Max Verstappen caps golden birthday with Malaysian Grand Prix victory as Lewis Hamilton concedes defeat

He had said on Saturday, his 20th birthday, that what he really wanted to do was to win a grand prix the hard way, and as Malaysia brought down the curtain on its F1 involvement, Max Verstappen did exactly that.

When he had won on his debut with Red Bull in Spain last year, it was after the Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg had collided. But this time Verstappen overtook points leader Hamilton’s struggling Silver Arrow on the fourth lap, and then simply controlled the race for the rest of the afternoon. In the end, he won by 12.7s, but the gap could have been bigger.

“I could have closed that door…” Hamilton smiled, as he and Verstappen prepared for the podium celebrations, but the Dutchman gauged the Englishman’s psychology perfectly this day.

“I could see early on that Lewis was struggling for traction,” Verstappen said. “I got a good run out of the last corner, so I went for the inside. I knew that Lewis had more to lose because of his fight for the world championship, so I took a bit more risk because of it.”

It was a gamble that paid a huge dividend, as thereafter the race was his to lose.

“The whole race went well after that. I just had to look after the tyres, and was able to speed up when I needed to. I really enjoyed that, because it was the first time in my F1 career that I’ve had that. The car’s balance was great, and I just had to stay very focused, especially because you could lose a lot of time behind the backmarkers. I almost got taken out by two of them in the first corner...”

That happened at the end of the 38th lap after Jolyon Palmer had spun his Renault while fighting Haas’ Kevin Magnussen, and the pair of them were still battling when Palmer spun again on the first corner when Verstappen was passing them both. It was the only incident the Dutchman had all race.

“Welcome to being a 20-year-old,” Red Bull team boss Christian Horner told him over the radio. “Well done!”

Hamilton, meanwhile, had a relatively quiet afternoon, safeguarding his second place to earn six more hugely valuable points to extend his lead over arch-rival Sebastian Vettel to 34 with five races remaining.

Hamilton was quick to congratulate Verstappen, and added: “I didn’t really know how close he was in that first corner, as I was having problems with the engine de-rating and battery power at the beginning of the race. I went to defend but I didn’t really want to risk it. At the end of the day Max had more pace than me and it would have been a struggle and he would probably have got past somewhere else.

“Definitely, it was a much better weekend that we had anticipated after struggling so much on Friday, so considering the issues we had this is a good result, albeit still disappointing because winning is the ultimate goal. But Max did a fantastic race.

“We have a lot more work to do on this car. Some of the remaining races we’ll win, but at some places the problem we have with the car will be magnified.”

Behind the leading Mercedes, Hamilton’s pursuers went at it hammer and tongs.

The ever-aggressive Daniel Ricciardo in the other Red Bull had a massive go at displacing Valtteri Bottas in the other Mercedes from fourth place on the fourth lap and they traded places, if not paint, for a few corners before the Finn got back in front. But he was struggling even more than Hamilton, and on the ninth lap Ricciardo made a solid move to take the final podium place he would hold to the flag. But not without a huge challenge from Vettel.

open image in gallery

On a very hard day for Ferrari which saw second fastest qualifier Kimi Raikkonen pushed from the grid even before the start after his engine had lost power on his reconnaissance lap and then failing to get going again, Vettel was one of the stars as he hauled his way from last place on the grid to within 0.5s of Ricciardo by the 48th of the 56 laps. By that stage it seemed not only that he would pass Ricciardo, but that he had the pace to catch Hamilton, having started on the soft Pirelli tyres and run a long opening stint in order to have the faster supersofts when his fuel load was at its lowest later in the race.

Vettel had a go down the inside of Ricciardo on the 49th lap, but where Hamilton had capitulated with Vettel, the Australian had nothing to lose and closed the door firmly.

“I defended a bit, then I saw Seb coming and closed door later at the apex,” Ricciardo said. “I don’t know whether he was unhappy about that, but it didn’t seem over-aggressive from my side. I didn’t feel like it was too late a move. I expected him to attack to the end and I was going to do all that I could to keep going, but I guess maybe he killed the tyres.”

That proved to be the tipping point, however, as Vettel’s challenge faded. His tyres were losing their edge, but he also had an engine issue for a few laps. By the flag he had fallen 14.8s behind the second Red Bull.

Vettel nevertheless enjoyed his fight through the field, and was adamant that he could have beaten Verstappen had he not had the engine problem on Saturday that put him to the back. "We have a very quick car, and if we start ahead, we win the race," he said. "That didn't happen today – we were the quickest car for the majority of the race, but we had to start last. But it was more entertaining, the first couple of laps in particular."

open image in gallery

After the flag, he had a silly collision with Lance Stroll’s Williams on the slowing down lap, which left the Ferrari wearing its left rear wheel on its engine cover and its driver having to hitch a ride home with Sauber’s Pascal Wehrlein.

"How is that possible? Stroll just drove completely into my car. I mean, seriously?” said the man who did that deliberately to Hamilton during the race in Baku earlier this year.

"Vettel just drove into the side of me," reported Stroll, who had driven well to lead Williams team-mate Felipe Massa home in eighth and ninth places. Wisely, the stewards ruled that neither was predominantly to blame, but it could prove costly for Vettel if he requires a new gearbox in Japan next week that would bring with it a five-place grid penalty.

open image in gallery

As Bottas took a lonely fifth, Sergio Perez drove a heroic race to sixth for Force India, sticken by a virus that made the tough little Mexican describe the most physically arduous race of the season as the toughest he had ever driven.

1 Max Verstappen (Ned) Red Bull 1hr 30mins 01.290secs

2 Lewis Hamilton (Gbr) Mercedes GP 1:30:14.060

3 Daniel Ricciardo (Aus) Red Bull 1:30:23.809

4 Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Ferrari 1:30:38.652

5 Valtteri Bottas (Fin) Mercedes GP 1:30:57.311

6 Sergio Perez (Mex) Force India 1:31:19.920

7 Stoffel Vandoorne (Bel) McLaren at 1 Lap

8 Lance Stroll (Can) Williams at 1 Lap

9 Felipe Massa (Bra) Williams at 1 Lap

10 Esteban Ocon (Fra) Force India at 1 Lap

11 Fernando Alonso (Spa) McLaren at 1 Lap

12 Kevin Magnussen (Den) Haas F1 at 1 Lap

13 Romain Grosjean (Fra) Haas F1 at 1 Lap

14 Pierre Gasly (Fra) Scuderia Toro Rosso at 1 Lap

15 Jolyon Palmer (Gbr) Renault at 1 Lap

16 Nico Hulkenberg (Ger) Renault at 1 Lap

17 Pascal Wehrlein (Ger) Sauber-Ferrari at 1 Lap

18 Marcus Ericsson (Swe) Sauber-Ferrari at 2 Laps

Not Classified:

19 Carlos Sainz (Spa) Scuderia Toro Rosso 29 Laps completed

20 Kimi Raikkonen (Fin) Ferrari 0 Laps completed