Ricciardo’s car seems to have just ... stopped, upon replay.Purple lap from Vettel, and Hartley makes it past Sainz for 10th. But Vettel just managed to contain the gap.“Woooooo!,” Vettel came over the team radio after the race. He had to get debris removed from underneath the car. Alonso and Hulkenberg pit, and Gasly has a lot of open space in front of him from fourth place, though Magnussen isn’t far behind him.
He gets back onto the track in last place with the super soft tires fitted.
That hurts big, big, big time. Vettel continues to cut into the gap behind Hamilton. We have a yellow flag from Perez’s spin, and it looks like Verstappen is slowing down! Lewis Hamilton, who started far back due to a five-place grid penalty, worked his way up to third place and was six seconds back of Vettel at the end of the race, so it was a good showing from him, but he hoped to be competing for the lead.Pierre Gasly of the Honda-powered Toro Rosso managed to finish fourth, the best finish for that team in a long time. Bottas is too far back in the next detection zone, and Vettel is safe. It’s now expected to launch close to the Chinese Grand Prix, the third race of the season.Hamilton had to take a five-place grid penalty for a gearbox change, an unfortunate development as gearboxes are expected to last a team six consecutive races before being changed. Vettel takes the win by .6 seconds!