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2014 Malaysian Grand Prix Sunday - Malaysian Grand Prix
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Hamilton pits one lap later than Rosberg. They were 6.6s apart before these stops.
Alonso having a harder time overtaking Bottas but now does it.
Rosberg coming in now.
Vettel outaccelerates Bottas and Ricciardo quickly follows him.
Vettel rejoins right in front of Ricciardo, behind the yet-to-pit Bottas.
Up front, the Mercedes are now 6.6s apart.
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Vettel asked for "minus-four" on his front flap during that stop.
Button also pits.
EDD STRAW: "Ricciardo has made a good start to the season. After his strong performance in Australia, he's doing a decent job here. While not quite as quick as Vettel, he was able to sit behind him in fourth after being passed by his team-mate. Showed he is good in the wheel-to-wheel stuff too."
Stopwatch
Kvyat has just set the fastest lap of the race with a 1m46.923s.
Vettel responds and pits.
Pitting earlier allowed Alonso to gain a lot of ground on Ricciardo. Vettel will now be under threat.
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Bottas is told: "This is the time to push, we're going to stay out for a few more laps."
But Ricciardo fights back immediately and gets in front again.
Alonso sweeps ahead of Ricciardo into Turn 1 as the Red Bull rejoins.
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Vettel is told: "Default map 13, default 1-3." Which just happens to coincide with the numbers of his car and team-mate Ricciardo's... Who could forget "multi 21" last year?
EDD STRAW: "Hamilton is in a great position here. Has a comfortable 6.3s cushion up front so there's a bit of margin for error that allows Mercedes to push on as long as they can on this first set of mediums with him."
Ricciardo pits from fourth place, he should have been far enough ahead of Alonso not to get undercut jumped.
Alonso stayed with mediums at that stop, saving the hards for later.
The gap between the two Red Bulls is now up to 2.2s.
Alonso is the first frontrunner to pit.
Having just pitted for a new front wing, Magnussen has now been given a five-second penalty for hitting Raikkonen. He'll serve it during his next stop.
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Hamilton is told: "You're doing a great job of managing the fuel, just push on, and on the tyres just look after them."
EDD STRAW: "Sure enough, Massa and Bottas are catching Button now that Magnussen is out of the way."
Alonso's pace is fading now. He was matching the Red Bulls early on but was 1.5s off Vettel on that lap.
Hamilton is 0.8s faster than Rosberg on lap 10, so now leads by 6.2s.
JONATHAN NOBLE: Remember that when the rear light flashes on the back of cars, it indicates that the car is doing what is known as 'soft' fuel saving.
This is automatically done by the car - and warns pursuing drivers that the car could be unexpectedly slow on certain sections of the track.
This is automatically done by the car - and warns pursuing drivers that the car could be unexpectedly slow on certain sections of the track.
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Hamilton is told to take it easy on traction at Turn 15: "Nothing to worry about though," he is reassured.
Vettel, Ricciardo and Alonso stretched out very slightly on that last lap, though the trio are still covered by 2.8s.
Hamilton continues to add a little to his lead, it's now 5.4s.
EDD STRAW: "All of which has been rendered irrelevant by Magnussen pitting! Interesting to see whether Massa and Bottas can pick up the pace and close the 7.3 second gap to Button."
EDD STRAW: "Williams should think about letting Bottas past Massa to have a go at Magnussen. Magnussen isn't lapping particularly quickly, possibly thanks to front wing damage sustained in that clash with Raikkonen. Williams need to get both cars past Magnussen to stop losing so much time to seventh-placed Button. Right now, Williams is losing laptime that it won't get back but what needs to be avoided is the two team-mates scrapping and slowing down. So maybe let Bottas have a go and hope Massa can follow him through."
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Rosberg has been reporting rear tyre degredation for a few laps now and he's asked if he needs a front-wing flap adjustment at his pitstop. "Errrrm, down point-four," he says.
Hamilton adds another half-second to his lead over Rosberg, it's now 5.2s after eight laps.
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Rosberg questions the length of his first stint: "That's a lot of laps" after being told he's got another eight to run.
EDD STRAW: "The five-second penalty for Bianchi is the first time we have seen this new penalty applied. It will have to be served at his next pitstop, with five extra seconds of time spent sitting in the pit-box with the car not being worked on."
Since passing McLaren team-mate Magnussen for seventh, Button has been able to pull clear but can't gain on Hulkenberg.
Maldonado's woes continue; he's just been asked by the team to retire the car.
Jules Bianchi will be able to take his five-second penalty at his first pitstop. He can stop at his pit, and serve his punishment before the team gets to work on fitting some fresh rubber.
Stopwatch
Fastest lap back to Hamilton. A 1m47.048s pulls his lead up to 4.7s.
By: Scott Mitchell, Andrew van Leeuwen, Ben Anderson, Edd Straw, Jonathan Noble, Charles Bradley, Pablo Elizalde
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