RACE REPORT
The debris from Ricciardo’s
incident led to the Safety Car
being deployed on lap four. That
gave Vettel an opportunity to pit
for a new nosecone and to plot a
recovery.
On the restart, Rosberg
led away from Felipe Massa,
Fernando
Alonso,
Pascal
Wehrlein and Esteban Gutierrez,
all of whom had elected to stay
out. Kvyat, meanwhile had made
a pit stop and was circling on the
soft tyres.
The Russian was soon
passing the slower cars ahead
and within the space of a few
laps he was back into third place
and on lap 12 he passed Massa
to reclaim second place.
Vettel, meanwhile, was in
the wars again, damaging his
front wing when he tried to pass
Valtteri Bottas for eighth place.
The Ferrari driver eventually
made his way past and then
claimed the scalp of Force India’s
Sergio Perez as his race through
the ranks continued.
After the second round of
stops Vettel found himself in
third place with just a second
separating him from Kvyat. The
Russian was able to maintain the
gap for the full length of the stint,
however, and it looked like the
Red Bull driver might be on for a
repeat of his career first podium
placing of second at the 2015
Hungarian Grand Prix.