A number of teams suffered mixed fortunes at the Sepang International Circuit with plenty of on-track action throughout the race. Here are some thoughts from the 2014 grid. For a detailed
look at the race weekend and a track guide, see my preview. You can also
look back at previous races with my blog's F1 Flashback, Richland F1's One Year Rewind and my new Formula 1 Blog 'Remember when' feature. See what the teams and drivers got up to before the driving started with my Thursday Snap Shot and catch up with all the on-track action, including my race report, with my weekend review. Ricciardo disappointed after disastrous race:
"It was looking like we could have a solid points finish today; the race was going pretty well. It’s fun being up there and fighting for the top few spots, but then we had a problem at the last pit stop and then we had a puncture. I think we had a front wing failure and a few other things went on and then the stop-go penalty, so the race ended pretty quickly for us, it went from looking good to looking pretty bad in a short amount of time. "I’m really disappointed, but at the same time there’s a little bit in me which is happy because I think I’ve come out the first two races how I wanted to, in a way. I still want to improve, but we’ve started off on the right foot, so for that I'm pleased and with a little bit of luck we’ll turn things around soon and I’ll get some points. I love racing up the front, it’s been a privilege so far and a lot of fun in the last couple of races."
Hamilton says race tougher than it looked:
"I'm incredibly happy today. This is my first win in Malaysia after eight attempts. It's all down to the team. They have done a fantastic job and I have to say a huge thank you to everyone here at the track and back at our factories who have been pushing non-stop to get the car where it is. The race was tougher than it perhaps looked today and the conditions here always make it a great challenge.
"But I was able to look after the car, the tyres and the fuel and still keep a bit of pace in hand which made my job that little bit easier. It's great to see Mercedes leading the championship but we know that we have to make these early races pay. Anything can happen as we saw in Australia, so this is an important result for us. One-two finishes don't happen very often and this is a real achievement for the team."
"The points scored today are the result of a trouble free weekend, in which the small improvements
on the car
worked as we had expected and it ran very reliably. We definitely have a lot more work to
do, because while we are moving
forward, the others are doing the same. "Everyone in our team is
doing their utmost to close down the gap. There’s still a lot to
learn in these early races, but it’s no
secret that we definitely need to improve our top speed, as could be seen from my duel with
Hulkenberg. I was able to get him thanks to fresher tyres, but we definitely need to up our
performance right from the very next
race."
Grosjean pleased to reach the flag:
"Eleventh place is good for all the guys at Enstone and at the track, and it's good for me too. Finishing the race was our first objective and then we wanted to see where we were with our car. It's not perfect yet but it's good to be where we are at this stage. "I had a big loss of downforce around eight laps to the end especially in the rear of the car which made things difficult, especially when I had to defend. Without that issue, I’m sure we could have finished higher. It's good to be back and close to the points so it's a positive for all of us. It was a good battle at the end. I kept remembering our past battles to make sure Kimi couldn't go through."
"I’m sorry for the team that I messed things up going into the second corner, with the incident with Kimi. I think we could have scored some good points today, so I’m disappointed with and for myself, too. Grands prix are long races, so I shouldn’t have made a mistake like that so early on in the afternoon. "But that sort of stuff happens sometimes – and, when it does, you just have to learn from it, and I will. After the incident, it wasn’t easy to recover, and we struggled with the high track temperatures, and in the high-speed corners, too. As I say, I’ll learn from this race and I’ll see what I can do at the next one."
Hulkenberg pleased to be fighting at the front:
"Today was a super team effort and I’m very happy with fifth place. We were the only team among the frontrunners to do a two-stop race and we had good pace all afternoon. It shows that the team’s hard work over the winter is paying off and it feels great to be so competitive and fighting up at the front. "We showed that we could manage the tyres well, although I felt a bit more comfortable on the medium compound tyres than on the hards, but we always had the tyre management under control. So I’m feeling happy that we can take all these positives to Bahrain and leave Malaysia with a good helping of points."
"In my last lap I lost power and then suddenly the car switched off. I don’t know what happened, so we need to analyse it. It is a shame. Many things don’t work well at the moment, so we need to learn from that. In general, our pace was too slow and the grip level was poor. This was unusual for us and we didn’t expect that. "We will keep working on the issues we have and we will be back stronger for the next races. We don’t have much time until Bahrain, so we don’t expect to have many updates there. However, for the upcoming races we have a plan which we are working on in order to improve."
Positive second F1 race for Kvyat:
"It’s good to finish in the top ten for a second time in a row
now. This afternoon’s race was very
difficult and intense with a lot of fighting.
The first two stints were hard
when
I was fighting the
Williams and McLaren in the early stages, but they were faster
than me
on the straight.
I was
quite happy with the final stint and having managed to defend my position. "Overall it was a good
weekend and I hope
we
continue to improve like this as the car definitely has potential.
So
I’m
looking forward to going straight to Bahrain to race again in a week’s time.
It will be interesting
to be on a track where we have actually tested with this car."
"I think we need to be happy about today as moving from P18 to P8 is a good result and we have more points in the bag. The car was not as competitive this weekend as it was in Melbourne, but the team has done a very good in producing a car that is looking like it can consistently fight in the top ten. "I had a really good start, making up six places on the first lap, and from then on the pace was pretty good and I was able to make up more places without too much trouble by using our very strong straight line speed on the long straights. Qualifying has shown that there are parts of the car we need to address, but the start to the season has been encouraging for us so far."
Kobayashi admits a huge amount of work still to do:
"13th place in Malaysia puts us back in tenth in the championship and gives everyone the sort of boost we needed. There’s still a huge amount of work to do and a lot of today was new for me – that was the first time I’ve driven the car on full tanks on these tyres and we obviously have to keep putting more performance on the car so we can really fight one or two of the teams ahead. That looks like it’s a realistic target at this stage, but for now, focusing on today, finally we’ve had a good day and we should be happy about that."
"Unfortunately the situation with Maldonado was a consequence of what happened off the start, when Vergne hit me from behind and punctured my left rear tyre. Quite simply I could not avoid Maldonado; there was nothing I could do. We came in to change the tyres and to fit a new front wing but when I returned to the track the car was not easy to drive and we suspected a problem with the brakes.
"We could not continue to drive this way and had no choice but to retire. It was disappointing to end my race after 8 laps and this is not the reward the Team deserves after a week where we seemed to make good progress through the sessions."
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