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Swami
Telly Talk Supreme
Lewis Hamilton top as top teams appear close
By Andrew Benson
Saturday's qualifying and Sunday's race is live on 5 live and the BBC Sport website
Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton led Red Bull's Max Verstappen in second practice at the season-opening Australian GP.
The top three teams appeared closely matched, with just 0.283secs separating Mercedes, Red Bull and Ferrari.
Hamilton was 0.127 seconds clear of Verstappen, although the world champion looked as if he had more potential had he not lost time on his quickest lap.
Hamilton's team-mate Valtteri Bottas was third, from the Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen.
The Finn's team-mate Sebastian Vettel was fifth, 0.237secs behind and appearing to struggle a little.
Haas' Romain Grosjean was an impressive sixth ahead of Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo.
The Australian was more than 0.6secs off Verstappen but did not get a representative lap time on the fastest tyres.
McLaren's Fernando Alonso took eighth split from team-mate Stoffel Vandoorne by the second Haas of Kevin Magnussen.
The Renaults of Carlos Sainz and Nico Hulkenberg were 11th and 12th, followed by and Lance Stroll's Williams.
Raikkonen has been out-performing 'his boss' Vettel so far
The first session, in which Hamilton was much quicker than the rest of the field, had given the impression that Mercedes had a significant advantage.
But the second session painted a different picture.
Red Bull were close behind Mercedes on one-lap pace and if anything had an advantage on race pace when the teams put fuel in the cars and simulated the first stage of the grand prix.
On heavy tanks, Ricciardo and Verstappen were quicker than the Mercedes drivers, with Vettel just behind.
On pure pace, Mercedes would be expected to be favourites for pole position.
Not only did Hamilton appear to lose time in the middle sector of his best lap, suggesting he could have been at least 0.2secs faster, and Mercedes also have an extra engine power boost for the final parts of qualifying that usually gives them an edge.
But the cars look closely matched and wet weather is predicted for qualifying, which will throw in an element of the unknown.
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Dear F1: Please, please, PLEASE be more unpredictable
Behind the big three
Grosjean's superb lap time - less than 0.5secs off the Ferrari - underlined predictions that Haas could be best of the rest at the start of the season.
The Franco-Swiss was 0.552secs quicker than Alonso's McLaren, which was just 0.046secs ahead of the second Haas of Magnussen.
But the midfield is very tightly packed - just 0.774secs separated Alonso in eighth place from Sergey Sirotkin's Williams in 18th.
Bottas ran wide and onto the grass during second practice - he cannot afford to do that too many times this season
Great attention to detail here - though Red Bull's legendary aerodynamicist Adrian Newey would say there would serious inefficiencies in the underfloor
Swami
By Andrew Benson
Saturday's qualifying and Sunday's race is live on 5 live and the BBC Sport website
Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton led Red Bull's Max Verstappen in second practice at the season-opening Australian GP.
The top three teams appeared closely matched, with just 0.283secs separating Mercedes, Red Bull and Ferrari.
Hamilton was 0.127 seconds clear of Verstappen, although the world champion looked as if he had more potential had he not lost time on his quickest lap.
Hamilton's team-mate Valtteri Bottas was third, from the Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen.
The Finn's team-mate Sebastian Vettel was fifth, 0.237secs behind and appearing to struggle a little.
Haas' Romain Grosjean was an impressive sixth ahead of Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo.
The Australian was more than 0.6secs off Verstappen but did not get a representative lap time on the fastest tyres.
McLaren's Fernando Alonso took eighth split from team-mate Stoffel Vandoorne by the second Haas of Kevin Magnussen.
The Renaults of Carlos Sainz and Nico Hulkenberg were 11th and 12th, followed by and Lance Stroll's Williams.
Raikkonen has been out-performing 'his boss' Vettel so far
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The first session, in which Hamilton was much quicker than the rest of the field, had given the impression that Mercedes had a significant advantage.
But the second session painted a different picture.
