Vettel wins sensational Malaysian GP for Ferrari

Sebastian Vettel sailed to a relatively easy Malaysian Grand Prix victory, beating both Mercedes cars to claims Ferrari’s first win since the 2013 Spanish GP.

The German driver predicted a victory after qualifying second on the grid and he made good on that claim, finishing over eight seconds ahead of Lewis Hamilton as Mercedes had no answer for Ferrari’s pace.

An early Safety Car – the result of a Felipe Nasr spin – saw Vettel take the lead as he stayed out whilst Hamilton and team-mate Nico Rosberg chose to pit.

From there on his pace saw him pull away, opening up a large enough gap to control the race as he put to good use a two-stop strategy compared to his closest rivals three-stops.

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Nico Rosberg eventually finished third ahead of the second Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen. The Finn managed to recover from an early puncture which saw him fall to last place.

Fifth and sixth went to Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa. A last-lap scrap saw Bottas snatch fifth from his Brazilian team-mate.

Toro Rosso duo Max Verstappen finished seventh with Carlos Sainz Jr eighth, whilst the Red Bull pairing completed the top ten with Daniil Kvyat beating Daniel Ricciardo.

Manor’s Roberto Merhi saw the checkered flag, albeit finishing three laps down on the race winner, but beating both McLaren’s which failed to finish the race.