2015 Malaysian Grand Prix

 2015 Malaysian Grand Prix

Racing data
2nd of 19 races in the 2015 Formula 1 World Championship
Surname:	2015 Formula 1 Petronas Malaysia Grand Prix
Date:	March 29, 2015
Place:	Sepang
Course:	Sepang International Circuit
Length:	310.408 km in 56 laps of 5.543 km
Weather:	dry
Pole position
Driver:	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes
Time:	1: 49.834 min
Fastest lap
Driver:	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes
Time:	1: 42.062 min (lap 43)
Podium
First:	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari
Second:	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes
Third:	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes

The Malaysian Grand Prix 2015 (officially 2015 Formula 1 Petronas Malaysia Grand Prix ) took place on 29 March at the Sepang International Circuit in Sepang instead and was the second race of the Formula 1 World Championship in 2015 .

report

background

After the Australian Grand Prix , Lewis Hamilton led the drivers' standings by seven points over Nico Rosberg and ten points over Sebastian Vettel . In the constructors' championship, Mercedes led Ferrari with 28 points and ahead of Sauber with 29 points .

At the Malaysian Grand Prix, Pirelli provided the drivers with the tire compounds P Zero Hard (orange) and P Zero Medium (white), as well as Cinturato Intermediates (green) and Cinturato Full Wets (blue) for wet conditions .

The DRS zones remained unchanged compared to the previous year. The first zone was on the back straight and began 104 meters after curve 14. The measuring point for this zone was 54 meters after curve 12. The second DRS zone was on the immediately following start and finish straight and began 28 meters behind the curve 15. The measuring point for this DRS zone was 16 meters after the apex of curve 15.

Additional safety fences were erected on the pit wall to protect the marshals on the start and finish straight, otherwise there were no changes to the route.

Fernando Alonso returned to McLaren in this race . Due to a concussion in an accident during the test drives before the start of the season, he had to cancel his participation at the season opener. After Giedo van der Garde decided not to work for Sauber at the Australian Grand Prix , although a court ruling indicated that he was entitled to a cockpit as a driver, it became known before the Malaysian Grand Prix that the contract with Sauber had been terminated and van der Garde would receive compensation in the amount of 15 million euros.

Marcus Ericsson , Pastor Maldonado (five each), Valtteri Bottas , Romain Grosjean and Sergio Pérez (two each) went into the race weekend with penalty points.

With Alonso, Vettel (three times each), Kimi Raikkonen (twice), Jenson Button and Hamilton (once each), five former winners competed in this Grand Prix.

Mick Doohan (AUS), Paul Gutjahr (CHE), Sophee Khoo (MAS) and Radovan Novak (CZE) acted as race stewards .

free training

Will Stevens was only on the track in free practice in Malaysia

Rosberg set the fastest time of the first free practice with 1: 40.124 minutes, followed by Raikkonen and Vettel. Hamilton had to park his vehicle with a technical defect and was the only driver in the field to not achieve a lap time. While Will Stevens stayed below the 107 percent hurdle , his teammate Roberto Merhi failed .

In the second free practice, Hamilton was fastest with a lap time of 1: 39.790 minutes ahead of Raikkonen and Rosberg. Merhi failed again at the 107 percent hurdle. Training had to be interrupted twice after Maldonado lost body parts from the left side pod on the track and Merhi turned into the gravel . After the training, the internal combustion engine on Button's vehicle had to be changed.

In the third free practice session, Rosberg was again the fastest driver in 1: 39.690 minutes. Hamilton came second, Raikkonen third. For the first time, Merhi managed a time below the 107 percent time. His team-mate Stevens failed this time on the hurdle.

Qualifying

Shortly before the start of the second section, the drivers wait at the exit of the pit lane, as heavy rain had been announced. The Lotus drivers came out of their boxes very late and couldn't make it into the fast lane .