Red Bull were close behind Mercedes on one-lap pace and if anything had an advantage on race pace when the teams put fuel in the cars and simulated the first stage of the grand prix.
On heavy tanks, Ricciardo and Verstappen were quicker than the Mercedes drivers, with Vettel just behind.
On pure pace, Mercedes would be expected to be favourites for pole position.
Not only did Hamilton appear to lose time in the middle sector of his best lap, suggesting he could have been at least 0.2secs faster, and Mercedes also have an extra engine power boost for the final parts of qualifying that usually gives them an edge.
But the cars look closely matched and wet weather is predicted for qualifying, which will throw in an element of the unknown.
Media playback is not supported on this device
Dear F1: Please, please, PLEASE be more unpredictable
Behind the big three
Grosjean's superb lap time - less than 0.5secs off the Ferrari - underlined predictions that Haas could be best of the rest at the start of the season.
The Franco-Swiss was 0.552secs quicker than Alonso's McLaren, which was just 0.046secs ahead of the second Haas of Magnussen.
But the midfield is very tightly packed - just 0.774secs separated Alonso in eighth place from Sergey Sirotkin's Williams in 18th.
Bottas ran wide and onto the grass during second practice - he cannot afford to do that too many times this season
Great attention to detail here - though Red Bull's legendary aerodynamicist Adrian Newey would say there would serious inefficiencies in the underfloor
Swami
Swami
Telly Talk Supreme
Sebastian Vettel top in wet-dry final practice
By Andrew Benson
Chief F1 writer in Melbourne
Qualifying is live on 5 live and the BBC Sport website from 05:00 GMT
Sebastian Vettel led Kimi Raikkonen to a Ferrari one-two in an unrepresentative wet-dry final practice at the Australian Grand Prix.
Vettel was 2.432 seconds quicker than the Finn as they used dry-weather tyres at the end of a largely wet hour.
Only three drivers ran slicks. The other was Sauber's Marcus Ericsson, who was 0.391secs behind Raikkonen.
Red Bull's Max Verstappen made the biggest impression, setting a stunning pace in the wettest early conditions.
The Dutchman was lapping two seconds faster than anyone else on intermediate tyres when the track was wet.
After pitting while others improved, Verstappen went out again at the end of the session to end up fourth, ahead of Renault's Carlos Sainz, the second Red Bull of Daniel Ricciardo and the Mercedes of Valtteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton.
Fernando Alonso, 10th fastest, vented his ire at his McLaren team when they failed to send him out on slick tyres in time at the end of the season, after he aborted a lap on intermediates that would have put him fastest at the time. "What a disaster," the Spaniard said. "I don't know what we are doing."
Final practice began in soaking wet conditions, but the track was dry by the end
Swami
By Andrew Benson
Chief F1 writer in Melbourne
Qualifying is live on 5 live and the BBC Sport website from 05:00 GMT
Sebastian Vettel led Kimi Raikkonen to a Ferrari one-two in an unrepresentative wet-dry final practice at the Australian Grand Prix.
Vettel was 2.432 seconds quicker than the Finn as they used dry-weather tyres at the end of a largely wet hour.
Only three drivers ran slicks. The other was Sauber's Marcus Ericsson, who was 0.391secs behind Raikkonen.
Red Bull's Max Verstappen made the biggest impression, setting a stunning pace in the wettest early conditions.
The Dutchman was lapping two seconds faster than anyone else on intermediate tyres when the track was wet.
After pitting while others improved, Verstappen went out again at the end of the session to end up fourth, ahead of Renault's Carlos Sainz, the second Red Bull of Daniel Ricciardo and the Mercedes of Valtteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton.
Fernando Alonso, 10th fastest, vented his ire at his McLaren team when they failed to send him out on slick tyres in time at the end of the season, after he aborted a lap on intermediates that would have put him fastest at the time. "What a disaster," the Spaniard said. "I don't know what we are doing."
