Vettel surprises Mercedes to score first victory

Vettel surprises Mercedes to score first victory in Malaysian F1 Grand Prix

In a major upset, Sebastian Vettel who started second on the grid, took the benefit of safety car and score his first win for Mercedes. It was also the first win for Ferrari in the new engine era since 2013.

Lewis Hamilton, the pole sitter finished in second followed by Nico Rosberg in third. Though Lewis Hamilton started on pole, Marcus Ericsson caused the Safety car deployment as early as the 4th lap and the Mercedes cars choose to get into the pits but Vettel continued to race. After the pitstop, the Mercedes cars joined in the middle of the car packs following the safety car. So it took a lot of time for Lewis Hamilton to overtake the other cars and by that time Vettel had built a lead of over 9 seconds and the tyres of Mercedes had worn out. So Sebastian Vettel's two stop strategy won over the three stopping Mercedes cars.

To prove that Ferrari's resurgence is not a fluke, Kimi Raikkonen who had to contend with the P11 in qualifying due to rain, drove a good race to finish fourth. This result is really good because he even had a puncture due to coming in contact with Felipe Nasr.

Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa of Williams finished in 5th an 6th.

Max Verstappen of Toro Rosso wrote his name in the record books as the youngest points scorer in Formula 1 history. He is only 17 years of age and many people had expressed grave concerns for allowing him to race. His teammate Carlos Sainz came in 8th.

Interestingly, the two Red Bull cars of Daniel Ricciardo and Daniil Kvyat rounded up the points scoring positions.

The cars from 8th onwards were lapped.

Romain Grosjean of Lotus came in 11th. Felipe Nasr of Sauber was 12th. They were followed by the Force India cars of Sergio Perez and Nico Hulkenberg. Roberto Merhi of Manor came in 15th and last position, three laps behind the race leader. Manor racing was allowed to race by the Stewards, however, Will Stevens couldn't participate due to a fuel pump problem.

Did Not Finish in Malaysian F1 Grand Prix

Pastor Maldonado
Jenson Button
Fernando Alonso
Marcus Ericsson

Did Not Start:

Will Stevens - due to fuel pump issue