Last weekend's final Malaysian Grand Prix saw the 2017 Formula 1 season take another twist as Max Verstappen rose to end Lewis Hamilton's three-race winning streak, while Ferrari's championship chances suffered once again as engine problems impacted both cars just when they were expected to dominate at Sepang.

But who ended up leaving Kuala Lumpur with their head held high and who will be looking for an immediate response this Sunday at Suzuka? Here are our winners and losers from Malaysia.

Biggest Winner:

Max Verstappen:

After a bumpy season that saw him lead the ‘least laps completed’ list with just 54% of all laps before last weekend, Verstappen was able to grab a much needed and well-deserved win in Sepang, welcoming his first day as a 20-year-old in the best way possible. Qualifying third meant he was second with

Qualifying third meant he was second with Raikkonen's failure to take the start and just a few laps into the race the young Dutchman used Red Bull's superior pace and produced a bold move on Hamilton to snatch the lead. he never looked back, a great drive and an amazing result putting him in the biggest winner position.

Once in the clear, he never looked back producing a great drive and an amazing result putting him in the biggest winner position.

Winners:

Lewis Hamilton:

Struggling for pace in all three practice sessions, Mercedes were expected to be the third best team in qualifying yet when it counted, Hamilton delivered once again producing an excellent lap to claim his 70th pole while his championship rival Vettel was way down the grid after his turbo problem in Q1.

Although Hamilton lost his lead to the aforementioned Verstappen, he remains a winner after being able to increase his lead on top of the championship table to 34 points when all the indications earlier in the weekend meant he was expected to lose some of his advantage.

The triple world champion knew there was no point fighting for the win, so he just controlled his race and took his Mercedes home safe.

Stoffel Vandoorne:

Another strong race for the Belgian as he starts to show some of his potential in F1, Vandoorne was the lead McLaren Honda all weekend, making it into Q3 and then scoring some valuable points in seventh.

His second success points finish, after also finishing P7 in Singapore, saw the 2015 GP2 champion move ahead of Fernando Alonso in the Drivers' standings after out-pacing the Williams' over the second half of the race.

Give Vandoorne a more competitive engine in 2018 and the potential future star could begin to make his presence felt at the front of the grid.

Williams:

Following a dip in form lately, especially in qualifying, Williams received a much-needed boost at Sepang with the new updated Mercedes engine, which allowed both drivers to move higher up the order.

Couple that with the ability to make up places in the race, which the British team has continually done since their problems began in Austria and another double point finish was the result.

Though a decision to switch drivers after the pit-stop, when Felipe Massa was able to jump ahead of Lance Stroll, prevented them from challenging Vandoorne, eighth and ninth, though not the highest scoring points places, still represented the consistency that has been the case for quite some time now.

Sergio Perez:

If everyone earned his result at Malaysia then Sergio Perez earned his sixth place more than most after taking on one of F1's toughest race while suffering from illness. On an IV drip earlier in the weekend, the Mexican thought he would have to give up but, albeit in a lonely race, he battled through the 56 laps and once again showed why he is the top midfield driver currently in F1.

Biggest Loser:

Ferrari:

Wow, where to begin. Just when it seemed the Scuderia would be able to bounce back from being humiliated at Monza, everything goes completely wrong. After being the fastest team but then seeing it come to nothing in Singapore, Ferrari looked on course to recover in Malaysia after a solid Practice form, but then the troubles hit.

Sebastian Vettel was forced to miss qualifying on Saturday before his teammate Kimi Raikkonen had to miss the race, both likely due to the same engine problem. Although Vettel was able to battle back, finishing P4, the result was far from what was hoped as Hamilton extended his championship lead.

Just when you thought it was over, there was one more twist as Vettel collided with Williams’ Lance Stroll on the post-race in lap resulting in serious damage potentially to the gearbox, with a five-place grid drop looming at Suzuka if it has to be replaced.

The Italian team will need to find answers quickly with just five races left to go because now there is no room for error if they want to end Mercedes' run of success.