Final practice began in soaking wet conditions, but the track was dry by the end
Swami
Swami
Telly Talk Supreme
Lewis Hamilton on pole in Australian Grand Prix as Valtteri Bottas crashes
By Andrew Benson
Chief F1 writer in Melbourne
Sunday's Australian Grand Prix is live on 5 live and the BBC Sport website at 06:10 BST
Lewis Hamilton pulled out a spectacular last-ditch lap to take a stunning pole position for the season-opening Australian Grand Prix.
The world champion was nip and tuck with the Ferrari of Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull's Max Verstappen until the final runs of the session only for Hamilton to re-set perceptions of the possible to take pole by a massive 0.664 seconds.
Vettel was beaten to second by Ferrari team-mate Kimi Raikkonen by just 0.01secs, with the Red Bulls of Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo fourth and fifth.
Hamilton's team-mate Valtteri Bottas crashed at the start of final qualifying and will start 10th at best.
Hamilton said: "You would think that with the results we had these years it would feel the norm but it doesn't. It's so intense. I am so happy with that lap. I am always striving for perfection and that was as close as I can get."
Hamilton's team-mate Bottas crashed on his first attempt at a flying lap - piling the pressure on himself
So does anyone else have a chance?
Vettel, expected to be Hamilton's closest rival for the title again this year, said he was "happy" with his performance after struggling in Friday practice.
"It was really close," he said. "Shame Lewis had quite a big gap at the end but I guess he did another pretty good lap."
Ricciardo has a three-place grid penalty for a driving infringement in practice, which will promote the Haas drivers Kevin Magnussen and Romain Grosjean to fifth and sixth places, and Renault's Nico Hulkenberg to seventh.
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Dear F1: Please, please, PLEASE be more unpredictable
But as Hamilton dramatically pitched the Mercedes into Turn One at a speed he had not managed before it was clear that something special was on the cards.
By the end of the first sector, he was nearly half a second up on his previous best time and he extended that lead to take pole by a margin previously not seen throughout a weekend that until then had looked extremely close.
'It was a joke, dude'
"It definitely wasn't straightforward," Hamilton said. "Getting out and getting the tyres working to the optimum and staying in the right zone all lap was definitely difficult.
"But that last lap was definitely the best of the weekend. I am very, very happy with that lap. One of my best, I would say."
He said the time was not down to turning up the engine power at the end of qualifying.
"I used the same engine mode in Q2," Hamilton said.
Vettel, sitting beside him, responded, attempting to make a joke: "So, what were you doing before?"
Hamilton replied pointedly: "I was waiting to put a good lap together to wipe the smile off your face."
A little later, he said: "It really was a joke, dude."
Whether Hamilton can maintain that pace advantage in the race remains to be seen, and Mercedes are at a potential strategic disadvantage if the pace of the cars is closer in the race because he has two Ferraris right behind him and no protection from team-mate Bottas.
Hamilton said: "It is always going to be tough having two red cars in your mirror but we are the best prepared we can be. I am excited."
Vettel said: "Hopefully we can play two against one. In race pace I think we will be closer. We will see how close we can be."
Hamilton's seven Australia poles now means only he, Ayrton Senna and Michael Schumacher has scored that number at a single race
Bad start for Bottas
For Bottas, it was a bad start to a season that will be defining for the rest of his career.
His Mercedes contract runs out at the end of the year and team boss Toto Wolff has said he will see how Bottas performs in the first half of this season before deciding whether to keep him or sign another driver - with Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo and Force India's Esteban Ocon the main contenders.
Bottas had been closely matched with Hamilton through the first two parts of qualifying but he carried too much speed into Turn One on his first lap in the final session, ran a little wide and lost control, spinning hard into the outside wall.
The impact was massive, the car spun back into the middle of the road, debris streaming behind it, and the session had to be stopped to repair the barrier and clear the track.
In the pits, Wolff looked furious, exasperated and disappointed all at the same time, raising his fist and bringing it down in his lap and cursing under his breath.
