Vettel Storms Ahead of Mercedes

Sebastian Vettel won his first race for Ferrari by powering ahead of the Mercedes team at the Malaysian Grand Prix.

The four-time World Champion was able to bring Ferrari their first win in 34 races on a day that Mercedes rued their strategy decisions.

Lewis Hamilton earned his 40th career pole position for his 150th race and only Ayrton Senna has had more poles after 150 races. Hamilton led the field through the first corner after Vettel had fought off Nico Rosberg's attempts to squeeze by the Ferrari on long the pitwall.

Marcus Ericsson's spin proved to be decisive (Sutton Motorsport Images)

The race unfolded on Lap 4 when Marcus Ericsson beached his Sauber in the gravel at Turn One and the need for a recovery vehicle led to a Safety Car period. Both Mercedes drivers pitted to change on to the harder tyre but Vettel stayed out and was able to stretch his first stint into a two-stop strategy thanks to Ferrari's lower tyre wear.

Vettel's Ferrari team-mate, Kimi Raikkonen was having a harder time with his tyres after suffering a left rear puncture following contact with Sauber's Felipe Nasr as Raikkonen made his way up the field from 11th. Ferrari's ultimate pace was underlined by Raikkonen coming through the field to finish fourth.

Kimi Raikkonen suffered a puncture (Sutton Motorsport Images)

Mercedes made another tactical blunder when they fitted Hamilton with hard tyres on his final pit stop and the current World Champion was unable to close down Vettel on the same tyres. Hamilton questioned why he had been put on the "wrong" tyres and was puzzled to hear team director, Paddy Lowe, discuss a possible fourth pit-stop that was accidentally relayed to Hamilton's radio. 

Mercedes bosses Toto Wolff and Nikki Lauda rue their team's mistakes (Getty Images)

Mercedes had needlessly used a set of medium tyres in the first period of qualifying and Hamilton was told over the radio that the softer tyres had already been used. The team's confusing strategy was further highlighted when Rosberg was fitted with medium tyres on his final pit-stop.

Williams had finished pre-season testing on par with Ferrari but haven't been able to keep up with the Prancing Horse. Valtteri Bottas, racing for the first time this season after a back injury, pipped his team mate, Felipe Massa, to fifth spot by passing Massa on the penultimate lap.

Max Verstappen became the youngest-ever driver to win points (Sutton Motorsports Images)

Max Verstappen showed poised overtaking to take seventh and the 17-year-old became the youngest ever driver to score world championship points. His Torro Ross team mate, Carlos Sainz was the last driver to be lapped by Vettel and finished eighth.

Red Bull's lack of pace was shown in dry conditions and Daniil Kvyat finished ninth after tangling with Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg at Turn 2, ahead of fellow Red Bull driver, Daniel Ricciardo. 

Nico Hulkenberg and Daniil Kyvat clash (Sutton Motorsport Images)

Romain Grosjean in the Lotus missed out on the points by finishing 11th after being spun by an aggressive Sergio Perez and finished ahead of Felipe Nasr's Sauber. 

Both Force India drivers were made to sit in the naughty chair after stewards awarded Perez and Hulkenberg 10-second penalties for their tangles but Hulkenberg may have felt aggrieved for being penalised for what looked like a racing incident. Hulkenberg was further frustrated by being beaten by his team mate by just 0.4 seconds.

Manor were able to bring home one of their cars with Roberto Merhi finishing three laps down in 15th and last place after Will Stevens was unable to start the race. Unreliability also hit the McLaren pair of Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso who both retired but McLaren will be encouraged with the cars competing with the rest of the pack.

Vettel’s first victory since the Brazilian Grand Prix in late 2013 signals a Vettel and Ferrari resurgence. Hamilton and Mercedes now have a serious contender to their current titles and, as Rosberg said on the podium, it's game on.

Drivers' Standings after Round 2 of 19:

1. Lewis Hamilton       43 points

2. Sebatian Vettel       40

3. Nico Rosberg          33

4. Felipe Massa           20 

5. Kimi Raikkonen       12

6. Felipe Nasr             10

= Valtteri Bottas         10 

8. Daniel Ricciardo       9

9. Nico Hulkenberg      6

= Max Verstappen       6

= Carlos Sainz Jr.        6

12. Marcus Ericsson     4

13. Daniil Kyvat           2

14. Sergio Perez          1

Constructor's Standings after Round 2 of 19:

1. Mercedes        76 Points

2. Ferrari            52

3. Williams         30

4. Sauber           14

5. Torro Rosso    12

6. Red Bull          11

7. Force India      7

Hamilton Leads the Way in Soggy Sepang

Lewis Hamilton took pole position in a rain-delayed qualifying session for the Malaysian Grand Prix in Sepang.