Losers:

Valtteri Bottas:

Another poor performance for the Finn, Bottas struggled for pace throughout the weekend finishing fifth and quite some way behind the rest of the leading drivers. The 28-year-old stuck to some new upgrades, which were brought in Malaysia, but on his car, they did not seem to give the intended result.

What made this result even harder to accept is how Vettel was able to finish ahead of Bottas having started from the back of the grid and beat him by almost half a minute. After Singapore, he closed the gap to the German in the championship standings and was aiming to narrow the gap but that was far from the case in Sepang.

Fernando Alonso:

The double world champion failed to build on his Q3 appearance, starting 10th and had lots of ups and downs during his race including earning the wrath of Vettel after being quite naughty in holding up the Ferrari.

It was a rare story of Alonso simply not being good enough as he won out-shone by his teammate and finished the race eleventh just out of the points After constantly telling the world he simply needs a good car to become champion, Malaysia was just one of those weekends where you wondered if he is still as good as he makes out.

F1 as a whole:

It was sad that this past weekend marked the final running of the Malaysian Grand Prix, even if it went out with a bang. However, the whole F1 world will miss the Sepang circuit which has held plenty of superb races down the years, produced some excellent memories and actually had some character compared to many others on the calendar.

Though organisers feel the sport isn't paying back what the high cost deserves, hopefully in the future we can see cars back tackling the sweeping corners and fly past the iconic grandstands in the not too distant future. 

The Malaysian Grand Prix is a round of the Formula One World Championship. It has been held at the Sepang International Circuit since 1999, although FIA-sanctioned racing in Malaysia has existed since the 1960s.

Malaysian Grand Prix, Round 15 of the 2017 Formula 1 season

Circuit Name: Sepang International Circuit

Race Laps: 56

Circuit Length: 5.543 km (3.444 mi)

Race Length: 310.408 km (192.878 mi)

Number of corners: 15 (10 Right, 5 Left)

Circuit Direction: Clockwise

Pole Position 2016: Lewis Hamilton - Mercedes 1:32.850

Race Track Record: 1:34.223 (MON, 2004)

Ultimate Track Record: 1:32.582 (ALO, Q1, 2005)

Distance from pole to T1 apex: 683.6 m

Pole position side: Right

Pit lane length under speed limit control: 421.2 m

Drive-through time at 80 km/h: 18.954 s

Lap time at full throttle: 61%

Lap distance at full throttle: 73%

Gear changes per lap: 84

Braking events (>2G): 7

Heavy braking events (<0.4s @ >4G): 4

Fuel consumption: Medium

Maximum lateral G-Force: 4.8 G (T6)

Maximum speed: 315.9 km/h

Track evolution (FP1 – Qualifying): High

DRS zones: T14-15, T15-1

Key overtaking opportunities: T1, T15

Sepang International Circuit

Pirelli used compounds

Tyres that must be available (one of them to be used) at some point in the race:

One set of P Zero White Medium

One set of P Zero Yellow soft

Tyres assigned for Q3 in qualifying:                     

One set of P Zero Red Super-Soft

Teams/Drivers compounds choice

THE CIRCUIT FROM A TYRE POINT OF VIEW:

• The resurfacing also reduced the high level of asphalt roughness Sepang was noted for, helping make a softer tyre choice possible.
• With the new asphalt now being a year old, the ageing process may have given it different characteristics to last year.
• The new asphalt also means that the camber and lines of some corners are now faster than in the past.
• Malaysia’s tropical weather makes use of the wet weather tyres quite likely.
• When it’s dry, track temperatures are high, leading to thermal degradation. At 59 degrees, last year was the highest track temperature seen all season.
• Two stops won last year, but tactics were also influenced by virtual safety cars.