Bottas was taken to the medical centre for a routine check-up and declared to be fine, but he may well have a further five-place grid drop as the gearbox is likely to need to be changed, which is against the rules.
Good signs for Red Bull
Red Bull ended up a long way from pole but Verstappen was mere hundredths of a second behind the Ferraris.
They could be a factor in the race as they have chosen a different tyre strategy - starting on the super-soft tyre rather than the ultra-soft used by everyone else.
And their pace on a track which has what teams call a high 'power-sensitivity' - engine power importance to lap time - is encouraging for their general title campaign.
The Renault engine in the Red Bull lags behind the Mercedes and Ferrari, so if Red Bull can be this competitive in Australia, they could be a factor all year.
Great attention to detail here - although Red Bull's legendary aerodynamicist Adrian Newey might say there were serious inefficiencies in the underfloor
Disappointment for McLaren
There was disappointment for McLaren, who failed to get into final qualifying after looking like they might end up as best of the rest after the big three.
Fernando Alonso was seventh after the first runs in second qualifying and looked on course to compete with Renault's Carlos Sainz for seventh. But he made a mistake on his final lap and ended up 11th, leapfrogged as others improved.
Final practice began in soaking wet conditions, but the track was dry for qualifying
Vettel has been slower than team-mate Raikkonen all weekend so far, but it regarded as Ferrari's team 'leader'
Rain could affect Sunday's race. The 1991 event - held in Adelaide - was cancelled after a deluge and several resulting crashes, with Ayrton Senna classified as the winner
Swami
By Andrew Benson
Chief F1 writer in Melbourne
- 1 hour ago
- From the section Formula 1
Sunday's Australian Grand Prix is live on 5 live and the BBC Sport website at 06:10 BST
Lewis Hamilton pulled out a spectacular last-ditch lap to take a stunning pole position for the season-opening Australian Grand Prix.
The world champion was nip and tuck with the Ferrari of Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull's Max Verstappen until the final runs of the session only for Hamilton to re-set perceptions of the possible to take pole by a massive 0.664 seconds.
Vettel was beaten to second by Ferrari team-mate Kimi Raikkonen by just 0.01secs, with the Red Bulls of Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo fourth and fifth.
Hamilton's team-mate Valtteri Bottas crashed at the start of final qualifying and will start 10th at best.
Hamilton said: "You would think that with the results we had these years it would feel the norm but it doesn't. It's so intense. I am so happy with that lap. I am always striving for perfection and that was as close as I can get."
Hamilton's team-mate Bottas crashed on his first attempt at a flying lap - piling the pressure on himself
So does anyone else have a chance?
Vettel, expected to be Hamilton's closest rival for the title again this year, said he was "happy" with his performance after struggling in Friday practice.
"It was really close," he said. "Shame Lewis had quite a big gap at the end but I guess he did another pretty good lap."
Ricciardo has a three-place grid penalty for a driving infringement in practice, which will promote the Haas drivers Kevin Magnussen and Romain Grosjean to fifth and sixth places, and Renault's Nico Hulkenberg to seventh.
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But as Hamilton dramatically pitched the Mercedes into Turn One at a speed he had not managed before it was clear that something special was on the cards.
By the end of the first sector, he was nearly half a second up on his previous best time and he extended that lead to take pole by a margin previously not seen throughout a weekend that until then had looked extremely close.
'It was a joke, dude'
"It definitely wasn't straightforward," Hamilton said. "Getting out and getting the tyres working to the optimum and staying in the right zone all lap was definitely difficult.
"But that last lap was definitely the best of the weekend. I am very, very happy with that lap. One of my best, I would say."
He said the time was not down to turning up the engine power at the end of qualifying.
"I used the same engine mode in Q2," Hamilton said.
Vettel, sitting beside him, responded, attempting to make a joke: "So, what were you doing before?"
Hamilton replied pointedly: "I was waiting to put a good lap together to wipe the smile off your face."
A little later, he said: "It really was a joke, dude."
