The Italian fans were presented with a thrilling FORMULA 1 GRAN PREMIO HEINEKEN D’ITALIA 2018. It wasn’t the result that the Ferrari home fans were looking for, but first lap drama, a pit war and a close chase for the lead left a lot of excitement to watch.
There was an unfamiliar face in the pole grid position, with Kimi Räikkönen taking only his second pole position in a decade. However, with the World Drivers’ Championship title heating up, make forecast that Sebastian Vettel would be given the position in the lead of the race very early on in the race. The team insists that he would be able to race for the lead, but 53 laps of racing would show whether the team would stay true to their word.
Räikkönen got a good start off the line, coming down in front of his teammate to cover him off. This allowed Vettel to slipstream him down the main straight into the first corner. The teammates were side by side into the right-handed turn one. Räikkönen shot ahead and Vettel collided slightly with Lewis Hamilton in the immediate left-hand corner of turn two.
With Hamilton in pursuit of Vettel around the Curva Grande. Hamilton made the move braking into the turn 4-5 chicane. Hamilton shot to the outside of Vettel into turn 4, but Vettel understeered into Hamilton. Vettel was the one who spun around with some front wing damage, dropping him to the back.
The safety car was deployed, although it wasn’t for the drama between the Mercedes and the Ferrari. It was to remove the stricken car of Brendon Hartley from the grid. He had collided with the Sauber of Marcus Ericsson at the race start and broke his front suspension. This safety car limited was decent damage limitation of Ferrari, allowing them to pit Vettel for a new front wing and the soft tyres that could make it to the end, although the team hadn’t run any laps on that tyre.
The stewards investigated the incident between the two World Drivers’ Championship contenders, but ruled it a racing incident, a call that was likely to cause a lot of anger among the Italian crowd.
Räikkönen continued to lead when the safety car returned to the pits, although it didn’t last long. Down the main straight, Hamilton got the slipstream of the Ferrari and was able to breeze by well before the first corner. But Räikkönen didn’t give up, getting the lead of the race done on the outside heading into the turn 4 chicane.
Further down the order, Vettel was not alone trying to regain positions, joined by Daniel Ricciardo. Ricciardo led the way through the field, appearing to slow down Vettel at times through the traffic. Vettel got by Ricciardo after the Red Bull driver made minor contact with Pierre Gasly in turn one. Ricciardo found Gasly a difficult driver to overtake, colliding with him again when attempting an overtake on the inside of turn one before finally getting by on the following lap.
Meanwhile, Vettel was released to make his way back to the front of the field and salvage his damaged race. Only a few laps after getting past Ricciardo, he was able to easily cruise his way into the top ten points scoring positions.
Valtteri Bottas and Max Verstappen were having a good battle for the final podium position. Bottas dove up the inside of Verstappen into turn one and both drivers locked up. Verstappen ran wide and had to cut the first corner. However, he didn’t have to yield the position because Bottas really wasn’t close to overtaking the Red Bull.
On lap 20, both the Ferrari and Mercedes pit crews ran to their pit box. It was Räikkönen who was the first of the leaders to pit, grabbing the soft tyres to make it to the end of the race. Hamilton was told to do the opposite of Ferrari, so he stayed out. Hamilton had strong pace the following lap, so the team opted to continue to leave him out, but Räikkönen responded with the fastest two sectors on his fresh tyres.
Hamilton continued to stay out in an attempt to create the gap needed to exit the pits in the lead of the race, but Räikkönen set the fastest lap of the race. There was a very light rain beginning to fall on sections of the circuit and the overcast sky potentially led Mercedes to predict some rain.
Lap 24 added another factor to Hamilton’s pit window, as Daniel Ricciardo’s engine gave up and he parked on the side of the circuit. Ideally, Mercedes were undoubtably hoping for a safety car that would allow them to take a free pitstop, but no such safety car came.
Eight laps after Räikkönen pitted for his new tyres, Hamilton was finally called into the pit. He locked up at the pit entry, gaining every possible second. It was a near perfect pitstop for Mercedes, but he still came out comfortably behind Räikkönen.
However, Mercedes still had the upper hand in the race, with Bottas still leading the race and still leading Räikkönen. Räikkönen climbed into the DRS zone of the leading Mercedes, but he was still being slowed and his older tyres allowed Hamilton to also get within the DRS zone of Räikkönen.
Bottas stayed ahead of Räikkönen, doing as much as he could to help his teammate get close to Räikkönen and attempt to overtake him, but he eventually needed to pit to prevent damaging his own race for the podium. This released Räikkönen into the lead and Hamilton began to drop back slightly.
Bottas came out of the pits behind Verstappen, having lost a lot of time helping his teammate at the lead of the race. On lap 43, Bottas made an overtaking attempt into the first corner of the circuit. Verstappen moved over to the outside to block the incoming Mercedes, squeezing him to the grass. The two made contact and Bottas was forced to use the escape road to cut the first chicane and rejoin the race. The stewards later awarded Verstappen a five second time penalty for the incident.
Just a couple of laps later, Hamilton was able to get the job done on Räikkönen. With some assistance from the DRS Hamilton was in the position to make a move around the outside of the first corner, giving him the inside position at the second part of the chicane. This gave Hamilton the lead and Räikkönen quickly dropped off of the lead with worn tyres.
Hamilton finished the race at the top of the table, extending his World Drivers’ Championship lead over Vettel. Räikkönen and Bottas concluded the podium.
The next race will be in Singapore in two weeks time. The drivers will be racing around the narrow streets of Singapore on the weekend of September 16.
Above results table does not include any post-race penalties