MARIO ISOLA - HEAD OF CAR RACING

“The Malaysian Grand Prix we saw last year was somewhat different to previous seasons, thanks to its return to an autumn slot and the comprehensive resurfacing work that took place in 2016. This also had the result of improving drainage: an important aspect at a circuit where it can rain so heavily and frequently. However, the characteristics of new asphalt can change from one year to the next, so it will be interesting to see what the effect of this is. This year we are bringing the softest selection of tyres ever seen in Malaysia, which we expect to result in even faster lap times, with the supersoft used there for the first time. Consequently, all previous strategy calculations will have to be adjusted, making the work done in free practice particularly important”.

SEPANG MINIMUM STARTING PRESSURES (SLICKS)

EOS CAMBER LIMIT

Malaysian Grand Prix Winners 1999 – 2016

Multiple Winners (Drivers)

Multiple Winners (Constructors)

Numbers and Facts

Most wins (driver) 4 - Sebastian Vettel 2010, 2011, 2013 and 2015

Most wins (constructor) 7 - Ferrari 1999 – 2000 – 2001 – 2004 – 2008 – 2012 – 2015

Wins from pole position 9 - Most recent 2014 – Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes

Lowest grid for past winner 8 - Fernando Alonso 2012

Most recent 1-2 finish 2016 Red Bull Racing (Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen)

Most emphatic win (here) 39.699 - 2002 Ralf Schumacher-Juan-Pablo Montoya

Closest winning margin 0.732 - 2000 Michael Schumacher-David Coulthard

Rain-affected races 3, 2001 – 2009 – 2012

Safety Car-affected races 6, 2000 – 2001 – 2009 – 2012 – 2015 – 2016

Red Flag (and result declared) races 1, 2009

Most Podium (driver) 5, Michael Schumacher (recent 2004), Alonso (recent 2012), Vettel (recent 2015), Hamilton (recent 2015)

Most Podium (constructor) 13, Ferrari 1999 – 2000 – 2001 – 2002 – 2003 – 2004 – 2007 – 2008 – 2012 – 2015

Most pole positions (driver) 5, Michael Schumacher 1999-2000-2001-2002-2004

Most pole positions (constructor) 7, Ferrari 1999-2000-2001-2002-2004-2007-2008

What Happened last race here?

Daniel Ricciardo won the race, with teammate Max Verstappen finishing second to secure Red Bull Racing's first one–two finish since the introduction of hybrid engines in 2014. Nico Rosberg completed the podium, extending his championship lead to twenty-three points following the retirement of Lewis Hamilton.

2016 Race Classification

Did you know?

DRIVERS

✪ Since Lewis Hamilton has been at Mercedes he has taken pole 43 times already, nearly 50% of all races he’s started for the team (43/ 89 = 48.3%).

✪ All but 1 of Hamilton’s 7 wins this season have come from a pole position start. He won last time out from a P5 grid start

✪ Hamilton’s win to starts percentage is now almost identical to that of Michael Schumacher’s (29.70% compared to 29.74%)

✪ Hamilton has won 29.7% of all GP he’s started (60 wins from 202 starts) and is in the top 10 drivers races to win ratio of all-time. Here’s how he compares:- 1. Fangio 47.0%, 2. Ascari 40.6%, 3. Clark 34.7%, 4. M. Schumacher 29.7%, 5. Hamilton 29.7%, 6. Ja. Stewart 27.2%, 7. Prost 25.6%, 8. A. Senna 25.5%, 9. Moss 24.2% 10. Vettel 24.0% (46/192)

✪ Hamilton is the only driver to have finished in the points in all races so far this season. Hamilton and Esteban Ocon are the only drivers to have finished all races in 2017

✪ Sebastian Vettel has not won back-to-back Grand Prix since he won the 2013 Brazilian Grand Prix. That race ended a 9-race run of victories that started in Belgium, (BEL, ITA, SIN, KOR, JAP, IND, ABU, USA, BRA)

✪ Vettel’s next pole will be his 50th in F1

✪ Vettel needs to lead ‘only’ 59 more race laps to equal Ayrton Senna’s career total of 2,987. The all-time most F1 race laps led is 5,111 by Michael Schumacher

