Lewis Hamilton admits he did not expect Ferrari “to be as quick as they were” at Sepang, as the Mercedes driver had no answer to Sebastian Vettel’s race-winning pace in the Malaysian Grand Prix.
Second-placed Hamilton crossed the line 8.5 seconds adrift of Vettel after the reigning world champion was unable to hunt down the Ferrari over their final stints.
Hamilton enjoyed a clean getaway from pole at the start and was leading the field when a Marcus Ericsson spin prompted the safety car to intervene on lap three. The Mercedes driver immediately elected to switch for hard-compound rubber while Vettel stayed out on track and seized the opportunity to hoist his SF15-T in front.
Suffering from high tyre degradation and so-so balance, Hamilton could not overcome this early deficit to his Ferrari rival and had to settle for a second-place finish.
Although the championship leader praised the Maranello-based team's spectacular pace ahead of the event, the 30-year-old Briton acknowledges he was surprised by Ferrari’s form on Sunday.
“Well, we have to give it to them, (Ferrari) did a fantastic job today, so congratulations to Sebastian and Ferrari,” said Hamilton. “We were not, and I was not. expecting them to be as quick as they were today.”
“I knew coming into this weekend that they had made a step, we didn't know how big, but they were too fast for us today."
Asked whether making an early pit stop under the safety car cost him the race, Hamilton does not think it was such a pivotal moment in how things panned out afterwards.
“I don’t really know whether, if I’d stayed out with him, whether that would have made much of a difference. They were probably just as good if not a little bit better perhaps on tyre degradation.
“So I think it would have still been very, very close. But I think naturally after that first stop I had so much ground to catch up it was pretty much impossible.”
Click here for Sunday's gallery from the Malaysian Grand Prix
