By Ben Anderson http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/113187
Lewis Hamilton sparked his 2014 Formula 1 season into life by dominating the Malaysian Grand Prix on Sunday.
The
2008 world champion made up for the disappointment of early retirement
from the season-opener in Australia earlier this month by comfortably
beating Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg to victory by 17 seconds at the
Sepang circuit.
Melbourne winner Rosberg maintained his position as championship leader by finishing second.
He
jumped reigning world champion Sebastian Vettel off the line and
successfully repelled both Red Bulls after a massive tank-slapper coming
through Turn 3 on the first lap.
He reported struggling with his
rear tyres in the early stages and could not keep pace with Hamilton,
who eked out an early and decisive lead before racing on to record the
23rd grand prix win of his career.
Rosberg finished a comfortable
7.2s clear of third-placed Vettel, who put his first championship points
on the board after his own early retirement in Australia.
The Red
Bulls were side-by-side through the opening sequence of turns, as
Vettel's team-mate Daniel Ricciardo went round the outside at Turn 2.
Rosberg's
massive wobble coming though the long sweeping right-hander at Turn 3
allowed the reigning world champion to come back at his team-mate
briefly, but Ricciardo held firm, only to be passed on lap four when
Vettel slid up the inside at Turn 1 unchallenged.
Ricciardo had to
get his elbows out again after the first round of pitstops,
successfully rebuffing the efforts from Fernando Alonso to pass as he
rejoined. The Red Bull prevailed over the Ferrari after more
side-by-side action through Turns 1, 2 and 3.
But this proved a
moot point ultimately, as Ricciardo suffered a botched late pitstop that
required mechanics to push his car back to the Red Bull pit to refit
the left front wheel correctly.
He rejoined the race, but then
suffered a front wing failure on the start-finish straight, having
broken it by running wide out of Turn 14 coming onto the back straight.
He retired shortly afterwards.
Ricciardo's misfortune promoted a
personal duel between Alonso and Nico Hulkenberg, in which the Spaniard
again prevailed to take fourth.
Hulkenberg's Force India used an
unconventional two-stop strategy to get ahead of the Ferrari, but
ultimately Alonso used the advantage of fresher tyres to get ahead in
the closing stages.
Jenson Button completed a stealthy climb from
10th on the grid to complete the top six, ahead of the duelling Williams
of Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas. The Brazilian finished in front of
the Finn after ignoring orders from his team to let him through.
Button's
McLaren team-mate Kevin Magnussen recovered from an early five-second
stop-go penalty for puncturing the right-rear tyre on Kimi Raikkonen's
Ferrari to finish ninth, while Formula 1's youngest ever points scorer
Daniil Kvyat scored again by rounding out the top 10 for Toro Rosso.
Raikkonen recovered to a pointless 12th, behind Romain Grosjean's much-improved Lotus.
Result - 56 laps:
Pos Driver Team Time/Gap
1. Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1m40m25.974s
2. Nico Rosberg Mercedes +17.313s
3. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault +24.534s
4. Fernando Alonso Ferrari +35.992s
5. Nico Hulkenberg Force India-Mercedes +47.199s
6. Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes +1m23.691s
7. Felipe Massa Williams-Mercedes +1m25.076s
8. Valtteri Bottas Williams-Mercedes +1m25.537s
9. Kevin Magnussen McLaren-Mercedes +1 lap
10. Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso-Renault +1 lap
11. Romain Grosjean Lotus-Renault +1 lap
12. Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari +1 lap
13. Kamui Kobayashi Caterham-Renault +1 lap
14. Marcus Ericsson Caterham-Renault +2 laps
15. Max Chilton Marussia-Ferrari +2 laps
Retirements:
Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull-Renault 49 laps
Esteban Gutierrez Sauber-Ferrari 35 laps
Adrian Sutil Sauber-Ferrari 32 laps
Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso-Renault 18 laps
Jules Bianchi Marussia-Ferrari 8 laps
Pastor Maldonado Lotus-Renault 7 laps
Sergio Perez Force India-Mercedes 0 laps
Drivers' championship:
1. Nico Rosberg 43
2. Lewis Hamilton 25
3. Fernando Alonso 24
4. Jenson Button 23
5. Kevin Magnussen 20
6. Nico Hulkenberg 18
7. Sebastian Vettel 15
8. Valtteri Bottas 14
9. Kimi Raikkonen 6
10. Felipe Massa 6
11. Jean-Eric Vergne 4
12. Daniil Kvyat 3
13. Sergio Perez 1
Constructors' championship:
1. Mercedes 68
2. McLaren-Mercedes 43
3. Ferrari 30
4. Williams-Mercedes 20
5. Force India-Mercedes 19
6. Red Bull-Renault 15
7. Toro Rosso-Renault 7
8. Sauber-Ferrari 0
9. Lotus-Renault 0
10. Caterham-Renault 0
11. Marussia-Ferrari 0
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