On a day when Red Bull felt it had never been further from to podium, the former star pupil of its driving academy was claiming his first victory wearing Ferrari’s famous red overalls.
Daniel Ricciardo has credited his superb fourth place in qualifying in Malaysia on Saturday to the weather and a step backwards in engine configuration in equal measure.
McLaren received a boost to its morale after an improved qualifying performance at the Malaysian Grand Prix that saw its deficit to Mercedes slashed by more than 1.5 seconds.
Mercedes is keeping cool after the testing heat of Malaysian Grand Prix qualifying denied it its tenth consecutive front row lockout, with Hamilton on pole but ROsberg half a second back in P3.