2014 Malaysian Grand Prix

  2014 Malaysian Grand Prix

Race details[1]
Race 2 of 19 in the 2014 Formula One season
Date	30 March 2014
Official name	2014 Formula 1 Petronas Malaysia Grand Prix
Location	Sepang International Circuit Sepang, Selangor, Malaysia
Course	Permanent racing facility
Course length	5.543 km (3.444 mi)
Distance	56 laps, 310.408 km (192.879 mi)
Weather	Dry, 32°C
Attendance	87,228
Pole position
Driver	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes
Time	1:59.431
Fastest lap
Driver	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes
Time	1:43.066 on lap 53
Podium
First	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes
Second	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes
Third	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull Racing-Renault
Lap leaders

The 2014 Malaysian Grand Prix, formally known as the 2014 Formula 1 Petronas Malaysia Grand Prix,^[1] was a Formula One motor race that was held on 30 March 2014 at the Sepang International Circuit in Selangor, Malaysia.

Report

Background

Like the 2013 Malaysian Grand Prix, tyre supplier Pirelli brought its orange-banded hard compound tyre as the harder "prime" tyre and the white-banded medium compound tyre as the softer "option" tyre.^[2]

Prior to the race, there was a minute's silence as a mark of respect to the passengers of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, which disappeared over the Indian Ocean three weeks prior. Drivers also carried messages on their cars and helmets.^[3]

Qualifying

Lewis Hamilton put his Mercedes on pole position, the 33rd of his career. He thus equalled Jim Clark for most poles of a British Formula One driver. Behind him was Red Bull Racing's Sebastian Vettel and Hamilton's team mate Nico Rosberg.

Race

Lewis Hamilton dominated the race, flying away at the start. Nico Hülkenberg also had a good start from seventh place, briefly battling with Kimi Räikkönen before getting stuck up behind Fernando Alonso. Sergio Pérez did not start the race due to a gearbox issue.

There was a first lap incident when Pastor Maldonado and Jules Bianchi collided with one another, effectively ending the race for both of the drivers when they received mechanical complications. Bianchi would later receive a penalty for his actions despite Marussia officials' claims that the incident was due to a collision with Toro Rosso's Jean-Éric Vergne hitting the back of the Marussia. At the end of the first lap, the top four – Hamilton, Nico Rosberg, Sebastian Vettel and Daniel Ricciardo – had effectively escaped the rest of the pack and the grid was unchanged until the last ten laps of the race.^[4]

Hülkenberg fought a lengthy battle with Alonso for fourth place, ultimately losing it due to Alonso's fresh tyres, as Force India were the only team in the top five to have successfully executed a two-stop pit strategy, while the others stuck to three stops. Felipe Massa, Valtteri Bottas and Jenson Button battled for sixth place, during which Massa received the radio message, "Felipe, Valtteri is faster than you," reminding him of his years as a number-two driver for Ferrari.^[5]

Both the Saubers of Adrian Sutil and Esteban Gutiérrez had retired after Sutil experienced an electrical failure and Gutiérrez experienced a gearbox failure, preventing him from getting out of neutral gear. Ricciardo was having a good race until his third pit-stop, when he was released before his left-front tyre was correctly fastened. He then had to be pushed back into the pits. He then experienced the failure of his front wing, leading him to make the decision to retire.^[6]

Räikkönen had a terrible race from the start after Kevin Magnussen's McLaren clipped his right rear tyre going into the first corner on lap 2, causing a puncture. He ultimately finished twelfth, 0.1 seconds behind the Lotus of Romain Grosjean. Hamilton led every lap of the race and set the fastest lap and thus took the first Grand Chelem of his career, giving Mercedes their first 1-2 finish since the 1955 Italian Grand Prix, after Rosberg finished second and Vettel third. Alonso came in fourth after a last-lap battle with Hülkenberg who finished fifth, almost forty seconds ahead of McLaren's Jenson Button, who was able to hold off both of Williams' drivers, Massa and Bottas, who finished seventh and eighth respectively giving Williams a one-point lead over Force India. Magnussen finished ninth for McLaren and the top ten was completed by Daniil Kvyat of Toro Rosso. Kamui Kobayashi and Marcus Ericsson finished thirteenth and fourteenth for Caterham, effectively putting them ahead of Marussia in the Constructors' Championship standings.^[7]

Post-race

Daniel Ricciardo was given a 10-place grid penalty for the Bahrain Grand Prix after the Red Bull team released his car in an unsafe manner from his pit box.^[8] Kevin Magnussen and Jules Bianchi both received two penalty points each, along with Valtteri Bottas after Bottas was accused of impeding Ricciardo during qualifying.^[9][10]