The qualifying consisted of three parts with a net running time of 45 minutes. In the first qualifying segment (Q1), the drivers had 18 minutes to qualify for the race. All drivers who achieved a time in the first section that was a maximum of 107 percent of the fastest lap time qualified for the Grand Prix. The best 15 drivers reached the next part. Hamilton was the fastest. Stevens didn’t set any time because there was a problem with the fuel supply in his vehicle and his teammate Merhi failed to qualify. However, both were admitted to the race because they had set lap times below the 107 percent time in free practice. The McLaren drivers and Felipe Nasr were eliminated.

The second section (Q2) lasted 15 minutes. The ten fastest pilots qualified for the third part of qualifying. Shortly after the start of practice, it began to rain heavily, and all drivers only had one fast lap in dry conditions. Rosberg was the fastest. Carlos Sainz Jr. , the Force India pilots, Maldonado and Raikkonen did not make it into the last part of the timed practice. Grosjean had overtaken another driver as he exited the pit lane and received a starting place penalty of two places after qualifying.

Due to the heavy rain, the beginning of the final section was postponed by 30 minutes. This lasted twelve minutes, during which the first ten starting positions were awarded. On the wet track, several pilots started their first attempt with rain tires, but they did not complete a timed lap, but switched to intermediates immediately, as the track quickly began to dry out. Hamilton drove the fastest time ahead of Vettel and Rosberg.

run

At the start, Hamilton defends the top position in front of Vettel and Rosberg

Around an hour before the race, Manor-Marussia announced that they had not been able to fix the fuel pressure problems on Stevens' vehicle and that Stevens would therefore not be able to start. After it became apparent during training that the team had never sent both vehicles out on the track at the same time, speculation arose that the team only owned a certain necessary part in one version and that it had to be swapped back and forth between the two vehicles. Manor-Marussia denied this representation.

Hamilton started well and stayed in the lead, Rosberg attacked Vettel but couldn't get past. Nico Hülkenberg had the best start, improving from 13th on the grid to seventh. Bottas started badly and fell back into the rear field, where he collided with Maldonado, who suffered a puncture in the rear right. At the end of the first lap, Nasr and Raikkonen collided, with Nasr damaging the front wing and Raikkonen suffering from a tire damage on the left rear.

Marcus Ericsson gets out of his vehicle, Marshals begin the rescue

Ericsson braked himself in turn one on lap four and turned into the gravel. The safety car was sent out on the track so that the vehicle could be recovered. Vettel, Hülkenberg, Grosjean, Sainz and Pérez stayed on the track, all other drivers pitted to change tires. Rosberg had to wait for his pit stop until Hamilton's car was cleared in front of him, so Daniel Ricciardo and Felipe Massa passed him.

Behind the safety car, Vettel is in the lead in front of Hülkenberg, Grosjean and Sainz

Vettel led before Hülkenberg, Grosjean, Sainz, Pérez, Hamilton, Ricciardo, Massa, Rosberg and Max Verstappen . Maldonado received a 10-second penalty for driving too fast behind the safety car and was also given three penalty points. After the end of the safety car phase, Hamilton was able to quickly pass Pérez, and Ricciardo and Massa also passed Pérez on the first lap after the race was released. Hulkenberg, Grosjean and Sainz clearly stopped the following Hamilton. So Vettel was able to extend the lead at the top to ten seconds until Hamilton was able to pass all three. On the 18th lap, Vettel made his first pit stop and fell back to third place behind Hamilton and Rosberg. However, he was able to drive significantly faster than the Mercedes drivers and passed Rosberg. Alonso had to give up the race with a defective ERS cooling system in eighth place. When Vettel caught up with Hamilton on lap 25, he pitted for the second tire change and switched to the hard tire compound. Two laps later, Rosberg also pits and also switched to the hard tire compound. Hulkenberg and Daniil Kwjat collided in turn two, Hulkenberg received a ten-second penalty for this, just like his team-mate Pérez, who had previously collided with Grosjean. However, all four drivers were able to continue. Hülkenberg and Pérez also received two penalty points each.

