British GP: Vettel wins Silverstone thriller

    Hamilton recovers from first-lap collision with Raikkonen to finish his home race in second place.

    Published On Jul 09, 2018 01:59:00 PM

    3,825 Views

    Sebastian Vettel has extended his championship lead, pulling off an attack on Valtteri Bottas in the concluding laps to win the 2018 British GP. The Ferrari driver now holds an eight-point lead over Lewis Hamilton in the drivers’ championship standings.  

    Hamilton, meanwhile, salvaged a second place finish after a collision with Kimi Raikkonen dropped him to the back of the field at the beginning of the race – an incident for which the Finnish driver was handed a 10-second time penalty.

    Vettel had already assumed the lead of the race, after jumping Hamilton at the start, and went on to build a commanding gap over Bottas in the first stint. However, Bottas began to chip away at Vettel as the Ferrari struggled with its tyres; the lead was down to 4.8sec when Vettel stopped on lap 20 with Bottas following him a lap later. Bottas started to further close the gap to Vettel over the next few laps, bringing it down to 2.4sec when Marcus Ericsson triggered a safety car on lap 32. The Sauber driver lost the rear of his car when he turned into the first corner with DRS still open and flew across the gravel and nose-first into the tyres.

    While Vettel, Raikkonen and Max Verstappen headed into the pits under the safety car for soft tyres, Mercedes decided to keep both drivers out on track. Daniel Ricciardo had already made his second pit stop just before the safety car was deployed and was in sixth place. At the re-start, Bottas gunned the throttle at the end of the Hangar Straight on lap 37 and kept Vettel at bay, as Raikkonen and Verstappen engaged in a fierce fight that went the way of the Red Bull.

    The race was neutralised again moments later for an accident at Copse between Carlos Sainz Jr and Romain Grosjean, when Sainz attacked on the outside but Grosjean suffered a wobble at the apex. The safety car's second appearance lasted three laps, setting up an 11-lap sprint at the end.

    Bottas once again pulled away from Vettel at the re-start but came under attack into the Brooklands left-hander at the end of the Wellington Straight three laps in row. He held on until lap 47, when Vettel took advantage of a slight wobble from Bottas exiting The Loop onto the Wellington Straight, and drafted him towards Brooklands before diving inside very late as Bottas failed to cover the inside line. That released Vettel into a lead he would hold to the end, while Hamilton forced his way inside Bottas at Brooklands a lap later.

    Raikkonen cleared Verstappen before the Red Bull driver retired with a long-standing brake-by-wire problem then blew past Bottas for third on the outside into Brooklands using DRS. Bottas managed to keep Ricciardo at bay to finish fourth, with Nico Hulkenberg finishing sixth for Renault after taking advantage of the messy first lap to jump five places.

    Force India's Esteban Ocon was a quiet but excellent seventh, as Fernando Alonso passed Magnussen in a fiery late fight to finish eighth. Pierre Gasly claimed the final point in 10th place for Toro Rosso.

    Race result

    POS

    DRIVER

    CAR

    LAPS

    GAP

    1

    Sebastian Vettel

    Ferrari

    52

    1h27m29.784s

    2

    Lewis Hamilton

    Mercedes

    52

    2.264s

    3

    Kimi Raikkonen

    Ferrari

    52

    3.652s

    4

    Valtteri Bottas

    Mercedes

    52

    8.883s

    5

    Daniel Ricciardo

    Red Bull/Renault

    52

    9.500s

    6

    Nico Hulkenberg

    Renault

    52

    28.220s

    7

    Esteban Ocon

    Force India/Mercedes

    52

    29.930s

    8

    Fernando Alonso

    McLaren/Renault

    52

    31.115s

    9

    Kevin Magnussen

    Haas/Ferrari

    52

    33.188s

    10

    Sergio Perez

    Force India/Mercedes

    52

    34.708s

    11

    Stoffel Vandoorne

    McLaren/Renault

    52

    35.774s

    12

    Lance Stroll

    Williams/Mercedes

    52

    38.106s

    13

    Pierre Gasly

    Toro Rosso/Honda

    52

    39.129s

    14

    Sergey Sirotkin

    Williams/Mercedes

    52

    48.113s

    15

    Max Verstappen

    Red Bull/Renault

    46

    Not running

    -

    Romain Grosjean

    Haas/Ferrari

    37

    Collision

    -

    Carlos Sainz

    Renault

    37

    Collision

    -

    Marcus Ericsson

    Sauber/Ferrari

    31

    Spun off

    -

    Charles Leclerc

    Sauber/Ferrari

    18

    Retirement

    -

    Brendon Hartley

    Toro Rosso/Honda

    1

    Power Unit

     

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