Agree 100% with you TAG, that it took this long for someone to post it. But I think that most (or some here) interpret anything you say involving Hammy as either hate or love. It was very obvious to me that Merc (both Bottas and Ham knew what they were going to do in case Vettel had a great start and went to the inside at turn 1) discussed this scenario up front. You could clearly see them boxing in Vet, Hammy just holding him up a bit, and Bottas (after being mostly passed) coming back alongside again.
It was the race defining move as Vettel was desperate to still get by (to hope to challenge Hamilton for the Victory) and slid into Bottas taking them both out (more or less, they were not fully out yet of course).
What was interesting to me is that I think Verstappen already hoped for this scenario as well (and due to his comparatively slow start was able to see it happen instead of being amidst the trouble) and went for the escape route quickly to comfortably slide in behind Hamilton (whilst Ricciardo as he was 1 Position down at the start was on the inside and came under attack (and lost a position) to Sainz who was starting on Ultras as well (like Vettel). Had Ricci not lost time to get back passed Sainz again he would have (I think due to his much higher rear wing setting (and likely front wing as well affording him better grip with the full fuel load as Max with the much lower wing settings)) been in a position to Attack Verstappen as his first stint was quicker.
All the direct result of the boxing in move by Merc.
If the rest of the carnage (further down the field) would have happened the same way without this touch between Vettel and Bottas is hard to say, likely not. But indeed, this simply was the race defining move, that is what the importance of qualifying is, if 2 team members are next to eachother they have so much power.
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