After the lengthy delay at the Sepang International Circuit first caused by the weather and then by a software issue, Ferrari opted to start both of its drivers on slick tyres. It turned out to be the wrong choice, as the track was still wet, and intermediates were quicker.

After the track dried up, Hamilton found his rhythm and cut through the field until Alex Albon in the Williams caused a safety car. The Briton then gained another position because of George Russell's power unit issue, and overtook Isack Hadjar to finish on the podium behind Max Verstappen and Kimi Antonelli.

Hamilton was in a joking mood on Sunday. When asked about Ferrari's gamble, he said: "I'm not going to go to the casino with the guys."

It continued when he spoke to TV channels as well. When asked by DAZN how he would have reacted to being told after the first laps that he would finish on the podium, he said while laughing: "I would have said you were smoking something."

Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur admitted it was the wrong call to start on the slicks, but defended Ferrari's choice.

Speaking to GPblog, among others, the Frenchman said: "Based on the feeling on the grid, think 50% of the car went for slick, 50% for inters. You can't try [it on the track]. You just have a look on the tarmac in front of you in the pit lane, and for sure, it was not a good one. But, no, it's not that I have no regrets. For sure, it's clear that it was better to start with the intermediates, but we did the choice with information that we had."

He added: "When you have to take your decision, you are trying to base the decision on good parameters. But for sure, at the end of the day, we have to see that it was not the right call, that it would have been much better for us to start with the inters, but we were considering that it would dry very quickly."