Birthday boy Verstappen takes cake in Sepang
MAX Verstappen of team Red Bull won the final running of the Malaysian Grand Prix yesterday, with Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton finishing second to extend his championship lead over Sebastian Vettel to 34 points.
Verstappen, who celebrated his 20th birthday a day earlier, overtook pole-sitter Hamilton on lap four, before clinching the second victory of his career – and first this season.
Mercedes’ Hamilton ended ahead of Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo, with Vettel – who started at the back of the grid – fourth.
With five races to go, Hamilton is edging closer to the title.
Ferrari, however, had a weekend to forget, after Kimi Raikkonen did not even make the starting grid and Vettel lost a rear wheel in a bizarre smash after the finish line.
Verstappen won by nearly 13 seconds from Hamilton, to embellish what has been a tough season, after he failed to finish seven races and only once reached the podium.
“The car was unbelievable. If I had to speed up I could. It was a very tough race and incredible to win,” the Dutchman said.
Hamilton admitted the Mercedes had been second-best.
“Big congratulations to Max – and happy birthday – he did a fantastic job today,” he said.
“The race was a tough one and, obviously, they [Red Bull] just had the upper hand on us.
“I feel good, but I think we have some work to do with the car. Obviously, we did not have the pace this weekend.”
Ricciardo, Verstappen’s Red Bull teammate, fought off a strong challenge from Vettel, who had started from the back following engine problems in qualifying.
“Seb came really quick at the end and I thought he was going to be a handful,” Ricciardo said.
“But he only had one strong attack – and then we were able to pull away.”
Ferrari’s fortunes had dimmed when Raikkonen’s car suffered a turbo failure before the start.
He was pushed back to the pit and the race was over before it had even begun for the former world champion, who had his maiden win at Sepang in 2003.
“We had some issue. I don’t think any of us know what it is exactly,” a disappointed Raikkonen said. Vettel, who led the championship until just a month ago, has only five races left to overhaul Hamilton’s big lead – and it starts in Japan on Sunday.
“I think we have a very good car. If we start ahead, we win the race,” he said. “We had a little sniff at the podium – but unfortunately we ran out of tyres.”
Once he had passed Hamilton, Verstappen started to pull away and by lap 14 he had a seven-second cushion.
Vettel was picking off the back markers with ease, courtesy of his second new engine of the weekend, and emerged in fourth in front of Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas after they had both pitted for new tyres. As the top four entered the final 10 laps of the 56, Vettel set a new race lap record of 1min 33.864sec – smashing Juan Pablo Montoya’s 2004 mark of 1:34.223 – and he was closing fast on Ricciardo.
Vettel made one daring attempt to grab the last podium spot on the inside of Ricciardo, at the end of the pit straight, with seven laps to go.
But the Australian closed him off and Vettel was forced to drop back and settle for fourth, as his front tyres started to degrade.
The drama did not end there. On his slow-down lap, Vettel collided with the Williams of Lance Stroll, which left his Ferrari with one rear wheel on top of his car.
“That is impossible,” Vettel roared on the radio. “Stroll was not looking where he was going!”
It was the 19th and last Malaysian Grand Prix.
If I had to speed up I could. It was a very tough race and incredible to win