Sebastain Vettel wins his first race as a Ferrari driver since Spain 2013

Sebastain Vettel wins his first race as a Ferrari driver since Spain 2013 at the Malaysian GP

In an action-packed Malaysian GP, Sebastian Vettel and Ferrari surprised everyone by winning their first race since the 2013 Spanish Grand Prix ahead of the Mercedes drivers of Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg.

It was announced after qualifying that the Manor F1 Team had received permission from the stewards to race on Sunday, despite failing to meet the 107% rule as we all expected. However, Will Stevens sadly did not race due to the team not being able to fix the fuel problems encountered on Saturday while Roberto Merhi finished in last place three laps down on the leaders.

Even though it is sad for Stevens not have raced today but Merhi has achieved a good start for the team by finishing the race today and will give them something to build upon during the rest of the season ahead.

Also, Romain Grosjean received a two place grid penalty after qualifying due to a pitlane infracture which happened in Q2. This then promoted Valtteri Bottas and Marcus Ericsson a place each heading into the race on Sunday.

The first part of the Malaysian GP was full of action with incidents, plenty of overtaking and battles ongoing throughout the field. With Hamilton and Rosberg getting good starts off the line, Vettel was able to pass Rosberg for second place. Daniil Kvyat lost a place to Felipe Massa at the start; while Marcus Ericsson into Turn 4 was able to pass rookie Max Verstappen for position.

During the first few corners, Pastor Maldonado received a puncture on his Lotus after making contact with Valtteri Bottas and had to limp back to the pits. Meanwhile, Kimi Raikkonen suffered a left rear puncture after making contact with Felipe Nasr and both drivers had to pit at the end of the second lap.

The Safety Car was deployed on Lap 4 after Marcus Ericsson spun his Sauber into Turn 1 and breeched himself into the barriers. This then caused Ericsson to retire from the race officially. On Lap 7, the Safety Car went into the pitlane and the race resumed once again with Vettel leading Nico Hulkenberg after Hamilton pitted under the Safety Car.

With battles throughout the field with involving Ricciardo, Kvyat, Verstappen, Rosberg, Alonso and Perez at the early stages of the race; we saw track positions rapidly changing all the time and it was great to see the amount of overtaking and battles going on through the field; this was Formula One at its very best!

Lap 16 saw Maldonado receiving a ten second stop and go penalty for exceeding the Safety Car time limits. We then saw Fernando Alonso officially retiring from the race on Lap 22 and Hamilton taking the lead of the race from Vettel and needing to push the gap in order to take the race win.

But it was on Lap 24 that the damage was done and Vettel was able to pass Hamilton for the lead of the Malaysian GP that he only lost when he had to pit for new tyres.

On Lap 26, Daniel Ricciardo receives a request from his team to allow his team mate Kvyat through and while Ricciardo obliges; Kvyat and Hulkenberg make contact with each other which resulted in Kvyat spinning but able to continue on in the race. Four laps later sees Hulkenberg's team mate Sergio Perez making contact with Grosjean while trying to get past him.

This then resulted in Grosjean spinning not once but twice but he was able to continue in the race. Three laps later sees Hulkenberg and Perez receiving ten second time penalties added to their race times as a result of their incidents with Kvyat and Grosjean on the track.
On Lap 43, Jenson Button officially retired from the race after making steps forward this weekend with performance on the track. In the latter stages of the Grand Prix saw a battle between the two Williams drivers that saw them racing closely yet respectfully towards each other and with Valtteri Bottas getting the upper hand over his team mate Felipe Massa.

Today belonged to Sebastian Vettel who won his first Grand Prix since Brazil 2013 and Ferrari's first win since the Spanish Grand Prix in 2013 with an astonishing performance after being on the pace all weekend ahead of the Mercedes drivers of Lewis Hamilton in second place and Nico Rosberg in third place who will have to make do with “damage limitation” this weekend.

Kimi Raikkonen had a great race to finish in fourth despite having bad luck in qualifying yesterday and also in the race today with a puncture after contact with Felipe Nasr in the opening laps of the race. But Raikkonen finished ahead of the Williams drivers of Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa in fifth and sixth place who were expected by many to challenge the Ferraris and Mercedes drivers this weekend.

Toro Rosso rookie Max Verstappen scored his first points in Formula One with a seventh place finish after a great weekend for the Dutchman and has now beaten the Daniil Kvyat's record of being the youngest ever points scorer in Formula One by two years which is a fantastic achievement.

He finished ahead of his team mate Carlos Sainz Jr in eighth place ahead of the Red Bull drivers of Daniil Kvyat and Daniel Ricciardo in ninth and tenth places who have struggled all weekend to get the performance that they need to challenge the front runners.

Romain Grosjean had a troublesome race to finish in eleventh place ahead of Felipe Nasr who has not had the best weekend in Malaysia who finished in twelfth place and the Force India drivers of Sergio Perez and Nico Hulkenberg in thirteenth and fourteenth places who also struggled to get pace and performance from their car while also suffering with tyre wear.

As we head into the latter stages of the grid, Roberto Merhi finished in fifteenth place three laps down on the leaders while Pastor Maldonado, Jenson Button, Fernando Alonso and Marcus Ericsson retired from the race while Will Stevens did not take part in the race at all.

The classification of the Malaysian GP is as follows:-

1. Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari, 1.41.05.793
2. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, 8.569s
3. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes, 12.310s
4. Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari, 53.822s
5. Valtteri Bottas, Williams-Mercedes, 1.10.409s
6. Felipe Massa, Williams-Mercedes, 1.13.586s
7. Max Verstappen, Toro Rosso, 1.39.085s
8. Carlos Sainz Jr, Toro Rosso, 1lap
9. Daniil Kvyat, Red Bull-Renault, 1lap
10. Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull-Renault, 1lap
11. Romain Grosjean, Lotus-Mercedes, 1lap
12. Felipe Nasr, Sauber-Ferrari, 1 lap
13. Sergio Perez, Force India-Mercedes, 1lap
14. Nico Hulkenberg, Force India-Mercedes, 1lap
15. Roberto Merhi, Manor-Marussia, 3 laps
16. Marcus Ericsson, Sauber-Ferrari, 3.427s
17. Pastor Maldonado, Lotus-Mercedes, Not classified
18. Jenson Button, McLaren-Honda, Not classified
19. Fernando Alonso, McLaren-Honda, Not classified
20. Marcus Ericsson, Sauber-Ferrari, Not classified
[Will Stevens did not race]

Lewis Hamilton leads the 2015 Driver's championship with 43 points, Vettel is second with 40 points, Rosberg is third with 33 points, Massa is fourth with 20 points, Raikkonen is fifth with 12 points, Nasr is sixth with 10 points, Bottas is seventh with 10 points, Ricciardo is eighth with 8 points, Hulkenberg is ninth with 6 points and Verstappen is tenth with 6 points.

Mercedes lead the 2015 Constructor Championship with 76 points, Ferrari is second with 52 points, Williams is third with 30 points, Sauber is fourth with 14 points, Toro Rosso is fifth with 12 points, Red Bull is sixth with 11 points and Force India are seventh with 7 points.

Sarah Jones- @jonesy_laaa

Laser cut circuit by www.grahamandleigh.co.uk