Niki Lauda made no excuses as he said that Ferrari and Sebastian Vettel simply did a better job than Mercedes in winning the Malaysian GP.
The former World Champion was quick to congratulate Ferrari boss Maurizio Arrivabene immediately after the race.
“Very simple, they were unbeatable today I would say,” he said. “Because they did a perfect strategy, and Vettel did an incredible job. The car performed, the tyres lasted. For us it was a three-stop strategy. Why? Because with the tyres at their peak, for us it was important to make three stops. Ferrari was less hard on tyres altogether, therefore they had to do a two-stop, and one race.
“I went to Arrivanbene right away and congratulated him, from my heart, because he is competition, and more competition is better, and if Ferrari wins Bernie can’t complain about boring Vettel, which he said. Vettel is not boring any more! I think it’s very good this result for the total image if F1, which we’re always complaining about – I’m not, but some other people.”
Lauda said that the Ferrari win would be a wake-up call for Mercedes: “Normally in sport when these things happen, and you don’t win every race, the bell rings. The bell will ring loud because we all will hear it and we’ll react to it, which is normal. But nevertheless we’re second and third, we won the last race, so the world is not finished yet after one Vettel victory But nevertheless they were better today.”
Adam Cooper's F1 Blog 
So impressed with Vettel. More so, with his humble responses after the victory. Class act. Hopefully he, and Ferrari (and Kimi, too) will perform well this season. Great way for Vettel to silence his critics that it was all the Newey car in the past.
Good to see some pressure applied to the MB juggernaught.
I’ll also reserve judgment on Seb’s “class” until Kimi starts applying pressure for race wins.
Great win for Team Ferrari and Seb… Merc will step up… we need Williams, Red Bull and McClaren to get a handle on the Turbo hybrid and the races will be off the charts! F1 can excel if the stars align… and I believe they will.
in chess ,people sacrifice a piece to gain better wins
in this case the rumours of engine development freeze for Mercedes wil stop
and it all did look very directed
if Mercedes from now on doesnt show too much of full potential ,but only use what they need ,,they are homefree to win this season
also funny that in 1 race all complaints about F1 attractiveness has been turned
i wonder what games are really beeing played
great win from Ferrari ,but common sense tells me somethings dont add up
Yes, difficult to understand how Ferrari got a second over two weeks, specially when the idea is that Mercedes has one more second hidden until needed, it is not understandable that Hamilton’s car was sliding all over the turns when they have such a balanced car (as seen in Australia)
Yes, indeed… How do you lose a 2s per lap advantage in two weeks? I smell the invisible hand of Bernie at work here.