Red Bull Motorsports
F1
What happened at the Malaysian Grand Prix?
Max Verstappen wins his second race in Malaysia's final GP, while Daniel Ricciardo's third caps a season-best day for Red Bull Racing.
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Red Bull Racing
Verstappen never let up after taking the lead
© Getty Images/Red Bull Content Pool
Daniel Ricciardo: qualified 4th, finished 3rd. Max Verstappen: qualified 3rd, finished 1st.
For a driver whose year has had complications at every turn, Verstappen's second career win was a breeze, the Dutchman starting well from third, sailing past Hamilton's Mercedes into the braking zone at the first corner on lap four, and only briefly being headed through the pit stop phase from there on as he cruised to a 12-second victory. Win number one – on his debut for Red Bull Racing in Spain last year – owed itself partly to good fortune, but this was an imperious display, putting a gap of five seconds on Hamilton in eight laps after passing the championship leader, his pace in Sepang's twisty second sector a sight to behold. Those seven non-finishes and three first-lap exits would have been the last thing on his mind on a sweltering Sunday night in Kuala Lumpur, and it would have been hard to have found the birthday boy (Verstappen turned 20 on Saturday) a better present.
Ricciardo, the race-winner in Malaysia last year, had no answer for his teammate's pace for much of the weekend, the Australian out-qualified by Verstappen for the sixth race running. But after dispatching a fast-starting Bottas to claim the final podium place on offer on lap nine, Ricciardo hung on as best he could against Vettel's flying Ferrari, which was on faster tyres, in the final stages, shutting the door decisively on his old teammate at the first corner with seven laps to go. Finishing over 20 seconds behind Verstappen wouldn't have pleased him, but giving Red Bull its first double-podium of the season certainly did.
Mercedes
Hamilton extended his series lead at Sepang
© Daimler AG
Lewis Hamilton: qualified 1st, finished 2nd. Valtteri Bottas: qualified 5th, finished 5th.
Hamilton left Malaysia with a larger lead in the world championship over nearest rival Vettel – the Briton has a 34-point advantage with five races left – but he would have been excused for expecting more after he started from pole at Sepang for the fourth straight year, and with Vettel dead last after the Ferrari's engine packed up in qualifying. Hamilton had nothing in response for Verstappen after the Dutchman took an early lead, and his race was a lonely one, the team understandably keeping an eye on Vettel's progress from behind rather than worrying about Verstappen's pace in front. While Hamilton's three-race winning streak from the mid-year break was snapped, a 20th consecutive finish saw him inch closer to that coveted fourth world title. While Hamilton would have left Malaysia happy, Bottas would have been utterly disconsolate by finishing where he started, but more alarmingly, 56 seconds behind Verstappen. The Finn elected to keep using Mercedes' upgraded aerodynamic package that Hamilton abandoned after the opening day of practice, and was nowhere thereafter, qualifying a whopping seven-tenths of a second behind his teammate's pole time on Saturday, and fading into anonymity in the race.
Ferrari
Vettel's charge from the back was stunning
© Ferrari Media
Sebastian Vettel: qualified 20th, finished 4th. Kimi Raikkonen: qualified 2nd, did not start.
Was Malaysia a massive fail or a massive save for the Scuderia? Worst news first; after Vettel was left at the back of the grid following engine problems in qualifying, suspected turbo dramas hit Raikkonen on the reconnaissance lap to the grid before Sunday's race, the Finn dragged back into the garage as Ferrari desperately chased a quick fix that came to nought. While Raikkonen was a spectator, Vettel was spectacular. The German made quick early work of the back of the field to be up to 11th within six laps, but it was his prodigious pace when he fitted the supersoft tyres on lap 27 that showed why many believe the Ferrari is the fastest car in the sport at the moment – when it's actually working. Vettel dispatched Bottas and set off after Ricciardo, and very nearly jagged a podium from last at the start. A strange weekend got even stranger for Vettel when Stroll's Williams ran clean into him as the field tooled around back to the pits, the impact smashing the left rear of Vettel's Ferrari to bits and – potentially – necessitating a gearbox replacement (and subsequent penalty) at next week's race in Japan.
Force India
Perez battled on for big points
© Sahara Force India
Sergio Perez: qualified 9th, finished 6th. Esteban Ocon: qualified 6th, finished 10th.
The gap between the haves and the have-nots in F1 was best demonstrated by Perez's excellent sixth place, a result even more meritorious when you consider the Mexican was battling a virus at the most physical race of all. Eight points were great, but the Force India driver was the final car not lapped, and finished 78 seconds behind race-winner Verstappen. While his race was relatively event-free, teammate Ocon's was anything but; the Frenchman hit Massa's Williams at the second corner on lap one, made an early pit stop to get onto the more durable soft-compound tyres after two laps, spun at Turn 1 on lap 25 after contact with Sainz's Toro Rosso, and had several run-ins with Massa at Turn 4 before finishing 10th to pick up the final point on offer.
