AUTOSPORT's Malaysian GP driver ratings

1 SEBASTIAN VETTEL
Red Bull-Renault RB10

Start: 2nd
Finish: 3rd
Strategy: 3 stops (medium/medium/medium/hard)

Rating: 9

Vettel was kicking himself for not finding the 56 thousandths he needed to pip Hamilton to pole and admitted that it was probably a missed opportunity.

But it was still a good lap and he had a small margin over Ricciardo all weekend.

It was impossible Vettel could have done much better than third in the race. Although he did put a little pressure on Rosberg when the chance arose, realistically third was the maximum given the advantage the Mercedes had.

3 DANIEL RICCIARDO
Red Bull-Renault RB10

Start: 5th
Finish: DNF
Strategy: Retired
(med/medium/hard/medium/hard/retired)

Rating: 8

Ricciardo was on course to finish fourth, just one place behind his team-mate, when he was released from his final stop with the front-left wheel not properly attached.

A 10-second penalty and a broken front wing support pillar added insult to injury and led to his retirement given points were impossible.

Pace wise, he was slightly slower than Vettel, but ran behind him in the race.

Showed his sharpness by spotting the loose wheel immediately, something many would have missed.

6 NICO ROSBERG
Mercedes F1 W05

Start: 3rd
Finish: 2nd
Strategy: 3 stops (medium/medium/medium/hard)

Rating: 8

Throughout practice, there were hints that Rosberg didn't have Hamilton's pace, especially considering his team-mate didn't hook up three strong sectors on his fastest lap both in Friday and Saturday practice.

He was faster in intermediate conditions in Q1, but other than that didn't have the legs of Hamilton.

A disappointing first lap in qualifying led to him starting on row two, but he drove a tidy race and mostly kept Vettel at arm's length.

Good, but not as good as Hamilton.

44 LEWIS HAMILTON
Mercedes F1 W05

Start: 1st
Finish: 1st
Strategy: 3 stops (medium/medium/medium/hard)

Rating: 10

Hamilton's speed has never been in question, but there were question marks over his ability to juggle the demands of racing 2014-style.

But in Malaysia, in difficult conditions thanks to the high track temperature, he drove absolutely immaculately and comfortably prevailed in a straight fight with his team-mate.

Utterly in control and error-free, he showed no signs of letting Rosberg back into it after pulling a two-second gap on the opening lap.

Quick, classy and unflustered and made it look easy.

7 KIMI RAIKKONEN
Ferrari F14 T

Start: 6th
Finish: 12th
Strategy: 3 stops (medium/medium/medium/hard)

Rating: 7

Raikkonen found the front end of the Ferrari far more to his liking during practice. But in wet conditions, he once again struggled with a lack of front grip, meaning he couldn't get within a second of Alonso.

Lost a place to Hulkenberg at the start, and after being clipped by Magnussen he faced a lengthy trek back to the pits with a puncture.

Was slow thereafter, but that was down to damage to the floor.

14 FERNANDO ALONSO
Ferrari F14 T

Start: 4th
Finish: 4th
Strategy: 3 stops (medium/medium/hard/medium)

Rating: 7

Alonso's weekend was relatively subdued as he didn't appear to be as happy with the Ferrari as Raikkonen during practice, then played his part in the collision with Kvyat during Q2 while creeping round on intermediates in the wet.

But he did do better in the wet than Raikkonen, and in the race ultimately managed to win his ongoing personal battle with Hulkenberg even though the car didn't quite have the pace to hang onto the Red Bulls.

Fine, but below his usual standards.

8 ROMAIN GROSJEAN
Lotus-Renault E22

Start: 15th
Finish: 11th
Strategy: 3 stops (medium/medium/medium/hard)

Rating: 8

For the first time in 2014, Grosjean was able to show glimpses of his prodigious pace after a tough Friday.

Comfortably made it out of Q1 thanks to nailing a decent lap early and might have been able to squeeze into the top 10 had he stopped for fresh wets in Q2.

Drove well in a tricky car in the race and was in with a shout of challenging Kvyat for 10th when his diffuser lost downforce late on, costing as much as a second per lap.

