Silver Arrows get split by a teary Vettel

Well well well. After a predictable race in Australia, with Mercedes coolly crossing the finish line over half a minute ahead of the rest, Ferrari’s surprise victory in Malaysia seems to have given F1 a new dose of adrenaline.

Not that Lewis Hamilton has been defeated yet or that we’re no longer rooting for him. He gave us a stellar performance last season and in Melbourne. Even during the qualifying at Sepang, he and Nico Rosberg were about 0.5-second ahead of Ferrari (less than the 1.4 seconds in Albert Park, though). And Ferarri’s win had much to do with the scorching Malaysian heat, which meant that tyre preservation played an important factor; more, in fact, than just speed. It was also surprising to see the Mercedes team become rattled when they realised that the race was unravelling for them.

When Rosberg was in second, ahead of Vettel, he radioed panicky messages to his team about Ferrari’s speed; Vettel overtook him with ease. Then it was Hamilton’s turn to unravel, as his tyres disintegrated and he was no longer able to hold off Vettel. At the end of Lap 24, Vettel eased into the lead while Hamilton had to pit and put on fresh tyres. The reigning champion then started to chase the lead and recorded a series of fastest laps, but there was added drama during his final pit stop when the technicians switched the tyres to the slower hard ones instead of the quicker compounds. Hamilton still managed to close the gap on Vettel’s lead, though not enough.

The Ferrari sailed through the last 10 laps, and onto a much deserved victory.

“We beat them fair and square,” Vettel said, visibly emotional when he took the podium, flanked by the two Silver Arrows. Vettel later dedicated his win to his hero, Michael Schumacher, who is still recovering from a skiing accident.

The defeated Hamilton conceded: “Jeez, they had some good pace today. We knew coming into this weekend that they had made a step, we didn’t know how big but they were too fast for us today.”

image: theguardian.com

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