Hamilton assured of 2017 F1 championship

Vettel waits as mechanics try to get his engine to run

No use watching the remaining F1 races of 2017 as Lewis Hamilton will be world champion. Going into this race with a huge 28 point lead over Sebastian Vettel, Vettel had to beat Hamilton on Sunday.

But at the end of final practice here in Malaysia Ferrari was forced to introduce Sebastian Vettel's final free Formula 1 engine for the Malaysian Grand Prix after a suspected electrical problem in final practice.

Then in qualifying the new engine would not run and Vettel never put up a time in Q1. He will start dead last, Hamilton will win another race, and with five race remaining after this, there is no way Hamilton will not be world champion.

Initial examination of the car pointed to an electrical problem and in a bid to avoid a repeat in qualifying or the race, Ferrari had opted to fit a new engine.

The engine was the upgraded version that Ferrari had been working on for some time.

Ferrari was very strong in practice, Vettel had gone into qualifying day as a clear favorite in the fight for pole position.

But things went from bad to worse in qualifying. Vettel's engine appeared to stutter on his out lap and he said over the radio he suspected he had lost his turbo, and he drove back to the pits slowly.

Mechanics began working on the car and, although it appeared at one point he was going to head back out on track, in the end the team gave up and Vettel never put up a time.