The session was stopped for half an hour before the final round of qualifying began and Sebastian Vettel was able to split the two Mercedes with a time just 0.074 seconds behind Hamilton.

Nico Rosberg admitted in the post-qualifying press conference that he was "annoyed" by not "driving well enough" and was a second behind his team-mate on the first run of final qualifying. Hamilton was improving on his second run but had to back off after passing a slow Rosberg through Turns 7 and 8 and Hamilton remained coy afterwards when he couldn't recall the incident during the press conference.

Vettel showed skill in the rain to split the Mercedes pair

Traffic had earlier cost Kimi Raikkonen a likely second row grid slot after Marcus Erikkson slowed Raikkonen going round the final corner and the 2007 World Champion couldn't improve on 11th when the downpour curtailed the second qualifying period.  

The qualifying session had started in tropical sunshine and McLaren continued their fight at the back of the grid. Fernando Alonso returned behind the wheel this weekend following his pre-season accident in Barcelona that Alonso blamed on a car steering issue. The double world champion also rubbished wild rumours of the concussion he suffered after the accident. Alonso had the measure of his team-mate, Jenson Button, all weekend but a mistake caused Alonso to run wide and allowed Button to out-qualify his team-mate with a time of 1 minute 41.636 seconds. This underlined McLaren's lack of pace with a time that was almost 2.5 seconds off Hamilton's time at the top of the Qualifying One timesheets.

Manor hit the tarmac in Malaysia for the first time this season 

Manor returned to the track after not racing in Australia but only Roberto Mehri could post a time after Will Stevens suffered a fuel system problem. Mehri's time was outside the 107% classification rule but stewards cleared the team to race after Manor had earlier posted practice times that was within 107% of the fastest driver's time. 

Felipe Nasr was unable to continue his form from Australia and finished half a second behind the cut-off point and didn't progress into the second round of qualifying.

Tropical storm clouds gather over the Sepang circuit

Rain can often be a great equaliser and the Red Bulls of Daniel Ricciardo and Dannil Kyvat qualified in 4th and 5th in a turbulent week for the Milton Keynes-based team.  Renault chief Cyril Abiteboul told Friday's press conference that Renault may quit the sport after earlier accusing Red Bull Technical Director, Adrian Newey, of lying about their engine performance. 

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner said Abiteboul was "brave" to sit between him and Torro Ross team boss, Franz Tost, at the press conference as the two teams are unhappy about the quality of their Renault engines.

Unhappy couple - Renault's Cyril Abiteboul and Red Bull's Christian Horner

Abiteboul said that Renault "are looking at a lot of options, including getting out of Formula One" as well as purchasing a team. Horner joked that Renault's lack of power had left him "depressed" and contemplated the possibility of Red Bull being "forced" out of the sport if they cannot find an engine supplier. Despite achieving four consecutive Constructor's and Driver's titles, Horner conceded it's now "worrying times" for the Red Bull brand in F1.

It's also worrying times for the future of the German Grand Prix with the announcement on March 20 that owners of the Nurburgring have backed out of staging the race. The German Grand Prix had been alternating between Nurburgring and Hockenheim and it had been hoped that Hockenheim could step in but track officials were unable to come to an agreement with F1 commercial boss, Bernie Ecclestone.

Hockenheim officials may have been hesitant in promoting a race in just four months after last year's race brought low crowds. It's hard to understand why the Germans have quickly turned away from F1 after the success of German drivers, Michael Schumacher and Vettel, still fresh in their minds. The current German combination of Rosberg in a Mercedes racing for the championship should inspire the imagination of German motorsport fans but it hasn't.

There has been a German Grand Prix every year since 1960 and it's removal from the calendar once again highlights race entrance fees and the disappearance of F1's European race tracks.

Max Verstappen showed maturity beyond his 17 years by qualifying 6th in Sepang and, not only equalled his father Jos' best grid position, but he became the first teenager in 54 years to qualify in the top six. Williams drivers Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas will line up on Row 4 after Lotus' Romain Grosjean received a two-place grid penalty after queue jumping in the pit-lane before the start of the rain affected second qualifying period.

Drivers line up in the pit lane below the oncoming storm clouds

The second of the 19-race 2015 season will see Hamilton looking to continue his successful start but Vettel and Rosberg will have other ideas going into Turn One.