Classification

Qualifying

Pos.	No.	Driver	Constructor	Q1	Q2	Q3	Grid
1	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:57.202	1:59.041	1:59.431	1
2	1	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull Racing-Renault	1:57.654	1:59.399	1:59.486	2
3	6	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1:57.183	1:59.445	2:00.050	3
4	14	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	1:58.889	2:01.356	2:00.175	4
5	3	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull Racing-Renault	1:58.913	2:00.147	2:00.541	5
6	7	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	1:59.257	2:01.532	2:01.218	6
7	27	Nico Hülkenberg	Force India-Mercedes	1:58.883	2:00.839	2:01.712	7
8	20	Kevin Magnussen	McLaren-Mercedes	2:00.356	2:02.094	2:02.213	8
9	25	Jean-Éric Vergne	Toro Rosso-Renault	2:01.689	2:02.096	2:03.078	9
10	22	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	2:00.889	2:01.810	2:04.053	10
11	26	Daniil Kvyat	Toro Rosso-Renault	2:01.175	2:02.351		11
12	21	Esteban Gutiérrez	Sauber-Ferrari	2:01.134	2:02.369		12
13	19	Felipe Massa	Williams-Mercedes	2:00.047	2:02.460		13
14	11	Sergio Pérez	Force India-Mercedes	2:00.076	2:02.511		14
15	77	Valtteri Bottas	Williams-Mercedes	1:59.709	2:02.756		18^1
16	8	Romain Grosjean	Lotus-Renault	2:00.202	2:02.885		15
17	13	Pastor Maldonado	Lotus-Renault	2:02.074			16
18	99	Adrian Sutil	Sauber-Ferrari	2:02.131			17
19	17	Jules Bianchi	Marussia-Ferrari	2:02.702			19
20	10	Kamui Kobayashi	Caterham-Renault	2:03.595			20
21	4	Max Chilton	Marussia-Ferrari	2:04.388			21
22	9	Marcus Ericsson	Caterham-Renault	2:04.407			22
107% time: 2:05.385
Source:[11]

Notes

• ^1  — Valtteri Bottas was given a three-place grid penalty for impeding Daniel Ricciardo during qualifying.^[9]

Race

Pos.	No.	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	56	1:40:25.974	1	25
2	6	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	56	+17.313	3	18
3	1	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull Racing-Renault	56	+24.534	2	15
4	14	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	56	+35.992	4	12
5	27	Nico Hülkenberg	Force India-Mercedes	56	+47.199	7	10
6	22	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	56	+1:23.691	10	8
7	19	Felipe Massa	Williams-Mercedes	56	+1:25.076	13	6
8	77	Valtteri Bottas	Williams-Mercedes	56	+1:25.537	18	4
9	20	Kevin Magnussen	McLaren-Mercedes	55	+1 Lap	8	2
10	26	Daniil Kvyat	Toro Rosso-Renault	55	+1 Lap	11	1
11	8	Romain Grosjean	Lotus-Renault	55	+1 Lap	15
12	7	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	55	+1 Lap	6
13	10	Kamui Kobayashi	Caterham-Renault	55	+1 Lap	20
14	9	Marcus Ericsson	Caterham-Renault	54	+2 Laps	22
15	4	Max Chilton	Marussia-Ferrari	54	+2 Laps	21
Ret	3	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull Racing-Renault	49	Wing	5
Ret	21	Esteban Gutiérrez	Sauber-Ferrari	35	Gearbox	12
Ret	99	Adrian Sutil	Sauber-Ferrari	32	Power unit	17
Ret	25	Jean-Éric Vergne	Toro Rosso-Renault	18	Turbo	9
Ret	17	Jules Bianchi	Marussia-Ferrari	8	Brakes	19
Ret	13	Pastor Maldonado	Lotus-Renault	7	Power unit	16
DNS	11	Sergio Pérez	Force India-Mercedes	0	Gearbox	14
Source:[12]

Championship standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings Pos. Driver Points 1 Nico Rosberg 43 17 2 Lewis Hamilton 25 1 3 Fernando Alonso 24 1 4 Jenson Button 23 3 5 Kevin Magnussen 20

Constructors' Championship standings Pos. Constructor Points 1 1 Mercedes 68 1 2 McLaren-Mercedes 43 3 Ferrari 30 4 Williams-Mercedes 20 5 Force India-Mercedes 19

• Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.

References

1. "2014 Formula 1 Petronas Malaysia Grand Prix". formula1.com. Formula One Administration. Archived from the original on 14 February 2014. Retrieved 14 March 2014.
2. "Pirelli reveal tyre choices for first four races". Formula1.com (Formula One Administration). 3 March 2014. Archived from the original on 7 March 2014. Retrieved 29 March 2014.
3. "Formula 1 to honour MH370 passengers". BBC Sport (BBC). 27 March 2014. Retrieved 27 March 2014.
4. "Lewis Hamilton wins Malaysian GP". ESPN.com (ESPN, Inc.). Associated Press. 30 March 2014. Retrieved 1 April 2014.
5. Barretto, Lawrence (30 March 2014). "Malaysian Grand Prix 2014: as it happened". BBC Sport. BBC. Archived from the original on 31 March 2014. Retrieved 1 April 2014.
6. Clancy, Rebecca (30 March 2014). "Malaysian Grand Prix 2014: as it happened". The Daily Telegraph. Telegraph Media Group. Retrieved 1 April 2014.
7. Weaver, Paul (30 March 2014). "Lewis Hamilton leads from the front to win his first Malaysian Grand Prix". The Guardian (Guardian Media Group). Retrieved 1 April 2014.
8. "Daniel Ricciardo gets Bahrain grid penalty". Autosport (Haymarket Publications). 30 March 2014. Retrieved 30 March 2014.
9. Gill, Pete (29 March 2014). "Malaysia GP grid demotion for Williams' Valtteri Bottas after Daniel Ricciardo clash". Sky Sports (BSkyB). Retrieved 29 March 2014.
10. "Magnussen and Bianchi get penalty points". ESPN F1 (ESPN Sports Media Ltd.). 30 March 2014. Retrieved 1 April 2014.
11. "2014 Formula 1 Petronas Malaysia Grand Prix – Qualifying results". Formula1.com. Formula One Administration. 29 March 2014. Archived from the original on 29 March 2014. Retrieved 29 March 2014.
12. "2014 Formula 1 Petronas Malaysia Grand Prix — Results". Formula1.com (Formula One Administration). 30 March 2014. Archived from the original on 30 March 2014. Retrieved 30 March 2014.

External links