Formula 1: Verstappen returns to victory in Malaysia

The objective was stated, to save his season with “at least one victory”. Objective fulfilled for “Mad max”, winner after the chaos of the Bahrain Grand Prix, contested this Sunday in Malaysia. Starting in pole position, the Dutchman was initially overtaken after a failed takeoff before regaining control, cleverly after a missed restart from Kimi Antonelli on the 13th lap. There was nothing left to do but take off, and the Red Bull driver had a blast, he who was so used to doing laps at the front, alone in the world. Barely disturbed by the safety car in the finale, the Dutchman resisted the world championship leader's Mercedes until the end to avoid the white season. Comfortable on the spectacular Sepang track, the Dutchman found success where he was the last to win, in 2017. Since then, he has never had a white season, and above all has compiled 70 more victories and four world championship titles.

Immobilized in the formation lap, after an already chaotic start to the race, Lewis Hamilton then imagined a new weekend in hell for Scuderia Ferrari, whose software was apparently more disrupted than others by the rain. Nothing worked out after the start, Sir Lewis found himself at the bottom of the class even though he had taken 2nd place in qualifying the day before. Relegated to 18th place, 1'45'' from the race lead, the Briton finally made his race, cleverly keeping his soft tires to build his comeback, swallowing up the opponents without blinking until finding himself within reach of the podium after the abandonment of George Russell. All that remained was to erase Isack Hadjar, powerless in the last four laps and finally 5th, behind the other Ferrari of Charles Leclerc. “I saw myself one minute away on the screens, I thought the race was over,” admitted the Ferrari driver at the finish, still in shock from his comeback.

Extended by Aston Martin to the age of 45, Fernando Alonso proved to his employer that he still had something under the hood. Despite a clearly poor single-seater, the Iberian driver continues to perform small miracles and celebrated his recent extension with points for 8th place after a controlled race. His first improved race since 9th place in Zandvoort at the end of August.

A week after the psychodrama of Baku, where Franco Colapinto shattered a double points finish, Alpine was expected to bounce back. It's a failure. After a start spoiled by a choice of soft tires which harmed Pierre Gasly, who made a mistake on the formation lap, the two Alpines found themselves at the back of the race without ever leaving. At the finish, Colapinto (13th) and Gasly (16th) never fell behind, while the gap widened with Racing Bulls in the constructors' standings.

Firmly established on the podium, George Russell lost everything five laps from the finish, victim of a technical problem and forced to suffer a third retirement this season. A week after the improvement in Baku, where he had been untouchable all weekend, the Briton once again fell into this bad luck which has escorted his side of the garage since the start of the season. And despite a successful start this Sunday, he quickly fell into line, giving the feeling that he was playing a step below Verstappen and Antonelli, who brought his lead to 84 points in the world championship.