Sebastian Vettel took the lead as his team mate was in support mode with both Mercedes pushing to get the early break.

There was an obvious game plan by Ferrari to hold Hamilton back from taking the lead early in the race. As Vettel was pulling away from Leclerc there was a decision to pit Leclerc who returned to the circuit setting fastest laps. Vettel pitted then pushed hard to end his race with a K…loss energy and pulled off the track.

The VSC was activated and the lead was contained to a close line of cars all ready to pounce onto one another for more points within their own mini-race-sets throughout the grid.

With George Russell’s Williams taking a line off the track with a wheel nut issue as a full safety car was activated. This allowed Leclerc to pit for soft tyres in the hope of chasing the win.

Bottas defenced perfectly to come home in second, Lewis Hamilton winning the race with Charles Leclerc finishing in third.

Rookies Albon and Norris finished well in 5th and 8th respectively.

Vettel was grilled post-race for more intel on the Ferrari race strategy. He was guarded in his reply as we all expect. Some tension appears evident in Ferrari with their drivers.

Next race Japan 11-13 October.

POS	NO	DRIVER	CAR	LAPS	TIME/RETIRED	PTS
1	44	Lewis Hamilton	MERCEDES	53	1:33:38.992	26
2	77	Valtteri Bottas	MERCEDES	53	+3.829s	18
3	16	Charles Leclerc	FERRARI	53	+5.212s	15
4	33	Max Verstappen	RED BULL RACING HONDA	53	+14.210s	12
5	23	Alexander Albon	RED BULL RACING HONDA	53	+38.348s	10
6	55	Carlos Sainz	MCLAREN RENAULT	53	+45.889s	8
7	11	Sergio Perez	RACING POINT BWT MERCEDES	53	+48.728s	6
8	4	Lando Norris	MCLAREN RENAULT	53	+57.749s	4
9	20	Kevin Magnussen	HAAS FERRARI	53	+58.779s	2
10	27	Nico Hulkenberg	RENAULT	53	+59.841s	1
11	18	Lance Stroll	RACING POINT BWT MERCEDES	53	+60.821s	0
12	26	Daniil Kvyat	SCUDERIA TORO ROSSO HONDA	53	+62.496s	0
13	7	Kimi Räikkönen	ALFA ROMEO RACING FERRARI	53	+68.910s	0
14	10	Pierre Gasly	SCUDERIA TORO ROSSO HONDA	53	+70.076s	0
15	99	Antonio Giovinazzi	ALFA ROMEO RACING FERRARI	53	+73.346s	0
NC	88	Robert Kubica	WILLIAMS MERCEDES	28	DNF	0
NC	63	George Russell	WILLIAMS MERCEDES	27	DNF	0
NC	5	Sebastian Vettel	FERRARI	26	DNF	0
NC	3	Daniel Ricciardo	RENAULT	24	DNF	0
NC	8	Romain Grosjean	HAAS FERRARI	0	DNF	0

Note – Magnussen received a 5-second time penalty for leaving the track and gaining an advantage. Hamilton scored an additional point for setting the fastest lap of the race.

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