Grid for Malaysian Grand Prix:

Hamilton (Mercedes)             Vettel (Ferrari)

Rosberg (Mercedes)              Ricciardo (Red Bull)

Kyvat (Red Bull)                   Verstappen (Torro Rosso)

Massa (Williams)                  Bottas (Williams)

Ericsson (Sauber)                 Grosjean (Lotus)*

Raikkonen (Ferrari)              Maldonado (Lotus)

Hulkenberg (Force India)      Perez (Force India)

Sainz (Torro Rosso)              Nasr (Sauber)

Button (McLaren)                 Alonso (McLaren)

Merhi (Manor)                      Stevens (Manor)  

* After two-place grid penalty

Fortune Doesn't Favour the Foxes

Matty James holds his head as David Nugent pleads with the referee (Leicester Mercury)

Leicester City's luckless Premier League season continued in a hard fought 4-3 away defeat to Tottenham Hotspur.

Nigel Pearson had previously hinted at personnel changes after Leicester's 0-0 result at home against Hull City and he made three changes to his side. A fit Kasper Schemichel replaced Mark Schwarzer, David Nugent was in for Riyad Mahrez and Leonardo Ulloa got the nod ahead of Andrej Kramaric, in the team's 3-4-3 formation.

The back three of Wes Morgan, Robert Huth and Matthew Upson started the game too narrow in the box after playing several games with five in defence and Tottenham were able to pounce. 

An early Spurs corner was parried by Schmeichel into the path of Harry Kane for an easy tap in six minutes into the match. Spurs were 2-0 after 13 minutes when a burst down Leicester's left flank, brought a cross to Kane who was able to convert after a heavy deflection off Huth. TV replays from behind the goal suggested Kane's shot was going wide and he was lucky to be credited with the goal and not Huth.

Leicester have often found themselves fighting from behind this season and time was on their side to mount a comeback. Nugent had earlier shown promise after nearly catching Spurs substitute keeper Michael Vorm off his line and dragged a shot across Vorm's goal from a tight angle. Jamie Vardy linked up with Nugent after 38 minutes to convert a nicely timed Nugent cross to get Leicester back in the game going into half time.

Leicester captain Wes Morgan heads his team level (Getty Images)

The teams were level when Morgan headed in a Leicester corner after 50 minutes and the Foxes pushed to take a second half lead. The pivotal moment of the game happened 64 minutes into the match when Kane completed his hat-trick by converting a dubious penalty.

Nugent was defending in his penalty box when Danny Rose ran into the back of him. Rose went down in the box and referee Mike Dean took time to consider his decision and awarded the penalty.

Pearson later told the BBC that he was bemused, annoyed and frustrated by Dean's decision and "arrogance." The penalty was the latest in a season of referring decisions that haven't gone Leicester's way and Ulloa would have felt aggrieved not to have a penalty himself after being slapped around the face by Nabil Bentaleb when the two tussled for a corner.

Leicester pressed for the equaliser and allowed Christian Eriksen in on goal against Schmeichel. Leicester's luckless afternoon was sealed when Schmeichel's save ricocheted off Jeff Schlupp into the net for an own goal 5 minutes before the end.

Wes Morgan and Leonardo Ulloa feel the strain of another defeat (Leicester Mercury)

Nugent gave Leicester some hope with a fine strike late on but the Foxes left White Hart Lane without any points and seven away from safety. 

Kane's hat-trick on the same week as his first England call-up may have got the national headlines but there was more to the story at White Hart Lane.  

Pearson's men played a much more attacking game than against Hull and this was due to starting both Vardy and Nugent up front. Leicester go into the two-week international break not taking advantage of the teams around them losing at the weekend and one game less to make the Great Escape. 

Back to the Future

England went back to the future today in their announcement of the Test squad for the three match series in the West Indies.

Jonathan Trott was recalled for the first time since leaving the 2013/2014 Ashes tour due to a stress related illness. Trott's progress seemed to be stagnating last April when he stopped playing for his county Warwickshire. But he returned to the Bears team after sessions with psychologist Dr. Steve Peters and ended the season with 628 first class runs.

Trott was given the captaincy of the England Lions tour of South Africa in January and the 33-year-old right handed batsman returned the favour by scoring a double hundred.

National selector James Whitaker told the BBC that Trott is a "player of proven international pedigree and we are delighted to welcome him back into the squad."

England may well benefit from Trott's experience (49 Tests, 3,763 runs at an average of 46.45) with a young squad that includes three of Trott's uncapped Lions team mates.

