As usual the race began with the red lights off and boom! Bottas had the start of his life. So quick to react, his fellow drivers thought he jumped the start before the red lights went off. The Finn’s reaction time was recorded at just 0.21s. Vettel complained that Bottas had a jump start causing the race officials to investigate the issue and found nothing but a great start.
The first lap had its drama with Toro Rosso’s Kvyat causing a domino effect collision hitting Alonso’s McLaren and Alonso hit Max Verstappen’s Red Bull. The dutch man Verstappen was the unluckiest person having 4 DNFs in the past 5 starts. Bottas took an early lead, with Vettel second, and Ricciardo taking third after he over took Kimi Raikonnen with his usual brilliant move. Lewis Hamilton had a decent start where he jumped to 6th from 8th but got sandwiched between Force India’s Perez and Ocon with Grosjean at 5th and Kimi at 4th.
Hamilton passed Perez and Grosjean but Kimi’s Ferrari was untouchable so Mercedes brought Hamilton in for an early pit stop. Starting 8th on the grid Hamilton started the race with the super soft tyres for a longer stint but has to cut short his first stint for an undercut over Kimi. It worked as Lewis was able to put quick laps with his ultra softs and reached 4th position. Red Bull reacted quickly and brought in Ricciardo for his super soft tyres. He came out 4 seconds ahead of Lewis after his pit stop. Lewis was not able to attack as his ultra soft tyres started to blister quickly and had to play safe . Thereafter the race was static, nothing much happening. Ferrari kept Kimi on the track for a longer first stint so that he can block Bottas to help Vettel. But after the first pit stop Bottas was quick with his fresh super softs and overtook Kimi easily.
The race became hot at the last two laps when Hamilton closed in on Ricciardo and Vettel closed in on Bottas. On the penultimate lap Hamilton got a chance to over take Ricciardo on turn 2, the same place where Rosberg pushed Hamilton off the track and lost his front wing last year. But Ricciardo braked late and kept his position while Hamilton had to back off to settle for 4th as his tyres had worn out. The race ended with Bottas finishing just 0.6s ahead of Vettel with Ricciardo taking the final podium ahead of Hamilton. Kimi finished 5th, Haas’ Grosjean 6th, Force India’s Perez and Ocon finished 7th & 8th, and William’s Massa & Stroll finished 9th & 10th respectively.
