Thierry Salvi, Renault: "It was a tough race. I think we managed well with both engines and fuel consumption was under control throughout. It was easier to control temperatures due to it being wet at the start. I think the set-up we provided worked well. It was quite tight between both engines in the race and they were similar with engine performance."

Pat Fry: For both drivers, the initial part of the race affected the final outcome, which is a real shame because the start was very promising. The contact between Alonso and Vettel at the second corner was an unfortunate episode: we knew the front wing was damaged but the car still seemed to be competitive and we decided to run the risk of staying out. We definitely could have played safe and called him in, but that way we would have ended up behind everyone on rain tyres and would have lost even more ground with the next stop to fit dry tyres. With hindsight, we can say the risk wasn't worthwhile. In the wet, Felipe struggled a bit to find the right balance and that compromised his chances of fighting for a podium position. Once it was dry, his lap times improved: he definitely drove a good race which enabled him to pick up useful points.

"Obviously, however, we're very disappointed that Jenson lost a hard-earned and well-deserved fifth place, perhaps even third or fourth, as a consequence of a pitstop problem caused by a wheel-gun issue. Jenson did absolutely nothing wrong and reacted correctly to the green light, by the way.

"Checo, too, put in a solid and plucky performance all weekend, earning his first points for Vodafone McLaren Mercedes this afternoon, and recorded fastest lap at the very end of the race.

"Clearly, therefore, although as I say we're very disappointed for Jenson, the truth is that he could and should have finished at least fifth - and, although by our own high standards that's not remotely good enough, it plainly shows that we're going in the right direction from a car-development point of view."

Kimi and Romain both started on new intermediate wet tyres. Kimi pitted for new medium tyres on lap 6, scrubbed mediums on lap 19 then new hard tyres on lap 34. Romain pitted for new medium tyres on laps 7 and 20 then new hard tyres on lap 35.

Eric Boullier, Team Principal: "It's not been the best day for us, but when you take into account our qualifying positions and the difficult start for both drivers I think the points we take for sixth and seventh is a solid result. Unfortunately with the conditions today we didn't see the full potential of the car, and the time we lost at the start was always going to be difficult to catch up. To finish within a reasonable distance of the leaders was a good effort from both drivers and also the team in terms of our strategy. With a normal weekend I'm sure we can expect some stronger results."

James Allison, Technical Director: "This weekend feels like a case of what might have been. We had a car on Friday which looked extremely promising, but unfortunately that didn't translate into the sort of result we'd expect. Qualifying tenth and eleventh - particularly in the wet - was not an ideal start, with the consequence that within seven laps we were around thirty seconds from the front. Our progress thereafter was actually quite respectable so it's frustrating to have lost touch with the race at such an early stage, but I'm confident we'll be delivering some stronger results in the coming races."

Ricardo Penteado, Renault Sport F1 Team Support Leader: "A double points finish today for the team after some good racing. Sepang is a hard challenge for the engines with high top speeds needed for the straights and low speed driveability for the hairpin turns, plus managing the fuel consumption is tricky considering the changeable weather. We moved to a second engine this weekend to give more flexibility later in the season - looking at how tight things are at the front having this margin could be useful later on."

The team scored 27 points today, the most on a single weekend since the Silver Arrows returned to Formula One in 2010.

Ross Brawn: This weekend was another step in the right direction for the team. We had a pretty good car today, certainly on the option tyres it was very good, and the team made the right calls on strategy. On the third set of dry tyres, the hard compound, we didn't quite have the balance and that's where we fell back. We had a heavier than expected fuel consumption during the race and as we got towards the end, we had to take some measures to ensure that both cars finished. We asked Lewis and Nico to hold position and both drivers respected that. Whilst it was tough for Nico and I fully expect him to be disappointed, we have now got a car we can fight with and that there will be plenty more opportunities to achieve good results this season. We've got to concentrate on keeping up the pace of development but we can take pride in achieving our first podium of the season and my thanks to everyone here and back at base for their commitment and hard work.

Toto Wolff: We achieved a very good result for the team this weekend and to score some solid points is very satisfying. We have continued to show an upward performance trend although there is still work for us to do to close the gap to the leading cars even further. Both Lewis and Nico both drove extremely well today. Tough decisions have to be made sometimes and it was important for us that both cars finished the race and we scored some solid points. Congratulations to everyone here at the track, and back at Brackley and Brixworth for our first podium of the season, and we will keep pushing hard to make sure that more will follow.

Monisha Kaltenborn, Team Principal: "We are happy about this result, because we had an unexpected difficult weekend. However, we were able to improve step by step. We now have a better understanding of those areas in which we have to improve. This will help us to exploit the full potential of the car."

Tom McCullough, Head of Track Engineering: "Both drivers handled the difficult intermediate conditions at the beginning of the race well, and communicated well with the engineers on the pit wall to get the right tyres at the right time. It's good to get the first points on the board. We've got a lot of good data to analyse, which will help us to be even stronger in Shanghai."

