Verstappen beats Hamilton to Malaysia GP Victory

 

 

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen took a dominant Malaysia Grand Prix victory after an early overtake on Lewis Hamilton while team-mate Daniel Ricciardo held off Sebastian Vettel for the final podium place.

 

Verstappen moved passed Hamilton during the early proceedings and controlled the rest of the 56 lap Grand Prix to win while Ricciardo finished third and the Milton Keynes-based outfit secured a double podium.

 

Vettel drove an impressive recovery to take fourth, after briefly giving Ricciardo a hard run, but the German was involved in a baffling clash with Williams’ Lance Stroll, leaving his SF70H racer with severe damage.

 

Hamilton kept the lead on lap one, after being given a helping hand with Kimi Räikkönen unable to make the starting grid, after Ferrari diagnosed a turbo issue.

 

Ferrari attempted to fix the problem on the grid, but with 10 minutes before the start, wheeled Räikkönen back to the garage but it was unrepairable.

 

Therefore, Verstappen became Hamilton’s main challenger off the grid, although the Dutchman had to defend hard against a lightning-quick Valtteri Bottas, who passed Ricciardo on the run down into the first corner.

 

Hamilton and Verstappen rapidly pulled away from the Bottas/Ricciardo battle as the Briton complained of his W08 Hybrid EQ Power+ having engine de-rates.

 

 

Verstappen stuck behind the rear of Hamilton and as the duo started lap four, the Dutchman got out of the slipstream and jumped down the inside into the first corner.

 

Hamilton was unable to fight back as Verstappen moved away quickly to escape DRS range while Ricciardo fought Bottas for third as the battle between the Silver Arrows and Red Bull continued.

 

On the ninth lap, both drivers ran side-by-side through the first few corners before Ricciardo made a lunge passed the Finn into turn four as he took third place.

 

The leading trio order stayed the same through the sole pit-stop window, though Bottas fell behind the fast-recovering Vettel as the Finn’s tough weekend continued.

 

Vettel using the alternate Soft/Super Soft strategy, climbed to 13th on the first lap after starting 20^th due to engine issues in qualifying.

 

Vettel progressively moved through the field putting in some great on-track moves and with midfield rivals pitting, came out of his only stop in fourth place and 14 seconds behind Ricciardo.

 

The German then ate into Ricciardo’s advantage and with eight laps remaining took a half-hearted chance, but Ricciardo swerved and kept the inside line to hold position.

 

That was the closest the duo came to swapping places, as Vettel dropped away from Ricciardo during the final stages of the race.

 

Ricciardo beforehand, was charging towards Hamilton after the pit-stop window, but his threat came from behind with Vettel’s push, leaving Hamilton comfortable in second place.

 

In the lead, Verstappen was never under any threat from Hamilton after his early pass and put in a flawless performance to his second Formula 1 career victory in Malaysia’s final Grand Prix after 19 years.

 

“I think in the beginning, straight away the car felt good,” explained Verstappen after taking his second victory a day after his 20^th birthday. “I saw Lewis was struggling a bit with traction, he was slipping a bit more than me,”

 

“I used my battery as much as I could and, of course, he has more to lose in the championship, so I went for it at Turn 1. From there I could do my own race, the car was unbelievable – if I needed to speed up, I could speed up,”

 

“It’s amazing… it’s a very tough race, so it’s incredible to win.” Verstappen said

 

Verstappen felt relieved after his triumph in a season plagued by incidents, reliability issues which saw the young Dutchman retire from seven Grands Prix.

 

“After the season I’ve had, I think this victory came at a very good time,” Verstappen continued. “I was really happy when I crossed the line. Together with my dad I came this far, and then I got the great help from Red Bull… and then we got champagne!” Verstappen concluded.

 

Hamilton, Ricciardo and Vettel crossed the line after, but the latter was unable to return to the pits due to a bizarre incident on the cool-down lap with Williams’ Stroll who came home in eighth.

 

As the pairing went through the snaky turn five, Vettel and Stroll collided together, with the SF70H racer encountering major rear-left damage as Vettel stopped his car and took a lift back with Sauber’s Pascal Wehrlein.

 

Bottas having been undercut by Vettel, fell away from the battle to finish fifth and over 56.021 seconds behind race-winner Verstappen.

