Bottas: At least everyone knows it was Vettel’s fault

Defending champion Hamilton, who also topped both practice sessions on Friday, and teammate Bottas benefited from an engine upgrade that Mercedes had failed to roll out in the last round when Hamilton lost the lead to Vettel.

The German’s comeback was impressive but fifth would have been as much as he might have expected, while Verstappen put in another very solid performance to take his second podium in a row and his third in four races.

“I’m not really sure why they have gone with that tyre”, Hamilton said. Given the layout of this track – remodeled as a test track in the 2000s – and the trouble these 2018-spec cars rain may be the best chance of an interesting race. I hope so because Lewis’s time was pretty quick.

Charles LeClerc was the story of this session as he advanced to Q3 for the first time in his career, a respectable feat for the rookie Ferrari junior.

“We have all pulled together and done a great job in putting the auto where we need it, for both Valtteri and I”, Hamilton said after qualifying. Bottas was pitched into a spin and suffered a left rear puncture in the collision, while Vettel broke his front wing and was handed a five-second time penalty.

“My start was too good and I ended up with nowhere to go”.

“It was my mistake”, conceded Vettel.

Mercedes non-executive director Niki Lauda said the penalty for Vettel was not enough.

“Five seconds is nothing”.

Speaking to Sky Sports F1, Verstappen said: “We are all human”.

“I was confident I could improve for the final attempt”, Vettel said about his last flying lap that came up short.

The Toro Rosso of Pierre Gasly crashed into the Force India of Esteban Ocon that did significant damage to both cars and forced them out.

Denmark’s Kevin Magnussen finished sixth for the Haas team, with Bottas seventh and Carlos Sainz eighth for Renault after losing two places three laps from the end when his vehicle lost power.

The 28-year-old took heart from the early pace shown by Mercedes – Hamilton was seven-tenths clear of second placed Ricciardo in FP2 – but remained cautious, expecting Scuderia Ferrari to ramp up their performance as the weekend progresses.

Alonso was running 12th in the closing stages, ahead of Vandoorne, when he chose to pit for fresh tyres and try for the fastest lap.

“We are all going into Turn 1 as hard as we could but ultimately when someone destroys your race through an error and it’s kind of a tap on the hand really, and [he is] just allowed to come back and still finish ahead of that person he took out”. Will the championship lead change hands again?

They rejoined from the back of the field to finish fifth and seventh respectively, either side of Kevin Magnussen of Haas, who was sixth.