Daniel Riiciardo took victory at the Malaysian Grand Prix as Lewis Hamilton blowing up his engine that dented hid championship fight. Max Vestappen came second to make it a Red Bull 1-2 while Nico Rosberg settled for third.
Lewis Hamilton seemed set to end his Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg’s recent winning streak by dominating the race – helped when Rosberg was punted into a spin at the first corner by Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel.
Vettel overshot the corner while battling for third with Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, and understeered into Rosberg – who had won the last three grands prix. The impact was sufficient to break his own left-front suspension, but Rosberg remarkably escaped any major damage or even a puncture.
But Hamilton’s hope went up in smoke as he pulled off in a cloud of smoke on lap 41. “Oh no! No!” he cried, as his chances of taking the title lead expired along with his engine. Rosberg now leads him by 23 points.
Although he had dropped to 17th, Rosberg charged back towards the front. He recovered to third, after hitting Raikkonen when passing him at Turn 2 for which he received a 10s time penalty but finished enough ahead of him to keep third place.
The Red Bulls had fought hard just before Hamilton’s exit, running side-by-side through the sweeping turns 5 and 6, before Ricciardo’s victory was assured when Verstappen was forced to stack in the pits behind him during the final stops – although Verstappen kept him honest to the finish line.
From pole position, Hamilton led Rosberg on the charge to Turn 1. Behind them, Vettel battled with Verstappen into the first corner, but overshot the corner and hit Rosberg, breaking his left-front suspension. “I made contact with the Mercedes, I had nowhere to go,” said Vettel. “Sebastian is crazy,” countered Verstappen. “He smashed into Rosberg like an idiot.”
That allowed Ricciardo to leap up to second, ahead of Sergio Perez’s Force India, Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen and Verstappen, who was delayed in avoiding the collision. Following a two-lap virtual safety car, Verstappen passed Raikkonen as the race went green, and then grabbed third from Perez at Turn 4. Raikkonen ran fifth, but was getting rear brake calliper overheating warnings, ahead of McLaren’s Jenson Button and Nico Hulkenberg’s Force India. Raikkonen snatched fourth from Perez at Turn 2.
Rosberg fell to 17th after his spin, but escaped a right-rear puncture and quickly worked his way through the order. Also charging through was McLaren’s Fernando Alonso, who started from the back of the grid, grabbing ninth from Haas’s Romain Grosjean at Turn 4 on lap six.
Grosjean spun off at the final corner three laps later, after suffering a brake failure. That caused a second virtual safety car, sparking a flurry of pitstops for Verstappen (for soft-compound tyres), Perez (who had a slow stop) and Hulkenberg (who was forced to stack), Button, Alonso and Rosberg.
At the resumption, Hamilton led by 2s from Ricciardo and Raikkonen. Verstappen held fourth, despite his early pitstop, with Valtteri Bottas’s Williams elevated to fifth, ahead of Carlos Sainz’s Toro Rosso.
Hamilton pitted for hards after 21 laps, as did Raikkonen. Verstappen was just outbraking Kimi for third when the Ferrari pitted, and was now within 8s of his teammate Ricciardo with a pitstop in hand.
Riccardo pitted on lap 22 for hards, which promoted the medium-shod Verstappen into the lead.
After leading for five laps, Verstappen pitted for hards and rejoined in third.
Hamilton regained the lead, having pulled 13s clear of Ricciardo. On different strategies, Verstappen caught Ricciardo on lap 39, and they fought a thrilling side-by-side duel through Turns 5 and 6, with Ricciardo hanging on to his second position.
As they duelled, the race turned on its head on lap 41 and Hamilton’s car blew up while he was in the slipstream of Button, and caught fire on the approach to Turn 1.Red Bull opted pit and to stack its cars, which separated their battle. Ricciardo also had the benefit of a set of fresh soft tyres, while Verstappen was forced to reuse an old set. Despite this, Verstappen closed the gap in the late stages to 1.1s, but backed off towards the end.
After his first-corner delay, Rosberg regained his position in the top 10 by lap 13, and progressed to sixth by lap 19.He passed Bottas for fifth with a big lockup into the final corner, which damaged his left-front hard tyre and he only run 22 laps on them. He pitted for more hards on lap 32, suffering a slow front-right change as he did so, and caught Raikkonen with 20 laps remaining.”We need all the power we can have,” argued Raikkonen, who was being told to manage his hybrid energy.
Clearly fired up by what happened with the other Ferrari at the first corner, Rosberg barged his way past Raikkonen at Turn 2, hitting the Ferrari hard with his right-side wheels. For this, he was handed a 10s time penalty. Bottas finished fifth from 11th on the grid, finishing ahead of Perez, Alonso and Hulkenberg. In his 300th Grand Prix start, Button finished ninth.
Renault’s Jolyon Palmer, who said he was losing power on the warm-up lap, ran in the top 10 for the majority of the race thanks to running a marathon 32-lap first stint on the hard tyre. He clung on to score his first point, ahead of Toro Rosso’s Carlos Sainz Jr.Marcus Ericsson finished 12th, ahead of the Williams of Felipe Massa, which failed to leave the dummy, saying: “The throttle is not working guys.”
Massa started from the pitlane and switched to the hard tyre on the opening lap. He suffered a front puncture five laps later, delaying him further.Renault’s Kevin Magnussen lost speed due to bodywork damage incurred at the first-corner schmozzle – where he ran into the back of Gutierrez and Kvyat ran into the back of him – and retired the car after 18 laps. Gutierrez sustained a right-rear puncture on the first lap, and Kvyat required a new nose. Kvyat finished 14th.
Manor’s Pascal Wehrlein beat teammate Esteban Ocon to 15th, after the latter was given a 5s penalty for speeding in the pitlane.Haas’s Esteban Gutierrez went out on lap 42 after his front-left wheel detached after a pitstop, right in front of Raikkonen. Sauber’s Felipe Nasr was also a late retirement.
