Track Torque: Vettel, Raikkonen spoil day for hometown Hamilton
Vettel extended his championship lead, but not by much.
It was a really exciting British Grand Prix last Sunday, with drama on the first lap with an accident between Kimi Raikkonen and Lewis Hamilton, which pushed Hamilton to the back of the grid.
Hamilton drove the race of his life in front of his home crowd to notch up second position, only two seconds behind race winner Sebastian Vettel.
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The intervention of the safety car on two occasions did help Hamilton close up on the field but he still had to pass many cars in front of him to get to that second spot.
Vettel led most of the race except for a brief period when the lead was held by Valtteri Bottas.
He made a brilliant overtaking move on Bottas to retake the lead and won the race in very determined fashion.
Behind Hamilton was Raikkonen who took a 10-second penalty for bumping Hamilton at the start.
He quickly recovered and drove an extremely good race onto the podium at the finish.
Poor ol’ Bottas had failing rear tyres at the end and had to slow down to make it home in fourth position.
Daniel Ricciardo was only 10 seconds behind Bottas in fifth position, after he and Max Verstappen had a coming together just before the end of the race, causing the Dutchman’s car sadly to retire after giving us a lot of great racing entertainment.
Nico Hulkenberg was sixth in the only surviving works Renault.
He drove a solid race while his teammate Carlos Sainz collided with Romain Grosjean at Copse Corner, bringing out the final safety car call which made the finish so exciting.
In seventh place was Esteban Ocon in the Force India Mercedes followed by Fernando Alonso in eighth with a usual good, forceful drive.
Kevin Magnussen in the Haas Ferrari was ninth and Sergio Perez in the final points position home in tenth.
Next race will be the German Grand Prix at Hockenheim on July 22.
Drivers: 1 Sebastian Vettel 171; 2 Lewis Hamilton 163; 3 Kimi Raikkonen 116; 4 Daniel Ricciardo 106; 5 Valtteri Bottas 104; 5 Max Verstappen 93.
Team: 1 Ferrari 287; 2 Mercedes 267; 3 Red Bull 199.
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