What an incredibly vibrant and entertaining race we didn't have this morning, in an event when the curse of Mark Webber's car lives on as we saw Daniel Ricciardo's day completely disintegrate over a relatively short period of time. Last season we saw one German Bloke taking win after win in brutally dominant style, however that baton has been passed to a German team. If the this race on the first permanent circuit of the season is an omen for what is to come, then we are in for a very challenging year - and the field is going to be completely crushed week in week out. Only three cars in the top ten were not powered by Mercedes engines today - and that is with one of the car not starting the race.
There was some threat from the weather, but twas not to be - it's the same story we were told for virtually the entire second half of the 2013 season - a risk of rain in the dying period of the race which never materialised. I sort of get the feeling that the threat of rain is exaggerated just so that the latter phase is laced with hope for more excitement. I can foresee the events, or lack thereof, of today being used to discredit and fuel complaints about this new form of racing. To make matters worse the wide expanses of the Malaysian GP circuit made the cars sound much quieter as it wasn't reverberating off the walls like it was in Melbourne, so we need to brace ourselves as the naysayers are coming. I can admit today's race was not a supreme example of everything F1 can be, but the nature of the track doesn't promote high intensity unpredictability when it stays dry...
The Race
Unlike yesterday BBC presenter Suzy Perry couldn't harness the power of the weather and command the clouds to do their worst and shake things up. So we were treated to high temperatures and clear-ish skies with reports of storms several miles clear of the circuit. Based on the performances in the dry practice and the wet qualifying it appeared that we needed some rain to give anyone a chance of catching the Mercedes and their superior pace. Before the start of the race Force India's Sergio Perez was ruled out with technical difficulties.
When the lights went out Hamilton just drove off into the lead and was never seen of again, Rosberg followed his team mate through into second place despite been squeezed towards the pitwall by Vettel. Sebastian then tried to defend from Ricciardo, almost pushing the other Red Bull into Alonso, but lost the place to the Australian through the opening two corners. Elsewhere everyone else was well behaved - up until turn four anyway - there Bianchi span the car into the side of Maldonado's Lotus. Jules likely confused at seeing a Lotus running on track, both cars recovered with the Marussia suffering a rear puncture. Neither car would finish the race however due to technical difficulties later on. We also established that the new narrower front wings do not prevent punctures as Kevin Magnussen made contact with Kimi Raikkonen's rear wheel. Kevin lost quite a lot of front wing elements and Kimi lost a tyre and a lot of time crawling back to the pits to repair it.
Jules Bianchi was given the first of this season's new penalties - a 5 second pit stop extension penalty - where a driver has to remain stationary in the pitbox for 5 seconds before the crew can start working on the car. Unlike a conventional penalty which has to be taken within three laps, this one only comes into effect on the next scheduled stop. Because Magnussen was missing a significant amount of downforce he started to drop down the field falling behind Jenson in the other McLaren. He then came under attack from both Williams, building up a queue of cars which stretched back to the two Saubers in 15th place. This train of cars played into the hands of Daniil Kvyat and his all powerful death stare. The Russian's first target was Esteban Gutierrez who was quickly dispatched then Daniil didn't spend too long behing Romain Grosjean in the only remaining Lotus car.
Just as Bottas got on the radio telling Massa to hurry up and pass Magnussen or get out of the way, the damaged McLaren was called into pit lane to replace the front wing and get some new tyres. Within half a lap of Kevin rejoining the race, race control announced that the Dane had one of those new pit stop extension penalties...after he'd completed the stop. The penalty would have to wait until the next one. It was the time for pitstops overall, most of which failed to make any impression on the running order - although Alonso came very close to taking 4th from Ricciardo when the Australian rejoined. Ricciardo had to hang on round the outside of the Ferrari in turn two to claim the inside for turns three and four to stay ahead of the Spaniard. For a brief moment of time during this pit-stop phase Nico Hulkenberg lead in the Force India who was running an alternative strategy.
As example of how little was going on throughout the field, the TV camera director discovered what was going on down at the bottom of the field - where we saw Marcus Ericsson fighting hard with Vergne ahead of Raikkonen. A duel which lasted approximately two corners and then the emptiness resumed. So much emptiness that the Mercedes team out front were able to turn the engines down at one third distance. In comparison to Australia the field was very spread out - huge gulfs between each other - Jenson was completely alone in 7th place miles away from anyone. As was Hulkenberg several seconds up the road in 6th place, and barring one change that was where they were going to finish in 30 laps time. Such was the level of stagnation within the field.
