. Esteban Gutierrez - Sauber

13. Max Chilton - Marussia

R. Jules Bianchi - Marussia - Unclassified

R. Romain Grosjean - Lotus - ERS failure

R. Pastor Maldonado - Lotus - ERS failure

R. Marcus Ericsson - Caterham - Oil Pressure

R. Sebastian Vettel - Red Bull - loss of power

R. Lewis Hamilton - Mercedes - Engine

R. Felipe Massa - Williams - Accident

R. Kamui Kobayashi - Caterham - Accident/Brakes

DSQ. Daniel Ricciardo - Red Bull

all photo's taken from autosport.com