13 PASTOR MALDONADO
Lotus-Renault E22

Start: 16th
Finish: DNF
Strategy: 0 stops (medium/retired)

Rating: 6

Drew the short straw at Lotus, managing a grand total of 37 laps all weekend.

Problems wiped out Saturday and while Ericsson's late crash did cost Maldonado his last Q1 lap, it wouldn't have mattered had he been quicker on his first attempt.

Had no chance to make an impression in the race after first being clouted by Bianchi on the first lap and then retiring shortly afterwards with a turbo-intake problem.

For the second weekend in a row, not much to judge him on.

22 JENSON BUTTON
McLaren-Mercedes MP4-29

Start: 10th
Finish: 6th
Strategy: 3 stops (medium/medium/medium/hard)

Rating: 9

Button rolled the dice in Q3 by going out on intermediates when everyone else, save team-mate Magnussen who then came in to switch, was on wets.

While perhaps a mistake to stick with it, this was an understandable gamble given McLaren's struggles.

Drove a wonderful race, jumping Massa then Magnussen early on and ensuring he was quick in the right places, namely out of the slow final two corners where the McLaren was strong and around the pitstops, to keep Massa at bay.

20 KEVIN MAGNUSSEN
McLaren-Mercedes MP4-29

Start: 8th
Finish: 9th
Strategy: 3 stops (medium/medium/medium/hard)

Rating: 6

His second-lap collision with Raikkonen at the first corner, which damaged his front wing and earned him a five-second penalty, was the result of naively leaving his nose inside the Ferrari.

The time lost in the first stint thanks to the resultant front-wing damage cost him any chance of beating Button or the Williams.

But Magnussen recovered with the minimum of fuss to bank a couple of points for ninth, which considering McLaren's pace at Sepang was probably about a par return.

27 NICO HULKENBERG
Force India-Mercedes VJM07

Start: 7th
Finish: 5th
Strategy: 2 stops (medium/medium/hard)

Rating: 9

Hulkenberg delivered exactly the kind of performance expected from him, qualifying well in wet conditions and then dragging the most out of the car in the race.

Didn't quite have the pace to beat Alonso in a straight fight, but was able to get enough life out of the mediums to pull off a two-stopper, the only driver in the top 10 to manage it.

But given Alonso was two seconds a lap quicker in the closing stages, he was powerless to keep the Ferrari behind.

11 SERGIO PEREZ
Force India-Mercedes VJM07

Start: 14th (DNS)
Finish: DNS
Strategy: DNS

Rating: 6

On Friday, Perez lost all of FP1 with a fuel system problem.

On Saturday, he complained of a brake-balance problem that led to him repeatedly locking the rears.

On Sunday, he was unable even to make the race thanks to a gearbox-related software glitch that cropped up on a reconnaissance lap.

Very little to draw conclusions from, although it seems likely that the brake problems on Saturday were perhaps not solely responsible for his disappointing qualifying. But overall, a weekend of ill-luck.

21 ESTEBAN GUTIERREZ
Sauber-Ferrari C33

Start: 12th
Finish: DNF
Strategy: retired (medium/medium/hard)

Rating: 6

A better weekend than Melbourne for Gutierrez, who wisely opted to reel off a couple of quick laps in the best of the conditions early in Q1 rather than take a lap off in between to charge his ERS, which allowed him to make it to Q2 ahead of his team-mate.

Drove solidly in the race, although he didn't look to have the same pace as Sutil.

His race came to an end at his final stop when a gearbox problem manifested itself.

99 ADRIAN SUTIL
Sauber-Ferrari C33

Start: 17th
Finish: DNF
Strategy: retired (medium/hard/hard)

Rating: 6

Battling a Sauber that is both significantly overweight and not especially competitive, Sutil nonetheless should have made Q2 in wet conditions.

His first flier wasn't good enough, meaning that the late red flag cost him his chance to go through. But drove well in the race despite battling against poor grip levels.

Was probably on course to finish 12th or 13th, about par for a Sauber, before he lost electrical power and the engine shut down.

25 JEAN-ERIC VERGNE
Toro Rosso-Renault STR9

Start: 9th
Finish: DNF
Strategy: retired (medium/hard/medium/retired)

Rating: 8

Vergne had a very strong Friday and qualified an excellent ninth in wet conditions, albeit after living dangerously in Q1 and being the slowest of the 16 cars to make it through.

