That said, Max Verstappen had to fight for every inch of it. Starting on intermediate tyres, he was swallowed up by both Mercedes machines off the line and felt immediate heat from Liam Lawson. But when the first Safety Car appeared, Red Bull made the right call to strap on the softs. On those tyres, he dealt with George Russell and Kimi Antonelli at the restart before vanishing up the road. A second Safety Car closed the pack back up, but Verstappen held off Antonelli to seal a famous win.
It was a milestone moment for more reasons than one. This marked the maiden victory for the Red Bull Ford Powertrains power unit in its very first season, a massive emotional breakthrough after five years of work in Milton Keynes and at the track. Isack Hadjar backed up the team's speed with a lonely run to fifth, though he fought understeer and lost power for two laps after the final restart, costing him a potential podium.
Mercedes looked destined for a comfortable double podium after gambling on inters at the start, where Antonelli rocketed into the lead ahead of Russell. They switched to mediums under the initial Safety Car, which left them vulnerable to Verstappen's soft-shod Red Bull. Antonelli eventually established himself as the faster Mercedes driver, but late disaster struck when Russell pulled off with an apparent power unit failure while running comfortably in third. The retirement crushed Russell's title hopes and left Toto Wolff calling it their worst weekend of the season, though Antonelli salvaged 18 points to extend his Drivers' Championship lead to 84 points.
Over at Ferrari, it was an absolute rollercoaster. Both drivers rolled the dice on slicks at the start on a wet track, sending them plunging down the order. Charles Leclerc had to pit for inters after contact with Nico Hulkenberg's Audi dropped him to last place. Lewis Hamilton, meanwhile, opted to gamble by staying out on softs. Despite finding himself a minute off the lead early on, Hamilton coaxed his tyres into life, sliced through the field, and climbed into the points. A late Safety Car allowed him to swap back to softs, letting him pick off Hadjar for an unlikely podium finish while Leclerc recovered brilliantly to fourth.
Now, the paddock packs up and heads straight to Singapore, with teams eager to build on the chaos and lessons learned under the Malaysian sun.
