Once again the weather played its part in spicing up the action at Sepang, but as Tony Dodgins explains, Ferrari and McLaren have only themselves to blame for letting Red Bull back in the title hunt

Ferrari and McLaren paid a heavy price for a senseless gamble in Malaysia. The football equivalent would be a defender walking the ball out of his own penalty area instead of planting it in row Z. It was over elaborate and it let Red Bull Racing straight back into the championship battle.

When you're in Malaysia, close to mountains, where predicting rain patterns with any degree of certainty is nigh on impossible, how is it that the two most experienced teams in F1 failed to put in banker laps and found themselves eliminated in Q1?

To continue reading this feature...

You must have an AUTOSPORT subscription. Prices start from just $1.43 per week and give you full unrestriced access to all PLUS features. View package options? Magazine subscriber?

Online subscription

from just

$1.43

per week

• Unrestricted access to all PLUS features
• View website in ad-free environment
• Full F1 stats since 1950 in FORIX

View all package options