Malaysian Grand Prix Review: Victory for Verstappen as Mercedes and Ferrari take a battering

It ain’t over ‘til the fat lady sings, goes the saying.

If that’s true, Ferrari’s fat lady must have been scoffing pizza when she was supposed to be on call this weekend for Malaysia’s final F1 race.

Thankfully, that final Malaysian Grand Prix was a memorable affair, with Red Bull winning, Mercedes humbled and Ferrari shell-shocked… and plenty of action before, during and after the race itself.

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Red Bull’s happy hunting ground

The Sepang circuit has been kind to Red Bull of late. Daniel Ricciardo won here last year and, this year, it was Max Verstappen’s turn to take the top step, as F1’s big guns fired blanks all weekend.

This result has been a long time coming for Verstappen – he’s had a torrid season, with crashes, mechanical woes and who knows what else knocking him out of race after race – in fact, going into this weekend he’d completed only 54 per cent of the season’s racing laps.

He edged Ricciardo to finish third in qualifying – and then Kimi Raikkonen’s second-placed Ferrari pulled a sickie just before the start, leaving only Lewis Hamilton ahead, in pole.

After a fantastic tussle with a fast-starting Valtteri Bottas, Verstappen settled into second place, but not for long.

On lap four, with a bit of DRS help, Verstappen passed Hamilton to take the lead – and the cheers of the crowd.

Hamilton later said he chose not to fight hard because he was in ‘championship mode’ but the Mercedes had some battery issues and Verstappen quickly built a comfortable lead.

And, bar a quick pitstop, that was it for the Dutchman, who turned 20 just 24 hours earlier.

As birthday weekends go, this was a peach for Max. There were presents aplenty – cake from his colleagues, broken red cars from Ferrari and, from Mercedes, an entire team in a box marked ‘Do not open until Suzuka. Probably’.

Now an F1 veteran at the age of 20, Verstappen has established himself as the No.1 target for any team with genuine championship ambitions.

The boy – sorry, man – done good.

Ferrari’s F1 rollercoaster comes off the rails. Again and again…

Where do you start with Ferrari?

Actually, either at the back of the grid or not at all.

Vettel had looked menacing all weekend (hurrah, said the tifosi) but his turbo issues on Saturday demoted him to last place with engine penalties (boo, said the tifosi).

Raikkonen, however, looked to have saved the day by qualifying second (phew, said the tifosi), bettered only by a blistering quali lap from Hamilton that took everyone by surprise.

And then, come race day, Kimi’s turbo packed in as well (poo, said the tifosi).

Vettel, though, started strongly and quickly made his way through the field and, at one point, looked like he might even score a podium (wahoo, said the tifosi).

He had a decent go at passing Ricciardo for third place but was short on fuel and backed off at the close, still managing an impressive fourth place from a last-place start (phew, said the tifosi).

And then, on the cooling-down lap, he suddenly ground to a halt, his Ferrari smashed, with a rear wheel balanced on top of the gearbox cover (at this point, the tifosi were screaming to be let off the Ferrari rollercoaster).

Vettel had tried to pass the Williams of Lance Stroll, who was drifting to the right as he cornered slowly and… boom.

The stewards took no action – Vettel should have been more cautious and Stroll should have practised his ‘mirror-signal-manoeuvre’ a bit more.

But the post-race crash means an uncomfortable wait for Vettel fans to see if the impact damaged his gearbox, as a replacement unit would land him with a five-place penalty next weekend in Japan.

It’s far from the first time Vettel has got himself in a bash this season and the scores he’s lost as a result are a big part of why he now trails Hamilton by 34 points as we enter the closing stages of the championship.

For Ferrari, this was a horror of a weekend but they still came away with a fourth place. Thing is, that really could have and should have been a one-two finish.

Yes, all teams endure mechanical gremlins and, no, the title fight isn’t over yet, but now would be as good a time as any for Ferrari to stop punching themselves in the face.

Lost: Two silver cars with unbeatable pace

Mercedes continue their stuttering march towards another F1 drivers-constructors double but blisters are taking their toll on the Brackley team.

Hamilton drove an exemplary weekend, all things considered. He pulled a beaut of a qualifying result from nowhere, presumably helped by Merc’s ability to turn the gas up when things get tough.

He then drove a sensible race, resisting the temptation to tangle with Verstappen and settling for second place. A second place which, had Ferrari’s weekend been a little kinder, could well have been a fourth or fifth.

It wasn’t ideal and team boss Toto Wolff was less than sanguine about where Merc are at the moment, admitting Mercedes are struggling to work out how they’ve lost half a minute to both Ferrari and Red Bull in recent weeks.

The Silver Arrows were struggling with set-up, Bottas using some new barge-boards and regretting the decision, Hamilton sticking with the old ones and still lacking pace.

If truth be told, what we are seeing is Mercedes and Ferrari pushing one another to the limit – that’s why small aero changes are really being sweated and it’s also why power units are failing.

It’s also telling on the drivers, Bottas in particular.

Bottas has had a patchy season, pockmarked with poor performances as well as the odd podium.

After the Sepang race, he was down. Qualifying and finishing fifth, when Ferrari were in the weeds, was simply not good enough and he said as much.

The Finn admitted he was not at his best but, more worryingly, also conceded he was lacking confidence, and that’s what really drains a driver’s performance.

He’s got another year with Mercedes but does he have the spirit to cope with another year in Hamilton’s shadow? It’s in Mercedes’ interests to put an arm around him (Wolff was Bottas’ manager before he became a Mercedes driver) and work out what the problem is.

Unfortunately, at the moment, that problem looks quite simply that Hamilton is fast, Bottas is slow.

Woah, Stoffel. And Pierre. And Lance too

It was a pretty good weekend for the new kids.

Lance Stroll piloted his Williams to a handy eighth place, finishing one ahead of team-mate Felipe Massa, whose ageing bones must have felt the pace in the hot, humid, high g-force arena that is Sepang.

Pierre Gasly made his F1 debut for Toro Rosso, and will be back next weekend in Japan too. He qualified competently and got involved in some proper racing on his way to a 14th-place finish, more than enough to ensure he’s driving in F1 on merit next season.

And he did it with a duff water-bottle. Given how exhausting this race is – Hamilton called it the toughest on the calendar and Verstappen wanted nothing more than lots of sugary drinks at the end – that is, in itself, quite a feat.

And then there was Stoffel Vandoorne, outqualifying and outracing Fernando Alonso in a McLaren that’s finally starting to show signs of pace, just as Honda disappear over the horizon to F1 pastures new.

His seventh-place finish was a Grand Prix career best and Vandoorne described it as his best race ever.

The result means he’s now three points ahead of Alonso in the drivers’ championship: all-conquering, almighty Alonso – who’d have thunk it?

And he’s done it with a whole lot less moaning than his illustrious team-mate too.

Talking of which, Alonso was muted by his standards in Malaysia but not completely silent.

After a bit of contact as he muscled his way past F1’s self-styled bad-boy Kevin Magnussen, who’s attracted criticism from other drivers, he radioed: ‘What an idiot. Hulkenberg is right…’

It was not Alonso’s finest F1 race but he still managed to entertain. What a pro.

He also wound Vettel up, getting in the way as the race neared the end and prompting Vettel to drawl: ‘Oh, come on, I though you were better than that…’

Now to Japan, in just a few days, and the awesome challenge that is Suzuka. Will Mercedes turn up? Will Vettel have a gearbox? Will those Honda execs finally be able to hold their heads up at their home grand prix? Tune in on Sunday.