Whether Hamilton can maintain that pace advantage in the race remains to be seen, and Mercedes are at a potential strategic disadvantage if the pace of the cars is closer in the race because he has two Ferraris right behind him and no protection from team-mate Bottas.
Hamilton said: "It is always going to be tough having two red cars in your mirror but we are the best prepared we can be. I am excited."
Vettel said: "Hopefully we can play two against one. In race pace I think we will be closer. We will see how close we can be."
Hamilton's seven Australia poles now means only he, Ayrton Senna and Michael Schumacher has scored that number at a single race
Bad start for Bottas
For Bottas, it was a bad start to a season that will be defining for the rest of his career.
His Mercedes contract runs out at the end of the year and team boss Toto Wolff has said he will see how Bottas performs in the first half of this season before deciding whether to keep him or sign another driver - with Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo and Force India's Esteban Ocon the main contenders.
Bottas had been closely matched with Hamilton through the first two parts of qualifying but he carried too much speed into Turn One on his first lap in the final session, ran a little wide and lost control, spinning hard into the outside wall.
The impact was massive, the car spun back into the middle of the road, debris streaming behind it, and the session had to be stopped to repair the barrier and clear the track.
In the pits, Wolff looked furious, exasperated and disappointed all at the same time, raising his fist and bringing it down in his lap and cursing under his breath.
Bottas was taken to the medical centre for a routine check-up and declared to be fine, but he may well have a further five-place grid drop as the gearbox is likely to need to be changed, which is against the rules.
Good signs for Red Bull
Red Bull ended up a long way from pole but Verstappen was mere hundredths of a second behind the Ferraris.
They could be a factor in the race as they have chosen a different tyre strategy - starting on the super-soft tyre rather than the ultra-soft used by everyone else.
And their pace on a track which has what teams call a high 'power-sensitivity' - engine power importance to lap time - is encouraging for their general title campaign.
The Renault engine in the Red Bull lags behind the Mercedes and Ferrari, so if Red Bull can be this competitive in Australia, they could be a factor all year.
Great attention to detail here - although Red Bull's legendary aerodynamicist Adrian Newey might say there were serious inefficiencies in the underfloor
Disappointment for McLaren
There was disappointment for McLaren, who failed to get into final qualifying after looking like they might end up as best of the rest after the big three.
Fernando Alonso was seventh after the first runs in second qualifying and looked on course to compete with Renault's Carlos Sainz for seventh. But he made a mistake on his final lap and ended up 11th, leapfrogged as others improved.
Final practice began in soaking wet conditions, but the track was dry for qualifying
Vettel has been slower than team-mate Raikkonen all weekend so far, but it regarded as Ferrari's team 'leader'
Rain could affect Sunday's race. The 1991 event - held in Adelaide - was cancelled after a deluge and several resulting crashes, with Ayrton Senna classified as the winner
Swami
Swami
Telly Talk Supreme
Sebastian Vettel leapfrogs Lewis Hamilton to take Australian GP win
By Andrew Benson
Chief F1 writer in Melbourne
Lewis Hamilton lost victory in the season-opening Australian Grand Prix to Sebastian Vettel because of bad luck with a caution period.
The Mercedes driver was in control of the race until Romain Grosjean's Haas stopped on track and officials imposed a virtual safety-car, which restricts the pace of the cars on track.
The world champion had already made his pit stop but Vettel had yet to make his - and Ferrari pounced on the opportunity.
A pit stop made under the virtual safety car costs less time than one made when the cars are at full speed and the time gain of stopping while Hamilton was restricted on track allowed Vettel to rejoin the race just ahead of the Mercedes.
Hamilton tracked the Ferrari closely for much of the rest of the race but was unable to pass, before he dramatically lost pace in the closing laps and had to focus on maintaining second.
It was a bitter blow for Hamilton in the first race of a year in which he hopes to beat Vettel to be the first driver of the current era to win a fifth world title.
How did it go wrong for Hamilton?
