Vettel Suffers Awful Start, Wins Regardless

Qualifying:

Pos	#	Driver	Constructor	Time
1	1	Sebastian Vettel		47.193
2	2	Lewis Hamilton		47.266
3	63	Jules Bianchi		47.436
4	62	Dave Cassidy		47.484
5	99	Kevin Magnussen		47.644
6	98	Salvatore Miccoli		47.779
7	29	Pastor Maldonado		47.807
8	90	Daniel Ricciardo		47.900
9	21	Stoffel Vandoorne		47.924
10	31	Rhys Davies		47.942
11	28	Romain Grosjean		48.187
12	67	Marcel Agyemang-Badu		48.214
13	27	Nathan McKane		48.217
14	91	Dean Stoneman		48.224
15	22	Johnny Cecotto Jr.		48.237
16	11	Daniel de Jong		48.301
17	30	Mike Rockenfeller		48.346
18	66	Esteban Ocon		48.356
19	43	Sébastien Bourdais		49.350
20	5	Valtteri Bottas		49.426
21	32	Daniel Melrose		49.435
22	12	Scott Dixon		49.488
23	42	Davide Valsecchi		49.559
24	6	Ma Qinghua		49.691
25	56	Bradley Dagnall		49.835
26	55	Artem Markelov		49.863

* demoted five places for changing engine/gearbox

Report:

Donington Park, the exclusive home of the British Grand Prix, had announced that, in agreement with Formula One Management, the event would from now on use the national circuit. Whilst many critised the choice, others were able to see the appeal of a short lap.

Regardless of lap length, the favourites to succeed are always the two Caterham superstars. Sebastian Vettel had the edge against Lewis Hamilton in qualifying, but, much to the delight of the British crowd, the German suffered a terrible start, dropping down the order.

As it were, however, Vettel quickly fought his way past Pastor Maldonado and the two Precisions blocking his path. After doing so successfully, he used strategy to overcome his teammate and then used the common occurance of lapped cars to build a lead Lewis could not overcome.

Behind the two Caterhams, Bianchi and Miccoli (who scored his eighth fourth-place finish in 2018), chaos was the order of the day: driving errors were common and resulted in shaking up the order: drivers like Mike Rockenfeller and Stoffel Vandoorne excelled at bad driving.

Race:

Pos	#	Driver	Constructor	Time/Retired	Points
1	1	Sebastian Vettel		43:08.362	17
2	2	Lewis Hamilton		+4.429	12
3	63	Jules Bianchi		+11.713	10
4	98	Salvatore Miccoli		+43.708	8
5	90	Daniel Ricciardo		+1 Lap	6
6	99	Kevin Magnussen		+1 Lap	5
7	27	Nathan McKane		+1 Lap	4
8	31	Rhys Davies		+1 Lap	3
9	67	Marcel Agyemang-Badu		+1 Lap	2
10	5	Valtteri Bottas		+1 Lap	1
11	32	Daniel Melrose		+1 Lap	0
12	29	Pastor Maldonado		+2 Laps	0
13	21	Stoffel Vandoorne		+2 Laps	0
14	55	Artem Markelov		+2 Laps	0
15	22	Johnny Cecotto Jr.		+2 Laps	0
16	43	Sébastien Bourdais		+2 Laps	0
17	66	Esteban Ocon		+3 Laps	0
18	12	Scott Dixon		+3 Laps	0
19	42	Davide Valsecchi		Engine	0
20	56	Bradley Dagnall		Water Leak	0
DNF	11	Daniel de Jong		Engine	0
DNF	91	Dean Stoneman		Throttle	0
DNF	30	Mike Rockenfeller		Accident	0
DNF	6	Ma Qinghua		Engine	0
DNF	62	Dave Cassidy		Engine	0
DNF	28	Romain Grosjean		Collision	0

Fastest Lap:

Sebastian Vettel – 47.909

Infinite Improbability Drive Of The Race:

Marcel Agyemang-Badu – great run for the African-French talent, Red Bull needed this.

Reject Of The Race:

Mike Rockenfeller – multiple errors that eventually resulted in a retirement, a shameful display.