✪ Daniel Ricciardo in Singapore scored the 25th podium of his F1 career and beat the 24 achieved by his compatriot, 1980 F1 World Champion Alan Jones

✪ Kimi Raikkonen’s next win if ever it comes will be the 21st of his F1 career and will also be the most by a Finnish driver in F1. Currently he shares the record of 20 wins by a Finn with Mika Hakkinen. Another career stat he shares is 37 F1 front row appearances with Fernando Alonso

✪ Raikkonen’s next front row will be the 39th of his F1 career and will equal Mika Hakkinen’s record for the most front row grid positions by a Finnish driver in F1

✪ Max Verstappen will celebrate his 20th birthday on Saturday 30th September, qualifying day

✪ Verstappen has retired from as many races this season as he has finished 7. So to has Alonso (6) and Antonio Giovinazzi (1)

✪ Sergio Perez needs just 1 more podium to become the Mexican driver with the most F1 podiums (currently = with Pedro Rodriguez on 7)

✪ Felipe Massa’s next F1 podium should it come will be the 42nd of his F1 career and would equal the F1 career totals of both Damon Hill and Mark Webber

✪ Should he not qualfy on pole, Saturday will be Fernando Alonso’s 100th F1 qualifying session since he took a pole position (Germany 2012)

CONSTRUCTOR’S

✪ Mercedes in Malaysia will be aiming to lockout the front row for the 50th time. The all-time record is 62 and is jointly held by McLaren and Williams.

✪ Mercedes as a constructor has set 1 more race fastest laps in F1 World Championship GP (54) than Red Bull

✪ Ferrari has still not scored consecutive pole positions since Fernando Alonso took pole for the Scuderia at the 2012 British and German Grand Prix and has still not scored a consecutive front row lock-out since Michael Schumacher and Felipe Massa lock-out the front row for the 2006 US and French Grand Prix

✪ Ferrari last season was the only team to score championship points at all 21 events

✪ Red Bull has achieved a podium result for at least one of their drivers in 109 different F1 Grand Prix

✪ The current Williams team traces its origins back to 1977. The team began by running a March for Belgian Patrick Neve who sadly died earlier is year and later in 1978, became a constructor running a single FW06 car for Alan Jones. In 1979 the team expanded to 2 cars with Clay Regazzoni joining Jones. Regazzoni won Williams’s first Grand Prix, at Silversone in 1979 while Jones claimed Williams’s first driver’s and first constructor’s titles in 1980. Frank Williams had made his first forays into F1 in 1969, running a Brabh m for Piers Courage. Campaigns with De Tomaso, private March’s, with his own cars and Heskeths latterly in conjunction with Canadian-Austrian entrepreneur Walter Wolf followed but it wasn’t until Williams teamed up with Head in 1977 and started all over again that Williams’s F1 fortunes really took off

✪ McLaren has not led a F1 race lap since Jenson Button led lap 14 of the Hungarian GP in 2014. The team has started 61 GP since

✪ Pirelli won their 175th F1 World Championship Grand Prix in Singapore to equal Bridgestone’s F1 career total. Only Goodyear has won more (368)

MALAYSIAN GRAND PRIX

✪ Lewis Hamilton is chasing a fourth successive Malaysian Grand Prix pole. If he can do it, it will equal Michael Schumacher’s record of 4 Malaysian Grand Prix pole positions in a row set between 1999 and 2002 inclusive. It would also be Hamilton’s fifth pole here in the past 6 years

✪ Sebastian Vettel has won 4 Malaysian Grand Prix to date, 1 more than anybody else (Michael Schumacher and Fernando Alonso each with 3 wins here)

✪ Vettel won here in 2011. Two years later he won again. Here in 2015 he scored his first win for Ferrari. Two years on he badly needs to continue the sequence

✪ Daniel Ricciardo will be looking to become only the third driver to score back-to-back Malaysian Grand Prix wins. To date the only drivers to have won here in consecutive seasons are Michael Schumacher (2000 and 2001) and Sebastian Vettel (2010 and 2011)

✪ Four drivers currently share the record for the most Malaysian Grand Prix podium positions (5). The four are Michael Schumacher, Fernando Alonso, Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton. Next best of drivers still active is Kimi Raikkonen who has 2 Malaysian Grand Prix podiums to his name to date

Driver’s Championship standing

Constructor’s Championship standing

Driver’s penalty points:

Controversy, drama, championship-defining moments have all been a feature of the Malaysian Grand Prix since the inaugural race back in 1999. 