An engine-related problem manifested itself at the start and he plummeted to the back, then tried to slip between Kobayashi and Bianchi and suffered front-wing damage, forcing an early stop, before eventually retiring with ongoing engine problems.

Until those issues intervened, he was doing a good job.

26 DANIIL KVYAT
Toro Rosso-Ferrari STR9

Start: 11th
Finish: 10th
Strategy: 3 stops (medium/medium/hard/medium)

Rating: 8

Just as in Australia, belied his inexperienced by looking accomplished throughout the weekend.

While he didn't quite have the same raw pace as his team-mate, Kvyat managed to qualify right behind him a respectable quarter of a second down.

In the race, he kept out of trouble to take his second successive points finish, although Grosjean's late diffuser problem helped keep him out of range.

For a 19-year-old making the step up from GP3, this was another weekend where he looked very much at home in F1.

19 FELIPE MASSA
Williams-Mercedes FW36

Start: 13th
Finish: 7th
Strategy: 3 stops (medium/medium/medium/hard)

Rating: 7

Massa looked the more convincing Williams driver during practice and qualifying, although the wet weather on Saturday afternoon prevented him reaching Q3.

Had to back off after being squeezed by Magnussen on the opening lap, which defined his race as it allowed Button to get past.

He could do nothing about the McLaren despite being faster, citing the traction weakness of the Williams as the reason.

Refused to yield to team orders and let Bottas past to have a go at Button late on, which was understandable but perhaps unwise.

77 VALTTERI BOTTAS
Williams-Renault FW36

Start: 18th
Finish: 8th
Strategy: 3 stops (mediuma/medium/medium/hard)

Rating: 7

Another good first lap allowed him to get onto the back of Massa after passing the struggling Magnussen on lap two.

Extended his first stint, which proved costly and it took him a while to close back up to Massa, but he did appear quicker which is why Williams wanted to let him past to attempt to pass Button.

Massa didn't play ball, which didn't delight Bottas who had held station behind him under orders in the first stint.

17 JULES BIANCHI
Marussia-Ferrari MR-03

Start: 19th
Finish: DNF
Strategy: retired (medium/medium/retired)

Rating: 6

Did a good job in qualifying, but his race was as good as over almost before it started.

He suffered a rear puncture after being clipped by Vergne on the approach to the first corner and then clouted Maldonado's Lotus at Turn 4.

The stewards blamed Bianchi, giving him a five-second penalty, but the Marussia driver blamed the incident on the puncture.

After pitting for a new front wing, he complained of a problem with the brakes, which led to his retirement.

4 MAX CHILTON
Marussia-Ferrari MR-03

Start: 21st
Finish: 15th
Strategy: 3 stops (medium/medium/medium/hard)

Rating: 5

Practice suggested he was able to give Bianchi a run for his money, but things didn't go to plan during qualifying and his best time came on a lap where he didn't have the optimum available ERS.

But while that explains some of the gap to Bianchi and Kobayashi, he still didn't look anywhere near as comfortable as his team-mate in the wet.

His race pace was disappointing, leading to him losing out narrowly in a battle with Ericsson.

9 MARCUS ERICSSON
Caterham-Renault CT05

Start: 22nd
Finish: 14th
Strategy: 3 stops (medium/medium/medium/hard)

Rating: 7

As you would expect, he wasn't on Kobayashi's pace and in qualifying he made, in his own words, "a silly mistake" and lost it on a wet kerb.

The resulting crash, his first in F1, was unfortunate but was a classic rookie error, so it would be unfair to hold it against him too harshly.

In the race, things went much better and he beat Chilton's potentially quicker Marussia to notch up his first F1 finish. A good recovery.

10 KAMUI KOBAYASHI
Caterham-Renault CT05

Start: 20th
Finish: 13th
Strategy: 2 stops (medium/medium/hard)

Rating: 8

As ever with Kobayashi, he didn't let the fact that he managed just five laps on Friday get on top of him and after a solid qualifying he impressed in the race.

Attrition allowed him to climb to the mid-teens, but what really impressed was his discipline in battling with quicker cars, holding his ground where necessary but not to the point where he squandered time in vain defence.

Couldn't have done better than 13th and drove an accomplished race.