2014 Malaysian Grand Prix review

The three guys on the podium: Rosberg, Hamilton and Vettel.

Mercedes has proved that this is their season and nobody can stop them! Right now it seems that the only way for somebody else to win the championship this year is to wait in third and watch Lewis and Nico take points away from each other. Kimi won Alonso and Hamilton like that in 2007.

But what about the race? What happened?

Right in the start Sebastian Vettel tried very aggressively to push Nico Rosberg into the pit wall but he didn't get in front of him though. Rosberg said after the race that he almost had a heart attack because there was a lot of speed already at that point.

Hulkenberg overtook Alonso again and stayed in front of him most of the race. He did that also in Australia which made me wonder if Force India is better than Ferrari this year? Maybe Hulkenberg is just over performing in that car. He is phenomenal!

Lap 2 Räikkönen got hit in the rear again! This time by Kevin Magnussen which ruined both of their races. Mostly Räikkönen's.. It was so fast that Kimi didn't even know what hit him. Magnussen took the blame for that one.

It was a pity because Räikkönen had been best of the rest (only the Mercs in front) on dry the whole weekend. He could have scored some valuable points for the team yesterday.

Another guy who was phenomenal the whole weekend was Kamui Kobayashi! Did you realize that he was 10th at one point with a Caterham. He was fighting against Romain Grosjean very hard and it wasn't easy to pass him at all.

Another guy who was proud of being hard to overtake was Grosjean. He said that he was happy that Räikkönen couldn't overtake him in the end of the race.

Räikkönen was asked about it and he said "I was surprised when Grosjean hit me when I tried to overtake him. I don't know what he was doing". Dirty driving or not but if he didn't get penalized then there's nothing to say about it anymore. Lotus could at least be happy that they got a lot of new data from the race and they finished for the first time this year with one car.

Williams was an interesting thing to keep an eye on. First they got terrible starting positions because they chose the wrong tyres for both of the drivers in qualifying.

In the race Williams was fast as lighting and had their first drama between the drivers. Felipe Massa was angry on the radio screaming that Valtteri Bottas tried to overtake him and almost hit him doing that. The team told Bottas to back off but the finn answered calmly "I have more pace than him". The team told Massa to let Valtteri pass him and answered to Bottas "you are faster! overtake him!". Massa was not ready to be somebodies bitch again so he didn't obey.

Bottas and Massa

Many people thought that it was the right thing to do but when you think about it then it wasn't a very good idea after all...

The deal inside the team was that if Bottas could not have overtaken Button with the better tyres he would have given his position back to Massa before the finish line.

Massa thought that if Bottas can't pass him then he couldn't pass Button either. It sounds pretty reasonable but the fact is that Massa is hard to overtake and Button is more of a gentleman which makes him easier to overtake. 

Remember last season when Ferrari asked Felipe again to let Alonso pass and he didn't? It took a long time for him to get pass and he is a two time world champion. Bottas is just a newbie.

Button on the other hand respects the lines, the track and the drivers to much. Most of the drivers play dirty when they want a position badly but Button doesn't play like that which is in my opinion his weakness even though he is a great driver. Sometimes you must do what you gotta do to win even if it's not the best thing to do. Button is the Stirling Moss of our time because he was also too nice on the track.

Let's get back to subject: Williams. If Massa would have let Bottas pass it would have been a clear deal that Bottas would have to do the same thing for Massa in the future. But now I don't see a reason that Bottas would help Massa at all. So that may have been a big mistake from Massa I hate to tell you.

What else? Daniel Ricciardo! What is going on? "MARK WEBBER MODE ACTIVATED!" Aussies must hate Red Bull!

Daniel Ricciardo

It all started when Red Bull told Ricciardo the same thing Williams told Bottas. They told him to back off. Ricciardo answered very calmly that if he has pace and something happens he wants to be a part of it. If he would be 2 seconds behind it could be critical in some scenarios. Red Bull answered "OK" and then it all started happening!

First they asked him to the pits at a very funny time if you ask me. Then they sent him off with a loose wheel, pushed him back in the box and did it properly. Then his front wing broke very easily and he got a stop and go penalty because of the unsafe release from the pits. Later he had to retire. 
I can't wait for Ricciardo to win a race and show everybody where he is supposed to be.

After all of this that I have talked about Hamilton won the race and dedicated the win for the lost plane "MH370" which was a very nice thing to do.

The last thing of the review as always - what did I guess in my preview and what was the actual result?

My guesses:

Pole Position: Kevin Magnussen - WRONG! He was only 8th because McLaren had a lot of problems.

The race:

1. Jenson Button - WRONG. McLaren had problems almost the whole weekend.
2. Lewis Hamilton - WRONG. One spot higher.
3. Valtteri Bottas - WRONG. Got hold up behind Massa but it would have been difficult anyways.

Fastest lap: Nico Rosberg - WRONG! It was the other Mercedes. Nico had the 2nd fastest time of the race.

Surprise: Ferrari - They will be much better this weekend! -RIGHT! Räikkönen was right behind the Mercs the whole weekend but when the rain came out it showed that Ferrari isn't that good in those conditions. In the race Räikkönen had the accident (which ruined his race) and Alonso passed Hulkenberg in the end for 4th which seemed to be impossible in Australia.

Tomorrow I will finally post the pictures that I promised earlier on the facebook page. Pictures of all of the Formula One stuff that I got from the 2013 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.