Sepang (Malaysia), March 29 (IANS): Force India battled hard at the Formula 1 Malaysian Grand Prix but failed to earn even a single point as its drivers Sergio Perez and Nico Hulkenberg finished 13th and 14th, respectively, and outside the points here on Sunday.

The race was won by Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel from the Mercedes' of pole-sitter Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg, who finished second and third, respectively, at the Sepang International Circuit.

Mexican Perez, who started 14th, started on medium tyres, switched to hards before returning to mediums for the last stint which lasted 20 laps.

"We knew it would be a big fight to get close to points and it turned out to be just the case. I struggled with degradation in my first stint on mediums and that cost me a lot of time after the safety car," Perez said.

"We had slightly better pace with the hard compound but in the end it was not enough to get back in contention. It's a disappointing result but at least we were able to learn a lot from this race and this will help us going forward."

German Hulkenberg also had the same tyre strategy but failed to generate pace to finish in points.

"It was a tough afternoon and I was always kept very busy with lots going on around me. I was really struggling with the general balance and the car was sliding around, especially as the tyres became older," said Hulkenberg.

"We were trying to make the two-stop strategy work but it just wasn’t possible with the degradation so we switched to three stops. Perhaps it would have been better to commit to the three-stop earlier but I’m not sure it would have changed the result that much."

The championships moves to Shanghai where the Chinese Grand Prix will be held on April 12.