For just the second time in the last six years, the podium didn’t feature a world champion. It did however feature a very happy Australian…
- Lewis Hamilton’s late retirement promoted Red Bull into first and second, and they duly went on collect their first one-two since the 2013 Brazilian Grand Prix – the final race of the V8 era – where Sebastian Vettel led home Mark Webber. That same season the duo also finished one-two in Malaysia.
- Ricciardo’s victory was his first of the season and the fourth of his career. Remarkably all of the Australian’s wins have come from lower than third on the grid, Ricciardo having started Sunday’s race from fourth.
- Ricciardo’s victory means that four different drivers have won this season - that’s the highest number of different winners we’ve seen in a season since the switch to the current turbo-hybrid regulations at the start of 2014.
- And in a similar vein, Red Bull become only the second team, after Mercedes, to score a one-two finish in the current turbo-hybrid era.
- Despite it being Ricciardo’s only win so far this season, the Australian has now led one more lap this season than he did in 2014 when he won three times. He’s also the only driver on the grid to have finished every race in 2016.
- For the second time in the last six years, there was no world champion representative on the podium. The last time that happened was in Belgium in 2014, when Ricciardo also won.
Red Bull are just the second team in the turbo-hybrid era to score a one-two. © Sutton Images
- It was Red Bull’s second win of the season (their first coming in Spain with Max Verstappen), and ended a 10-race winning streak for Mercedes. That means McLaren’s streak of 11 consecutive race wins from 1988 remains the all-time record.
- Behind Ricciardo, Verstappen finished second for the third time this season. He now has five podium finishes to his name in 2016.
- Nico Rosberg extended his podium streak to four races, and Mercedes’ to 11, but with just 15 points to Red Bull’s 43, the Silver Arrows missed the chance to seal the constructors’ championship in Malaysia.
- However, as the gap in the constructors’ standings shrunk slightly, the gap in the drivers’ standings grew to 23 points with just five races remaining – the biggest it has been since Baku. The last time Hamilton was that far behind Rosberg he was able to overhaul the gap in just three races…
Hamilton suffered his first mechanical DNF since last year's Singapore Grand Prix. © Sutton Images
- Speaking of Hamilton, after securing his 100th front row start on Saturday, he missed out on his 100th podium on Sunday when his engine went bang. It was the world champion’s first retirement since Spain 11 races ago, and his first through a mechanical issue since last year’s Singapore Grand Prix.
- For the second time this season, Fernando Alonso made it into the points from 22nd on the grid (the other time was Belgium). The Spaniard now has four seventh place finishes in his last six races.
- The other McLaren of Jenson Button meanwhile came home in ninth on what was the 300th start of the Briton’s career. It was the first time both McLarens have finished in the points since Monaco.
- At the 16th time of asking, Jolyon Palmer picked up his first F1 point with a dogged drive to tenth place for Renault.
- Less lucky were Haas, who recorded their first double DNF of the season with Romain Grosjean and Esteban Gutierrez both going out with mechanical issues.
- One final note on Malaysia… Daniel Ricciardo celebrated his victory by drinking champagne out of his race boot before encouraging Max Verstappen and Nico Rosberg to do the same. We think it’s a safe bet to say that’s the first time in F1 history that the podium finishers have all done the so-called ‘shoey’!
