Race Malaysian GP report: Mercedes

Lewis Hamilton took a lights-to-flag victory at the 2014 PETRONAS Malaysian Grand Prix, with Nico Rosberg completing the first one-two finish for the Mercedes Silver Arrows since Juan Manuel Fangio and Piero Taruffi at the 1955 Italian Grand Prix.

— Lewis claimed his 23rd Formula One career victory and his second for MERCEDES AMG PETRONAS today at Sepang
— He took the chequered flag with an advantage of 17 seconds and set the fastest lap of the race on lap 52
— Lewis stopped on laps 15 and 33 for medium tyres, switching to the hard compound at his final stop on lap 51
— Finishing in second place, Nico achieved his 13th Formula One career podium and his 11th for the team
— He followed the same tyre strategy as Lewis, stopping on laps 14, 32 and 50
— Lewis’ victory was the 15th for the Silver Arrows in Formula One and the 101st for Mercedes-Benz power

Lewis Hamilton

I’m incredibly happy today. This is my first win in Malaysia after eight attempts and to do it for our PETRONAS family in their home country makes it even more special. It’s all down to the team. They have done a fantastic job and I have to say a huge thank you to everyone here at the track and back at our factories who have been pushing non-stop to get the car where it is. The race was tougher than it perhaps looked today and the conditions here always make it a great challenge. But I was able to look after the car, the tyres and the fuel and still keep a bit of pace in hand which made my job that little bit easier. It´s great to see Mercedes leading the championship but we know that we have to make these early races pay. Anything can happen as we saw in Australia, so this is an important result for us. One-two finishes don´t happen very often and this is a real achievement for the team. Finally, I would like to offer this victory in tribute to all those affected by the tragedy of MH370. A special mention also goes to my step-mum Linda for her 50th birthday tomorrow!

Nico Rosberg

This is an incredible day for our team and for Mercedes-Benz. Everyone back at our factories in Brackley and Brixworth, and all employees of Mercedes-Benz, can feel very proud today. For the first time in the modern Silver Arrows era, we have achieved a one-two finish which is an incredible result. The team did a phenomenal job over the winter and my thanks once again for that. I also want to thank our partners PETRONAS. They have given our team so much support, along with the best products for our power unit, so we are proud to be associated with them and I hope they enjoy the celebrations today. I had a great start again, even though it was tight with Sebastian. It was very close at the wall and I just closed the eyes, went for the gap and did it. Later I was able to control the pace and to defend my position against Seb but Lewis was out of my reach, so congratulations to him for his win. I really look forward now to next weekend in Bahrain.

Toto Wolff

It doesn’t get any better than a one-two finish – congratulations to everybody in the team, at Mercedes-Benz and at PETRONAS who worked so hard to make this happen. It was a controlled race from the first lap and Lewis and Nico did a fantastic job in very demanding conditions. But we cannot afford to be complacent: we still have room for improvement with our overall package and the race showed us once again that the competition are right there behind us. We will savour the moment this evening but we all know that if you stand still in this business, you go backwards. So we will be pushing hard to improve further for the next race in Bahrain.

Paddy Lowe

We knew from our practice running that we had the pace in the car, so today was about managing the team and the car through 56 laps without encountering any problems or making any mistakes. Formula One is a very complex sport and, as we have seen ourselves in recent weeks, the littlest things can destroy a race. But we delivered a faultless day for both cars and both drivers; we are simply over the moon to have scored the first one-two finish for Mercedes-Benz since 1955 and to have earned our own small place in that fantastic tradition. That’s the right point at which to thank the whole team that contributed to this success, in Brackley, Brixworth, Stuttgart and Kuala Lumpur, the home city of our partners PETRONAS. It is hard to overstate the crucial role of PETRONAS fluid technology solutions in the development of the new 2014 Power Unit and we are especially proud to have delivered our first one-two finish at their home race here in Malaysia. The entire team has spent several years working on this Silver Arrow and today we successfully delivered the final piece of the puzzle.