Daniel Ricciardo wins dramatic Malaysian GP as Lewis Hamilton questions Mercedes engine failure

Daniel Ricciardo won the Malaysian Grand Prix ahead of his Red Bull teammate Max Verstappen while both Mercedes drivers endured problems in Sepang as a first corner collision spun Nico Rosberg down the order and Lewis Hamilton retired with an engine failure just when it looked like he had done enough to take the victory.

Afterwards Hamilton openly questioned why only his Mercedes engines keep failing, saying "Something or someone doesn't want me to win."

It was Ricciardo's fourth Grand Prix victory and his first since 2014. He described it as payback for his lost win in Monaco.

Although Verstappen had the better strategy at the point when Hamilton retired, the team neutralised the strategies by bringing both Ricciardo and Verstappen in together and putting them onto the same tyres. This covered off the risk of a late Safety Car.

Team boss Christian Horner categorically denied that there had been any kind of team order from that point and insisted that they had been free to race to the end. Verstappen backed that up.

At the start, Hamilton maintained the lead ahead of Rosberg off the line and as the pack steamed into Turn 1 the fast starting Ferrari of Sebastian Vettel was squeezed on the inside of the right hander by Max Verstappen, who was defending third.

At the apex Vettel and Verstappen came together – although they did not make contact – but the Ferrari tagged Rosberg’s right rear wheel and spun the Mercedes to the back of the pack.

Vettel pulled off the track with a broken left front suspension, which caused race control to deploy the virtual safety car. He was penalised by the stewards with a three grid place penalty at the next race in Japan.

Several drivers – including Esteban Gutierrez, Kevin Magnussen and Daniil Kvyat, who had collided in a secondary incident at Turn 1 – used that opportunity to pit for repairs and go onto the mandatory hard compound tyre.

The race restarted on lap three of 56 and Hamilton began edging away from Ricciardo as Verstappen quickly passed Kimi Raikkonen and Sergio Perez to retake third.

The VSC then neutralised the race again on lap eight after Romain Grosjean suffered a brake failure on his Haas and careered into the gravel trap at Turn 15.

Verstappen and Rosberg dived into the pits, the Dutchman for fresh soft tyres and the Mercedes driver for hards, as Hamilton, Ricciardo and Raikkonen stayed out.

The race got underway again on lap 10 with Verstappen 16.9s – well within a pitstop – of Hamilton’s leading Mercedes, as Rosberg began his charge through the pack by passing Nico Hulkenberg and Felipe Nasr.

Verstappen caught Raikkonen and attacked the Ferrari at the final corner just as the 2007 world champion came in for his first stop of the race for hard tyres on lap 20, a move Hamilton had also made a few seconds earlier.

Ricciardo pitted for his own hard rubber a lap later, which gave Verstappen the lead and left the race delicately poised approaching half distance as Mercedes had the option of moving Hamilton onto a one-stop strategy while Verstappen was guaranteed to pit at least one more time to take the hard tyres.

Verstappen did make his second stop for the mandatory rubber on lap 31 and came out 16.7s behind Hamilton.

By lap 31, Rosberg had made his way up to fifth place with a series of moves on Perez, Esteban Ocon and Marcus Ericsson – who were running in the top ten after not pitting under the VSC.

The German driver then made his second stop of the race for fresh hards and a few laps later began to catch Raikkonen after the Ferrari driver had made his own second stop.

Hamilton was quietly edging away from Ricciado, who had Verstappen homing in on him, when Rosberg surprised Raikkonen with a late move from a long way back at Turn 2 on lap 38.

The pair made contact but were able to continue and Rosberg moved into third place but was later given a ten-second penalty for causing the collision.

A lap after that, Verstappen, who had been asking to be let by Ricciardo via his radio, attacked his teammate at Turn 3. Verstappen got a better exit from the right hander but Ricciardo held his line and the pair went side-by-side through Turns 5, 6, and 7 with the Australian holding onto second after a breath-taking few corners that featured masterful driving from both.

That firm defending from Ricciardo became even more crucial when at the start of the next lap Hamilton’s engine spectacularly expired coming down the main straight.

The world champion had pulled out a gap that was almost enough for him to safely make a second stop and rejoin in the lead when his internal combustion engine failed and flames shot from the rear of the car.

He stopped his Mercedes at the exit of Turn 1 voicing his frustrations on the radio and holding his head in his hands, which caused race control to deploy the third VSC of the race and that decision allowed Ricciardo, Verstappen, Rosberg and Raikkonen to pit for fresh soft tyres.

"Something or someone doesn't want me to win this year," said Hamilton after the race. "I have some questions for Mercedes, they make engines for eight drivers I'm fighting for a championship and only mine are failing."

Verstappen had to wait behind Ricciardo and was faced with a 2.4s gap when the race resumed on lap 43.

Over the course of the final 13 laps Verstappen closed to within 1.1s of Ricciardo at one stage, but never seriously threatened to attack his teammate who went on to score his first victory of the season by 2.6s.

Rosberg, who was only handed his penalty after his final stop, therefore had to pull a ten-second gap to Raikkonen to secure his third place.

After some negotiation with his Mercedes team about which engine mode he was allowed to use, Rosberg was able to pull clear of the Ferrari and crossed the line 3.2s in front after the penalty was applied.

Valtteri Bottas used a one-stop strategy to rise from 11th on the grid to fifth by the end for Williams, and finish ahead of Perez.

Fernando Alonso had started last after being given 45-places worth of grid penalties in his McLaren for taking more new power unit parts in practice and the double world champion took full advantage of the chaotic start and race to move up to seventh by the flag.

Hulkenberg finished eighth in the second Force India, just ahead of Jenson Button, who lost time during the final VSC.

Jolyon Palmer, who started on the hard tyres and ran deep into the race on that rubber, came home tenth for Renault to score his first ever F1 point.

Carlos Sainz was 11th for Toro Rosso ahead of Ericsson and Felipe Massa, who was forced to start from the pitlane when a throttle problem struck his Williams as the cars left the grid on the formation lap.

Daniil Kvyat finished 14th in the second Toro Rosso despite complaining about brake problems late in the race, and Pascal Wehrlein beat Ocon – who was given two time penalties for speeding in the pitlane – to 15th for Manor.

Felipe Nasr retired his Sauber late on and Gutierrez’s race came to a dramatic end just before the final VSC when his left front wheel broke and sheared off on the approach for Turn 9.

The other retirement was Magnussen, who was told to stop his Renault on lap 18 due the damage he had sustained in the Turn 1 clash with Gutierrez and Kvyat.

Malaysian Grand Prix results:

1 Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull 1h37m12.776s

2 Max Verstappen, Red Bull +2.443s

3 Nico Rosberg, Mercedes +25.516s

4 Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari +28.785s

5 Valtteri Bottas, Williams +1m01.582s

6 Sergio Perez, Force India +1m03.794s

7 Fernando Alonso, McLaren +1m05.205s

8 Nico Hulkenberg, Force India +1m14.062s

9 Jenson Button, McLaren +1m21.816s

10 Jolyon Palmer, Renault +1m35.466s

11 Carlos Sainz, Toro Rosso +1m38.878s

12 Marcus Ericsson, Sauber +1 Lap

13 Felipe Massa, Williams +1 Lap

14 Daniil Kvyat, Toro Rosso +1 Lap

15 Pascal Wehrlein, Manor +1 Lap

16 Esteban Ocon, Manor +1 Lap

DNF Felipe Nasr, Sauber

DNF Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes

DNF Esteban Gutierrez, Haas

DNF Kevin Magnussen, Renault

DNF Romain Grosjean, Haas

DNF Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari