RACE
Three pm, the track was pretty hot – at 40 degC, hotter than it had been all weekend. In theory, that favoured the soft tyres fitted to the two Ferraris as they sat on the grid, and not the supersofts of the others in the top 10. From the outside, it looked like Ferrari’s Q2 gamble might be about to pay off spectacularly.
But from the dirty side of the grid and with a less grippy compound, it was always going to be difficult to win the start. It was going to be even more so given the engine sensor problem on Vettel’s Ferrari that the watching world knew nothing of. It had made itself apparent as soon as he drove it out the pitlane – and the telemetry confirmed it. All that could be done in the available time was to run the engine in an extremely protective mode – which badly affected its driveability. Vettel knew he had a tough afternoon ahead of him even before he lost the start to Hamilton.
He locked up slightly into turn one on the inside, trying in vain to prevent Bottas getting around his outside to make it a Mercedes 1-2. Verstappen had taken advantage of Räikkönen’s less grippy tyre to claim fourth around the outside of turn one, but the relative straight-line speeds of the two cars made it a matter of routine for Räikkönen to slipstream back ahead on the approach to Turn Four.
On the grid, much of Ericsson’s diffuser had to be glued back on after coming adrift on a reconnaissance lap. After being passed almost immediately by Leclerc, he made contact with Grosjean as the Haas forced its way by in Turn Two and again the Sauber was throwing bits of carbon fibre across the track. Grosjean’s car took some non-critical floor damage, reckoned to have cost around 1sec per lap. For Ericsson this was a cruel fate after starting from a career-high third row of the grid. Down to turn four, Magnussen tried to take advantage but Ericsson was in no mood for further compromise and the Haas was elbowed way out onto the run-off area, losing many places. Gasly slipped ahead of the limping Sauber at the bottom of the hill and Ricciardo slipstreamed past it into the Senna Esses at the end of the opening lap – and would quickly pick off the slower cars ahead, until he was running at the tail of ‘Class A’ by the fifth lap.
Already it was apparent that Ferrari’s hoped-for tyre advantage was not materialising – and that the Red Bulls were flying. Verstappen had breezed by Räikkönen to retake fourth into the Esses at the end of the second lap (even without DRS) and did much the same to Vettel a lap later, with DRS.
“It wasn’t that the softs were bad or slow to come in,” reflected Vettel later. “It was just that the super-soft on the others wasn’t as bad as we expected. It wasn’t slow and its durability was OK.”
With far more tyre grip coming out of the final turn, Verstappen was able to overcome the Red Bull’s lack of straight-line speed to slipstream at will.
So, as Verstappen set off after the Mercedes, Vettel was left struggling with his driveability problems and so-so tyre grip. After being passed by the Red Bull, his checked momentum allowed Räikkönen to close on him down to Turn Four and, as Vettel defended, he was a little late on the brakes. He locked up, ran wide – and Räikkönen was through and pulling away. Vettel’s mirrors were, soon enough, full of Ricciardo.
Hamilton meanwhile was managing the tyres and driving very much to a dictated pace, with Bottas keeping just out of his turbulent air and doing much the same. But Verstappen was about to disturb that cosy little arrangement.
Several times this year we’ve seen that the Red Bull is better on its tyres than the Mercedes or Ferrari. But this weekend the difference was stark. It was a high-stress day for the rubber, more so with the high minimum pressures Pirelli had imposed. Blistering of the right-front and rears was the challenge to be contained – but it seemed only half as difficult to do with the RB14.
Maybe it’s the relatively easy time its engine gives the rears, or the better response its shorter wheelbase gives the fronts, so minimising the time they are being dragged with steering lock across the tarmac.
No one fully understands, not even Red Bull. But on this difficult tyre day, Red Bull’s usage advantage was magnified.