So we roll several laps forward to the next series of stops and the beginning of the end for Daniel Ricciardo - when the Australian came in for some new tyres the team only affixed three of the tyres. So he had to pull the car over half-way down the pit lane so the team could roll it back and try again. This escapade cost Daniel an entire lap as he came back out behind Alonso, of course he was slapped with an obligatory 10s stop-go penalty for an unsafe release. After he'd served his penalty things went from bad to worse as the front wing partially fell off the Red Bull and disintegrated, cutting a groove in a front tyre in the process. A few laps after that issue was repaired Ricciardo came back to the pits to retire the car and end a tormented phase of the race. We've also got information that Ricciardo has been handed a 10 place grid drop for Bahrain and Red Bull are being investigated for incorrect crew protective gear in the pit-lane. Potentially the grid penalty is a result of Ricciardo not actually serving the penalty during the race when the BBC said he had...
With Daniel removed from contention, we also saw Adrian Sutil, and Jean Eric Vergne retire with technical difficulties - and given the extreme amount of caution the stewards observed in qualifying it was surprising not to see a safety car for the shards of Red Bull front wing. A couple of laps later Esteban Gutierrez had to retire his Sauber as well, and then were down to the same number of finishers we had in Australia - and for the most part, all the positions were locked in. It was also about this time that the first hints of rain were introduced - timed conveniently with the time that the action had shut down, offering a faint glimmer of hope that things were going to improve.
Down at Williams there some interesting radio communications as both cars caught up to the back of Jenson Button's McLaren - it appeared that Bottas was the faster of the pairing and wanted past. Now there are several ways of communicating this information to Massa in their battle with Jenson - but the team decided to use the message "Valtteri is faster than you". The exact message which sparked the massive team-order fiasco at Ferrari with Alonso in Hockenheim a few years ago - which is a very unfortunate choice of words frankly. Massa decided not to listen to this message, or any of the subsequent calls from the team instructing him to let his team-mate through. As this battle stagnated there were no more competitions within the points - the only on track battle was between Raikkonen in 12th and Grosjean in 11th - in a Lotus which was miraculously still running.
The race came to an anti-climactic end with Hamilton cruising to victory 13 seconds clear of anyone else only using 90% of the fuel available with the engines turned down. It was crushingly brutal domination, followed home by Rosberg in the other car - a 100% pole and victory record for Mercedes this season - and so far no-one has finished ahead of a Mercedes on track. Sebastien Vettel completed the race in 3rd place, so much for Red Bull being miles off the pace in pre-season, while Alonso brought the Ferrari home in 4th place. Another strong result for Hulkenberg saw the Force India home in 5th ahead of Jenson Button and the feuding Williams drivers in 7th and 8th. The points positions were rounded off by Magnussen in 9th and the death stare powers of Daniil Kvyat.
The Bonus Points Championship Points Winners
It is these races where handing out points is far more complicated, because everyone just drove around in position, waiting for the DRS to create an overtaking opportunity - besides Ricciardo, even the attrition wasn't massively unpredictable. It would be an excuse for half points frankly - but no I will persevere and find things to hand points to...
25pts - Lewis Hamilton - Because that was utterly dominant - but don't expect full points again
18pts - Romain Grosjean - For not retiring in a Lotus, and was only one place away from a point
15pts - Nico Hulkenberg - Making a two stop strategy work to score some more points
12pts - Felipe Massa - For effectively telling team orders to get stuffed
10pts - Daniel Ricciardo - For taking the fight to Vettel in the beginning, and then to Alonso later on
8pts - Valtteri Bottas - From 18th to 8th after another grid penalty deserves some points
6pts - Jenson Button - For holding off the armada of quarrelling Williams drivers
4pts -Kamui Kobayashi - Equalling the best position for a bottom team in 2014 on his first completed race
2pts - Daniil Kvyat - Because the death stare said there should be points
1pt - Andy Jordan - For winning the first race of the BTCC season this afternoon
The Penalty Points Championship
Not too much to add to proceedings following today's race, because not too much happened in general to award penalty points to. But there is one point that needs to be handed out, and that goes to Red Bull because they made a right hash of Ricciardo's race, and when I find out who gave that message to Felipe Massa - they shall receive a penalty point too.
Looking ahead to Bahrain
From one Tilke track to another, exchanging the damp heat of the tropics for the dry heat of the desert - except this time will be slightly different. Because it has been decided that the 2014 Bahrain GP is going to be a night race - in previous years that would have been a horrible idea given the troubles the country was going through. Many teams didn't want to travel around in the dark never mind host the entire event in it - but temperatures should be cooler and help those struggling with cooling.
Will things be any different when we arrive in the desert, probably not I foresee another bout of Mercedes domination but we shall have to wait and see.
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