Sepang at the very beginning

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Next weekend will see the 19th Malaysian Grand Prix to be held at the Sepang International Circuit. Sadly, it looks like it might also be the last. The event has been left off the 2018 Formula 1 calendar due to declining ticket sales.

The very first F1 Grand Prix to be held in the country was on 17 October 1999. Then as now the race took place over 56 laps of the 5.542km (3.444-mile) circuit, in cloudy and hot conditions. The event marked the return of Ferrari's Michael Schumacher after breaking his leg at Silverstone.

Schumacher won pole position in qualifying. However, he knew that he was well out of running for the championship. When the race started, he soon pulled over to allow his teammate Eddie Irvine to take the lead, and the win. It put him four points ahead in the championship. However, Hakkinen snatched the title with victory in Japan two weeks later.

Since Irvine, other drivers to have stood on the top step in Sepang are Schumacher (three times), and his brother Ralf; Kimi Raikkonen (twice); Fernando Alonso (three wins); Giancarlo Fisichella; Jenson Button; Lewis Hamilton; and Daniel Ricciardo.

However the most successful F1 driver of all in Malaysia is Sebastian Vettel. He's won here on four occasions (2010, 2011, 2013, 2015). And the most successful team is Ferrari, with a total of seven victories. If that holds true next week, then the title fight between Vettel and Hamilton might get a lot tighter...

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.