Kwjat turns after the collision with Hulkenberg (front)

The two Red Bull drivers had braking problems, and clouds of black brake dust could be seen every time they brake

Hamilton caught up with Vettel, who pitted on lap 38 for his second and final tire change. He came back on the track just before Rosberg and was able to pull away from him on the newer tires. Hamilton pitted again a lap later and fell behind Vettel and Rosberg. Although he requested another set of the softer tires, he was given a new set of hard tires as the team believed they were faster than the soft tires they had already used. Button complained to the pit radio about the drop in performance, he drove slowly to the pit and gave up there with a defective turbocharger. On lap 42, Rosberg also pits for the third tire change, but he received the softer compound. Hamilton and Rosberg subsequently set faster lap times than Vettel, but they did not manage to get within striking distance. Maldonado had to give up the race with a brake defect a few laps before the end. Bottas caught up with Massa and was able to pass his team-mate on the last lap.

Finish: Vettel in front of the lapped Sainz and Kwjat, Hamilton is turning into the home straight

Vettel won the race around nine seconds ahead of Hamilton and Rosberg. The top 10 were completed by Raikkonen, Bottas, Massa, Verstappen, Sainz, Kwjat and Ricciardo. It was Vettel's first win for Ferrari and the first Ferrari win since the 2013 Spanish Grand Prix that Alonso won.

Hamilton kept the lead in the overall standings, Vettel passed Rosberg to second. With the designers, Mercedes stayed ahead of Ferrari, Williams was the new third place .

Registration list

team	No.	driver	chassis	engine	tires
Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes F1 W06 Hybrid	Mercedes-Benz PU106B Hybrid	P
	06th	Nico Rosberg
Infiniti Red Bull Racing	03	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull RB11	Renault Energy F1 2015	P
	26th	Daniil Kvyat
Williams Martini Racing	19th	Felipe Massa	Williams FW37	Mercedes-Benz PU106B Hybrid	P
	77	Valtteri Bottas
Scuderia Ferrari	05	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari SF15-T	Ferrari 059/4	P
	07th	Kimi Raikkonen
McLaren Honda	14th	Fernando Alonso	McLaren MP4-30	Honda RA615H	P
	22nd	Jenson Button
Sahara Force India F1 Team	27	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India VJM08	Mercedes-Benz PU106B Hybrid	P
	11	Sergio Perez
Scuderia Toro Rosso	33	Max Verstappen	Toro Rosso STR10	Renault Energy F1 2015	P
	55	Carlos Sainz Jr.
Lotus F1 Team	08th	Romain Grosjean	Lotus E23 Hybrid	Mercedes-Benz PU106B Hybrid	P
	13	Pastor Maldonado
Manor Marussia F1 Team	28	Will Stevens	Marussia MR03	Ferrari 059/3	P
	98	Roberto Merhi
Sauber F1 Team	09	Marcus Ericsson	Clean C34	Ferrari 059/4	P
	12	Felipe Nasr
	36	Raffaele Marciello

Remarks

1. ↑ ^{a b} The Sauber with starting number 36 was used in the first free practice for Marciello. Nasr then took over the vehicle with his number 12 for the rest of the race weekend.

