RACE REPORT
The answer came swiftly, with the pair
being pitted in tandem during a virtual safety
car period to brought about to clear Hamilton’s
car. Both were sent out on soft tyres. Rosberg
too pitted for the same compound and set off
in pursuit. The chase was quickly called off,
however, the stewards handing the German
a 10-second time penalty for causing the
collision with Raikkonen.
It left Ricciardo in charge and he began
to establish a gap to his team-mate. Rosberg
continued to push but with just nine seconds
in hand over Raikkonen there was the
possibility that the championship leader might
miss out on a podium finish.
Raikkonen’s race engineer told the Finn
“you know what you have to do”. The Finn
might have but his car would not co-operate
and within a few laps he began to lose time
to Rosberg and when the pair crossed the
line and Rosberg’s penalty was applied the
German still had three seconds in hand over
the Ferrari man to hold on to third place.
At the front Verstappen was pushing
and with seven laps to go he was just 1.1s
behind Ricciardo. But the Australian held firm
and eventually crossed the line 2.4s clear of
Verstappen to claim his fourth career win.
The result means that Rosberg extends
his championship lead over Hamilton to
23 points, while Ricciardo further cements
himself into third place in the title fight with
204 points.
In the Constructors’ battle Mercedes’
woes meant they missed out on their chance
to seal the team’s title in Malaysia. They now
have 533 points to Red Bull’s 359 with Ferrari
third in 313.