Lewis took his ninth podium of the 2017 season, coming home second at the Sepang International Circuit. Valtteri finished today's PETRONAS Malaysia Grand Prix in P5 - his 60th points finish in F1. Lewis (281 points) leads the Drivers' Championship by 34 points from Sebastian Vettel (247 points), with Valtteri in P3 with 222 points. Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS Motorsport (503 points) extend the lead to Ferrari (385 points) in the Constructors' Championship to 118 points.
Toto Wolff: It was clear after just a few laps that both Red Bull and Ferrari had better cars than us today - but we nevertheless managed to score a good number of points and extend our lead in both championships. After a weekend where we have lacked a significant chunk of performance, we couldn't have imagined such a good outcome, but we can't let that distract us from the job we have in front of us. We leave Malaysia with a lot of question marks and we need to find answers to them in the next days and weeks, to ensure that we keep moving forward and racing at the front in the final quarter of this championship. We cannot get distracted by the fact we got lucky again this weekend. Lewis did a fantastic job today to score P2 while Valtteri, just like over the rest of the weekend, struggled to match that pace and brought the car home in P5. We know that gap doesn't reflect his true level of performance, and it will be a priority for us to put two equally competitive cars on track next weekend in Suzuka. In simple words, there is a lot more work ahead of us if we want to come out on top by Abu Dhabi.
Andrew Shovlin: We expected a tough race today and it was. We lost the lead to Verstappen very early which was frustrating, but this is a reflection on our pace today which was just not good enough. We had a similar story with Valtteri who made a great start and did a really good job defending against Daniel for the opening laps but ultimately couldn't hold him behind. We have benefited significantly from Ferrari's misfortunes this weekend but they had an extremely quick car and we are under no illusions that the remaining five races will present us with a tough challenge to keep our noses ahead in both titles. We will be working hard in the coming days to understand our deficiencies this weekend. But Suzuka is a very different type of circuit and we will go there fighting to get on top of our problems and back to the front.
Christian Horner, Team Principal: "A great performance by the whole team today and fantastic to see Max get a well-deserved victory, after enduring so much bad luck throughout the season. I said when Max's luck would change it would change in a dramatic way and it's difficult to believe the last time he was on the podium was at the beginning of April in China. Today he drove a truly dominant race, making a sensational pass on Lewis and then really controlling the race from there. Daniel, after starting on the wet side of the grid, initially dropped a place to Valtteri but worked hard to get the pass done, which is incredibly hard at this circuit, and then managed to save enough in hand to fend off a fast-recovering Sebastian at the end of the race. It's tremendous for us to sign off the last grand prix in Malaysia with a double podium and a victory, the fifth that we've achieved here. Our thanks to the Malaysian Grand Prix and to the many fans in Malaysia who support Red Bull; we celebrate with you today."
Maurizio Arrivabene: All weekend, it was clear we had a very competitive car. That could be seen from our pace in free practice, Kimi's front row in qualifying and Seb's amazing fight back in the race, when he went from last to fourth. However, it all added up to our hardest race of the year, as we had to confront problems that we will now analyse in depth. They prevented Sebastian from qualifying and Kimi from even taking the start. The team remained focused on its job throughout, putting in a great deal of effort working in the garage and then implementing an impeccable strategy. It's further cause to continue to believe in ourselves: we have the car, the men, the drivers, the means and the spirit to fight all the way to the finish.
Sahara Force India scored nine points in the Malaysian Grand Prix as Sergio Perez raced to sixth place ahead of Esteban Ocon in tenth.
Robert Fernley: "Congratulations to the whole team for another double points finish, which further strengthens our fourth place in the championship. Sergio drove a pretty much perfect race, despite being unwell, and sixth place is a wonderful reward for his perseverance over the weekend. On the other side of the garage, things just didn't work out for Esteban. The puncture on lap one compromised his race and to recover to tenth place was a fantastic effort. Being hit by the Toro Rosso of Sainz was costly, but the real challenge was managing the soft tyres over 53 laps. We take a lot of positives away from this weekend, especially the pace of the car in qualifying and the race. We've made some important steps forward with the car recently, which should allow us to keep scoring good points in all the remaining races."
Lance Stroll finished eighth and Felipe Massa ninth in the final Malaysian Grand Prix. Lance and Felipe both started on the supersoft tyre. Both drivers had strong starts, gaining a number of positions on the opening lap. Contact with Ocon at Turn 2 pushed Felipe back to 10th, whilst Lance moved up to eighth. By Lap 12, Felipe had moved up to eighth before coming into the pits for a set of soft compound tyres. Lance pitted the following lap for softs, exiting the pitlane just behind his teammate before retaking the position. This left Lance and Felipe in 11th and 12th, respectively. The relatively early stop worked out well for both drivers, to claim a double-points finish for Williams Martini Racing. Felipe is 11th in the Drivers' Championship, ahead of Lance in 12th. The team also holds position in 5th in the Constructors' Championship with 65 points.
