Max Verstappen was victorious in the final Malaysian Grand Prix for Red Bull from Lewis Hamilton and Daniel Ricciardo, with Sebastian Vettel who battled his way back from the back of the field.
There was drama before the start of the race as Raikkonen suffered engine problems on his warm up lap.
Vettel, who had suffered engine problems in qualifying and started from the back of the grid, opted for a different tyre strategy and started on the soft compound of tyre whilst most of the grid opted for super-softs.
Valtteri Bottas went around the outside of Ricciardo at the first corner and battled with Verstappen for second on the first lap. Stoffel Vandoorne got ahead of Esteban Ocon, after the Force India pair had swapped places with Ocon hitting the rear of Felipe Massa’s Williams in Turn 2, picking up damage. Ocon pitted at the end of Lap 2 for a set of soft tyres, putting him to the back of the field.
Hamilton was struggling for pace, allowing Verstappen to overtake into Turn 1 on Lap 4. The second Mercedes was also struggling with Ricciardo attacking Bottas for third. After progressing well at the start, Vettel was stuck behind Fernando Alonso in 11th.
Verstappen quickly opened a gap to take him out of DRS range of Hamilton, four seconds up the road from Bottas and Ricciardo, with that gap increasing quickly. Perez overtook Vandoorne for fifth in Turn 4.
Still battling, Bottas and Ricciardo went side by side through Turns 1 and 2, with the Red Bull driver finally making a move stick into Turn 4 on the Mercedes. The Australian was eight seconds down on Hamilton on Lap 10. Vettel overtook Alonso for tenth, and then Magnussen for ninth in quick succession.
Ricciardo set his sights on Hamilton, taking a second out of the Mercedes on Lap 11, while Verstappen had increased his lead at the front of the field to five seconds.
Massa pitted from eighth on Lap 12, giving up his position to Vettel. Stroll pitted a lap later, which then gave seventh to Vettel. The Williams drivers came out side by side, with Massa winning the argument between the pair. Vettel was spared from another overtake as Vandoorne pitted from sixth, which brought the McLaren out in the middle of the Williams battle, Stroll now ahead of Massa.
Ricciardo started struggling with his tyres, which meant the gap to Hamilton remained around five seconds. Vettel was still making progress, claiming fifth from Sergio Perez who was looking after his supersoft tyres.
Hamilton pitted just before the midpoint of the race, taking the softer tyre. He came out just ahead of Vettel and Bottas on the road, Vettel having just gotten past Bottas.
Verstappen pitted from the lead a lap later, along with Vettel who switched to the supersoft tyre, Ferrari trying the undercut on Mercedes, which worked with Bottas stopping the lap after. Sainz lost power from the Renault engine in the Toro Rosso and limped back to the garage to retire.
Perez pitted on Lap 31, the last of the leading group on the supersoft tyre to switch tyres. Alonso got ahead of Magnussen for 13th, the McLaren lightly tapping the Haas in Turn 2. The Spaniard was not happy with Magnussen, with the incident noted by the stewards.
Ricciardo in third started to close in on the leader Verstappen and Hamilton, with Vettel ten seconds behind faster than all of them on the supersoft tyre. Palmer spun the Renault in the penultimate corner, with Verstappen lapping him and Magnussen. Clearing the pair using DRS down the main straight, Magnussen then tapped the Renault into a spin at Turn 1.
Vettel tried to overtake Ricciardo into Turn 1 on Lap 49, with the pair nearly colliding. The Ferrari lost time after the attack, taking him out of DRS range and then fell back from the Red Bull.
Verstappen maintained his lead to Hamilton to win his second grand prix, with Ricciardo staying ahead of Vettel in third. With disappointing pace, Bottas was fifth from Perez, Vandoorne, Stroll, Massa and Ocon rounding out the top ten.
In an unusual accident at the end of the race, Stroll hit the back of Vettel at the end of the race. Despite being a light collision, the back of the Ferrari had disintegrated. Vettel was quick to blame the Williams driver for not paying attention. Vettel hitched a lift back on the sidepod of Pascal Wehrlein’s Sauber.
