Sebastian Vettel took his first win of the season at the Malaysian Grand Prix in highly controversial style. After Red Bull had all but secured a one-two finish after the final pit-stops, Vettel disobeyed the team's instruction to hold position and made his way past a furious Mark Webber in an incredible on-track dice. Completing the podium was Lewis Hamilton, who benefited from team orders to keep his ostensibly faster Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg at bay.
In a rain-affected qualifying session, Vettel secured pole position once again on Saturday ahead of the Ferraris of Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso, who was out-qualified by his teammate for the second time in as many races. Hamilton would line up fourth in another promising qualifying session for Mercedes, with Webber and Rosberg forming the third row of the grid.
A rain shower prior to the race ensured the entire field would start the race on intermediate tyres. As the race got underway, Vettel made a good start to lead the field into the first sequence of bends with Alonso making the better getaway of the Ferrari duo to slot into second place.
The Spaniard however lightly tapped the rear of the leading Red Bull under braking for turn 2, causing severe damage to his front wing which would see sparks fly for the remainder of the lap as the endplate dragged along the tarmac. Despite this, Ferrari advised Alonso to stay out, not wanting to pay further penalty for having to pit so soon again afterwards as the track dried.
The result of this decision was that the front wing became lodged under Alonso's car just as he entered the braking zone for the first corner of the second lap, resulting in the Ferrari sailing into the gravel trap and subsequently early retirement.
That left Vettel leading Webber, who made a good start from fifth, Hamilton, Jenson Button's McLaren (from seventh on the grid), the sole remaining Prancing Horse of Massa and Rosberg. By the end of the third lap, the German had made his way ahead of Massa and Button to move into fourth behind teammate Hamilton.
The track quickly began to dry out, causing a flurry of pit-stops as the remaining 21 drivers ditched their intermediate tyres largely in favour of the softer medium compound slicks. The one notable exception however was Webber, who assumed the lead of the race after his stop for hard tyres on lap 6. Vettel, along with Massa, had opted to come in one lap sooner, but lost ground to his teammate with a poor out-lap on a still slightly damp track.
Once everyone had made the switch to slicks, the order was Webber from Vettel, Hamilton, Rosberg, Button, an impressive Nico Hulkenberg in his first proper outing for his new Sauber team, and Massa. Running on the option tyre allowed Vettel to close in on Webber somewhat during the second stint, although at this stage of the race the Mercedes cars had the pace to match the Red Bulls and a four-way lead battle seemed in prospect.
With around six seconds separating the leading quartet, race leader Webber was the first to pit for a second time, doing so on lap 19 for a set of options. This allowed him to maintain the lead over Vettel, who pitted three laps later for primes, and the Mercedes pair with the order of the top four unchanged. Further behind, Button held onto fifth position, with Hulkenberg dropping behind Massa as well as Lotus driver Romain Grosjean.
Most teams seemed powerless to eke out their stint lengths to anything more than ten to twelve laps, meaning that by lap 32 the Red Bulls and Mercedes men would be back into the pits, all four going for primes for their fourth stints. Button briefly took the lead owing to his slightly later stop, being passed by Webber at the start of lap 35. Stopping two laps sooner than Vettel allowed Hamilton to claw his way up to second place once Button made his stop.
This was short-lived however, as Vettel re-took the position with relative ease at the start of lap 39. Hamilton came in for his fourth and final stop on lap 41, with Vettel and Rosberg following suit a lap later, with the order among the trio unchanged. The fact that Webber's final stop came one lap later however brought the reigning champion right with his teammate.
Though team orders had been administered to ensure a one-two finish with the Mercedes cars no longer a threat, Vettel was in no mood to obey them. A furious scrap for the lead ensued, with the Red Bull pair coming perilously close to colliding on more than one occasion. The battle was finally settled in Vettel's favour with an audacious move around the outside of turn 4 on lap 46, and Webber was powerless to keep pace with his teammate thereafter.
The net result was a 27th career victory for Vettel - drawing him level with the legendary Sir Jackie Stewart - and an irate Webber whose frustration was clearly visible on the podium; he thought he had been guaranteed the win by the team following his final pit-stop and had turned down his engine accordingly. Vettel later issued an apology to his teammate, but the damage had undoubtedly been done.
Mercedes also employed team orders to safeguard third and fourth positions, with the fuel-saving Hamilton gallantly acknowledging on the podium that Rosberg was the faster and thus deserving of the final podium position in his place. Still, it was an excellent day for a team that hadn't enjoyed a podium finish since last year's European Grand Prix.
Fifth position went the way of Massa, benefiting from a botched pit-stop for Button that saw the 2009 champion depart his pit-box without his front-right wheel properly attached. With any chance of a points finish up in smoke, McLaren opted to retire the car a couple of laps from home.
Sixth place went to Grosjean, recovering from a lacklustre qualifying that saw him line up in 11th place; the Lotus driver had been running fifth on a three-stop strategy until lap 53, at which point he was overhauled by the four-stopping Massa.
It was a frustrating weekend for Australian GP winner Kimi Raikkonen in the second Lotus, who was dropped from seventh to tenth on the grid for impeding Rosberg during qualifying. The Finn made a poor start, and despite making some early progress lost time behind the slower cars of Sergio Perez and Hulkenberg. Seventh wasn't a bad return considering, with the 'Hulk' taking eighth for Sauber and Perez ninth in another difficult day for McLaren.
The final point went to Jean-Eric Vergne for Toro Rosso, who recovered from a pit-lane collision with countryman Charles Pic to finish tenth ahead of rookie drivers Valtteri Bottas (Williams) and Esteban Gutierrez (Sauber). Jules Bianchi once again led home the tail-end pack for Marussia from a recovering Pic, the second Caterham of Giedo van der Garde and Max Chilton.
It was a disastrous day for Force India - Paul di Resta and Adrian Sutil were both forced to retire as wheel-nut problems during excruciatingly long pit-stops caused fatal overheating for both cars. Pastor Maldonado had another dismal race, retiring from an uncompetitive position due to a KERS issue after earlier losing his front wing in an off-track excursion, while Daniel Ricciardo retired due to exhaust problems for a second race in succession.
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