In a race that looked set to be another race win for Lewis Hamilton to bring his teammate’s championship lead back down; it all fell apart in the closing stages.
Once again it was Red Bull who was ready to pick up the opportunity and Daniel Ricciardo took his first win of the 2016 season. Max Verstappen finished second behind his Red Bull teammate with Nico Rosberg finishing off a hard-fought podium.
It was advantage Hamilton as off the line he held pole position, leading into the first corner. Disaster struck behind him when a charging Sebastian Vettel had a great start off the line. He tried to pass up the inside of Rosberg for second as his fellow countryman went wide for an optimum line but ended up squeezing Max Verstappen.
The Red Bull driver went on full lock as Vettel ran out of anywhere to go. He clipped the back of Rosberg, spinning the German round and breaking the Ferrari’s front suspension and becoming the first retiree of the race.
The first of three virtual safety cars came out to recover the stricken Ferrari. Fernando Alonso had made a brilliant start getting up to P12 from the back of the grid off the start. By lap four, he was up to 10th position, showing just how much improvement McLaren have made over the last few races. Jenson Button also had a great start to his 300th Grand Prix as he went from ninth to sixth off the start line. Esteban Ocon optimised the carnage at the start and managed to get up to tenth before the virtual safety car came out.
Other first corner contact saw Kevin Magnussen having to retire when Daniil Kvyat drove into the back of him, damaging his rear wing beyond repair. Esteban Gutierrez also pitted in the first few laps as he picked up a rear puncture. Felipe Massa joined him for an early stop after he had a throttle issue on the formation lap that forced him to start from the pits.
The race calmed down for most of the laps, with Rosberg on a recovery mission and Red Bull trying to catch out a storming Hamilton racing off ahead. It was with about 15 laps left that the race picked up again. The Red Bull drivers were running close, battling for second place, when the attention was drawn to Hamilton. His engine gave up on the first corner, pulling the Brit to a fiery halt. His frustration was clear as he clutched his hands to his helmet.
With the virtual safety car back out, the race was on for the win. Red Bull stack pitted both of their drivers and Ricciardo optimised having a brand new set of soft tyres to go onto. Verstappen headed out on a scrubbed set. The racing was close for a few laps, with Verstappen looking like he could pull the gap down to get into DRS range of Ricciardo. Unfortunately for the Dutchman, his tyres went off and he could not challenge for the win.
Rosberg also had something to do in the closing stages. An aggressive overtake on the inside of Kimi Räikkönen had seen him pick up a ten-second time penalty. His last few laps he was pushing hard to make sure he had the gap he needed to hold onto the podium and managed to do so with an extra two seconds buffer.
Räikkönen finished fourth, with Valtteri Bottas driving a perfect one-stop race to beat Sergio Perez, who was on the same strategy. A great recovery drive saw Alonso finish seventh with a decent gap to Nico Hulkenberg in eighth. Button finished his 300th Grand Prix in ninth whilst Jolyon Palmer picked up his first ever Formula One point as he finished tenth.
As well as Vettel, Hamilton, and Magnussen, Felipe Nasr, Romain Grosjean, and Gutierrez retired from the race, having just 16 cars reach the chequered flag. Grosjean had a brake failure at the beginning of the Grand Prix, going straight off into the gravel at the final corner. Haas’ day ended in the worst way as Gutierrez joined the list of retirees when his front left wheel fell off his car.
After what looked like a race that was going to leave Rosberg on the back foot in the Championship battle, he goes into the last five rounds 23 points ahead of Hamilton. Mercedes were hoping to round up the Constructors’ Championship at their head sponsor’s track but with Hamilton’s DNF it was not to be.
