Before the race even started we saw Renault's Jolyon Palmer park his car on the grass and couldn't start the race. Doesn't look good for Palmer at the moment. Some even say that he will be replaced before the next race but I don't believe that.
The start was relatively clean. Red Bull's Max Verstappen got in front of Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel and Mercedes' Valtteri Bottas overtook 2 cars from 9th to 7th.
Many told me before the race that Bottas will not be 2nd as I had predicted in my blog. I told everybody to just wait and see. I didn't doubt the same guy who was in last place one lap behind in Baku and in the end he was 2nd. ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE IN FORMULA ONE!! Especially when you have a talented driver like this fighting for the championship. Yes I said it... fighting for the championship. He is in the game and he is hungry.
I said earlier that the start was relatively clean and I meant that nothing dangerous really happened in the front but in the middle of the grid the two Toro Rossos of Daniil Kvyat and Carlos Sainz collided. They of course blamed each other but it was pretty clear that the fault was the Torpedo's (Kvyat). This incident made the safety car to come out.
After the safety car pits it doesn't take long for Bottas to already take 5th place! I was nodding my head and told myself that he will definitely be 2nd in the race and even win if his teammate Lewis Hamilton retires.
One of my favorite moments in the race were Vettel's fights with Verstappen and Bottas. Vettel was trying to overtake Verstappen but it seemed impossible so he pitted. Verstappen then pitted on the next lap but it took too long in the pits so Vettel got pass him.
Bottas on the other hand was behind Vettel so now the German had to defend his position instead of take it. The Finn gave it a shot but Vettel pushed him off track. On the next lap Bottas overtook Vettel with a superb move. Bottas was now 3rd behind Hamilton and Ferrari's Kimi Räikkönen. The team radioed Bottas and told him "great job" but Bottas gave them a short message back "minimum talking!".
On lap 49 something weird happened; Räikkönen had a puncture suddenly and on the next lap Vettel had a similar puncture! What was going on? Anyways... this helped Bottas to take second and Räikkönen was 3rd but Vettel dropped to 7th. Vettel was overtaken by Verstappen, a very fast Ricciardo (who started from 19th place) and Hulkenberg.
This result helped Hamilton to catch Vettel in the championship. He is now 1 point behind! This will be very interesting!
HERE IS NOW ONE THING NOBODY HAS NOTICED....
If we think that Vettel and Hamilton are fighting for the championship then remember this; Bottas is 23 points behind Vettel who leads the championship, Bottas has retired from a race when the two others have not, Bottas was also forced to give a position to Hamilton earlier this season and this young man is hungrier than either one of those two. Of course they all want to be champion but in Bottas' mind he might think that this is the best chance he has ever gotten and you never know if another chance comes.
Another thing is that in 2007 everybody was talking about Hamilton and Alonso but in the end it was Räikkönen who won the championship and he blew everybody's mind. I hope we shall see something similar if not this year then some year. I really liked how it all went.
Here are my predictions and the results:
Pole position: Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes - CORRECT
The race:
- Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes - CORRECT
- Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes - CORRECT
- Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari - WRONG. His teammate Räikkönen was 3rd. Vettel dropped from 3rd to 7th due to his puncture.
Fastest lap: Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes - CORRECT
Surprise: McLaren might get some more points in Silverstone if they don't retire. - Vandoorne was 11th so very close.
Come onboard if you want to be a part of our league!
POINTS: 1st - 3
2nd - 5
3rd - 10
+ possible bonus points
HOW IT WORKS: the aim of the game is simply predict who comes where in the race (top3). A total of 18 points can be won on a race day. For example if you get winner and and 3rd place right but 2nd wrong you get 13 points.
HOW TO SUBMIT YOUR PREDICTIONS: send an email to f14lifeblog@gmail.com or message the Facebook page to submit your predictions. You have until lights out to make them. If you submit them when the race has started they won't count. So be quick!
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