Leclerc worked his way back
into contention – then his
race ended in the wallBusiness as usual? The
two Mercedes lead away
at the start of the GP...HONE18 AUTOSPORT.COM 1 AUGUST 2019
then pitted for intermediates, leaving Hamilton and Bottas first
and second. Hamilton, with the advantage of a clear track on top
of his wet-weather virtuosity, dropped Bottas at a rate of 0.38s per
lap between the end of laps five and 14. At this point, Renault driver
Daniel Ricciardo’s Renault, which spent the first part of the race
scrapping outside the points, expired in a cloud of smoke with an
exhaust failure and led to the intervention of the virtual safety car.
Crucially, Leclerc – who had worked his way up to sixth at the start of
the race, then jumped Nico Hulkenberg and Raikkonen in the pits to run
fourth – took the chance offered by the VSC to pit for new intermediates
without losing a place. Leclerc himself made the call, realising he could
do so without losing track position. The only other driver to do this was
fifth-placed Hulkenberg, who lost just one spot to Raikkonen“LECLERC HAD A LENGTHY SWEAR OVER THE RADIO,
BERATED HIMSELF, APOLOGISED TO THE TEAM THENDENOUNCED THE ULTRA LOW-GRIP RUNOFF AS
‘DANGEROUS’ BEFORE CLIMBING OUT OF THE CAR”start, delayed by four formation laps behind the safety car, ensured they
were immediately separated. Hamilton led Bottas, while Verstappen
slipped to fourth behind Alfa Romeo’s Kimi Raikkonen, who started
fifth. This was due to both Verstappen and Pierre Gasly, who found
himself down in eighth place, picking up huge amounts of wheelspin
off the line thanks to what was later described by Red Bull team
principal Christian Horner as a “mapping issue”.
By the end of the first lap, Hamilton was 1.9 seconds clear of Bottas,
with Verstappen almost five seconds down and still looking for a way
past Raikkonen. He didn’t have to look too hard, as on the second lap
Raikkonen slid deep at the Turn 6 hairpin and left the door wide open.
As Verstappen set about closing on the Mercedes drivers, Sergio Perez
intervened. Having qualified the heavily upgraded Racing Point eighth,
he slipped to 11th before spinning into the inside barrier at the exit of
the Turn 10 right-hander on lap two. That brought out the safety car.
The majority of the field pitted for intermediates, with Vettel, having
climbed from the back of the grid to 12th, and the 15th-placed Toro Rosso
of Alex Albon both coming in immediately. Next time round, much of
the rest of the field stopped – including the top seven – promoting Haas
driver Kevin Magnussen to second between the two Mercedes.
Wet-shod Magnussen quickly plummeted out of contention