You always fight to win, but not all victories are the same and this one is bittersweet for Ferrari. For the second time in as many races, Sebastian Vettel won with Scuderia Ferrari, but at the moment, the thoughts of everyone in the team are with the mechanic who was injured during Kimi Raikkonen’s pit stop, the Finn stopping and retiring immediately after in pit lane. As for the Grand Prix, it was closely contested right down to the final corner and the win came courtesy of a well thought out strategy and the abilities of the driver who managed to make a set of Soft tyres last 38 laps no less, on a track that is one of the hardest on tyres.
Off an all-red front row, Seb made the most of pole, while Kimi who was starting on the dirty side of the track was attacked and passed by Bottas. The virtual safety car was soon deployed, when Verstappen had a puncture as a result of a coming together with Hamilton in the middle of the pack. The race got underway again on lap 4, with Sebastian quickest, a couple of seconds ahead of Bottas. In the garage, an analysis of our speed in individual corners and that of our rivals was taking place as well as working out how much fuel had been saved while the race was neutralised A long distance duel with Hamilton thus began, the Englishman fourth, 15 seconds adrift, but running the harder tyre: Supersoft for the SF71H and Soft for the Mercedes.