Michael Schumacher returned to the sport after breaking his leg in the first race at Sepang and would have won that race had he not gifted the win to his team-mate and championship contender Eddie Irvine. Two years later, Schumacher triumphed in a true classic race. Extreme, diverse weather defined that race and that has been a trait of so many Malaysian GPs ever since. 2017's race is likely to follow that trend with thunderstorms predicted all weekend. 

2017's race is likely to follow that trend with thunderstorms predicted all weekend. Mercedes has proven to be strongest in the wet conditions so far this season with Lewis Hamilton in particular repeatedly demonstrating his wet-weather prowess. On the other hand, Sebastian Vettel may need a crazy race akin to Singapore to cut the 18-point gap to Hamilton in the drivers' championship. 

A repeat of Hamilton's 2016 misery wouldn't be unwelcome for Vettel, the British driver's shock engine blowout at last year's event will undoubtedly be playing on Hamilton's mind. Then again, Hamilton smashed the opposition in qualifying last year, beating Nico Rosberg by over four tenths. 

With or without rain, Red Bull will be a major factor in the title fight. Its race pace has been considerably strengthened since the summer break and while they're unlikely to beat Ferrari or Mercedes in a dry qualifying session, they will be a major threat on Sunday. Daniel Ricciardo won his fourth grand prix last year at this track and Max Verstappen achieved his maiden points finish in F1 here back in 2015. 

Hoping to emulate Verstappen's rapid rise to fame will be Frenchman Pierre Gasly, who will be making his F1 debut this weekend. The 2016 GP2 champion has been thrown in at the deep end in order for Toro Rosso to evaluate if he should replace the outgoing Carlos Sainz Jr. Daniil Kvyat will be watching from the sidelines but should be back in the car at Austin when Gasly returns to Japan for the final round of the Super Formula series in which he's just half a point off the lead of the championship. 

Gasly raced in GP2's Sepang round in 2016 so has a reasonable knowledge of the track but with an inform team-mate in Sainz, impressing critics will be extremely tough. A realistic target for the 21-year-old would be getting out of Q1 and having a clean race.

Toro Rosso is just seven points adrift of Williams who lie fifth in the constructors' championship and are 10 ahead of Renault. Jolyon Palmer picked up his first points of 2017 last time out in Singapore and scored his maiden F1 points finish at Sepang last year. 

In the almost certain event, Fernando Alonso fails to take pole position on Saturday it will mark the 100th qualifying session since his last pole (Germany 2012). Stoffel Vandoorne and Lance Stroll are the only two drivers who haven't previously raced at the track in any category. However, both drivers showed in Singapore that a lack of track experience doesn't hold them back from claiming a good result. 

Stroll has shown his strength in wet conditions and Williams will be hoping for Saturday at Monza-esque conditions in order to pull clear of its rivals. Force India is bringing both aerodynamic and engine upgrades to this weekend, Sergio Perez picked up his maiden podium in 2012 and almost beat Alonso in a thrilling duel. 

A thrilling duel is hopefully what fans will be treated to in what will sadly be the final Malaysian Grand Prix... for now at least. 

Time and time again, Red Bull have shown themselves to be the most ruthless team in the Formula 1 driver market, adopting a strategy of relentless promotion which has delivered multiple world championships and race victories.

Yet inevitably, for every beneficiary of this unique career ladder, there is a victim. While Sebastian Vettel and Daniel Ricciardo have made the leap from the plucky midfield challenger to race-winning machinery, young talents like Jaime Alguersuari, Sebastien Buemi and Jean-Eric Vergne have been rather abruptly shown the door.

