This past weekend was the second round of the 2014 Formula 1 World Championship in Malaysia. There were many stories going on at once, primarily the one concerning flight MH370. There was a small tribute paid to those who were lost before the race, and all the drivers paid their own tributes by wearing the “MH370” sticker on their helmets.
As it pertains to the racing, the main story was Lewis Hamilton. He claimed pole for the second straight race and was determined to make up for his disappointing retirement in Australia, which allowed his team mate Nico Rosberg to get the victory. In the end, he did make up for that disappointing start to the season in every sense of the word, as he never looked back from the green light to the checkered flag, 56 laps later. The 2008 champion is now back into the title chase, and a Mercedes 1-2 shows the Silver Arrows are still the cars to beat.
For the defending champions Infiniti Red Bull Racing, this race was a tale of two stories. The four time defending champion Sebastian Vettel was able to take third in the podium, also making up for a terrible weekend in Australia, where he did not even make it to the third qualifying round, and had to retire into the fifth lap of the race, where his car ran into engine problems. On the other hand, his team-mate Daniel Ricciardo had a nightmare race, where his problems mounted on top of the other after he had a wheel loosely put on in the pits, where he lost a lot of time and was given a penalty for an unsafe release from the pits. Afterwards his front wing broke, which sent him even farther back in the field. After being disqualified from Australia and running into these many problems in Malaysia, the Aussie has his work cut out for him to catch up with the rest of the grid.
This weekend is Bahrain, and it will be more than interesting to see how things develop. Will Mercedes stay on top? Will Red Bull deliver its first blow? Will the other top teams in Ferrari, McLaren, and Williams get more competitive results? We shall see.