Sebastian Vettel took victory in the FORMULA 1 2018 ROLEX BRITISH GRAND PRIX after an exhilarating battle with the Mercedes of Valtteri Bottas. Meanwhile, Lewis Hamilton made an amazing recovery drive after colliding with Kimi Räikkönen at the start of the race.
At the start of the race, Lewis Hamilton had a dreadful start, allowing Sebastian Vettel to take the lead of the race from the front row of the grid. Valtteri Bottas also got by Hamilton. Heading into the third corner, Kimi Räikkönen locked up and understeered into Hamilton. The pair made wheel to wheel contact so there was no damage, but Hamilton spun, falling to the rear of the field. Räikkönen was eventually handed a 10 second penalty for the incident. Both Red Bull cars got past Räikkönen shortly after the incident, but Räikkönen fought back to get past Daniel Ricciardo into Copse.
Further back in the field, Sergio Pérez was spun in turn one of the first lap, nearly taking out the Williams drivers that were exiting the pitlane to start their race. He escaped the incident with no serious damage.
Räikkönen was the first of the lead cars to pit for tyres, pitting on lap 14. He was released into heavy traffic, but the DRS allowed him to easily advance he way through the field. Max Verstappen covered off Räikkönen, pitting on lap 18 and coming out behind Hamilton. Vettel began to suffer from tyre blistering on the front tyres and decided to pit 20 laps into the race, while Bottas responded. Vettel maintained his lead and Hamilton let Bottas pass him to take P2. Hamilton stayed out as long as he could, finally pitting on lap 26. He came out some 11 seconds behind Räikkönen.
Charles Leclerc ran into trouble during his pitstop on lap 19. It was a quick stop, but he had to pull into the gravel trap on the pit exit due to a loose tyre, believed to be the rear tyre. He was able to pull off of the track not a spot that was safe, avoiding the safety car.
Daniel Ricciardo made a second pit stop on lap 31, changing from the medium compound tyres to the softs. He pitted a bit too soon because a lap later Marcus Ericsson lost the rear of the car when braking into Abbey, crashing into the tyre barrier. The safety car was deployed, triggering pitstops within the race leaders.
Vettel pitted for fresh tyres under the safety car, as did Verstappen and Räikkönen. Mercedes kept both of their cars on the circuit, possibly because the team had no fresh soft tyres remaining in their allocation. Bottas took the race lead, followed by Vettel, Hamilton, Verstappen, Räikkönen and Ricciardo.
Bottas had a good restart, pulling a decent gap in the lead. Räikkönen overtook Verstappen, but the Red Bull driver fought back. Räikkönen overtook him once again on the inside of Copse, as Verstappen ran a little wide. But Verstappen ultimately got the position.
A second safety car was deployed for a crash between Carlos Sainz and Romain Grosjean at Copse. Sainz attempted to overtake Grosjean on the outside of the high-speed corner, forcing the Haas driver to the inside of the corner. Grosjean slightly lost the rear of the car, having to correct the oversteer. The two made contact, crashing together and sliding into the outside barriers through the gravel trap.
Bottas got away well on the restart, but Vettel was able to put on some serious pressure. He attempted to overtake the on the outside of Brooklands but couldn’t get by. Räikkönen was able to overtake Verstappen in Stowe. The following lap, Vettel was able to get a run on Bottas down the Wellington Straight, moving to the outside of Brooklands. Bottas ran a little wide into the corner but was able to keep Vettel behind. With each overtaking attempt, Hamilton and Räikkönen inch ever closer.
The DRS down the Wellington Straight once again allowed Vettel to get right on the gearbox of Bottas, as Bottas began to show signs of tyre struggles. Vettel made a spectacular late dive into the inside of Brooklands to take the lead of the race from Bottas. It was clear that Bottas was struggling with his medium compound tyres, falling behind Hamilton and then Räikkönen.
Meanwhile, Verstappen spun at the chicane. He was able to recover his car from the spin, but he was limping around the circuit and eventually pulled off of the circuit to retire from the race.
Vettel was able to take home the race victory, increasing his World Drivers’ Championship lead to 8 points over Hamilton, who made a great recovery after his first lap collision with Räikkönen. Räikkönen concluded the podium.
The drivers and teams have earned some much-deserved rest after the first Formula One triple header. The teams will be back in action in German for the German Grand prix on the weekend of July 22.
Above results table does not include any post-race penalties
