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

The 56-lap-race was won by Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton who started from pole position. Hamilton also took the fastest lap of the race and led every single lap, meaning that he achieved his first Grand Chelem, finishing ahead of teammate Nico Rosberg who won the season opener in Australia two weeks ago. It was Mercedes' first 1–2 finish since the 1955 Italian Grand Prix. Defending four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel, driving for Red Bull, completed the podium by finishing third.

Following the result, Hamilton made a huge step forward in the Drivers' standings after his retirement in Australia, climbing up seventeen places in order to advance to second in the championship behind teammate Rosberg, who extended his lead to 18 points. Fernando Alonso, who took his second consecutive fourth-place-finish, improved from fourth to third with 24 points, one behind Hamilton, but he managed to overtook the McLaren pair of Jenson Button and Kevin Magnussen, who fell to fourth and fifth, respectively. It also meant that the result elevated Mercedes to the lead of the Constructors' Championship with 68 points, 25 clear from the previous leaders McLaren, with Ferrari a further 13 points adrift in third.

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.

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.

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 teammate 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.

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," similar to the one he received during the 2010 German Grand Prix in reference to Fernando Alonso, his teammate at Ferrari.

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.

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.

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

Classification

Qualifying Driver Constructor Q1 Q2 Q3 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 2:00.358 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 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: Notes  — Valtteri Bottas was given a three-place grid penalty for impeding Daniel Ricciardo during qualifying.

Race Driver Constructor Laps Time/Retired 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 3 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull Racing-Renault 49 Wing 5 21 Esteban Gutiérrez Sauber-Ferrari 35 Gearbox 12 99 Adrian Sutil Sauber-Ferrari 32 Power unit 17 25 Jean-Éric Vergne Toro Rosso-Renault 18 Turbo 9 17 Jules Bianchi Marussia-Ferrari 8 Brakes 19 13 Pastor Maldonado Lotus-Renault 7 Power unit 16 11 Sergio Pérez Force India-Mercedes 0 Gearbox 14 Source:

Championship standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings 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 20Source:

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

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

References

External links