Yorkshire's successful 2014 county season was rewarded with call-ups for the county's 27-year-old leg-spinner Adil Rashid, and opening batsman Adam Lyth, also 27. The left-handed Lyth may have to bat at Number Three if the selectors prefer the left-right hand combination of Alastair Cook and Trott taking the new ball. Durham seamer, Mark Wood, 25, completes the Lions 2015 graduates and England will be relying on his ability to reverse swing the ball in the Caribbean.

Adil Rashid took 49 wickets for Yorkshire last season

England will soon be without a bowling coach as it was announced this week that David Saker will be returning to his homeland to coach the Melbourne Renegades in the next season of Australia's Big Bash League. 

Saker succeeded Ottis Gibson as England's bowling coach in 2010 and was instrumental in England's charge to the top of the ICC world rankings in 2011. However, England's tame bowling in the recent World Cup, typified by lack of variation, short lengths and death-bowling of slow bouncers instead of yorkers, highlighted the need for a change.

England have made a change to the top of the order by dropping opener Sam Robson. The enigma of Steven Finn continues with an under-par performance at the World Cup leading him to also be dropped from the Test side. Chris Woakes and Moeen Ali also miss out with injures that kept them out of the 9 wicket win over Afghanistan.

England's Player of the Winter James Taylor isn't rewarded with a call-up to the Test team but there are places for his One Day team mates Chris Jordan and James Tredwell, as well as Ben Stokes and Liam Plunkett. Senior bowlers James Anderson and Stuart Broad will now have to show their experience and lead by example in taking wickets.

Unsurprisingly, Kevin Pietersen was left out of the squad, with Whitaker telling the BBC that the 34-year-old batsman is "not part" of England's plans and that the selectors "haven't had discussions at all" about his inclusion. 

The Test series in the West Indies begins in Antigua on April 13 will be the first of 17 Test matches over the next year including a home Ashes series and an away tour to top-ranked South Africa.

The Test squad was announced the day before Bangladesh play India in the World Cup quarter final in which England had hoped to be playing in. England will now have to put their disastrous World Cup campaign behind them and work together as a team. Test captain Alastair Cook told the BBC that the selectors were "wrong" to drop him from the One Day team. 

Cook said that the "lads were shell shocked from [losing] the first two games. That's when you need real leadership to help steer you through that. I would have loved to have had the opportunity that was taken away from me."  

Cook now has that opportunity with the Test team in a year that will either restore much needed pride or put more pressure on the England management to change the national set-up.

Full England squad for tour of West Indies:

Alastair Cook (capt, Essex), Adam Lyth (Yorkshire), Jonathan Trott (Warwickshire), Gary Ballance, Joe Root (both Yorkshire), Ian Bell (Warwickshire), Ben Stokes (Durham), Jos Buttler (wk, Lancashire), Jonathan Bairstow (wk), Adil Rashid, Liam Plunkett (all Yorkshire), Stuart Broad (Nottinghamshire), James Anderson (Lancashire), Chris Jordan (Sussex), Mark Wood (Durham), James Tredwell (Kent)

The Terminator Is Back

Lewis Hamilton became the Silver Arrow Terminator as he lapped half of the field to win the season opener in Melbourne.

Hamilton must have said "hasta la vista, baby" to the seven drivers who failed to finish the race, three of which didn't even start. Valtteri Bottas wasn't passed fit from back pain suffered in qualifying with Kevin Magnussen and Daniil Kyvat failing to make the grid with power unit and gear box issues.

Nico Rosberg was unable to get the jump on his team-mate at the start and a first corner incident behind the Mercedes brought out the safety car. Sebastian Vettel was alongside his Ferrari team-mate Kimi Raikkonen going into turn one. Raikkonen backed out, ran wide, came back on to the track and sandwiched Felipe Nasr with Pastor Maldonado.

Nasr touched Maldonado and sent the Lotus into the barrier. Raikkonen would later retire after being released from the pits with an unsecured rear left tyre. Max Verstappen's early promise was cut short when he was forced to retire, as was Romain Grosjean.

Sauber ended a turbulent week by having both drivers finishing in the points. Nasr showed composure to take 5th with his team-mate Marcus Ericsson 8th. Force India also brought their cars home with Nico Hulkenberg 7th and Sergio Perez 10th. Daniel Ricciardo and Sainz took their Renault powered cars across the finish line in 6th and 9th.

With 11 finishers, the driver who missed out on the points was Jenson Button. The 2009 world champion Honda held off Perez before the first round of pit-stops. Button was able to get some much needed mileage by finishing the race after a truncated pre-season testing. McLaren will be looking forward to Fernado Alonso returning for Malaysia. 

Hamilton savoured his sixth victory in seven races when Hollywood came to Albert Park with Arnold Schwarzenegger conducting the podium interviews. A chill must have gone down the pit-lane when Hamilton and Arnie, in unison, told the crowd "I'll be back."

