Lewis Hamilton dominated the British Grand Prix in a race with a breathtaking ending. Valtteri Bottas made up 7 positions from P9 to finish 2nd. Kimi Räikkönen completed the podium in an unlucky day for Ferrari.
Hamilton had a fantastic start which allowed him to stay in the lead. Vettel lost position with Verstappen after a close fight. The Safety Car was deployed due to an accident between the Toro Rosso divers which left Sainz out of the race after being hit by Kvyat.
Vettel pitted early so that he could undercut Verstappen. He made it, but he was later overtaken by Bottas, who had started the race on the soft tyre and went for a longer first stint. Once he pitted, he caught Vettel and overtook him. When the Finn was catching Räikkönen towards the end of the race, the Ferrari driver had a puncture on his front left which forced him to pit with 2 laps to go. One lap later, it was Vettel who experienced the same issue when he was P3, but with worse luck, since he was far away from the pit lane and went down to P7. Verstappen could’ve got Räikkönen‘s 3rd place, but Red Bull opted for a cautionary pit stop in order to avoid a potential puncture. He was finally 4th ahead of his teammate Ricciardo, who had started at the back of the grid and made his way up to the top 5. Hülkenberg managed to grab P6 for Renault, while his teammate Palmer couldn’t even start the race. Ocon, Pérez and Massa completed the top 10, while Vandoorne was close to scoring the first points of the season on P11.
Hamilton led from the first lap until the end and right now he’s only one point behind Vettel in the Championship. Another battle will take place in Hungary in two weeks time.