Paddy Lowe, Chief Technical Officer: We had some rain just before the race but it had almost completely dried by the time we got to the start. Both drivers made very good starts and were in good shape to make up some places by Turn 1. Unfortunately, Felipe, having got as far as fifth position, got squeezed by the two Force Indias and lost some of those gains, dropping behind Lance. He damaged part of the floor on the left hand side so there will have been some performance loss. Once the race had settled, Hulkenberg stopped very early so we felt obliged to cover him to save position, first with Felipe and then with Lance. Since Lance, who previously had the lead, ended up behind Felipe after the pitstops we felt it was correct to swap the places. We also knew Felipe's car was carrying some damage. Unfortunately, in the execution of that we lost a potential position to Vandoorne coming out of the pits. It was a very long second stint for Lance and Felipe, but the tyres lasted well and we held position to finish with good points in eighth and ninth, so congratulations to both drivers for a strong weekend and a double-points finish for the team.
Stoffel Vandoorne took his second consecutive seventh position in a race after finishing what he described as 'the best race of my F1 career' in today's Malaysian Grand Prix.
Stoffel had qualified seventh, and made an excellent start to run as high as fifth in the opening laps, only ceding positions to Sergio Perez and Sebastian Vettel during the race.
That finishing position was a validation of all Stoffel's hard work with the team, and particularly sweet given the team's expectation that its race pace would not match its strong qualifying pace.
Fernando finished 11th, narrowly missing out on a world championship point. His race never quite fell into a groove - he was delayed at the second corner by cars rubbing wheels ahead of him, and was often embroiled in long scraps with other cars in the midfield. He, too, drove a faultless race - but was unable to fully capitalise.
Eric Boullier: "First, I want to pay tribute to Stoffel. This was his second consecutive finish in seventh position, and was a result that demonstrated just how much effort and dedication he's applied to make this work for him.
"Before the start, it was by no means looking like an easy race, particularly as we knew that we would probably be at the mercy of some of the faster cars behind us. So I think we can be proud of all we achieved this weekend, around a circuit that was not best suited to our package.
"Stoffel was the beneficiary of a good start and had the opportunity to run cleanly throughout, but Fernando's race was really compromised by the time he reached the second corner. Through no fault of his own, he was boxed in, and lost position, as an accident unfolded in front of him.
"Despite a strong drive, we weren't able to help him make progress through the midfield, which was particularly full of incidents at this race. But he still did well to come home 11th. I think we have plenty to look forward to when we head to Suzuka next week."
Yusuke Hasegawa: "The Malaysian Grand Prix proved to be another positive result for the team. Stoffel maintained his momentum from Singapore and brought home more precious points, and the result was even more impressive when you consider that this is a tough, power-hungry circuit. I think today we were able to prove the progress of both our car and power unit.
"Stoffel made a good start and was able to keep position until the end of the race. He showed very consistent pace and maintained the gap to his rivals chasing from behind. I think he did a brilliant job all weekend.
"Fernando also had some good battles and overtakes, and it was a shame that he finished just outside of the top 10.
"Overall, it was a decent step forward for us that we could secure points at this potentially difficult circuit. Our reliability was also good throughout the weekend, even in the hot conditions.
"Now we are heading to our home grand prix in Suzuka and I hope we can continue our momentum and give our fans a great race."
Franz Tost (Team Principal): "First of all, I'd like to congratulate Max Verstappen and Red Bull Racing for this fantastic result. Regarding our Grand Prix, unfortunately this wasn't our race weekend - I think that we could've scored some good points with Carlos because he showed some really good pace and the strategy the team decided to go with seemed to be working well. Unfortunately, he then had an electrical problem coming from the Power Unit and he had to retire. Pierre did a fantastic job again today - this was his first weekend with the team and he performed very well. I'm looking forward to seeing him race again in Suzuka because it's a race track he knows from the Japanese Super Formula championship. We now have to analyse why we lost performance here in Sepang in comparison to other circuits, but I'm convinced that we will come up with a proper solution and will perform better in Suzuka."
Haas F1 Team drivers Kevin Magnussen and Romain Grosjean finished 12th and 13th, respectively, in the Malaysian Grand Prix Sunday at Sepang International Circuit in Kuala Lumpur.