Classifications

Qualifying

Item	driver	constructor	Q1	Q2	Q3	begin
01	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1: 39.269	1: 41.517	1: 49.834	01
02	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	1: 39.814	1: 39.632	1: 49.908	02
03	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1: 39.374	1: 39.377	1: 50.299	03
04th	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull-Renault	1: 40.504	1: 41.085	1: 51.541	04th
05	Daniil Kvyat	Red Bull-Renault	1: 40.546	1: 41.665	1: 51.951	05
06th	Max Verstappen	Toro Rosso-Renault	1: 40.793	1: 41.430	1: 51.981	06th
07th	Felipe Massa	Williams-Mercedes	1: 40.543	1: 41.230	1: 52.473	07th
08th	Romain Grosjean	Lotus Mercedes	1: 40.303	1: 41.209	1: 52.981	10
09	Valtteri Bottas	Williams-Mercedes	1: 40.249	1: 40.650	1: 53.179	08th
10	Marcus Ericsson	Clean Ferrari	1: 40.340	1: 41.748	1: 53.261	09
11	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari	1: 40.415	1: 42.173	-	11
12	Pastor Maldonado	Lotus Mercedes	1: 40.361	1: 42.198	-	12
13	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India-Mercedes	1: 40.830	1: 43.023	-	13
14th	Sergio Perez	Force India-Mercedes	1: 41.036	1: 43.469	-	14th
15th	Carlos Sainz Jr.	Toro Rosso-Renault	1: 39.814	1: 43.701	-	15th
16	Felipe Nasr	Clean Ferrari	1: 41.308	-	-	16
17th	Jenson Button	McLaren Honda	1: 41.635	-	-	17th
18th	Fernando Alonso	McLaren Honda	1: 41.745	-	-	18th
107 percent time : 1: 46.218 min (based on Q1 best time of 1: 39.269 min)
DNQ	Roberto Merhi	Marussia Ferrari	1: 46.677	-	-	19th
DNQ	Will Stevens	Marussia Ferrari	no time	-	-	-

Remarks

1. ↑ Grosjean was moved two starting positions back because he had overtaken in the pit lane.
2. ↑ Merhi was allowed to start because he was fast enough in free practice.
3. ↑ Stevens was allowed to start because he was fast enough in free practice. It was withdrawn before the race.

run

Item	driver	constructor	Round	Stops	time	begin	Fastest lap
01	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	56	2	1: 41: 05.793	02	1: 43.648 (46.)
02	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	56	3	+ 8.569	01	1: 43.125 (45.)
03	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	56	3	+ 12,310	03	1: 42.062 (43.)
04th	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari	56	3	+ 53.822	11	1: 44,124 (40.)
05	Valtteri Bottas	Williams-Mercedes	56	3	+1: 10.409	08th	1: 44.088 (42nd)
06th	Felipe Massa	Williams-Mercedes	56	3	+1: 13.586	07th	1: 43.990 (40th)
07th	Max Verstappen	Toro Rosso-Renault	56	3	+1: 37.762	06th	1: 44,579 (42nd)
08th	Carlos Sainz Jr.	Toro Rosso-Renault	55	2	+ 1 lap	15th	1: 45.507 (37th)
09	Daniil Kvyat	Red Bull-Renault	55	3	+ 1 lap	05	1: 44,514 (41.)
10	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull-Renault	55	3	+ 1 lap	04th	1: 45.312 (42nd)
11	Romain Grosjean	Lotus Mercedes	55	3	+ 1 lap	10	1: 44.812 (36.)
12	Felipe Nasr	Clean Ferrari	55	4th	+ 1 lap	16	1: 43.902 (45th)
13	Sergio Perez	Force India-Mercedes	55	2	+ 1 lap	14th	1: 45.345 (37.)
14th	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India-Mercedes	55	3	+ 1 lap	13	1: 44.822 (46.)
15th	Roberto Merhi	Marussia Ferrari	53	3	+ 3 rounds	19th	1: 49.040 (44th)
-	Pastor Maldonado	Lotus Mercedes	47	3	DNF	12	1: 45.070 (38th)
-	Jenson Button	McLaren Honda	41	3	DNF	17th	1: 46.056 (38th)
-	Fernando Alonso	McLaren Honda	21st	1	DNF	18th	1: 48.460 (17.)
-	Marcus Ericsson	Clean Ferrari	03	0	DNF	09	1: 48.760 ( 03rd)

World Cup stands after the race

The first ten of the race got 25, 18, 15, 12, 10, 8, 6, 4, 2 and 1 point (s) respectively.