Williams
Stroll was fiesty in his fight with Massa
© Williams/LAT Photographic
Felipe Massa: qualified 11th, finished 9th. Lance Stroll: qualified 13th, finished 8th.
The Williams drivers have been an amicable duo all season as veteran Brazilian Massa has helped eased Canadian rookie Stroll's transition into the top flight, but the pair were never far apart at Sepang, Stroll aggrieved that Massa had undercut him in the pit stops when they squabbled on track together on lap 13. Stroll finished the better of the pair by six seconds after 56 laps, Massa's car clearly struggling after he picked up some damage in the first-lap incident with Ocon. Stroll's take on the bizarre end-of-race smash with Vettel? "It was a strange incident, I was driving very slowly, back into the pit lane. The race wasn't going on, so it wasn't intentional for either of us. He came around the outside like the race was still going. It all happened very quickly."
McLaren
Vandoorne repeated his Singapore form
© McLaren Honda
Fernando Alonso: qualified 10th, finished 11th. Stoffel Vandoorne: qualified 7th, finished 7th.
Malaysia was another very solid weekend for Vandoorne, who equalled his career-best result of seventh earned in the Singapore Grand Prix a fortnight ago. That the McLaren worked well on Singapore's twisty city streets wasn't a surprise, but Vandoorne's pace despite an obvious power deficit down Sepang's two long straights was unexpected. The Belgian made a brilliant start to be fifth after the first lap, and is now ahead of teammate Alonso in the drivers' standings. Alonso's race had few highlights, save for his lap 33 fight with Magnussen's Haas, which ended with the Spaniard block-passing the Dane into Turn 2 and dismissively calling him "an idiot".
Toro Rosso
Gasly had an accomplished debut
© Getty Images/Red Bull Content Pool
Pierre Gasly: qualified 15th, finished 14th. Carlos Sainz: qualified 14th, did not finish.
Random Toro Rosso stat from the weekend; every time Daniil Kvyat has been demoted (from Red Bull to Toro Rosso in Spain last year, and from Toro Rosso to the team's subs bench for Malaysia), Verstappen has won the race … Gasly, drafted in for Sepang and Suzuka (for the time being), described Friday's first practice as "very special", and while the French 21-year-old hovered around the back of the midfield for most of his debut weekend, qualifying just 0.156secs behind Sainz showed his potential. The unlucky Sainz, who came into Malaysia after a career-best fourth in Singapore, was technically the only retiree at Sepang (given Raikkonen didn't start the race), his engine letting go on lap 28 when he was running in the points.
Haas
Magnussen couldn't maintain his strong start
© Haas F1 Team
Romain Grosjean: qualified 16th, finished 13th. Kevin Magnussen: qualified 17th, finished 12th.
Grosjean was the headline from Friday practice at Sepang, the Haas driver pitched into a frightening accident after a puncture caused by a loose drain cover at Turn 12, the Frenchman very fortunate to escape injury despite his car being totalled. The team's mechanics pulled an all-nighter to get his car ready for qualifying, but there wasn't much more to be proud about for either Grosjean or Magnussen, both cars out in Q1 and faster only than the backmarker Sauber duo of Wehrlein and Ericsson. Grosjean was bullied off track on the first lap by the Toro Rossos (his complaints earning a stinging rebuke from Toro Rosso team boss Franz Tost) and barely featured after that, while Magnussen had a more eventful outing, storming to 10th after an opportunistic first lap, but falling back after clashes with Alonso and former Renault teammate Palmer, who he referred to as "a lunatic" after they came together at the first corner on lap 39.
Renault
Palmer was in the wars in Malaysia
© Renault Sport
Jolyon Palmer: qualified 12th, finished 15th. Nico Hulkenberg: qualified 8th, finished 16th.
Renault went backwards in Malaysia, Hulkenberg's off onto the dirt at the final corner on lap one forcing him into an early pit stop to cure imbalance issues. The German tried to get to the end on the same tyres he fitted on lap 10, but was forced into another stop six laps from home and finished well outside of the points. Palmer's weekend, one race after his Singapore sixth, was messy; he hit Verstappen at the end of final practice, spun all by himself at the penultimate corner on lap 38, and then hit Magnussen two turns later, ending up off the track and pointing in the wrong direction.
Sauber
Wehrlein was best of the worst in Malaysia
© Sauber F1 Team
Marcus Ericsson: qualified 19th, finished 18th. Pascal Wehrlein: qualified 18th, finished 17th.
The Sauber duo had nothing to lose by starting on the soft-compound Pirellis and trying to go as long as they could in Sunday's race, but the lack of a safety car or wet-weather intervention saw them tool around at the back, both making just the one stop, and Wehrlein finishing a long, long way ahead of his Swedish teammate. The German's only moment of note? Giving compatriot Vettel a lift back to the pits after the race.
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