Until the virtual safety car intervention, Hamilton had appeared in total control of the race after taking a blistering pole position by nearly 0.7 seconds on Saturday.
He led away from pole and stretched a 3.3-second lead over Vettel's team-mate Kimi Raikkonen, who qualified second ahead of the German, before the Finn made his pit stop on lap 18.
Hamilton followed him in on the next lap and rejoined with a bigger lead - but Ferrari decided to run Vettel long, taking advantage of their opportunity with two cars running at the front to split their strategies.
The decision would have been made in the hope of an incident bringing out the safety car - and their gamble paid off thanks to a bitter blow for Haas, effectively a Ferrari B team.
Haas were running well in fourth and fifth before, bizarrely, both cars failed to have their front-left wheels secured properly during the pitstops
Bizarre Haas error helps out 'mother' Ferrari
Kevin Magnussen and Romain Grosjean were running fourth and sixth from the start of the race - and that became fourth and fifth when Max Verstappen spun his Red Bull at Turn One on lap 10 after overheating his tyres trying to pass the Dane.
But both were forced to retire when the mechanics sent them out after their pit stops with loose wheels - for which they will face a punishment from governing body the FIA.
First Magnussen pulled off at Turn Three on lap 22 and the same fate befell Grosjean when he stopped two laps later.
But while Magnussen parked in a place his car could be recovered, Grosjean did not - abandoning the Haas on the straight between Turns Two and Three.
First the virtual safety car was imposed to control the field while officials tried to recover it and then - after Vettel had taken the lead - it became a full safety car period.
Verstappen was frustrated early on having lost a position to Magnussen's Haas, spinning at Turn 1
'Did I do something wrong?'
Hamilton asked his team whether he had done anything wrong, but they told him, no, he had stuck to the correct mandatory lap time. It was just cruel luck.
But afterwards team boss Toto Wolff suggested there may have been a miscalculation somehow.
Wolff said: "We thought we had enough margin to beat Sebastian but then we saw the TV pictures and it wasn't enough. I think it must have been a software problem somewhere in our system."
He tried everything to pass Vettel on a track where it is notoriously difficult to pass, while also trying to manage his engine temperature, which can rise dangerously behind another car.
After 15 laps of following Vettel closely, Hamilton asked his team: "Can I push yet? Let me know how much you want it." A pause. "I'm going for it."
He then set his fastest first sector time so far on lap 47, only to lock up badly and run wide into Turn Eight, and drop back nearly four seconds.
He closed back up to within a second by lap 51, with seven to go, but then began to drop back and the win was finally gone.
McLaren benefit from safety car
As he slowed in the final laps - Mercedes blaming his rear tyres going off - he began to fall back towards Raikkonen.
The Finn began to close at more than a second a lap but Hamilton did just enough to maintain second place.
Raikkonen found himself under heavy pressure from Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo from the safety car to the end of the race but held the Australian off.
McLaren's Fernando Alonso was another to benefit from the caution period. He ran 10th in the first part of the race, but ran long like Vettel and emerged fifth.
Verstappen passed him under the virtual safety car as Alonso emerged from the pits but the Dutchman was told to give the place back because he had broken the rules forbidding passing under caution.
Like Raikkonen and Ricciardo, Alonso was under pressure from Verstappen for the rest of the race but he held him off to take a fifth place for McLaren in their first race with Renault engines.
More to follow
Hamilton's team-mate Bottas crashed during qualifying - piling the pressure on himself
Swami
By Andrew Benson
Chief F1 writer in Melbourne
- 21 minutes ago
- From the section Formula 1
Lewis Hamilton lost victory in the season-opening Australian Grand Prix to Sebastian Vettel because of bad luck with a caution period.
The Mercedes driver was in control of the race until Romain Grosjean's Haas stopped on track and officials imposed a virtual safety-car, which restricts the pace of the cars on track.
The world champion had already made his pit stop but Vettel had yet to make his - and Ferrari pounced on the opportunity.
A pit stop made under the virtual safety car costs less time than one made when the cars are at full speed and the time gain of stopping while Hamilton was restricted on track allowed Vettel to rejoin the race just ahead of the Mercedes.
Hamilton tracked the Ferrari closely for much of the rest of the race but was unable to pass, before he dramatically lost pace in the closing laps and had to focus on maintaining second.
It was a bitter blow for Hamilton in the first race of a year in which he hopes to beat Vettel to be the first driver of the current era to win a fifth world title.
How did it go wrong for Hamilton?
Until the virtual safety car intervention, Hamilton had appeared in total control of the race after taking a blistering pole position by nearly 0.7 seconds on Saturday.
He led away from pole and stretched a 3.3-second lead over Vettel's team-mate Kimi Raikkonen, who qualified second ahead of the German, before the Finn made his pit stop on lap 18.
Hamilton followed him in on the next lap and rejoined with a bigger lead - but Ferrari decided to run Vettel long, taking advantage of their opportunity with two cars running at the front to split their strategies.
The decision would have been made in the hope of an incident bringing out the safety car - and their gamble paid off thanks to a bitter blow for Haas, effectively a Ferrari B team.
Haas were running well in fourth and fifth before, bizarrely, both cars failed to have their front-left wheels secured properly during the pitstops
Bizarre Haas error helps out 'mother' Ferrari
Kevin Magnussen and Romain Grosjean were running fourth and sixth from the start of the race - and that became fourth and fifth when Max Verstappen spun his Red Bull at Turn One on lap 10 after overheating his tyres trying to pass the Dane.
But both were forced to retire when the mechanics sent them out after their pit stops with loose wheels - for which they will face a punishment from governing body the FIA.
First Magnussen pulled off at Turn Three on lap 22 and the same fate befell Grosjean when he stopped two laps later.
But while Magnussen parked in a place his car could be recovered, Grosjean did not - abandoning the Haas on the straight between Turns Two and Three.
First the virtual safety car was imposed to control the field while officials tried to recover it and then - after Vettel had taken the lead - it became a full safety car period.
Verstappen was frustrated early on having lost a position to Magnussen's Haas, spinning at Turn 1
'Did I do something wrong?'
Hamilton asked his team whether he had done anything wrong, but they told him, no, he had stuck to the correct mandatory lap time. It was just cruel luck.
But afterwards team boss Toto Wolff suggested there may have been a miscalculation somehow.
Wolff said: "We thought we had enough margin to beat Sebastian but then we saw the TV pictures and it wasn't enough. I think it must have been a software problem somewhere in our system."
He tried everything to pass Vettel on a track where it is notoriously difficult to pass, while also trying to manage his engine temperature, which can rise dangerously behind another car.
After 15 laps of following Vettel closely, Hamilton asked his team: "Can I push yet? Let me know how much you want it." A pause. "I'm going for it."
He then set his fastest first sector time so far on lap 47, only to lock up badly and run wide into Turn Eight, and drop back nearly four seconds.
He closed back up to within a second by lap 51, with seven to go, but then began to drop back and the win was finally gone.
McLaren benefit from safety car
As he slowed in the final laps - Mercedes blaming his rear tyres going off - he began to fall back towards Raikkonen.
The Finn began to close at more than a second a lap but Hamilton did just enough to maintain second place.
Raikkonen found himself under heavy pressure from Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo from the safety car to the end of the race but held the Australian off.
McLaren's Fernando Alonso was another to benefit from the caution period. He ran 10th in the first part of the race, but ran long like Vettel and emerged fifth.
Verstappen passed him under the virtual safety car as Alonso emerged from the pits but the Dutchman was told to give the place back because he had broken the rules forbidding passing under caution.
Like Raikkonen and Ricciardo, Alonso was under pressure from Verstappen for the rest of the race but he held him off to take a fifth place for McLaren in their first race with Renault engines.
More to follow
Hamilton's team-mate Bottas crashed during qualifying - piling the pressure on himself
Swami