Lewis Hamilton had a frustrating afternoon in Malaysia as he saw pole position and early lead turn into a spectacular win for Sebastian Vettel.
Second place was still a respectable reward, and after the race he congratulated his rivals.
“We have to give it to them, they did a fantastic job this weekend and big congratulations to Sebastian and Ferrari,” said Hamilton. “We were not, and I was not, expecting them to be as quick as they were today. I think it’s great for the fans to see. I don’t really know whether, if I’d stayed out with him [under the safety car], whether that would have made much of a difference.
“They were probably just as good if not a little bit better perhaps on tire deg. So I think it would have still been very, very close. But I think naturally after that first stop I had so much ground to catch up it was pretty much impossible.”
Hamilton admitted that he had a tough time, and he was also disappointed to be given the harder tire for his final stint.
“Just generally, all day today, I was struggling with the balance, very, very uncomfortable with the car, a lot of understeer in the low speed which inevitably snaps into oversteer everywhere, so I couldn’t really look after my tires. I was doing everything with my controls but I couldn’t really find a good balance.
“When I went to the option tire, the car was good or better, so I was able to be a little bit more consistent, and then closed down the gap. I hadn’t been told but I thought we would be going onto that tire again at the end, but we went onto the other one, which wasn’t good for me as I’d experienced before, but I did the best job I could with it. I think ultimately the team made the best choices we could today and we’ll try to analyze and improve for next time.”
Niki Lauda made no excuses as he said that Ferrari and Sebastian Vettel simply did a better job than Mercedes in winning the Malaysian GP.
The former World Champion was quick to congratulate Ferrari boss Maurizio Arrivabene immediately after the race.
“Very simple, they were unbeatable today I would say,” he said. “Because they did a perfect strategy, and Vettel did an incredible job. The car performed, the tires lasted. For us it was a three-stop strategy. Why? Because with the tires at their peak, for us it was important to make three stops. Ferrari was less hard on tires altogether, therefore they had to do a two-stop, and one race.
“I went to Arrivanbene right away and congratulated him, from my heart, because he is competition, and more competition is better, and if Ferrari wins Bernie can't complain about boring Vettel, which he said. Vettel is not boring any more! I think it's very good this result for the total image if F1, which we're always complaining about – I'm not, but some other people.”
Lauda said that the Ferrari win would be a wake-up call for Mercedes: “Normally in sport when these things happen, and you don't win every race, the bell rings. The bell will ring loud because we all will hear it and we'll react to it, which is normal. But nevertheless we're second and third, we won the last race, so the world is not finished yet after one Vettel victory. But nevertheless, they were better today.”
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