@LewisHamilton claims #RussianGP victory after @MercedesAMGF1 team orders #F1

Lewis Hamilton extended his championship lead over Sebastian Vettel taking victory at the Russian Grand Prix after Mercedes told Valtteri Bottas to move aside.

 

 

Bottas was leading the race from pole and was de-facto race leader behind Red Bull’s Max Verstappen who was yet to pit, when he was ordered by Mercedes to let Hamilton through to protect him from Vettel.

 

Hamilton’s eighth victory of the season propels him to a 50-point advantage over Vettel with five races remaining and 125 points still available after Bottas, who sacrificed his maiden victory of 2018 for his Silver Arrows team-mate and restricted Vettel to settle for the final podium place.

 

When the 53 lap Russian Grand Prix began, Bottas kept his lead as Vettel got a great launch to attack Hamilton through the first corner kink, but Hamilton resurged gaining a good slipstream behind Bottas and countered the SF71-H racer.

 

Hamilton had a great run behind his Finnish team-mate that he closed right up and had a slight lock up under braking into turn two, which gave Vettel the chance to attack the Briton again through the long left-hander, but Hamilton remained ahead.

 

Bottas stayed in the lead until pitting on lap 12, with Vettel following suit the next lap and Mercedes leaving Hamilton out an extra lap longer.

 

Mercedes ordered Bottas to back up Vettel, but it didn’t work out as Hamilton came out behind the Ferrari and dropped into de-facto third.

 

The Briton refocused and quickly responded, getting into Vettel’s slipstream a couple of laps later on the rundown to turn two, but the Ferrari moved to the right to cover Hamilton off.

 

Hamilton charged with a great run out of the corner fought hard around the outside through the long turn three left-hander and made the move stick past Vettel into the inside of turn four.

 

Hamilton caught Bottas and followed his Mercedes team-mate for a few laps but started developing a blister on his left-rear tyre, and with Bottas stuck behind Verstappen who was running longer on his yellow-branded soft compounds it didn’t help the Briton either.

 

Mercedes made the move on lap 25 telling Bottas to slow down and let Hamilton through at turn 13, which he obliged.

 

Hamilton took second place but did not charge at Verstappen, which annoyed Bottas and made Mercedes strategist James Vowles tell Bottas over the team radio that he understood his concerns and had to make the team order move to secure Hamilton’s position.

 

Verstappen continued to lead quite comfortably and extended his long impressive first stint after flying from 19^th on the grid to fifth in just seven laps.

 

Hamilton reported “engine issues” but those concerns eased as he charged at Verstappen on lap 42 but the Dutchman slammed the door on the Mercedes.

 

Verstappen pitted from the lead a lap later, releasing the Mercedes duo with 10 laps remaining to take a comfortable one-two and a crucial maximum 43 points for the Constructors Championship.

 

Bottas asked the team how they would finish the race, hinting he wanted to be let back in-front, but they told him to hold position.

 

The other Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen came home fourth after Verstappen could not extract the pace out of his fresh set of ultrasoft tyres to challenge the Finn in the closing stages.

 

Daniel Ricciardo finished the race in sixth in the sister Red Bull, after being passed by team-mate Verstappen at the start and could not replicate the Dutchman’s early push through the field.

 

Sauber’s Charles Leclerc ended the Russian Grand Prix in seventh place after running a high of fifth in the early stages.

 

Haas F1 Team’s Kevin Magnussen clinched eighth for the American squad after keeping the two Force India’s at bay for most of the race including defending hard against Esteban Ocon earlier on.

 

Ocon finished in ninth and ahead of Force team-mate Sergio Perez who rounded out the top 10.

 

The other Ferrari-powered Haas VF-18 of Romain Grosjean took 11^th place and in-front of Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg who was 12^th and Sauber’s Marcus Ericsson who claimed 13^th.

 

The two McLaren MCL33’s of Fernando Alonso and Stoffel Vandoorne finished in 14^th and 16^th respectively with Williams Martini Racing’s Lance Stroll sandwiched in-between.

 

Renault’s Carlos Sainz and the other Williams of Sergey Sirotkin ended the race at the rear.

 

The Russian Grand Prix featured only two retirements, with the two Honda-powered Toro Rosso’s of Pierre Gasly and Brendon Hartley suffering spins and both returning to the pits after brake failures ended their race early.

 

The cause of the retirements was not immediately known but the Faenza-based outfit changed the brake ducts before the race.

 

The Formula 1 2018 VTB Russian Grand Prix Race Results Classification (53 Laps)

 

POS	DRIVER	CAR	LAPS	GAP
1	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport	53	1h27m25.181s
2	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport	53	2.545s
3	Sebastian Vettel	Scuderia Ferrari	53	7.487s
4	Kimi Raikkonen	Scuderia Ferrari	53	16.543s
5	Max Verstappen	Aston Martin Red Bull Racing	53	31.016s
6	Daniel Ricciardo	Aston Martin Red Bull Racing	53	1m20.451s
7	Charles Leclerc	Alfa Romeo Sauber F1 Team	53	1m38.390s
8	Kevin Magnussen	Haas F1 Team	52	1 Lap
9	Esteban Ocon	Racing Point Force India F1 Team	52	1 Lap
10	Sergio Perez	Racing Point Force India F1 Team	52	1 Lap
11	Romain Grosjean	Haas F1 Team	52	1 Lap
12	Nico Hulkenberg	Renault Sport F1 Team	52	1 Lap
13	Marcus Ericsson	Alfa Romeo Sauber F1 Team	52	1 Lap
14	Fernando Alonso	McLaren-Renault F1 Team	52	1 Lap
15	Lance Stroll	Williams Martini Racing	52	1 Lap
16	Stoffel Vandoorne	McLaren-Renault F1 Team	51	2 Laps
17	Carlos Sainz	Renault Sport F1 Team	51	2 Laps
18	Sergey Sirotkin	Williams Martini Racing	51	2 Laps
–	Pierre Gasly	Scuderia Toro Rosso-Honda	4	Brakes
–	Brendon Hartley	Scuderia Toro Rosso-Honda	4	Brakes

 

2018 Formula 1 World Driver’s Championship Standings

1. Lewis Hamilton – 306 Points.
2. Sebastian Vettel – 256 Points.
3. Valtteri Bottas – 189 Points.
4. Kimi Raikkonen – 186 Points.
5. Max Verstappen – 158 Points.
6. Daniel Ricciardo – 134 Points.
7. Kevin Magnussen – 53 Points.
8. Nico Hulkenberg – 53 Points.
9. Fernando Alonso – 50 Points.
10. Sergio Perez – 47 Points.

 

2018 Formula 1 World Constructors Championship Standings

1. Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport – 495 Points.
2. Scuderia Ferrari – 442 Points.
3. Aston Martin Red Bull Racing – 292 Points.
4. Renault Sport F1 Team – 91 Points.
5. Haas F1 Team – 80 Points.
6. McLaren-Renault F1 Team – 58 Points.
7. Racing Point Force India F1 Team – 35 Points.
8. Scuderia Toro Rosso-Honda – 30 Points.
9. Alfa Romeo Sauber F1 Team – 27 Points.
10. Williams Martini Racing – 7 Points.

 

Round 17 of the 2018 FIA Formula One World Championship returns to the famous Suzuka International Racing Course in Japan for the Formula 1 2018 Honda Japanese Grand Prix from Friday October 5-Sunday October 7.