In the most chaotic and exciting race of the 2017 season to date, Ferrari driver Sebastian Vettel took fourth place to extend his lead in the Drivers' Championship to 14 points over his nearest rival, Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton.
Sebastian got off to a good start and soon found himself in second place behind Hamilton, On lap 9, he set a fastest lap and was less than 4 seconds off the leader.
On lap 12\, the Toro Rosso of Dani Kvyat parked up by the side of the track and while they tried to solve the situation with a local yellow, it wasn't sufficient so the safety car was deployed.
Sebastian took this opportunity to dash into the pits to fit Soft Pirelli's to his Ferrari. The neutral period changed everyone's strategy, with fuel consumption now less of a concern, but keeping tyres up to temperature was more worrying.
The race resumed on lap 17 and Sebastian was doing a sterling job of fending off the Force India of Sergio Perez, but the safety car was soon back on track because of the amount of debris all over the circuit after a barge board on the second Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen's car shattering.
The drivers had to drive through pit lane while the track was cleaned, then the unthinkable happened.
Sebastian thought that Lewis Hamilton, slowed too much, something the FIA proved afterwards did not happen, and Seb almost ran into the back of the Mercedes, something that angered the German champion. He then drove alongside Hamilton to let him know his displeasure, running into the side of the Mercedes in the process.
Seb was handed a ten second stop and go penalty for his actions, however, he doesn't understand why he was penalized and Hamilton wasn't as he fully believes it was Hamilton's fault for ‘brake testing' him.
“As for what happened at the restart from the safety car, I don't know why I got the penalty and Lewis didn't,” he said. “It's disappointing, because it could have been a better result. I don't have a problem with Lewis but I just think that what he did on the track was not ok. By now the decision is done but, in an episode like this one, I still think that if you give out a penalty, then it should be to both drivers.”
Lewis Hamilton was forced to pit under safety reasons to fix his loose head rest and at the same time, Ferrari informed Vettel that he had been handed a 10 second stop-go penalty for “dangerous driving.” He came down pit lane and came out…in front of the Mercedes.
On lap 36, the order was Ricciardo-Stroll-Magnussen-Ocon-Bottas, followed by Vettel and Hamilton. Vettel passed Magnussen then he overtook Ocon before smashing sector times to set the quickest lap on lap 45.
The final lap seemed to last forever and by the skin of his teeth, Sebastian held on to a fourth place which almost felt like a win.
“I think that today the car was very good,” he said. “The pace was strong in the race. I think you could see that we were losing a bit here and there, but overall it was a good race.”
