Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton won the start followed by his teammate Valtteri Bottas in 3rd, Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel in 2nd and Kimi Räikkönen in 4th.
Right away you could see that Vettel and Bottas had no trouble keeping up with Hamilton but Räikkönen dropped back due to some technical difficulties. Later we found out that he had to save fuel right from the start for some reason. Why on earth?!
It was extremely nice to see the new cars chase each other but I am pretty sure that if this wasn't the first race I would have been a bit bored. Not much happened but we saw a few retirements here and there trough the race but nothing special really.
After the first pitstops Vettel was in front of Hamilton and we could see Toto Wolff punch the table. It is much harder to overtake now with the new regulations/cars so the top stayed the same till the end.
Red Bull's Max Verstappen was also stuck behind Räikkönen and said that Ferrari was too fast for him even though the Finn was slower than the rest. Well mostly... keep in mind that he clocked the fastest lap of the race.
The other Finn, Bottas, was very disappointed which was good! Because now we can see how hungry he is. I really wish he would challenge Hamilton this year already just like Nico Rosberg used to. It would be amazing if there were several drivers fighting for the championship. Kimi should also get up there and show everybody that he still has what it takes.
Not much more to say about the race but one thing I thought about. It seems that last year F1 was like basketball - a lot of points very often (a lot of overtaking) and now F1 is like football/soccer where you see less goals (overtaking) but when they come they matter more. Is this better or do you prefer more action with less meaning? I think that I like this better because the drivers try much harder.
Last but not least my predictions and the results:
Pole position: Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes - WRONG. His teammate Lewis Hamilton took pole.
The race:
- Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes - WRONG, He was 2nd and Sebastian Vettel won the race
- Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes - WRONG. He was 3rd
- Kimi Räikkönen, Ferrari - WRONG. He was 4th
Fastest lap: Kimi Räikkönen, Ferrari - CORRECT
Surprise: Force India might do a little magic this season and it might start right away - CORRECT. Both cars got points
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