Sebastian Vettel would be thanking his stars, as he somehow managed to be on that podium last night, despite a 3 place grid penalty for impeding Sainz during qualifying in Austria.
The issue with both the Mercedes cars and Ricciardo’s blistering resulted in Vettel moving up the ranks, despite a terrible start, where in he went wide on Turn 1 to slip down a couple of places.
Towards the end of the race(after Hamilton had retired), Verstappen was comfortably leading the line, with Raikkonen and Vettel going all out to somehow catch him off guard.
The young Dutch though held on and managed to get his first grand prix win of the season.
With Hamilton out and the driver’s championship on the line, it felt like Ferrari might opt for team orders and ask Raikkonen to let Vettel pass.
However, nothing of that sort happened, and Raikkonen finished 2nd on the podium with Vettel right beside him.
Vettel was obviously quizzed if there was any discussion about team orders towards the end of the race.
“No, why?” Vettel said.
“Max won the race because he deserved it and he didn’t make any mistakes – so that’s a strong performance from him. And Kimi did everything he could.
“I was trying to hunt both of them down. Kimi was pushing as hard as he could and l was pushing as hard as l could. Both of us were closing but it wasn’t enough.” he added.
At the start of the race it seemed like the gap between Hamilton and Vettel would widen further going into Silverstone, however, a race that was supposed to be more of a damage limitation one, turned into one where Vettel regained the lead.
Vettel though rued the fact that he had received a 3 grid place penalty, because if not for that, he could have gained a few more points yesterday.
“I got most of it right but today could have also been a bit better without the plus three from the start.
“I am happy with the podium but equally there was a bit more for us.” Vettel said.