 

Force India’s Sergio Pérez who put in an early overtake on McLaren’s Stoffel Vandoorne took sixth place while the Belgian placed seventh.

 

Stroll before the aforementioned clash with Vettel, beat Williams team-mate Felipe Massa to take eighth, while the other Force India of Esteban Ocon tangled with Carlos Sainz before recovering to finish in the final points place.

 

Ocon, who was using an off strategy after the first lap collision with Massa, was pushing to pass the then-to-stop Spaniard at turn one.

 

However, both touched wheels which saw the Frenchman spin and fall to 12th from where he climbed up to 10^th as Sainz retired due to an engine problem.

 

McLaren’s Fernando Alonso finished outside the top ten in 11^th place and ahead of Haas F1 Team’s Kevin Magnussen who was 12^th.

 

The other Haas of Romain Grosjean flew past Toro Rosso debutant Pierre Gasly on the last lap to grab 13th place and leaving his younger French compatriot in 14th.

 

Renault suffered a difficult race as Jolyon Palmer and Nico Hülkenberg came home in 15th and 16th respectively.

 

Palmer spun at turn 13 and moments later spun again at the first corner in a battle with Magnussen after slipping behind the Dane from his first mistake.

 

Hülkenberg meanwhile, was running outside the top 10 before taking a late stop, which accounted for the German’s drop as the Sauber duo of Wehrlein and Marcus Ericsson finished at the rear.

 

2017 Formula 1 Petronas Malaysian Grand Prix Full Race Results Classification (56 Laps)

Pos	No	Driver	Car	Laps	Time/Retired	Pts
1	33	Max Verstappen	Red Bull Racing	56	1:30:01.290	25
2	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes AMG F1	56	+12.770s	18
3	3	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull Racing	56	+22.519s	15
4	5	Sebastian Vettel	Scuderia Ferrari	56	+37.362s	12
5	77	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes AMG F1	56	+56.021s	10
6	11	Sergio Perez	Force India F1	56	+78.630s	8
7	2	Stoffel Vandoorne	McLaren-Honda F1	55	+1 Lap	6
8	18	Lance Stroll	Williams Martini Racing	55	+1 Lap	4
9	19	Felipe Massa	Williams Martini Racing	55	+1 Lap	2
10	31	Esteban Ocon	Force India F1	55	+1 Lap	1
11	14	Fernando Alonso	McLaren-Honda F1	55	+1 Lap	0
12	20	Kevin Magnussen	Haas F1 Team	55	+1 Lap	0
13	8	Romain Grosjean	Haas F1 Team	55	+1 Lap	0
14	10	Pierre Gasly	Scuderia Toro Rosso	55	+1 Lap	0
15	30	Jolyon Palmer	Renault Sport F1	55	+1 Lap	0
16	27	Nico Hulkenberg	Renault Sport F1	55	+1 Lap	0
17	94	Pascal Wehrlein	Sauber F1 Team	55	+1 Lap	0
18	9	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber F1 Team	54	+2 Laps	0
NC	55	Carlos Sainz	Scuderia Toro Rosso	29	DNF	0
NC	7	Kimi Räikkönen	Scuderia Ferrari	0	DNS	0

 

2017 World Drivers Championship Standings – Top 10

1. Lewis Hamilton – 281 Points
2. Sebastian Vettel – 247 Points
3. Valtteri Bottas – 222 Points
4. Daniel Ricciardo – 177 Points
5. Kimi Räikkönen – 138 Points
6. Max Verstappen – 93 Points
7. Sergio Pérez – 76 Points
8. Esteban Ocon – 57 Points
9. Carlos Sainz – 48 Points
10. Nico Hulkenberg – 34 Points

 

2017 World Constructors Championship Standings

1. Mercedes AMG F1 – 503 Points
2. Scuderia Ferrari – 385 Points
3. Red Bull Racing – 270 Points
4. Force India F1 Team – 133 Points
5. Williams Martini Racing – 65 Points
6. Scuderia Toro Rosso – 52 Points
7. Renault Sport F1 – 42 Points
8. Haas F1 Team – 37 Points
9. McLaren-Honda F1 – 23 Points
10. Sauber F1 Team – 5 Points

 

Round 16 of the 2017 FIA Formula One World Championship heads straight to the Suzuka International Racing Course in Japan next weekend for the 2017 Formula 1 Japanese Grand Prix from October 6-8.