A possible win vanished when the rain arrived but come the end of an eventful race, Ferrari still brought home a third-place courtesy of Kimi Raikkonen. Sebastien Vettel started from pole and, having been the only driver to score points in every race so far this season, suffered his first retirement of the season, when he made a mistake in the rain at Turn 13.
At the start of the race
Vettel got away well from pole, as did Raikkonen from third. The number 5 Ferrari had the slenderest of leads, while the 7 car fought with Verstappen.
Already, there were a few tiny drops of rain appearing on visors. The ideal strategy involved the lead car having an advantage of around 4 seconds or so, but everyone was having to keep an eye on the degradation on the Ultrasofts.
At the end of lap 14, Raikkonen pitted. The Softs were ready for him and a small change was made to his front wing angle. He managed to rejoin ahead of Hamilton, who was working his way up from fourteenth on the grid.
Raikkonen immediately set the race fastest lap and was ready for a remote battle with Bottas who was yet to pit. Vettel had a lead of 5 seconds over Bottas and around 22 seconds on Hamilton, the aim of getting out ahead of the Mercedes. With the Softs fitted, he managed it.
Bottas opted for the same compound, while Ricciardo stopped out on track. Ahead of the Ferrari duo, Verstappen pitted. 30 laps went by and Raikkonen set the fastest lap. But another factor came into play, as rain was predicted shortly after 4.
On lap 36, Vettel was within DRS distance of his team-mate who had blistering on his rear tyres. As they were running different strategies there was no point in an inter-family duel and on lap 39, Vettel got ahead of Raikkonen at the hairpin.
With 24 laps remaining, Hamilton switched to the Ultrasofts, clearly gambling on dry conditions. A few drops began to fall at Turn 2 and a light shower hit Turn 6. Vettel confirmed on the radio that he could still stay out, but a piece came off his front wing. At the time, the data did not show any accompanying loss of downforce.
It looked as though for those opting for rain tyres, the gamble had not paid off, but the rain went and came so that the pit lane was also wet. Some cars spun, others tiptoed around. Magnussen pushed Raikkonen off track and Bottas made the most of it.
And then Vettel planted it in the barriers at the entry to the Motodrom. The Safety Car came out and Raikkonen took the opportunity to pit for Ultrasofts. He was now third on fresher rubber, prior to the restart on lap 58.
Raikkonen had a ringside seat for the duel between the two Mercedes. There were 7 laps to go and the threat of rain returned but there would be no change as Raikkonen brought the car home in third place.
Maurizio Arrivabene: “In what was a particularly fraught weekend for the team, it would have been important for us to bring home the win and our car had shown it was up to the job. Unfortunately, things did not go as planned. Kimi drove a great race to make it to the podium. We now head off immediately for Hungary, determined to give it our best shot, just prior to the summer break.”
Kimi Raikkonen: “It was pretty difficult out there today. Surprisingly, in some corners there was decent grip and in some others there was none at all; we could feel the rain especially in Turns 2 and 6. It was hard to tell when to slow down and where the grip was. Obviously, you had to make your decision before the braking zone, knowing that if it happens to be wetter than you expected, there’s not much you can do. It was not easy but we tried to make the best calls and I think we got it right. The most tricky moments were before the safety car came in; it felt like it was raining a lot, somehow we had some decent grip and suddenly quite bad grip. At one point I had a moment with some back-markers and unfortunately I lost second place. In many ways it could have been better today, but this is what we got. I think that we made the most of it, considering the situation.”
Sebastian Vettel: “There’s not much to say: I made a small mistake which had a huge impact on the result. I braked just a tiny bit too late for the corner, locked the front tires and then the rear ones, so that I couldn’t turn the car anymore. I think I had managed everything right before that. We had the pace and we had been in control of the race up to that point. It was my mistake, so I am disappointed, but I don’t think we still have to show what we can do. We’ve shown everywhere that we are competitive."
Photos: Scuderia Ferrari - 2018 FIA F1 World Championship
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