8 Mad Moments From The Malaysian Grand Prix
1. Vettel’s banzai move backfires
Lewis Hamilton had a great start from pole position but behind him, all hell broke loose. Sebastian Vettel tried a move on Max Verstappen but he braked late, clipped the Red Bull and crashed into Nico Rosberg, spinning the Mercedes.
This triggered a chain reaction behind with various collisions. Vettel ended up retiring, Verstappen continued, and Rosberg returned to the race at the back of the field.
Brake issues at 200mph approaching a slow hairpin is never a good thing. That looks like the situation Romain Grosjean was in on lap nine, after his car squirmed as he hit the brakes and went straight on. Scary stuff but he managed to avoid the wall.
3. Rosberg’s fight back
Having dropped right to the back of the field, it was great to see Rosberg scything his way back up the order. It all looked so easy, proving the Mercedes dominance – the rest looked like they were racing in another category!
Rosberg’s journey up the order continued on lap 38 with an aggressive move on Raikkonen. He went wide at Turn 1 but that set him up for a banzai move up the inside at the next corner. They ended up clashing but both continued (although Rosberg got a penalty for it).
5. Red Bull vs Red Bull
This is what we like to see; proper, wheel-to-wheel racing between team-mates. Quite a sight as Daniel Ricciardo and Verstappen battled over second place, but that was about to change…
6. Up in flames
Hamilton’s victory hopes went quite literally up in flames with 15 laps to go when his engine blew up in spectacular style. You could hear his heart breaking as he shouted “Ahh, no, nooo” over the team radio. It completely turned the race upside down and was a hard hit to his title fight.
It was all kicking off in the closing stages of the race. Just after Hamilton’s retirement, Esteban Gutierrez pulled off with a wheel missing on his car after it literally popped off on the run to Turn 9.
8. The shoey returns
Having held off his team-mate, Ricciardo crossed the line to claim his first win of the 2016 F1 season and the fourth of his career – completely deserved after some near misses and heartache this year.
He promised the famous “shoey” would return to the podium if he won and he did just that. But he also got Christian Horner, Verstappen and Rosberg in on the act too! Rosberg looked especially disgusted afterwards but good on him for drinking the sparkling wine out of Ricciardo’s sweaty shoe.
Comments
Mark Webber chucking Ricciardo’s shoe away was the highlight for me
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Rosberg should get a drive in Rally Cross with overtaking maneuvers like that on Kimi.
it seems like Grosjean needs a new underpants
Palmer had an excellent weekend as well. Well deserved points
Poor qualifying but made up for it in the race
Did anybody notice there’s no 3rd on the list?
It’s back :)
In regards to Hamilton’s engine failure.
You’ll see yourself in the CT top 10 for the week 😂😂
I wonder if the shoey is a thing that’ll stay. I don’t see either Hamilton or Rosberg celebrating a victory in quite the same way, but if Ricciardo wins it’ll be a thing people expect to see. Who knows how many shoes will be soaked in sparkling wine in 2017?
The whole pit-stop thing with Ricciardo and Verstappen at the same time was a bit questionable, it looked like Red Bull wanted to ensure there wouldn’t be another fight for first place. Still, two drivers on both first and second place, good for them.
Crashes, overtakes, cars breaking down, great recoveries from both Rosberg and Verstappen after a mad moment from Seb. This race seemed to have it all.
Auzzie thing only… that’s your answer on the shoey
It had all of the elements you’d want, other than rain. Red Bull told them they could race if they kept it clean, which they did. But yeah, the pit stop neutralized it a bit
Welcome to malaysia. Where everything goes wrong. Allah
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Mr.PurpleV12
What are those small boxes on Ricciardo’s knees?
Knee pads I think