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In an emotionally charged week, it was only fitting that Mercedes deliver a one-two finish in the home country of their Malaysian sponsor Petronas.
Lewis Hamilton’s car was untouchable all weekend, excelling in a difficult wet qualifying and pulling away from the pack for a lights to flag victory.
Sebastian Vettel showed that the pace and reliability of the Red Bull in Australia was no fluke, holding his own against some spirited competition from his teammate Daniel Ricciardo to hold on for a podium finish and 15 valuable points.
Ricciardo’s streak of weekends to forget continued with the a rare pit stop mishap leaving him with only three fresh tyres. He eventually returned to the track, albeit a lap down and out of podium contention. Adding insult to injury, his front wing was damaged during the pit stop and it came loose on the next lap, requiring another visit to the pit garage.
For the team’s actions the blameless Ricciardo will be punished with a 10-place grid penalty in Bahrain and, for the second race in a row, will be left with nothing in the way of championship points.
Last year’s Malaysian Grand Prix gave us the Multi-21 controversy, making team orders fodder for many headlines (and novelty t-shirts and mugs). One year on and team orders are again a talking point, this time with the resurgent Williams team.
After years of playing second banana to champions like Michael Schumacher and Fernando Alonso, Felipe Massa would have hoped his new outfit would give him priority status in the team. But in the dying laps of the race Massa was given the none-to-subtle message: “Valterri [Bottas] is faster than you, don’t hold him up.”
Massas was struck with a case of selective and instantaneous deafness, and desperate to catch Jenson Button and claim P6 he ignored the call and pushed on. “You are racing,” was the only consolation for his teammate who had earlier held station behind Massa at the team’s request.
Team orders are a blessing for a team when they operate smoothly, and a curse when they don’t. Massa may well feel that he’s paid his dues when it comes to letting others take his glory, but in this case he would have done himself a favour with his team and fans by allowing his exciting teammate through and fighting for glory rather than survival.
Young superstar drivers again excelled, with Bottas, Daniil Kvyat and Kevin Magnussen (apart from one small indiscretion with Kimi Raikonnen’s rear tyre) performing well.
With a short turnaround before the next round in Bahrain, we can only hope someone finds an answer to the speed of the Mercedes before they accumulate an insurmountable constructor’s championship lead.
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