Valtteri fought his way from the back of the field to finish P11 after running wide in the slippery conditions on lap one. Pastor Maldonado's race ended early end as he was forced to stop the car for precautionary reasons due to a KERS problem which the team are now investigating.

Mike Coughlan, Technical Director: After running wide on the first lap, Valtteri drove a great race to fight back through the field and finish just outside the points. We ran different strategies with both cars with Pastor needing to pit early for a new nose after running wide on lap 15. We then had a KERS problem on his car which meant he had to stop out on track as a precaution. The team are now investigating this. Overall we feel our performance has improved since Melbourne, but we still have work to do.

Laurent Debout, Renault Sport F1 team support leader: Valtteri did a good job to get 11th after the start and was very close to getting a point. Unfortunately Pastor retired but there does not appear to be any damage to the engine. There is a bit of a gap now until China so we'll look at the bigger picture and come back stronger.

"Although the general reliability of the cars has been better than a number of bigger teams ahead, we're still having to deal with a number of pretty intense situations that are affecting our ability to control the finer details of our races. This time we had issues with our intercom failing, which prevents communication between engineers, our telemetry froze at certain points and the timing software went down which meant we weren't able to accurately map how the race was unfolding. These things go on behind the scenes and while they don't directly affect the performance of the cars they don't help, so we'll make sure we have fixes for each of those in China.

"Overall, with the strategy we've employed for 2013 and in preparation for 2014 and beyond we knew the first few races of this season would be tough, but we're not going to deviate from the plan. Even though we're running a hybrid car for the first three races we're still close to where we want to be and the updates we have coming will pay dividends. We have a long-term goal, one that is built around the whole group we are part of and one that is realistic, sustainable and which will see us right in the mix in the long run."

Both drivers got difficult starts today which compromised the early part of their race. Max came off worse on the opening lap and then queuing for the first pitstop dropped him back further. He did well to post strong lap times periodically through the race to show his potential, but unfortunately he hit the blue flag period much earlier which affected his ability to fight consistently well through the stints.

John Booth, Team Principal: As is typically the case, the Malaysia Grand Prix delivered its unique mix of challenges for us to contend with today. The shower we had before the pitlane opened certainly produced some tricky conditions on the way to the grid and there were a few nervewracking moments once we got there in terms of tyre decision, particularly as both drivers had been aquaplaning in Turn 3. We didn't enjoy the best of starts and opening laps, however Jules did a good job to stay with the Caterham ahead. Once we had moved to dry tyres we were unfortunately stuck again behind Van Der Garde, however some good strategy from the engineers and pitstops from the mechanics allowed him to break free with effect from the second stint and make better progress whilst looking to the gap to the cars in front, which had been compounded by being held up for so long. For the rest of the race we were looking like we were going to enjoy a good battle with Maldonado until he unfortunately retired, which left Jules in a free air gap to endure a lonely stint. He did a great job once again and a 13th place is most welcome at this stage of the season. Max unfortunately came out worst on the opening lap and also had to queue in the first pitstop, which lost him time. At various times he showed he had the pace to beat both Caterhams but unfortunately he hit the blue flags earlier and then at the end he was held up by Ricciardo a lap ahead and lapping slowly in the Toro Rosso. Once again we can be happy with the progress we are making however whilst the midfield is still in striking distance it calls for a big push over the next three weeks with the development of the car. Realistically, we know we need a few more tenths to be able to really race with them.

All the drivers started the race on the Cinturato Green intermediate tyres in light rain. As all the drivers used the intermediate tyre for their first stint, this meant that they were no longer obliged to use both the slick compounds nominated for Malaysia.

The top five drivers all stopped four times, following the wet start, with Lotus driver Romain Grosjean the highest-placed three-stopper in sixth ahead of his team mate Kimi Raikkonen.

Paul Hembery: "The rain that fell immediately before the start of the race put a new complexion on the strategies, with the teams forced to react to the changing conditions by anticipating the varying levels of grip during the first stint. Once the track had dried, we saw different approaches with the teams using the hard and the medium tyre in different ways. Nonetheless, the leaders ran in extremely close formation, despite adopting diverse tactics, with Mercedes using strategy to initially split the Red Bulls. We experienced high degradation here, but we knew this would be the case due to the extreme nature of this circuit, and the extra performance offered by our softer tyres this year. But we're only at the second grand prix of the year, and past experience has shown that the teams quickly get on top of the tyres as the season goes on and the cars are developed further. We've no doubt that this will be case again this year."

The winning four-stop strategy proved to be different to the three-stopper that we had predicted. But the rain that fell at the start of the race altered all the strategy predictions, obliging the teams to do an initial stint on wet weather tyres. Having completed his intermediate stint, Vettel moved onto a new set of medium tyres on lap five, followed by a new set of hard tyres on lap 22, another new set of hards on lap 32 and a final set of medium tyres on lap 42.

This was a variation on what we had predicted to be the fastest strategy yesterday: starting on the medium tyre, changing to the hard tyre on lap nine, changing to the hard tyre again on lap 25, with a final stop for the hard tyre on lap 40. Vettel, however, opted for the faster medium for his final stint.