MOTORSPORT: Ricciardo a shoo-in

Daniel Ricciardo has tasted victory in Formula 1 again at last – and the champagne sure tasted sweet, even though he drank it from a sweaty driving boot in sweltering Malaysia.

Ricciardo insisted that his Red Bull team principal Christian Horner, the teenage teammate he had just prevailed over, Max Verstappen, and world championship leader Nico Rosberg share the champers in his now-customary "shoey".

They didn't find it anywhere near as much to their liking, but let the Aussie have his way after his first grand prix win in two years – and the fourth of his career.

It came after the power unit caught fire in the Mercedes of the leading Lewis Hamilton, whose teammate Rosberg recovered from being T-boned by Sebastian Vettel's Ferrari at the start to stretch his world championship lead.

Hamilton is furious, even paranoid, about the Mercedes mechanical issues he fears are jeopardising his quest for his fourth world title.

Elsewhere over the weekend, 20-year-old Sydney racer Joey Mawson (pictured) clinched the German Formula 4 Championship ahead of Michael Schumacher's 17-year-old son, Mick, at Hockenheim. Mawson won nine of the 24 races for Dutch team Van Amersfoort Racing, but Schumacher junior, driving for Italy's Prema Powerteam and a good mate of the Aussie, vowed: "Our battle will go on." Perhaps it will be in Formula 3 next year.

Sebastien Loeb, 78 times a winner in the World Rally Championship, scored his first victory in the World Rallycross Championship at Riga in Latvia driving a 600-horsepower Peugeot 208. He is the only driver to have won in the WRC, World RX and the World Touring Car Championship.

Sweden's Mattias Ekstrom, runner-up to Loeb at Riga in his Audi S1, extended his World RX lead to 27 points with only two rounds remaining after Norway's two-time champion Petter Solberg failed to make the semi-finals for the first time in 35 races, disqualified for crashing into Ekstrom.

Loeb's younger French compatriot Sebastien Ogier has "match point" now in this year's WRC after his victory in his home round of that championship on the twisty tarmac of the island of Corsica. Fourth world titles for him and manufacturer Volkswagen are just a matter of course now.

Ogier finished more than 45 seconds ahead of Hyundai's Belgian Thierry Neuville on Corsica, with Norwegian Andreas Mikkelsen third in another VW Polo R. New Zealander Hayden Paddon has vowed to "go back to the drawing board" after a disappointing sixth for Hyundai. Ogier now only needs 16 points – or third place – in Spain in a fortnight to be champion again, with Rally Australia at Coffs Harbour the last round in mid-November.

Hamilton fumes as Red Bull back to the ol' one-two
Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen had a hard but fair fight on Kuala Lumpur's Sepang track, with the Aussie withstanding the Dutch youngster's challenge for a 2.443-second win that went a long way to making up for the Red Bull bungle that cost him victory in Monaco.

Verstappen had closed to within about a second of Ricciardo but could not find a way past in the closing laps – and there was no way the "veteran" of more than a century of GPs was going to let him through.

Ricciardo is now safer in third place in the F1 world championship and Red Bull has strengthened its grip on second place in the constructors' championship ahead of Ferrari, whose main man Sebastian Vettel ingloriously put himself out of the Malaysian race at the start, while teammate Kimi Raikkonen finished fourth.

Ricciardo had predicted after his second place in Singapore two weeks earlier that he could break through for a win in the six races remaining but reckoned that he would need the assistance of rain.

Instead he did it in the dry and with the dominant Lewis Hamilton out of the way after his Mercedes caught fire.

Hamilton had led Ricciardo until he pitted for the first time on the 20th lap, leaving the Aussie in front until he too pitted a lap later, handing the lead to Verstappen.

Red Bull had brought Verstappen in earlier for fresh tyres and he kept the lead from Hamilton and Ricciardo until he stopped again on the 27th lap.

Hamilton was set for a 50th victory that would have regained the world championship lead for him and, with a bit of his familiar 'Hammertime' had opened a gap of 22.7 seconds ahead of his planned second stop.

But heading to turn one on his 41st lap his Mercedes power unit belched flame and expired, leaving Ricciardo and Verstappen to fight it out over the last 16 laps – and deliver Red Bull its first one-two finish since 2013, when Vettel finished ahead of Aussie Mark Webber.

As evidence that the Mercedes is still far and away the dominant car in the field, Rosberg's third place came after dropping back to 21st when spun by Vettel on the opening lap and collecting a 10-second penalty for bumping Raikkonen's Ferrari on his charge back up through the field.

Although Mercedes was unable to clinch its third straight constructors' title at the home race of its team's major sponsor Petronas, Rosberg extended his drivers' championship lead over Hamilton to 23 points with five races to go now.

The next is next Sunday at Suzuka in Japan, a track the drivers – especially Ricciardo – love.

Delighted with his first victory since the 2014 Belgian GP, Ricciardo said: "It obviously went the other way at Monaco [where Red Bull bungled a tyre stop], so I'll take this today.

"No hard feelings to Lewis but I'll definitely take the win."

And of the "shoey" he introduced to the F1 podium this season even before getting back on the top step: "I love the taste [of champagne from a boot]. Yeah, I thought today it was quite fruity.

"There was ... sure you've got your salts, but I was hydrating quite well today with a lot of sugars and stuff like that.

"It had a ... I don't know, it was sort of like a dessert, rather than a main course.

"It was more like a dessert."

Verstappen had found the sweat-flavoured champers "all right", but it left Rosberg hoping, with good grace, that Ricciardo doesn't win again.

Hamilton said he "just can't believe that there are eight Mercedes cars and only my engines are the ones that have been going this year".

"Something just doesn't feel right, but there's nothing I can do about it," he said.

"These next five races, I know me and my mechanics have got it in us, but who knows what those next engines that I have are going to do."

Formula 1 drivers' world championship after 16 of 21 rounds – 1. Nico Rosberg (Germany, Mercedes) 288 points; 2. Lewis Hamilton (Great Britain, Mercedes) 265; 3. Daniel Ricciardo (Australia, Red Bull-Renault) 204; 4. Kimi Raikkonen (Finland, Ferrari) 160; 5. Sebastian Vettel (Germany, Ferrari) 153; 6. Max Verstappen (Netherlands, Red Bull-Renault) 147; 7. Valtteri Bottas (Finland, Williams-Mercedes) 80; 8. Sergio Perez (Mexico, Force India-Mercedes) 74; 9. Nico Hulkenberg (Germany, Force India-Mercedes) 50;
10. Fernando Alonso (Spain, McLaren-Honda) 42; 11. Felipe Massa (Brazil, Williams-Mercedes) 41; 12. Carlos Sainz Junior (Spain, Toro Rosso-Ferrari) 30.

F1 constructors' championship – 1. Mercedes 553 points; 2. Red Bull-Renault 359; 3. Ferrari 313; 4. Force India-Mercedes 124; 5. Williams-Mercedes 121; 6. McLaren-Honda 62; 7. Toro Rosso-Ferrari 47; 8. Haas-Ferrari 28; 9. Renault 8; 10. Manor-Mercedes 1.