Easy win for Hamilton

Malaysian race – one of the most complex and unpredictable season. The traditional factors – heat, high humidity and changeable weather, this year added a safety factor – only the second Grand Prix with the new cars, and not all problems were solved.

Pirelli has brought to Malaysia two of the toughest – Hard and Medium. On Friday, many complained about the rapid wear of the softer tires, the difference between the compositions exceeded second per lap, so the teams had to solve a difficult problem when developing a strategy. After the wet qualifying drivers could freely choose to start the composition, in the end, all the drivers started on Medium.

Before the formation lap has decayed car of Sergio Perez – in the end he did not come out at the start.

At the start, Hamilton kept the lead, Rosberg and Riccardo overtake Vettel, Massa  overtake Gutierrez, Maldonado and Bianchi encountered. Vergne lost many positions because of a bad start. Hulkenberg overtake Alonso, Raikkonen’s car lost speed due to a puncture of the left rear wheel after contact with Magnussen. Bianchi and Raikkonen went into the pits to change tires. Hamilton pulled away from Rosberg by 3.2 seconds.

On the third lap Button overtake Magnussen and Vettel overtake Riccardo. On the fifth lap Kwyat overtaken Gutierrez in the fight for the 11th position.

Stewards fined Bianchi five second stop in the pits for the incident with Maldonado. On lap seven engineer said Maldonado about the need to stop the car in the garage because of problems with the power plant.

10-lap Magnussen turned into the pit lane to replace the nose fairing, and after returning to the track Kevin received five-second stop in the pits for the incident with Raikkonen.

At the 11th lap Kwyat and Gutierrez changed tyres, on the 12th – Alonso and Sutil, 13th – Riccardo, Massa and Grosjean, 14th – Vettel and Button, on the 15th – Rosberg, Bottas and Hamilton, on the 16th – Hulkenberg.

19-lap Raikkonen changed the tyres, on the 20th – Vergne stopped the car in the pits and retiring from the race. At the 21st lap Bottas overtake Kwyat in the battle for ninth position and a 23-lap Daniil changed the tyres.

On the Riccardo’s car again dismissed fuel flow – in agreement with the FIA team switched to a backup circuit checking the flow.

35-lap Sutil stopped the car on the starting line, but the manual race was not releasing the safety car – marshals rolled back car to the side. To autodrome came cloud, drivers reported to the teams that some segments rare falling raindrops, but that was all. At the 36th lap Gutierrez stopped the car in the pits.

The top ten on the 37th lap: Hamilton – Rosberg – Vettel – Riccardo – Alonso – Hulkenberg – Button – Massa – Bottas – Magnussen.

40 -lap Button and Magnussen changed the tyres, 41st lap – Riccardo had a pit stop, but at the exit of the pit lane car stopped – the front left wheel was not fixed. Engineers had to bring her back to the pits to attach the wheel – Aussie lost a lot of time.

42-lap Grosjean changed tyres, on the 43rd lap – Alonso and Massa. Riccardo’s car broke mount the front wing, he walked slowly back to the pits to replace the nose fairing and damaged tires, and a few minutes later got a penalty with ten-stop in the pits for the exit of the pit lane with a loose wheel. At the 45th lap Bottas had a pit stop.

The top ten on the 48th lap: Hamilton – Rosberg – Vettel – Hulkenberg – Alonso – Button – Massa – Bottas – Magnussen – Kwyat.

Leaders left more rigid structure of tires on the last laps of the race. At the 50th Vettel changed tyres, on the 51st – Rosberg, on the 52nd – Hamilton. Mechanics worked without problems, the balance of power has not changed. Ricciardo stopped the car in the pits, retiring from the race.

Alonso overtook Hulkenberg, the chosen strategy of two pit stops in the fight for fourth position.

Lewis Hamilton won the race with confidence, his first victory of the season and 23rd of his career. Nico Rosberg finished second – Mercedes drivers won the double, but Vettel went up to the third step of the podium.

Daniil Kwyat the second race in a row crossed the line tenth, again earning points. Roman Grosjean became the first driver Lotus, who managed this season to drive a race distance.

Next week the team will continue to struggle in Bahrain.

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