None, though, have been humiliated quite like Daniil Kvyat. The memories of the Russian's early success have been nigh-on effaced by his present misery, but they provide a clear indication of his undeniable talent. 

After a highly-impressive rookie year, in which Kvyat demonstrated a maturity beyond his tender years, he was parachuted into the senior team and would out-score Daniel Ricciardo, one of the most highly-rated drivers in the F1 paddock, over the course of the 2015 season. 

Early in the 2016 campaign, there was another flash of immense promise as Kvyat hauled the Red Bull to an excellent podium finish at the Chinese Grand Prix, but things would dramatically unravel at the very next race.

Red Bull was looking for an opportunity to promote Max Verstappen, one of the most exciting talents the sport had ever seen, from Toro Rosso and Kvyat handed it to them on a silver platter with a clumsy race-ending collision on the first lap of the Russian Grand Prix.

It was a controversial decision born out of the awe surrounding Verstappen rather than any disappointment with Kvyat's performances, but his confidence was predictably shattered.

In the 17 races which followed his demotion, Kvyat could only muster three points finishes as he found himself swiftly leapfrogged by Sainz in the Red Bull pecking order. 

2017 has seen an extension of his struggles, with just four points to Sainz's 48 and an unfortunate new nickname to boot. A series of incidents have seen the 'torpedo's' once-lofty reputation deteriorate in an excruciating fashion.

Indeed, one wonders if carelessly crashing out in Singapore, and thereby forfeiting an excellent opportunity for some much-needed points, proved the final straw for his impatient employers.

Pierre Gasly's Super Formula commitments mean Kvyat is likely to be behind the wheel once more in Austin, but his season is effectively over at this point. Can the same, though, be said for his F1 career?

Replacement Gasly may be a former GP2 champion who has impressed in the Far East but, in the eyes of Red Bull, he's no Max Verstappen. This time, Kvyat has run out of lives and been rudely shoved aside to make away for the latest product of the young driver programme.

"For a variety of reasons, some of them due to technical problems, but others being mistakes of his own making, Daniil Kvyat has not really shown his true potential so far this year, which is why we are standing him down for the next races," said team boss Franz Tost.

It is rare that in the PR hotbed that is a Formula 1 press release, the team's hierarchy would take aim at the departing driver.

Toro Rosso, then, has made quite a statement (literally and figuratively). The in-form Carlos Sainz is off to join rivals, Renault, next year, but he will stay put while Kvyat is sidelined - an embarrassing scenario.

However, the team will be looking for an experienced driver to fill the Sainz-shaped hole and must harbour a degree of empathy for a driver treated so harshly. More importantly, there is no immediate competition for the seat alongside Gasly.

Honda junior and three-time F2 winner Nobuharu Matsushita has been tentatively linked after the Japanese manufacturer agreed a deal to supply Toro Rosso, but he has insufficient points on his superlicence, while Sean Gelael, who drove the car in Singapore Grand Prix practice, has yet to prove himself in the junior formulae. Even his vast backing is not enough to persuade Red Bull at this stage.

As a result, most expect a line-up of Kvyat and Gasly, but perhaps it's not quite that simple, for it would be naive to assume Red Bull are not on the lookout for alternatives, having exposed a total lack of faith in their current incumbent. 

The news will deal a fatal blow to Kvyat's reputation and surely deter any other teams from taking the gamble on a wasted talent. Indeed, even he remains in F1, you sense the present nightmare would only be prolonged as the 23-year-old's confidence hits rock bottom.

The fact is, Red Bull use Toro Rosso as a guinea pig to prepare drivers for the senior team. It is Sainz, effectively loaned to Renault, who they see as the future world champion, meaning it would be extraordinary if Kvyat was handed another shot at the big time. His days are clearly numbered.

Few in the F1 paddock will not feel some sympathy for Kvyat, but unfortunately, that's not enough to survive in the cut-throat world of Formula 1. It has been clear for some time now this is not a tale destined for a happy ending.