ROUND 1, 2017 AUSTRALIAN GRAND PRIX
was finally fired up and he joined the action – a lap down.
At the front, Hamilton attempted to stretch a small gap to Vettel but the Ferrari
driver responded and over the course of the first 15 laps the deficit stayed hovered
around 1.5 seconds. Bottas held third, some six seconds behind the Finn, while
Verstappen was fifth ahead of Felipe Massa, Romain Grosjean, Carlos Sainz,
Sergio Perez and Daniil Kvyat.
Grosjean’s stint in the top 10 was coming to an end though. On lap 15 smoke
began to billow from his Haas’ engine cover and he quickly steered towards the
pitlane where he retired from the race.
GPI