RACE REPORT
At the front, Bottas was
beginning to exert a degree of
control and by lap 13 the Finn has
eked out a gap of 3.7 seconds to
Vettel, with the German a further
3.7 seconds in front of Räikkönen.
Hamilton was two seconds behind
the Finn, while Verstappen was
almost nine seconds further back in
fifth place.
As the race headed for the
20 lap mark Hamilton’s engineer
began to express concern about
the car’s temperatures and the
Briton was soon informed that the
temperatures were at the limit.
The Briton pushed on, however,
and soon had 16.0 seconds in
hand over fifth-placed Verstappen.
As the gap widened he asked
to be kept informed about the
temperature issue. At the front
Bottas was no running five seconds
clear of Vettel, with Räikkönen now
almost 11 seconds off the lead.
The first pit stops occurred
on lap 22, with Massa pitting
from seventh for supersofts
and rejoining in P10. Toro
Rosso’s Carlos Sainz and Daniil
Kvyat, as well as McLaren’s
Stoffel Vandoorne, Haas’ Kevin
Magnussen, who also served a
five-second penalty for an earlier
track limits infringement and Force
India’s Esteban Ocon, who pitted
on lap 26.