But Vettel’s world championship hopes suffered a huge blow when his Ferrari failed to set a time in the first qualifying session, meaning he will start last. Kimi Raikkonen had qualified second with Vettel sidelined and had joked that he wanted to race for longer than he did in Singapore, where he crashed out at the first corner. “It is a fact that some races the auto has worked out to be better but overall globally we have not got the best vehicle and we have done an exceptional job with what we have”.
Advertisement
Hamilton had won his 70th pole position in career the day before, and his fourth in a row on the Sepang circuit, while Vettel waited patiently in the garages of Ferrari due to a technical glitch with its engine.
Ferrari’s bid to reel in Mercedes at the top of the Formula One constructors’ standings has become a whole lot tougher following the Malaysian Grand Prix.
Only two cars were out of the race, as besides Raikkonen, Carlos Sainz retired his Toro Rosso with also an engine issue.
“We need to work hard on the auto to improve”, Verstappen said. Valtteri Bottas had a awful race, finishing in fifth behind Sebastian Vettel and way, way behind teammate Hamilton. We knew going into the race that we didn’t have the quickest vehicle; our delta was Ferrari eight-tenths [of a second] faster than us, which they were, and the Red Bulls five, six tenths quicker than us, which they were. “I mean, seriously”, said Vettel. We were running less downforce than the others – we don’t have the T wing or the Carry wing on here, and we found a very good setup and the drivers have delivered their bit as well.
Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team driver Lewis Hamilton said that his second place was “not that satisfying”, though acknowledged that “every point counts” towards the total Driver’s Championship.
“I don´t really know what happened to Sebastian”.
Vettel will, however, have questions to answer regarding his curious collision with Stroll after the race had ended – the four-time world champion appeared guilty of a lack of concentration as he turned into the Williams. The stewards made a decision to take no further action.
Hamilton now holds a 34-point lead over Vettel heading to Japan next Sunday but is keen to keep pushing hard to win the race to title early. The victory also makes him the youngest ever victor at the Malaysian GP.
Advertisement
“I don’t know if he was unhappy about it or whatever but it didn’t seem over aggressive from my side, it didn’t feel like I did a real late move or anything”.
