Infinite Improbability Drive of the Race - Malaysia

[Londoner]

1. Stoffel Vandoorne - He's come alive since the summer break. Can't wait to see what he can do with a decent engine next year.

2. Max Verstappen - Beat Lewis Hamilton in a straight fight, and for once the car didn't crap itself.

[Normal32]

=. Pierre Gasly
=. Stoffel Vandoorne

[Miguel98]

1. Sergio Perez - From stomach flu to p5, mega drive

2. Max Verstappen - Uber job.

[novitopoli]

1. Stoffel Vandoorne: He finaly got accustomed to the car, now he can show his talent.

2. Max Verstappen: That was a huge display of class.

[Meatwad]

1. Stoffel Vandoorne: Clearly outperformed Alonso and is actually ahead of him in the points now!
2. Sebastian Vettel: Brilliant recovery when I expected him to crash out given his recent struggles. The incident after the race was weird, though.

[sswishbone]

1. Stoffel Vandoorne - Amazing qualifying and did some truly great race craft at the start to keep him on a strategy to almost finish best of the rest.

2. Sebastian Vettel - Ignoring the hilarity of the cool down lap collision it was some drive to be up near the points on lap 3 and then carve through some faster machines to finish fourth and only a few seconds from a podium.

[mario]

1. Vandoorne - as others have noted, whilst most might have expected him to go backwards in the race, his pace was very solid and he put in a very respectable performance. It's taken him some time, but he does finally seem to be beginning to feel more comfortable in the car and at the team, and finally beginning to drag some good performances out of the car.

2. Perez - a somewhat quiet drive in some respects, but given that he hasn't been feeling entirely well this weekend, he did exactly what his team would have wanted him to - secured a decent haul of points and driven a clean race.

HM: Vettel did have a strong drive back up the field and wasn't far off a podium at the end, though to some extent it was perhaps not quite so surprising given how fast he was in race trim (managing to break the lap record several times in that race). Gasly also had a solid race as well, and I would say that he showed better race craft at times than some more experienced drivers on the grid too.

[Bleu]

1. Stoffel Vandoorne
Beat Alonso fair and square. Equals best position in his career but this was much better performance than in Singapore.

2. Max Verstappen's luck

[RAK]

1) Stoffel Vandoorne: If only he had a reliable car under him, he'd probably have fared better this year.

2) Max Verstappen: Excellent overtake and managed to keep it going until the end.

HMs: Vettel - Carved his way through the field well enough to keep an outside chance at recovering the title.
Perez: Quiet drive, good results.

[Aislabie]

1. Sebastian Vettel - For going from last to fourth.
2. Max Verstappen - Because really, who expected a win from him before the start of the weekend?

Honourable mention for Stoffel Vandoorne for being generally excellent.

[This Could Be You]

IIDoTR
1. Vandoorne: He's really got the hang of this F1 lark now; two points finishes in a row, and a great start, as well as being ahead of Alonso all weekend with an older aero package (which apparently works).
2. Verstappen: I was expecting a Mercedes benefit, but despite Hamilton pulling away for a couple of laps he actually caught him and won comfortably, without attrition.
HM:
Vettel: A classy, mature recovery drive (the less that is said about the cool-down lap, the better)
Ocon: Decent tyre management
Gasly: A solid debut, and a race distance is now under his belt.

[UncreativeUsername37]

1. Vandoorne - After the year he's been having, he comfortably beat Alonso
2. Red Bull-Renault - Outpaced Mercedes, car held together

[Rob Dylan]

1. Max Verstappen - I agree with the earlier comment. I would never have expected him to win this year, never mind here.
2. Stoffel Vandoorne - Two seventh places, and ahead of Alonso in the standings. Not that it says anything about Alonso - that guy's had such bad luck. But still, in a McLaren his results are fantastic.

HM - Vettel. Showed the pace of the Ferrari when Ferrari tried their best to not start...

[Bobby Doorknobs]

1. Stoffel
2. Jolyon

[Dexter249]

1. Stoffel : HUH?
2. Verstappen : Will we have to Hire A Samurai to stop Hammer? NO

[Rob Dylan]

Ok this one is much less even, with a clear winner in our final Malaysian GP.

1 Stoffel Vandoorne 124
2 Max Verstappen 58
3 Sebastian Vettel 22
4 Sergio Perez 16
5 Pierre Gasly 8
6 Red Bull-Renault 6
- Jolyon Palmer 6

Stoffel Vandoorne wins IIDOTR for the first time this season, with an unexpectedly solid and fruitful drive from both the Belgian and his car. Both held up well to score good points, and he even showed Fernando up a bit in the process! Max Verstappen deservedly finishes runner-up here as well, because well, who would have thought he would have won before this weekend began?

Vettel scores surprisingly low on the board after a great recovery drive. Presumably this is because of that post-race clash ending his weekend on a bit of a sour tone. He's probably just counting himself lucky it didn't happen the previous lap.