MalaysiaGP - One Last Time
Malaysia has not been short on providing drama and suspense this weekend as the Sepang circuit in Kuala Lumpur welcomed the F1 World Championship for the last time.
After Sebastian Vettel experienced a loss of power from his Ferrari's turbo unit and was eliminated from qualifying when the Prancing Horse had been looking particularly fearsome through the practice sessions, it looked like it was going to be an uphill battle for Ferrari to hustle Vettel from last on the grid and into the points.
But things were to get even worse on Sunday morning. As the drivers went to the grid, Kimi Raikkonen's Ferrari also developed an issue with the turbo unit which the mechanics were unable to sort out on the grid. There was no choice but to push Raikkonen back into the garage to try fixing the problem and get Kimi out in time for lights out.
Luck isn't something that comes the way of the Iceman very often and it wasn't with him today. The Ferrari of Raikkonen was retired from the race, leaving P2 on the grid vacant - giving Lewis Hamilton one less threat to defend from, and Max Verstappen one less obstacle to clear.
The start of the race was clean and the frontrunners got away in a tidy orderly manner for a fairly uneventful first few laps. When DRS was enabled on lap 3, Hamilton was only just out of the DRS range of Verstappen with a lead of 0.7 seconds. However, over the next 2 laps, it became clear that the Mercedes was not managing to pull away from the Red Bull. Sure enough, Hamilton was on the radio to report a lot of derates. The team replied that the battery pack was yet to reach full charge so this was normal. Verstappen was having no such issues and rapidly closed down Hamilton then passed without much trouble at all to take the lead of the race.
As a further slap in the face of the Mercedes, the Red Bull then started to rapidly pull away in a manner that the Silver Arrow had been unable to manage. At the same time, Valtteri Bottas was also being reeled in by the other Red Bull of Daniel Ricciardo.
All the while, from absolute last, Vettel was also slowly but steadily picking his way through the field.
On a track with a very long run to the first corner and is very favorable to overtaking, Vettel was easily clawing back places from the lower-tier teams and hauling himself up towards the business end of the points. Ricciardo, likewise, was pressuring Bottas who was looking very vulnerable... just how Ricciardo likes 'em.
With Bottas unable to match the times of his teammate, Ricciardo closed in and soon effected the pass to get himself into P3.
Even before the halfway point of the race, Vettel was in the mirrors of Bottas and the torrid weekend that the Finn was having was not looking to get any better. The power of the Ferrari was coming to the fore and it was an easy task to overtake Bottas for P4.
Things then started to look enticing as Vettel set fastest lap after fastest lap and closed in on Ricciardo for the podium. confirming the threat, the Red Bull pit wall was on the radio to their man letting him know that the Ferrari would be on him in the last few laps of the race.
Sure enough, on lap 47 of 56, Vettel was putting the pressure on Ricciardo and it was a scrap for the P3 position. Ricciardo showed skill worthy of a champion to fend off Vettel and after an intense period of jousting, the super-soft tyres of the Ferrari just could not sustain the fight. Vettel had to concede this battle and be content with P4.
Having endured such a woeful season, Max Verstappen took his second win in Formula 1 by almost 10 seconds from Lewis Hamilton - who can take comfort in the fact that he extended his 28-point lead to 34
points - and Ricciardo sealed a double-podium finish for the Red Bull team with his P3.
But the action wasn't over. In one of the most bizarre ends to a race, Vettel and Lance Stroll in the Williams tangled after the flag which resulted in the rear left tyre of Vettel breaking off the suspension struts and ending up perched on the back of the Ferrari, just holding on by the thread of the tether.
Naturally, Sebastian was on the radio to report that Stroll had "just driven into" him, but the replays of the incident did not back up this point of view. For 2 races in a row, the Ferrari lead-driver has been involved in very expensive and very unnecessary prangs. While it did not cost him any points in this incident, it did add insult to injury that the Williams' car got away without any damage. As Alonso might say, karma?
The season is down to 5 races now and the next track is Suzuka, Japan in 1 week. Mercedes are looking decidedly shaky when it had been expected that they would be absolutely storming to the finish. Post-race, Lewis did admit that it was worrying that the car was so abysmal this weekend. With the team 118 points ahead of Ferrari in the Constructor's Championship, it's improbable that they can be overhauled, but they will not want to give Vettel the chance to snatch back control of the title from Hamilton.
What can the engineers and mechanics do in 1 week to reverse the slump?