Max Verstappen wins the Malaysian Grand Prix 2017 on his birthday weekend

Malaysia bids farewell to the Formula One after nineteen years of hosting the race. Max Verstappen wins the Malaysian Grand Prix on his birthday weekend. Lewis Hamilton comes in second despite issues with his car extending his lead in the drivers championship to 34 points. Daniel Ricciardo makes yet another appearance on the podium in third giving Red Bull Racing a boost in constructors points. Malaysia closes its F1nale with a stellar line up of local artistes

Podium finish for Max Verstappen, a fitting birthday present

Malaysian Grand Prix 2017 Report

It was a roller coaster weekend in general at Sepang with repeated threats of rain and actual showers. Lewis Hamilton, who qualified in pole ended up finishing in second place as he had a number of issues with his car. The big news of the weekend was of course Max Verstappen winning the race. It look him a mere four laps to overtake the Silver Arrow of Lewis Hamilton and from then on he never looked back. Verstappen celebrated his birthday on Saturday and there could be no better gift for the now twenty year old Dutch driver who stood on the top step of the podium beaming. His teammate and fellow Red Bull racing driver Daniel Ricciardo came in third which was great news for Red Bull. Petronas who are name sponsors of the Mercedes F1 team were surely hoping for a one-two finish on the Malaysian Grand Prix podium after Saturday’s qualifying however it was not to be.

Lewis Hamilton and his “Silver Arrow”

The gap between Verstappen and Hamilton was a whopping 12.7 seconds. Valtteri Bottas finished the race in fifth place after being overtaken by Daniel Ricciardo midway through the race. In a session that is normally incident free, there was a bizarre post-race crash between Lance Stroll and Sebastian Vettel. It appeared that both car turned into each other with Vettel seemingly perplexed. Vettel later hitched a ride from the Sauber of Pascal Wehrlein bringing his steering wheel along with him. It was a real head scratching moment. Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen unfortunately ended up retiring due to turbo issues with his car that put a dent into the Prancing Horses hope of scoring yet more constructors points. Vettel certainly helped with a tumultuous drive from starting last on the grid to end up fourth at the end of the Malaysian Grand Prix 2017.

On Wednesday F1 in Schools, an effort lead by Andrew Denford and his team had their World Finals gala dinner at Sunway Lagoon. The dinner was attended by all the teams that competed from around the world and notable guests included Mercedes AMG F1 team principal Toto Wolff and Executive Chairman of Formula One Group, Chase Carey. F1 in Schools has now been named the official education partner of the F1, a great endorsement for Andrew and his team by Mr Carey. The winning team, Hyperdrive, was featured prominently over the weekend with the four teenagers standing on the podium to receive their trophy from none other than Mr Carey himself.

The Malaysian grand prix organizers put a great show against the back drop of the biggest turn out in the history of the Malaysian race. Lewis Hamilton in his post race podium interview with Mark Webber remarked that the spectator turn out really helped provide a boost in what is the most difficult circuit on the calendar for him. On Saturday night the organizers hosted the paddock with a traditional Malaysian dinner featuring local favorites and a performance by a jazz band. On Sunday the drivers parade featured a stellar line up of classic cars including the concourse-winning Mercedes Benz 220 Pontoon. The round up the weekend there were concert performances by local celebrities including M Nasir and Aiman Tino.