Sebastian Vettel scored his and Ferrari’s first win since 2013 on Sunday, as a superb drive for his new team took him to victory in the 2015 Formula 1 Petronas Malaysia Grand Prix. Vettel moved into an early lead when his rivals pitted under the safety car, and then never looked back, using a two-stop strategy to beat the three-stopping Mercedes of polesitter Lewis Hamilton and team mate Nico Rosberg.
Kimi Raikkonen confirmed Ferrari’s resurgence, recovering from an 11th-place start and an early puncture – caused by contact with Felipe Nasr’s Sauber – to finish an impressive fourth ahead of the battling Williams duo of Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa.
Max Verstappen, 17, became the youngest points scorer in F1 history as he took seventh place for Toro Rosso, just ahead of team mate and fellow rookie Carlos Sainz, both beating Red Bull stablemates Daniil Kvyat and Daniel Ricciardo who completed the top ten.
Further down the grid, what had looked like a more promising race for McLaren ended in disappointment, with both Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button forced to retire their cars mid race with technical problems.
Marcus Ericsson was the first man to go out when he spun his Sauber into the gravel on lap 4, bringing out the safety car, while Lotus’s Pastor Maldonado also succumbed to mechanical gremlins later in the race.
Results:
Pos. | Car | Driver | Team | Lap Time | |
1 | 5 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 56 Laps | |
2 | 44 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | + 8,569 | |
3 | 6 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | + 12,310 | |
4 | 7 | Kimi Räikkönen | Ferrari | + 53,822 | |
5 | 77 | Valtteri Bottas | Williams-Mercedes | + 70,409 | |
6 | 19 | Felipe Massa | Williams-Mercedes | + 73,586 | |
7 | 33 | Max Verstappen (R) | Toro Rosso-Renault | + 99,085 | |
8 | 55 | Carlos Sainz (R) | Toro Rosso-Renault | + 1 Lap | |
9 | 26 | Daniil Kvyat | Red Bull Racing-Renault | + 1 Lap | |
10 | 3 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull Racing-Renault | + 1 Lap | |
11 | 8 | Romain Grosjean | Lotus-Mercedes | + 1 Lap | |
12 | 12 | Felipe Nasr (R) | Sauber-Ferrari | + 1 Lap | |
13 | 11 | Sergio Pérez | Force India-Mercedes | + 1 Lap | |
14 | 27 | Nico Hulkenberg | Force India-Mercedes | + 1 Lap | |
15 | 98 | Roberto Merhi (R) | Manor-Ferrari | + 3 Laps | |
16 | 13 | Pastor Maldonado | Lotus-Mercedes | Retired | |
17 | 22 | Jenson Button | McLaren-Honda | Retired | |
18 | 14 | Fernando Alonso | McLaren-Honda | Retired | |
19 | 9 | Marcus Ericsson | Sauber-Ferrari | Retired | |
20 | 28 | Will Stevens | Manor-Ferrari | DNS |