However, Mercedes would dominate, being nearly a second a lap quicker on average throughout the race, leaving Vettel having to settle for third in front of the Tifosi, and over half a minute behind. After maintaining position at the start, Vettel quickly passed Raikkonen, Lance Stroll and Esteban Ocon to move into the podium positions. In a wet qualifying session, which contained a two-and-a-half-hour delay, he could only qualify in eighth, but would start sixth due to penalties for the two Red Bulls. Vettel then arrived in Italy for Ferrari's home race. On track, Vettel qualified second and would convert that starting position in the race, finishing behind Hamilton, who halved the gap at the top of the standings with his fifth victory of the season. Raikkonen also extended his contract, but only for a year. It was announced in Belgium that Vettel had signed a new three-year deal with Ferrari, keeping him at the Scuderia until 2020. However, I would postulate that the scene for Ferrari's demise was set a few races before, after F1 returned from its summer break. Many pundits have speculated that Ferrari's season came off the rails around the Singapore disaster and the flyaways. By maintaining his 100% podium success rate in 2017, Vettel became just the fifth man in history to claim 90 F1 podiums. Despite missing out on his third win of the year, Vettel extended his lead at the top of the standings to 13 points, with nearest challenger Hamilton only finishing fourth. Re-entering around five seconds back, Vettel chased down Bottas in a tense finale to a rather processional race, but couldn't stop the Finn from claiming his first victory. Bottas pitted for the one and only time on lap 27, with Vettel staying out seven laps longer. However, Bottas got a blistering start to move ahead of both Vettel and Raikkonen. Vettel took his first pole position in 18 months (the 47th of his career) and with teammate Raikkonen alongside him, the Scuderia had their first front row lockout since the 2008 French Grand Prix. Gonna start off with a fairly controversial one here but I thought Russia represented a lot of what Ferrari did right this year unfortunately no end result but I thought they got a lot right that weekend that traditionally has bugged me about Ferrari. Still lacking a few horsepower down the straights even at the end of the season, had the Ferrari been stronger at faster tracks they may have had the legs in the championship. However, they were never going to challenge Mercedes in a proper head-to-head until they sorted that engine out. They designed a car that at times made the Merc look ordinary. The amount of praise the Mercedes team has received for this season's triumph really doesn't do enough justice the boys at Maranello. Ferrari will be happy with second place though as displacing Red Bull is no easy task considering their rate of development is usually fierce.įerrari's development record was nothing spectacular, but keeping pace with Mercedes to the end of the season, as evidenced by Vettel's win in Brazil, was nothing short of mighty.
They never really stood a chance of winning the constructors' due to Kimi Raikkonen consistently being outclassed by both Mercedes. Second place in the constructors' championship represented an increase in performance from last year, finishing ahead of Red Bull by a comfortable margin. Development record and constructors performance The season ultimately ended in disappointment for Ferrari, but overall it was a great sporting contest and reminded a lot of fans of what a multi-team battle for the title looks like. The reality of this season was tough, heart wrenching, but at times exhilarating. In one corner you had the Mercedes W08 EQ Power, all silver arrow elegance and long wheelbase, the evolution from previous models clear in its sleek lines, heavily revised aerodynamics and because of the new regulations, satisfyingly wider tyres.Īnd in the other there was the Ferrari SF70, stubbier, purposeful, fast, with completely different aerodynamic side-pods and bodywork, and its own unique stamp of thoroughbred toughness.
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