Entering the 2018 British Grand Prix, Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel led Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton by a single point in the Formula One season driver standings – Vettel padded his lead with a victory while Hamilton was second after he came back from a first lap spin caused by the third place finisher, Vettel’s Ferrari teammate, Kimi Raikkonen.
Hamilton sat on the pole but was immediately passed by his first row partner, Vettel, before Hamilton was clipped on his rear tire and spun by Raikkonen, who was assessed a 10-second penalty for the hit. Vettel then drove away from Hamilton’s Mercedes teammate, Valtteri Bottas while Hamilton spent much of the first half of the race moving back through the pack before he eventually made it up to second place with 17 laps remaining, with the help of pit strategies and safety cars along the way. But Vettel had pitted when the safety car had been deployed on Lap 33 for a crash while Mercedes elected to keep Hamilton and Bottas out – that decision wound up costing both Bottas and Hamilton on the final five laps as Bottas lost traction on his tires and was unable to fend off Vettel while Hamilton was unable to close any ground on Vettel to contest for the top spot on the podium.
With the victory, Vettel now holds an eight-point advantage over Hamilton – 171 points to 163 points – with Raikkonen in a distant third with 115 points.
2018 British Grand Prix Top 10
1 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari
2 Lewis HamiltonMercedes
3 Kimi Räikkönen Ferrari
4 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes
5 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull
6 Nico Hülkenberg Renault
7 Esteban Ocon Force India
8 Fernando Alonso McLaren
9 Kevin Magnussen Haas
10 Pierre Gasly Toro Rosso