It was partly cloudy and 21 degrees Celsius, as the lights went out. Bottas took a superb start from P2, and the Finn dived into Turn 1 alongside Hamilton. Nevertheless, he wasn't quite able to challenge the Briton for the lead. Behind the Mercedes duo, Verstappen and Leclerc had a wheel-banging battle of their own. Charles made it past the Red Bull pilot, but lost the position right away. Sainz in his McLaren had taken a stunning start as well, having gained two positions right away. Teammate Norris, on the other hand, had lost two places. There was drama at the last corner on the opening lap. Magnussen in his Haas had hit the kerb at the previous corner, which had made the car jump and slide a bit. Albon in his RB16 saw his chance and went into the inside of the Dane. However, Albon placed himself right at the blind spot, so Magnussen couldn't see him. The collision made the Dane crash into the barriers, ruining the Haas pilot's race. Safety car was deployed already on the second lap!
Safety car came in on lap 5, and the race was back on. The order of the top five remained unchanged. Mercedes' race pace was on a different level compared to their rivals. Hamilton had a firm lead, but Bottas controlled the gap, keeping it within 1.5 seconds. Verstappen was in secured third place, as Leclerc in fourth proved unable to match the Dutchman's pace. Sainz in his McLaren was fifth, with Ricciardo sixth and Norris seventh.
The race saw the second safety car episode on lap 12. All of a sudden Kvyat's AlphaTauri was hit with a rear-right puncture, which threw the Russian into the barriers. The deployment of the safety car opened the pit stop roulette. Everyone rushed in for a fresh set of white-walled Pirellis, except for Haas' Grosjean, who stayed out. The Frenchman was now fifth in the race.
The second restart took place on lap 18. Once again the Mercedes duo quickly vanished into the horizon. Further down in the midfield, Sainz was challenging Grosjean for P5. In the heat of the battle, the Haas driver made questionable defensive moves. He changed his line twice, which meant changing the line at the braking. Rules define this as unsportsmanlike behaviour. The Frenchman's move was risky and dangerous, but Sainz took the upper hand, moving fifth. Grosjean was showed a black and white flag due to his unsportsmanlike behaviour. The Frenchman was struggling heavily on his out-worn medium tyres, and also Norris squeezed him past Grosjean, dropping the Haas driver down to P7.
Albon pitted for the second time on lap 31. He had been given a 5-second time penalty for causing the collision. The Thai driver switched to a fresh set of medium tyres and rejoined the track at the back of the pack. What a difficult race Albon was facing! His teammate was cruising to the podium, whilst Albon was fighting with the backmarkers! This is definitely the only major weakness, that Red Bull have; they have an outstanding driver in Max Verstappen, but no matter who they put in the sister Red Bull, he seems to be doomed to fail! Talking about difficulties, Sebastian, too had hard time fighting for P10. Not to mention Kimi in his Alfa Romeo, who was at the very back of the pack trying to keep the Williams cars behind.
Hamilton and Bottas in the double lead kept playing "cat and mouse game". Once the Finn had banged the fastest lap time, race leader Hamilton set the sectors purple on the sequential lap. Verstappen in third was already some ten seconds behind. Charles in P4 was massive 20 seconds down on the flying Dutchman already. The race seemed so boring, as there were no intense and hot battles for positions, not even in the midfield. It really seemed like Sunday driving for the Mercedes teammates and Verstappen! Further down in the midfield, Grosjean continued his unsportsmanlike manoeuvres. This time the victim was Racing Point's Stroll. In spite of Grosjean's dirty moves, the Canadian managed to get past. The Frenchman then pitted, which dropped him to the very back of the pack. In spite of repeating the dirty manoeuvre after the black and white flag, the stewards didn't take any further action in this matter.
Sebastian had it challenging to even finish in the points. For some reason, the German had no pace at all. AlphaTauri's Gasly was putting serious pressure on the struggling German, and managed to make a successful overtaking move, taking P10 from Sebastian.
With ten laps to go, Bottas reported about vibration on the team radio. At the same time, the gap to Hamilton had increased into three seconds and kept increasing. However, there was no warning about what was to come a few laps later. With only three laps remaining, Bottas suddenly suffered a front-left puncture in Turn 3! He had to limp into the pits on three wheels, which turned the Finn's race into a complete catastrophe! The Finn's name kept dropping down in the standings... Motor sports sometimes has a cruel face, and Valtteri saw that face today. This definitely wasn't the Finns' day at all, as Kimi in his Alfa Romeo suffered a front wing failure at the Becketts, which ruined the race for the less talkative Finn!
Bottas rejoined the track in disappointing P12. Meanwhile, Verstappen pitted for the second time for a fresh set of soft Pirellis. The Dutchman was to hunt the extra point for the fastest lap time. But had the energy drink team had a crystal ball, they wouldn't have called their hero in! Unbelievable but true, Hamilton faced a similar front-left puncture to his teammate! The only difference was, that the race leader was hit with the puncture on the very final lap! Against the odds, Hamilton was able to bring his three-wheeled W11 to the chequered flag and win the race! Sainz, too in P5 faced a similar front-left puncture on the penultimate lap, so Pirelli have a lot of research and work to do before next week's race at Silverstone. Verstappen would have won the race, had he not pitted for the second time! Once again Charles benefitted from his rivals' misfortune, completing the podium. Ricciardo was impressive fourth for Renault, with Norris fifth for McLaren and Ocon sixth in the sister Renault. In the end, Albon made it 8th in the sister Red Bull, leaving Stroll 9th in his RP20. Sebastian was just barely able to keep Bottas behind, scoring the last point and leaving the Finn out of points.
Due to Bottas' crucial puncture, Hamilton suddenly has a 30-point lead in the drivers' championship standings. Verstappen is only 6 points down on Bottas, seriously challenging the Finn for the second place. Many people say, that such thing as luck doesn't exist in Formula 1. However, it is so interesting, how both success and misfortune tend to gather upon certain drivers. Hamilton always seems to have "luck" on his side; even when facing a puncture, he manages to cross the line as the race winner! Same goes for Charles in his SF1000. The Monegasque always seems to be "in the right place at the right time", gaining the success, when others fail. Bottas and Sebastian, on the other hand, are surrounded by a different kind of circle -the negative one. Setbacks seem to follow them one after another. I would definitely want to understand better, why this happens! I think this phenomenon is even more powerful now, when the season is more intense than ever before, with triple headers after triple headers.
Next weekend everything is wide open again -at least in theory! Somebody needs to challenge Hamilton for real, otherwise it will be another terribly boring race at Silverstone!
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