It was celebration time in
the Mercedes garage in Malaysia as both F1 drivers Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg
of Mercedes AMG Petronas crossed the line to clinch the 1st and 2nd positions respectively
in the Malaysian F1 race. Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull Racing-Renault took the third
place on the podium.
The action packed
56 lap dry race at the Sepang circuit after a wet qualifying led to a
competitive race on March 30, 2014 in Kuala Lumpur with Mercedes leading the
pact. Alonso finished 4th and Nico Hulkenberg, the sole Force India race
driver took the 5thplace, both putting out a massive fight till the
end of the race.
The Williams duo
Massa and Bottas finished 7th and 8th after Massa ignored
team orders to let Bottas pass to chase down Jenson Button to fight for his 6th
place. Danish rookie man Kevin Magnussen of McLaren-Mercedes who finished 9th
took the first 5 second penalty of the
season for causing a collision on the 2nd lap with Kimi Raikkonen
and ruining his race only for him to finish 12th in the standings.
Daniel Kvyat took the final points scoring position and Romian Grosjean finished
11 after a horrible weekend in the Lotus.
Kamui
Kobayashi and Marcus Ericsson both drove a commendable race for Caterham to
finish 13th and 14th respectively leading Max Chilton in the
Marussia to finish the driver’s standings of the race.
Daniel
Ricciardo was close to finishing 4th until a poor pit stop on lap
41, costing him valuable time and causing him to fall back to the back which
only got worse with his front wing being damaged and having to be replaced and
having a 10 second stop/go penalty for the unsafe release in the pit lane. This
only worsens his chances in the championship after the pending judgment on his
previous finish in Australia. Jules Bianchi and Maldonado eventually retired
from the race with damages caused by their collision on the first lap on turn
4. Jean Eric Vergne, Esteban Gutierez, and Adrian Sutil also retired from the
race. Sergio Perez failed to start the race for Force India.
Nico Rosberg
now leads the Drivers Championship with 2 victories followed by Hamilton who is
only trailed by Alonso by one point. Mercedes lead the constructors’ title over
McLaren and Ferrari.
Picture courtesy Mercedes AMG