Toothless Foxes

Nigel Pearson looks on from the touchline (Leicester Mercury)

Leicester City's relegation struggles continued with a 0-0 draw against 10-man Hull City. 

Nigel Pearson described his attackers as "safe and laboured" to the BBC in a game that Leicester were unable to break down Hull's back line.

http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/football/31776458 

Changes were made to the line-up with wing backs Jeff Schlupp and Richie De Laet, along with Jamie Vardy in mid-field, bringing some much needed pace to the team. Andrej Kramaric began the game as a lone striker and was unable to get a touch on to a threatening Riyah Mahrez cross during the first half. 

Hull should have been 1-0 up when Nikica Jelavic failed to connect with a pass in front of goal.

Tom Huddlestone was sent off after a second yellow card (BBC)

The game opened up in the 72nd minute when Hull went down to 10 men after Tom Huddlestone was shown a second yellow card. But it was Hull who had the best chance to take the three points late on when Abel Hernandez had a strong shot saved by Mark Schwarzer.

Leicester have played better in the second half this season when Pearson has changed to a more attacking formation. But the 84th minute substitution of David Nugent was far too late to make a significant impact.  

Leicester took far too long on the ball and were unable to take the game to Hull and this was confirmed by Pearson telling the Leicester Mercury that his team "didn't stretch them [Hull] enough."

http://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/Leicester-City-0-Hull-0-reaction-

Pearson/story-26172694-detail/story.html

Leicester remain 7 points from safety but are in danger of getting cut adrift with Burnley's surprise victory against Manchester City taking them up to 18th and six points clear of the Foxes.

Pearson hinted to the BBC that there will be personnel changes for the next game away to Tottenham but there needs to be a change in mindset and that comes from Pearson. He had four strikers in his squad today and three of them should have started the game.

The only positive today was Leicester got their first clean sheet in nine weeks but goals are needed to make the Great Escape. 10 games remaining and the mountain gets ever steeper.

Business As Usual

Lewis Hamilton picked up where he left off last season by going 0.594 seconds faster than Nico Rosberg to take pole at the Australian Grand Prix.

Hamilton had the edge over his team-mate throughout the session and was substantially faster than Rosberg through the first sector. Taking Turn 1 in fourth gear, Hamilton was able to get on the power quicker than Rosberg, who took the corner in third gear. Rosberg had felt the pinch in the first run in the third qualifying period when he ran wide at Turn 15 and later posted a time of 1.26.921 that was unable to dislodge Hamilton from pole position.

Williams showed their strength with Felipe Massa taking third position but his time was 1.391 seconds off the pace and further underlined Mercedes dominance. His team-mate Valteri Bottas was denied a place on the second row when he had a tank slapper after running wide on the last corner. Bottas qualified sixth but will have a medical assessment before the race after suffering back pains half way through the session.

Ferrari backed up their pre-season pace with Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen taking fourth and fifth. Daniel Ricciardo took his under-powered Red Bull Renault to seventh and rookie Carlos Sainz Jr. impressed in the Torro Rosso in taking eighth. Lotus put behind their troubles of last year by rounding out the top ten with Romain Grosjean and Pastor Maldonado.

The race to fill the bottom five spots on the grid in Q1 became a battle for the three lowest positions with Manor Marussia staying in the pit garage. 

Honda had decided to turn down their engines for reliability reasons and Jenson Button and Kevin Magnussen fought for the ignominious last position on the grid. Button got the edge on his team-mate with a time that was almost four seconds slower than the Mercedes. McLaren have it all to do and can only hope for a 58 lap practice session.

Marcus Ericsson in the Sauber also missed the cut of Q1 and his team-mate Felipe Masr (11th on the grid) can be rest assured they'll be racing this weekend after the team came to an agreement with Guiedo Van de Garde. Van de Garde had earlier given up his claim to race this weekend and it remains to be seen whether Sauber will be willing to race the Dutchman this season.

Max Verstappen in the Torro Rosso qualified ahead of Red Bull's Daniil Kyvat and the Force Indias of Nico Hulkenberg and Sergio Perez to round out the grid in Q2.

To recap, the grid for the Australian Grand Prix is:

Hamilton - Rosberg

Massa - Vettel

Raikkonen - Bottas

Ricciardo - Sainz

Grosjean - Maldonado

Nasr - Verstappen

Kvyat - Hulkenberg

Perez - Ericsson

Button - Magnussen

Rosberg will be hoping to make the jump on Hamilton into Turn One but Lewis will have other ideas.