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Verstappen wins in Malaysia, Hamilton second, Vettel charges up to fourth

Writer's picture: Andrew ZarbAndrew Zarb


On the day after his 20th birthday, Max Verstappen claimed his second ever Formula 1 race victory in Malaysia. Lewis Hamilton finished the race in second place, with World Championship rival Sebastian Vettel charging through the field to finish in fourth place after starting at the back of the grid. Aussie Daniel Ricciardo completed the podium for Red Bull. Before the race began, Kimi Raikkonen had an issue with his engine on the way to the grid for Ferrari. He did make it to the grid, however, had to be pushed to the pitlane as the issue still was not solved. In the end, we never saw him as he did not start the race. At the start itself, polesitter Hamilton got away well and led going into turn 3 from Max Verstappen, with Daniel Ricciardo being overtaken by Valtteri Bottas of Mercedes for third place. There was contact between the Force India of Esteban Ocon and Felipe Massa of Williams at the start, which prompted an early pitstop for Ocon. On lap 4, Verstappen overtook Hamilton for the lead going into turn 1, without too strong a defence from Hamilton, which was sensible of him to do. Then, on lap 9, Bottas, who struggled throughout, got overtaken by Ricciardo for third place. At this point, Vettel, who had started at the back, was up into an impressive ninth place. By lap 16, Verstappen had opened up a 7-second lead over Hamilton, and Vettel was up to sixth, whilst Bottas was massively dropping off and fell 13 seconds behind Daniel Ricciardo. Vettel got past Sergio Perez for fifth place and immediately began to close up to Bottas. On lap 26, when Ocon was trying to pass Sainz for eighth place, Sainz made contact with Ocon's tyre and sent the Frenchman into a spin. Hamilton was the first of the frontrunners to pit on lap 27, with Verstappen following suit a lap later and re-emerging ahead of Hamilton. On lap 28, Vettel, who had got slightly stuck behind Bottas, pitted onto supersofts, and Bottas (who switched onto softs) followed a lap later but re-emerged behind the German. Ricciardo pitted on lap 30 and re-emerged in third place. On lap 31, Carlos Sainz retired with an engine issue. Then, on lap 39, Jolyon Palmer spun after making some contact with Kevin Magnussen, with Verstappen managing to avoid the chaos as he was trying to lap the two cars, and dropped down to 15th. Meanwhile, Sebastian Vettel was quickly closing the gap to Daniel Ricciardo in third place, and on lap 50, made an attempt to overtake him, but Ricciardo shut the door and defended the attempt brilliantly, and eventually dropped back. However, up at the front, Max Verstappen was enjoying a Sunday afternoon drive and crossed the line 12s ahead of Hamilton to win the race. Daniel Ricciardo completed the podium, Vettel finished in fourth place whilst the rest of the top 10 was: Bottas, Perez, Vandoorne, Stroll, Massa and Ocon. In what was a totally bizarre incident, on the cool-down lap, Vettel and Stroll collided with the former suffering what seemed significant damage, which could require a gearbox change which could mean a 5-place grid penalty for the German. The FIA did investigate it but no further action was taken.

Classification:

Max Verstappen - Red Bull Racing-TAG Heuer

Lewis Hamilton - Mercedes

Daniel Ricciardo - Red Bull Racing-TAG Heuer

Sebastian Vettel - Ferrari

Valtteri Bottas - Mercedes

Sergio Perez - Force India-Mercedes

Stoffel Vandoorne - McLaren-Honda

Lance Stroll - Williams-Mercedes

Felipe Massa - Williams-Mercedes

Esteban Ocon - Force India-Mercedes

Fernando Alonso - McLaren-Honda

Kevin Magnussen - Haas-Ferrari

Romain Grosjean - Haas-Ferrari

Pierre Gasly - Toro Rosso

Jolyon Palmer - Renault

Nico Hulkenberg - Renault

Pascal Wehrlein - Sauber-Ferrari

Marcus Ericsson - Sauber-Ferrari

Retired: Carlos Sainz; Did Not Start: Kimi Raikkonen

World Championship standings:

Lewis Hamilton - 281 points

Sebastian Vettel - 247 points

Valtteri Bottas - 222 points

Daniel Ricciardo - 177 points

Kimi Raikkonen - 138 points

Max Verstappen - 93 points

Sergio Perez - 76 points

Esteban Ocon - 57 points

Carlos Sainz - 48 points

Nico Hulkenberg - 34 points

Felipe Massa - 33 points

Lance Stroll - 32 points

Romain Grosjean - 26 points

Stoffel Vandoorne - 13 points

Kevin Magnussen - 11 points

Fernando Alonso - 10 points

Jolyon Palmer - 8 points

Pascal Wehrlein - 5 points

Daniil Kvyat - 4 points

Marcus Ericsson - 0 points

Antonio Giovinazzi - 0 points

Pierre Gasly - 0 points

Constructors' Championship standings:

Mercedes - 503 points

Ferrari - 385 points

Red Bull Racing-TAG Heuer - 270 points

Force India-Mercedes - 133 points

Williams-Mercedes - 65 points

Toro Rosso - 52 points

Renault - 42 points

Haas-Ferrari - 37 points

McLaren-Honda - 23 points

Sauber-Ferrari - 5 points


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