Malaysian Grand Prix

Malaysian Grand Prix – Post-Race Report

The Malaysian Grand Prix started cleanly for most of the drivers with Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo and Mercedes’s Nico Rosberg both managing to push past the reigning Champion Sebastian Vettel by the second corner.

As the cars made their way to the fourth corner the Marussia of Jules Bianchi made contact with Pastor Maldonado in the Lotus later forcing Maldonado to retire and dropping Bianchi a lap down. 

The fuel flow controversy made to return for Red Bull and Daniel Ricciardo with doubts surrounding his pace. When Red Bull team principal Christian Horner was asked about the situation for Ricciardo and whether the issues experienced in Australia were likely to return Horner replied to say that the sensor had failed, implying that Red Bull were once again having to resort to their own measurements for fuel-flow.

The monsoon-like rain experienced in qualifying managed to hold off for the full-length of the race with only a few light sprinkles of rain.

Williams struggled to manage their two drivers as Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa maintained a close proximity during the race. Their race reached a frustrated conclusion when Massa was asked to let Bottas through. After years of being the second driver at Ferrari, Massa seemed to ignore this message holding up Bottas in the final few laps. This apparent refusal of team orders allowed the McLaren of Jenson Button to hold onto a much needed 8 points.

Much like the Australian Grand Prix two weeks ago one constant remained with Mercedes holding onto a clear dominance of the race. Hamilton controlled his race pace, tyre wear and fuel use perfectly to take his first win of 2014 with very little threat from any other driver on the grid. Nico Rosberg manage to bring his Mercedes home to second place producing the first Mercedes one-two in 60 years and proving their dominance of F1 in 2014.

Malaysian Grand Prix – Pre-Race Report

The heat of Malaysia will be a huge test for the 2014 engine packages. After the relatively tight circuit of Melbourne with it’s lower evening temperatures the Malaysian Grand Prix will really test the reliability. Malaysia offers a chance for teams to risk it all and target good points whilst others remain conservative or ultimately prove to have gambled to high and risk reliability issues.

Last year saw huge controversy as both Red Bull and Mercedes played with fire when trying to ask their leading drivers to hold position ahead of very eager team-mates. In the case of Mercedes the request was reluctantly honoured by the trailing Nico Rosberg. Whereas at Red Bull Mark Webber was passed by Vettel in a close bare knuckle fight for the win before Webber eventually saw sense and backed off.

With long straights and tight slow hairpins there are some great opportunities for overtaking, combined with the reliability test and the changeable weather conditions guaranteed in Malaysia and this could prove to be one of the season highlights.