Another strategy driven race, this time it was Ferrari and Fernando Alonso who surprised many with a four-stop race which allowed them to push the tyres to their limits and comfortably hold-off the three-stopping Lotus of Kimi Raikkonen.

A fairly straight forward win for Sebastian Vettel saw all the interesting stuff happening behind him – sound familiar? Adopting the favoured strategy of three stops for hard tyres after starting out on the medium compound, it was interesting to note that the next four finishers all deviated from this approach…

A masterful victory from Fernando Alonso kept him out of the strategic battles going on behind and, at points in the race, around him. Taking the projected approach to the race of a three-stopper after starting on the soft tyre compound, the Ferrari driver took control of the race after coming out ahead of pole-sitter Lewis Hamilton in the first round of pit stops.

A controversial race in Malaysia saw the drivers start out on the intermediate compound. However, once the track started to dry out and the teams switched to slicks after a few laps, it produced a wide range of strategies with a further three stops the preferred route to the chequered flag.

The first race of the season and Pirelli’s latest development of its tyre compounds held up better than some forecast, delivering the mix of two and three-stop strategies that the Italian manufacturer promised. Kimi Raikkonen’s victory owed much to the preservation power of the Lotus as his nearest rivals couldn’t compete with his two-stop run to the chequered flag.

A third consecutive victory for Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel moved him ahead of Fernando Alonso in the World Championships despite the Ferrari driver’s damage-limiting third place. Pole-sitter, Mark Webber was sandwiched between them but once the Australian had lost his position to his team mate through the first series of straights, it was a largely uneventful race.