‘They are pushing everything to make sure Sebastian will maximise on all of his weekends.
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The field bunched up under the safety vehicle, but Vettel remained in charge of the race to strike a major blow to Hamilton’s hopes of winning a fourth title.
“The rule is pretty clear when you qualify ahead and you are ahead in the first stint, you get priority on the first stop and that’s what happened”.
It was Ferrari’s first one-two finish since 2010 and chairman Sergio Marchionne was quick to hail “a race which will be part of our history. a really exciting race where we saw the real scuderia (team)”.
“We’re going to have a very fun night”, he said. At the time I think my pace was really strong, so I managed to do a really good overcut. I would like to think that at the end of the season those points are going to be valuable’. Raikkonen led the first portion of the race, but when he made his first and only stop of the race to switch tires, Vettel squeezed out hot laps to make some ground.
Verstappen took advantage of the pause to pit for fresh ultra-soft tyres before, when the action resumed after 66 laps, the final chase, and battle of attrition, began.
Vettel was able to pit a few laps later and emerge ahead of Raikkonen, having overturned the deficit before pushing on to create a gap of nearly 10 seconds. By lap 75, there were only 13 cars left on the field.
Hamilton’s Mercedes teammate, Valtieri Bottas, raced to the flag in fourth and maintains third spot on the drivers standing. Mercedes reacted immediately, pitting Bottas one lap later, with the Finn emerging from the pits ahead of his Dutch rival.
Sauber teammate Marcus Ericsson managed to crash under the subsequent safety vehicle, while Stoffel Vandoorne smashed into the wall late on, on another day to forget for troubled McLaren.
Carlos Sainz was a well-judged sixth for Toro Rosso ahead of Hamilton, who had started 13th, and Frenchman Romain Grosjean of Haas.
“I haven’t spoken to the team, and I don’t really plan to”, Hamilton added. The tyres started to slide. We will regroup. The Ferrari auto seems to work everywhere – they have had arguably the strongest vehicle all year – and the next 14 races are going to be very, very hard.
The impact flipped Wehrlein’s vehicle onto its side and up against the barrier. Wehrlein’s auto flipped on its side and came to rest against the wall, leaving the German stuck in his cockpit and unable to get out. The German driver appeared unharmed and jumped out moments later. This unfolded in much the same way as the Button/Wherlein incident, but not quite as dramatic.
The Finnish driver either stared ahead or straight down at his feet, only raising his head to answer several questions aimed at getting him to say he’d been hindered by his own team.
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Monaco’s tight 3.4-kilometer (2.1-mile) course is the hardest to overtake on in F1, further limiting his chances.
