Max Verstappen broke his phase of bad luck in 2017 by taking a dominant second career win at Malaysia for Red Bull Racing.
While Sepang was set to be a circuit that would benefit Ferrari, the battle for the race win became anyone's game when qualifying threw up a mixed set of results, with Lewis Hamilton securing an unexpected pole position, Sebastian Vettel starting in last place and three different teams filling out the top three positions on the starting grid.
A turbo issue before the race start prevented Kimi Räikkönen from taking part, marking a weekend that was progressively getting worse for Ferrari with only one prancing horse remaining before the lights went out.
Hamilton led into turn one but had poor race pace for Mercedes, allowing Verstappen to close in and overtake with the assistance of DRS on the fourth lap.
From then on out, Verstappen held a commanding lead, controlling the race pace up front, going onto win by 12 seconds from Hamilton who finished in second place.
Daniel Ricciardo stood on the final step of the podium in the second Red Bull, holding off a hard charging Sebastian Vettel who used an alternate strategy by starting on the soft tyres and switching to the supersofts for his final stint to finish fourth.
Despite being named as driver of the day and gaining 16 positions, Vettel's difficult September continued post-race when he collided with Williams' Lance Stroll during the cool-down lap, resulting in terminal damage on the Ferrari. With the Japanese Grand Prix being next week, Ferrari face an expensive repair job while a potential gearbox penalty now looms for Suzuka.
Valtteri Bottas came home in fifth place for Mercedes having struggled for pace throughout the race, finishing almost one minute behind Verstappen.
Sergio Perez finished in sixth while Stoffel Vandoorne impressed for McLaren by finishing in seventh, equaling his best Formula 1 result that he secured last time out at Singapore.
Stroll, Felipe Massa and Esteban Ocon rounded out the points paying positions while Fernando Alonso missed out on a third points finish of 2017, crossing the line in 11th place in the second McLaren.
Alongside Raikkonen, Carlos Sainz Jr was the only other retirement in Sepang for Toro Rosso.
