Hamilton wins after orders from Mercedes team



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Bottas was leading the race and led de facto ahead of the very old Max Verstappen, when he was told to let Hamilton pass to protect him from Vettel.

Hamilton's eighth win in the season means that his lead over Vettel is now 50 points and that there are 125 points left to win after Bottas, who sacrificed a first win of 2018 for his teammate, limited the pilot Ferrari in third place.

Bottas kept his lead at the start while a good launch from Vettel allowed him to attack Hamilton by Turn # 1, but Hamilton rallied in the wake of Bottas and pushed back the Ferrari .

Hamilton ran so well behind his teammate that he closed and blocked slightly under braking for Turn 2, which allowed Vettel to attack again via the long left turn, but Hamilton held the place.

Bottas led up to the 12th lap, Vettel stopping the next lap and Mercedes keeping Hamilton a longer lap.

Mercedes told Bottas to slow down and pull up Vettel, but that was not enough to stop Vettel from breaking Hamilton and taking the second.

Hamilton acted quickly to respond and was in Vettel's wake two laps later at turn 2, but Vettel seemed to move twice right.

Hamilton fired back with a good shot from the corner and pushed it out through the long left turn 3 and nailed Vettel inside corner 4.

Hamilton caught and followed Bottas for several laps, but began developing a light bulb on his left rear tire, which was not helped by Bottas who was supported by Verstappen.

Mercedes acted on lap 25, telling Bottas to slow down and leave Hamilton on lap 13, which he did.

Hamilton moved into second place but did not start attacking Verstappen, which frustrated Bottas and led Mercedes strategist James Vowles to tell Bottas by radio that he understood his concerns but had to take the decision of the team's orders to protect Hamilton's position.

Verstappen continued with relative comfort and extended his first stint in which he moved from 19th to fifth place in just seven laps.

Hamilton reported "hesitations" from the engine, but as these worries seemed to subside, he attacked Verstappen on the 42nd lap but the door struck him in the face.

Verstappen finally stopped a lap later, releasing the pair of Mercedes with 10 laps to clear a comfortable double – Bottas asked how they would finish the race, saying he wanted to be released position.

Kimi Raikkonen was fourth after Verstappen missed pace on new echoes to challenge in the finals.

Daniel Ricciardo came back to sixth place in the second Red Bull after being overtaken by Verstappen early and failing to match the speed of his teammate's first charge.

Charles Leclerc drove well to seventh, after running to fifth place and winning his first unofficial Season B win for Sauber.

Kevin Magnussen won the eighth place for Haas after pushing the Indias Racing Point Force for the duration of the race, including a defense to the limit against Esteban Ocon early.

Ocon finished ninth ahead of Sergio Perez after briefly leading Perez to attempt, without success, to overtake the Haas.

The race had only two retirements.

Teammates Toro Rosso, Pierre Gasly and Brendon Hartley, had independent spins almost simultaneously, but returned to the pits to get rid of their cars after suffering brake failure.

The causes were not immediately determined, but Toro Rosso had changed the rear brake line cap before departure.

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