Driver ranking

Item driver constructor Points 01  Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 43 02  Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 40 03  Nico Rosberg Mercedes 33 04th  Felipe Massa Williams-Mercedes 20th 05  Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 12 06th  Felipe Nasr Clean Ferrari 10 07th  Valtteri Bottas Williams-Mercedes 10 08th  Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull-Renault 9 09  Nico Hulkenberg Force India-Mercedes 6th 10  Max Verstappen Toro Rosso-Renault 6th 11  Carlos Sainz Jr. Toro Rosso-Renault 6th

Item driver constructor Points 12  Marcus Ericsson Clean Ferrari 4th 13  Daniil Kvyat Red Bull-Renault 2 14th  Sergio Perez Force India-Mercedes 1 15th  Jenson Button McLaren Honda 0 16  Romain Grosjean Lotus Mercedes 0 17th  Roberto Merhi Marussia Ferrari 0 -  Pastor Maldonado Lotus Mercedes 0 -  Fernando Alonso McLaren Honda 0 -  Kevin Magnussen McLaren Honda 0 -  Will Stevens Marussia Ferrari 0

Constructors' championship

Item constructor Points 1  Mercedes 76 2  Ferrari 52 3  Williams-Mercedes 30th 4th  Clean Ferrari 14th 5  Toro Rosso-Renault 12

Item constructor Points 06th  Red Bull-Renault 11 07th  Force India-Mercedes 7th 08th  McLaren Honda 0 09  Lotus Mercedes 0 10  Marussia Ferrari 0

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Dominik Sharaf: Pirelli's tire choice will remain conservative until Bahrain. Motorsport-Total.com, March 4, 2015, accessed March 4, 2015 . 
2. ↑ ^{a b} 2015 Malaysian Grand Prix Preview. fia.com , accessed March 26, 2015 . 
3. ↑ Markus Lüttgens: McLaren confirms: Alonso returns in Malaysia. Motorsport-Total.com, March 23, 2015, accessed March 24, 2015 . 
4. ^ Roman Wittemeier: Clean solution: 15 million euros for Giedo van der Garde. Motorsport-Total.com, March 17, 2015, accessed on March 17, 2015 . 
5. ^ Markus Lüttgens: motorcycle legend Mick Doohan race commissioner in Sepang. Motorsport-Total.com, March 25, 2015, accessed March 25, 2015 . 
6. ^ Christian Nimmervoll: Formula 1 in Malaysia 2015: Rosberg dominates, Ferrari strong. Motorsport-Total.com, March 27, 2015, accessed March 27, 2015 . 
7. ↑ Fabian Hust, Dominik Sharaf: Formula 1 in Malaysia: Hamilton ahead - Ferrari is getting closer. Motorsport-Total.com, March 27, 2015, accessed March 27, 2015 . 
8. ↑ Markus Lüttgens: Honda is changing the drive unit on Jenson Button's car. Motorsport-Total.com, March 27, 2015, accessed March 28, 2015 . 
9. ↑ Christian Nimmervoll: Formula 1 in Malaysia 2015: Rosberg best time in the third training session. Motorsport-Total.com, March 28, 2015, accessed March 28, 2015 . 
10. ↑ Fabian Hust, Christian Nimmervoll: Formula 1 in Malaysia 2015: Hamilton confidently on rain pole. Motorsport-Total.com, March 28, 2015, accessed March 28, 2015 . 
11. ↑ Matthias Brunner: Manor before the Malaysia GP: Only one car at the start! Speedweek.com, March 29, 2015, accessed March 29, 2015 . 
12. ↑ Rebecca Friese, Dieter Rencken: Collision, punishment and tactics bring Hülkenberg out of points. Motorsport-Total.com, March 29, 2015, accessed March 29, 2015 .