The race began with both the Ferraris having a good start and keeping their positions in place. Bottas had a decent start from third but Lewis was mugged by both the Red Bulls. Luckily for Lewis both the Red Bulls collided with each other, sending Ricciardo out of the race at the first lap and Max Verstappen got 10 secs penalty for colliding with his team mate. This brought the safety car and after the safety car restart, Hamilton had a go at Verstappen but backed off considering it very risky. Behind Hamilton, Alonso was trying to move ahead of Sainz but he pushed Alonso off the track. Later Alonso showed Sainz who is the boss, and over took him on turn 2.
Before the first pit stop Vettel was complaining about his steering wheel being in wrong alignment, and the team asked him not to hit the kerbs in the corners. This put his race at risk but he managed it well. Raikkonen in second place was faster than Vettel asked the team to give him a better strategy at the first pit stop but the team declined.
Meanwhile Lewis was having trouble with his radio where he cannot communicate with his team. After the first pit stop every one went to softs and the Mercedes were quicker in it. With Vettel managing his steering issue, the Ferrari was going in a slower pace allowing both the Mercedes to catch Kimi. When Lewis got his radio working, he asked the team to let him attack Kimi as he was having better pace than Bottas. The team ordered Bottas to let Lewis go and he obliged as Lewis promised he will give the position back to Bottas if he cannot overtake Kimi.
Lewis closed in on Kimi, but could not make a pass. Meanwhile Verstappen who had a longer stint in the super soft, came out with much fresher tyres and was able to close in on Bottas. Mercedes asked Bottas to pick up the pace and maintain the gap with Lewis so that they can swap the position back but Bottas fell10 seconds behind Lewis, and he was just a second ahead of Verstappen.
Vettel won the race followed by his Ferrari team mate Kimi giving themselves a 1-2 since Monaco GP. On the last couple of laps Lewis did not attack Kimi, instead he slowed down to swap his position as promised. Everyone thought the swap will danger Lewis losing his position to Verstappen, but Hamilton slowed down on the last lap, and let Bottas pass on the last corner, just managing to stay ahead of Verstappen’s Red Bull.
This was the only moment in the race that was worth appreciating for displaying a great sportsmanship. Bottas thanked Lewis, so did everyone in the Mercedes team. Meanwhile Mclaren’s Alonso finished 6th with a fastest lap giving himself a good birthday present.