Both drivers made significant gains during the 56-lap race around the 5.543-kilometer (3.444-mile), 15-turn track, as Magnussen started 17th and Grosjean began 16th.
Magnussen made his move as soon as the race went green, deftly navigating his way around turns one and two to rise to ninth. Pit stops and the pace of others throughout the race eventually brought Magnussen to 12th, who used a single-stop strategy.
Magnussen shed the Pirelli P Zero Red supersoft tires he started the race with for Yellow softs on lap 10. This dropped him to 17th, but he tenaciously worked to regain positions, which included spirited battles with the McLaren of Fernando Alonso and the Renault of Jolyon Palmer.
Grosjean employed a two-stop strategy upon dropping to 19th after the first lap, thanks in part to being forced wide by the Toro Rosso of Pierre Gasly in turn four. Grosjean pitted on lap 11, switching from supersofts to softs, and returned to the pit lane on lap 33 for a new set of supersofts that would take him to the finish. He used the fresh rubber to attack, rising from 17th after pitting to 13th when the checkered flag dropped.
Winning the Malaysian Grand Prix was recently-turned 20-year-old Max Verstappen. The Red Bull driver picked up his second career Formula One victory, his first of the season and first at Sepang. Verstappen's margin of victory over second-place Lewis Hamilton and his Mercedes was a stout 12.770 seconds.
Despite not winning, Hamilton increased his lead in the championship driver standings to 34 over his nearest pursuer, Scuderia Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel, who finished fourth in the Malaysian Grand Prix.
Fifteen rounds into the 20-race Formula One schedule, Haas F1 Team remains eighth in the constructors standings with 37 points, 14 points ahead of ninth-place McLaren and five points behind seventh-place Renault and 15 points arrears sixth-place Toro Rosso. Grosjean is 13th in the championship driver standings with 26 points and Magnussen is 15th with 11 points.
Only five races remain in the 2017 FIA Formula One World Championship, with the next event coming Oct. 6-8 with the Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka Circuit.
Guenther Steiner: "A better than expected end of the weekend, even if we didn't get points, which is always what we're here for. Starting 16th and 17th, it's difficult to score points. I think we had a good race. We overtook a lot of other people and we showed that the car can do it. Our assessment from yesterday that we just underperformed in qualifying is the correct one. We need to find the pace in qualifying that we found in the race. If we start in a better position, we'll be back in the points. Everybody did a good job. Nobody gave up yesterday. We came back prepared and everyone delivered. All in all, it was a very rough weekend for everybody. It would've been nice to have a point - we didn't - but we're still proud from where we started off and where we ended up."
Renault Sport Racing Formula One Team endured a difficult race at the Malaysia Grand Prix with driver Nico Hulkenberg finishing sixteenth overall. After spinning his car twice during the race, teammate Jolyon Palmer finished fifteenth.
Nico started the race from P8 on Supersoft (red) Pirelli tyres before pitting early in the race for a new set of Soft (yellow). He switched back to Supersofts after being forced to pit a second time for safety reasons. Jolyon started the race from P12 on a new set of Supersoft tyres pitting once for a new set of Softs.
Cyril Abiteboul, Managing Director: "The team had a tough weekend that ended with a bad race. Apart from qualifying, we couldn't get the car working properly as we had done in previous races.
"After a very poor first lap from both our cars, we were on the back foot and stayed there until the end of the race. We tried to be a bit more aggressive with Nico's strategy. We called him in early however that didn't work in our favour as we remained in traffic after the stop. His attempts to gain position increased the tyre degradation and meant we were forced to do a second pit stop for safety reasons. Jolyon was in a similar place to Nico before he spun his car twice which made him lose a few positions and ultimately led to bad results. It's the last time we want to see this and we will take the necessary measures to better understand our lack of performance this weekend. I am confident that we will recover and will be back on track in Suzuka.
"On another note, I'd like to congratulate Red Bull Racing for the double-podium finish. It was a great effort from the whole team here in Malaysia and it's great to see our partner team succeed!"
The Sauber F1 Team finished Malaysia's final F1 Grand Prix in P17 (Pascal Wehrlein), and P18 (Marcus Ericsson). The team is now packing up and embarking on its journey to Japan, where the last of the three Asian races in the second half of the season will take place just next weekend.
Frederic Vasseur, Team Principal: "In terms of our pace, we had a good race today compared to our previous races - even though our finishing positions do not reflect that. Our strategy was also good, and we were able to catch up with the competitors in the midfield at some stage. Pascal gave a consistently strong performance today and Marcus also put in a good performance. Overall, it is a positive sign for us and we need to keep up the good work and keep pushing."
