Vettel was no threat to Hamilton at any time during the 51-lap duration. The Ferrari driver's race was compromised from the start as he spent the early stages stuck behind the Red Bull of Max Verstappen, who aggressively overtook Vettel on the opening lap.

Later Vettel was able to undercut the Red Bull during the pitstops.

But as Hamilton cruised up front, opening a commanding lead over Kimi Raikkonen’s Ferrari, Vettel came under pressure from the other Mercedes of Valtteri Bottas.

Ferrari’s decision to pit Vettel early in order to jump Verstappen left Vettel had ramifications later in the race, as it left him vulnerable to attack from Bottas. With the benefit of fresher rubber, Bottas was able to displace the Ferrari to move to third – which ended up being second place after Raikkonen was forced to make a late stop to replace a failed front-left tyre.

Verstappen also made a precautionary late-race tyre stop as he cruised to fourth place, ahead of team-mate Daniel Ricciardo.

While Hamilton starred up front, it was Ricciardo who supplied a lot of the entertainment with a storming drive from the rear of the field. After making up four spots and then falling back to the rear once more after an early mishap off the road, the Australian overtook the equivalent of the entire field during the 51 laps.

Afterwards, Ricciardo said fifth place was the ‘maximum’ result he could have hoped for.

"It was a crazy race,” he said. “I went through the field and that was fun, just to have a battle the whole time."

Ricciardo is currently fourth in the championship, 60 points adrift of Vettel, whose lead over Hamilton has now been cut to one point. Third placed Bottas trails Hamilton by 22.