Max Verstappen wins Malaysia Grand Prix as Lewis Hamilton finishes second while Sebastian Vettel finishes fourth
MAX VERSTAPPEN celebrated his 20th birthday with a fantastic victory in the Malaysia Grand Prix.
The Red Bull ace, who stopped being a teenager on Saturday, leapfrogged pole-sitter Lewis Hamilton to earn the second win of his F1 career.
The Dutchman gave another fantastic display to add to his growing reputation and illustrated why he has been touted as a future F1 world champion.
Sadly, this season's championship is out of touch, but current leader Hamilton had another shocker in Sepang.
Last year, his engine blew up when he was leading this race, and this year he suffered an electrical problem, which denied him the full power of his Mercedes engine.
Hamilton had to settle for second place while Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo held off a spirited fightback from Sebastian Vettel, who was fourth.
But there was another nightmare before the start for Ferrari as Kimi Raikkonen had an engine problem and was unable to start the race.
Vettel, his Ferrari team-mate, had started last after he had mechanical problems during qualifying and needed an engine change.
The German was remarkably upbeat, despite missing out on the chance to fight Hamilton for pole, and said he was hopeful of producing a "big drive".
And he certainly did that as he was up to 12th by the end of the first lap, while Hamilton got a decent start along with his Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas.
But there was an early problem for Hamilton, who complained about an electronic issue with his complicated hybrid energy system.
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It resulted in him suffering a loss of power, which threw the advantage to Verstappen, who could sense blood.
And he wasted no time in passing the championship leader, squeezing past Hamilton on the final turn on the third lap, saying "that's how you do it!" over the team's radio.
He then set about building up a sizable advantage out in front while Ricciardo got past Bottas and into third.
Vettel too started weaving his way through the pack and by the halfway stage he was up to fifth, while Sergio Perez's decision to pit moved him up to fourth.
He then set about hunting down Ricciardo, his former team-mate at Red Bull before giving up the fight with four laps to go.
Hamilton's second place means he now has a 34 point lead over Vettel in the championship, after he came home in fourth place behind Ricciardo.
Yet there was also drama after the chequered flag when Vettel and Williams's Lance Stroll collided on the slow-down lap, prompting a stewards' investigation.
