Max Verstappen won the battle and Sebastian Vettel won the war at the 2018 Austrian Grand Prix. Red Bull’s Verstappen and Ferrari’s Vettel both took advantage of a double DNF [did not finish] of Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas as Verstappen won the race and Vettel, finishing third, took over sole possession of the 2018 Formula One driver’s championship lead. Vettel’s Ferrari teammate, Kimi Raikkonen, took second in the race as the top three podium finishers were the only cars to finish on the lead lap of the race.
Mercedes sat 1-2 on the first row at the beginning of the race with Bottas as the pole-sitter and Hamilton beside him, seemingly poised to run away with the race in another snoozer. After a wild start which saw Raikkonen, starting in the second row, briefly split the Mercedes, but then Hamilton took the lead and Bottas reclaimed second when Raikkonen went wide on a turn, allowing Verstappen to eventually pass him for third while Vettel, starting in the third row, dropped to eighth on the first lap.
But it all changed a few laps later – Vettel gradually moved up to sixth and then, on Lap 14, Bottas experienced a gearbox issue that tossed him out of the race. Hamilton was leading comfortably at that point, but inexplicably, he was the only one of the leaders who did not pit under the safety car brought out by Bottas’ retirement. That allowed Verstappen to permanently claim the lead on Lap 26 when Hamilton did come in for his pit stop, although he did emerge from the pits ahead of Vettel in fifth. But Hamilton’s tires would soon become an issue and on Lap 39, all the action took place with Raikkonen passing Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo, sitting in second, who came in for a pit stop, shortly followed by Vettel passing Hamilton for third. Hamilton would eventually have to pit 14 laps later as his tires began to blister. Ricciardo exited the race a lap later with an engine problem, placing Vettel in third and Hamilton in fourth, until Hamilton’s car gave up the ghost on Lap 64.
With the results, Vettel retakes the 2018 F1 driver’s standings lead with 146 points to Hamilton’s 145 points and Raikkonen vaulting into third place with 101 points.
2018 Austrian Grand Prix Top 10
1 Max Verstappen Red Bull
2 Kimi Räikkönen Ferrari
3 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari
4 Romain Grosjean Haas
5 Kevin Magnussen Haas
6 Esteban Ocon Force India
7 Sergio Pérez Force India
8 Fernando Alonso McLaren
9 Charles Leclerc Sauber
10 Marcus Ericsson Sauber