Daniel Ricciardo wins an action-packed Malaysian GP

At the Malaysian GP at the Sepang circuit yesterday, Daniel Ricciardo won an action packed race ahead of his team mate Max Verstappen and Nico Rosberg that saw Lewis Hamilton retire from the race with an engine failure that allowed Rosberg to extend the lead in the championship further heading to the Japanese GP this weekend.

There was drama from the start as Sebastian Vettel tried an ambitious pass down the inside of Max Verstappen going into Turn 1. But this only allowed Vettel to lock up and skate into Rosberg. This then broke the Ferrari’s front-left wheel and pushed Vettel into retirement.

But Rosberg got going again and began a fight back through the field, rising up to fourth and then barging past Kimi Raikkonen into Turn 2 for third place. The stewards took a dim view of that and awarded Rosberg a 10-second penalty for causing a collision but Rosberg had sufficient pace to build a gap to the Finn and hold onto third.

For the first 40 laps of the race, everything was going Hamilton’s way as he led the battling Red Bulls by over 20 seconds and title rival Nico Rosberg recovered through the field following contact with Sebastian Vettel at the first corner. But as Hamilton approached Turn 1 for the 41st time; a lick of flame from the exhaust signaled a problem before the engine lost all power and ground to a halt on the exit of the corner.

With smoke still coming from the rear of the car, the reigning world champion came to a halt with his head in his hands and knows that his pursuit of a fourth world title had just become significantly more difficult heading into the Japanese GP this weekend.

Up until the Mercedes engine failure, the Red Bulls drivers had been in a thrilling battle for second, with Verstappen attacking his team mate Ricciardo using a younger set of Pirelli tyres. The pair duelled at high speed through Sepang’s sweeping Turns 5 and 6, but Ricciardo just held on to the position.

At the time it appeared as though they were fighting over second place behind Hamilton, but just one lap later the pair came across the yellow flags for the smoking Mercedes and moved up to second and third.

A Virtual Safety Car was deployed to clear Hamilton’s stricken Mercedes on Lap 41 of the race and both Red Bull drivers were called into the pits at the same time for new tyres. The decision eliminated any advantage Verstappen had from his younger rubber as he had to stack behind his teammate to take on a set of new soft tyres of similar age to Ricciardo.

But it was Daniel Ricciardo won the Malaysian GP for the first time in his career. He finished ahead of Max Verstappen in a fantastic second place who was 2.443 seconds behind him. With this amazing result, the Red Bull team secured their first 1-2 finish since Sebastian Vettel finished ahead of Mark Webber at the 2013 Brazilian Grand Prix.

Verstappen finished the race ahead of Nico Rosberg in a great third place who finished 25.516 seconds behind Ricciardo. Rosberg did a great job to gain third place despite being tipped into a spin at the first corner by Vettel and receiving a 10-second time penalty for causing contact with Raikkonen while overtaking on Lap 38. The result yesterday gives him a 23-point lead in the drivers’ standings over Hamilton and puts him in a strong position with just five races left to run this year.

Kimi Raikkonen ended the race in fourth place ahead of Valtteri Bottas in fifth place, Sergio Perez in sixth place, Fernando Alonso in seventh place, Nico Hulkenberg in eighth place, Jenson Button in ninth place (at his 300th GP) and Jolyon Palmer who rounded off the top ten finishers of the race but scored his first ever points in F1.

Esteban Gutierrez ended the race just out of the points in eleventh place 1 lap down on Rosberg. But he did finish ahead of Felipe Massa in twelfth place, Felipe Nasr in thirteenth place, Carlos Sainz Jr in fourteenth place and Jolyon Palmer in fifteenth place.

As we head into the latter stages of the grid, Pascal Wehrlein finished the race in sixteenth place ahead of Marcus Ericsson in seventeenth place and Esteban Ocon in eighteenth place. Jenson Button, Valtteri Bottas, Nico Hulkenberg and Romain Grosjean did not finish the race.

Despite being tipped into a spin at the first corner by Vettel and receiving a 10-second time penalty for causing contact with Kimi Raikkonen while overtaking on lap 38, Rosberg battled back to take a significant third place. The result gives him a 23-point lead in the drivers’ standings over Hamilton, putting him in a strong position with just five races left to run this year.

Six cars retired over the course of the race with Felipe Nasr, Esteban Gutierrez, Kevin Magnussen, Romain Grosjean and Vettel all joining Hamilton in the list of DNFs.

The classification for the Malaysian GP is as follows:-

1.Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull-TAG Heuer, 1.37:12.766s
2.Max Verstappen, Red-Bull-TAG Heuer, 2.443s
3.Nico Rosberg, Mercedes, 25.516s
4.Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari, 28.785s
5.Valtteri Bottas, Williams-Mercedes, 1.01.582s
6.Sergio Perez, Force India-Mercedes, 1.03.794s
7.Fernando Alonso, McLaren-Honda, 1.05.205s
8.Nico Hulkenberg, Force India-Mercedes, 1.14.062s
9.Jenson Button, McLaren-Honda, 1.21.816s
10.Jolyon Palmer, Renault, 1.35.466s
11.Carlos Sainz Jr, Toro Rosso, 1.38.878s
12.Marcus Ericsson, Sauber-Ferrari, 1lap
13.Felipe Massa, Williams-Mercedes, 1lap
14.Daniil Kvyat, Toro Rosso, 1lap
15.Pascal Wehrlein, MRT Racing, 1 lap
16.Esteban Ocon, MRT Racing, 1 lap
17.Felipe Nasr, Sauber-Ferrari, Not Classified
18.Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, Not Classified
19.Esteban Gutierrez, Haas Ferrari, Not Classified
20.Kevin Magnussen, Renault, Not Classified
21.Romain Grosjean, Haas Ferrari, Not Classified
22.Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari, Not Classified

Nico Rosberg now leads the Driver's Championship with 288 points, Lewis Hamilton is in second place with 265 points, Daniel Ricciardo is in third place with 204 points, Kimi Raikkonen is in fourth place with 160 points, Sebastian Vettel is in fifth place with 153 points, Max Verstappen is in sixth place with 147 points, Valtteri Bottas is in seventh place with 80 points, Sergio Perez is in eighth place with 74 points, Nico Hulkenberg is in ninth place with 50 points and Fernando Alonso is in tenth place with 42 points.

Mercedes still lead the Constructors Championship with 553 points, Red Bull is in second place with 359 points, Ferrari is in third place with 313 points, Force India is in fourth place with 124 points, Williams is in fifth place with 121 points, McLaren is in sixth place with 62 points, Toro Rosso is in seventh place with 47 points, Haas is in eighth place with 28 points, Renault is in ninth place with 8 points and Manor are tenth with 1 point.

Sarah Jones- @jonesy_laaa