Many UK-based viewers will have likely set their alarms for 7:55 am on Sunday, hoping to catch the formation lap while they got cosy on the sofa. Instead, all one could see was rain around Sepang while the FIA could not give an exact start time — only an indefinite delay.
Half an hour in, a start time had been announced and everything looked to be well on its way. However, almost immediately, drivers started to face problems. During the formation lap, Verstappen briefly lost acceleration, Hamilton slowed down, and a Haas and Cadillac car had both pulled over to the side of the track. Miraculously, everyone managed to get their cars into the pits but the race start had been suspended. It was later revealed that the cars suffered from a glitch in the engine system due to the wet conditions of the track. Another hour of waiting went by before the FIA deemed the track dry enough to try and start the race again.
Teams and drivers disagreed on what tyres to start the race on; intermediates — inters — are designated for the transitional period of a race track when it is in between fully wet and bone dry while slicks are the routine dry tyre choice that F1 uses.
Within the first actual lap of racing, it became evident that inters were the right choice and everyone on slicks suffered a lack of grip on the damp track. Drivers that chose to start on slicks — both Ferrari drivers and Lando Norris alongside select others — soon fell almost a minute behind the then race leader, Kimi Antonelli. Eventually most drivers decided to make the tyre switch apart from Lewis Hamilton who gambled with staying out.
It seemed to be a tale of two races depending on the initial race tyre one was on. On Lap 9, Valtteri Bottas ended up in the gravel, triggering the emergence of the safety car which bunched the pack up together once more. The leading drivers who had benefited from a start on inters all switched to varying levels of slick tyre.
At the restart, Max Verstappen took the lead and despite pressure from both Mercedes drivers would not yield it back, even growing a sizeable lead. There were various midfield overtakes happening throughout this phase of the race, mostly coming from Lewis Hamilton as he charged through the field and steadily made his way up the points.
On Lap 46, Alex Albon’s Williams broke down and yet another safety car was deployed negating Verstappen’s nearly 10 second lead. Then, as cars unlapped themselves, George Russell – currently in third – was forced to stop his car and retire due to gearbox issues. Heartbreak for Mercedes and Russell fans now opened the door for the final podium position. Despite having watched the entire race, many fans could not believe that it was Lewis Hamilton who was most in contention for third place after his horrific start an hour earlier. Ultimately, he did manage to overtake the necessary cars and bag his sixth podium for Ferrari while Verstappen took the win.
“Sepang Circuit” by ~ezs is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
