RACE REPORT
Both Red Bull drivers had opted
for Supersofts, with the rest of the
front-runners bolting on the yellow
band Softs.
Behind the Red Bull duo,
Raikkonen was inquiring angrily about
the lack of torque over the radio,
“What happened with me engine!?”
Meanwhile Vettel lost precious
time behind his teammate. He did get
by eventually, but much time was lost.
Once past he hunted down Ricciardo.
The pair rubbed rubber in a thrilling
side-by-side tussle which resulted in
Vettel stealing third place from the
Aussie.
Then, when the Red Bull’s ran out
of rubber later in the race, Vettel took
Verstappen and found himself behind
Hamilton.
The Mercedes was about six
seconds ahead. The pair battled it
out on the timing screens, but it was
a stalemate as Hamilton could not
increase the gap, at the same time
Vettel could not close it.
Thus the Shanghai result was a
reversal of the way they finished at the
season opener in Melbourne. Game
on: Hamilton versus Vettel.
The battle between the Bulls
was intense all race long, the pair
slugging it out until the very end, with
Verstappen beating his teammate by
less than a second after Ricciardo
went wide on his final attack of the
race. Riveting stuff from them both.