Mercedes Valtteri Bottas scored the
first win of his F1 career after holding off the charging Ferrari of Sebastian
Vettel for a superb victory in the 2017 Formula 1 VTB Russian Grand Prix. Kimi
Raikkonen made it two red cars on the Sochi Podium, as Lewis Hamilton trailed
home a distant fourth in the second Mercedes.
Bottas got the jump on both
Ferraris at the start, leading into Turn 2 from Vettel, Raikkonen and Hamilton,
and from there the Finn was in command, only losing the lead during pit stops.
Vettel put him under intense pressure in the closing laps, but he refused to
crack and took the chequered flag just 0.6s ahead. There was drama even before
the start in Russia when Fernando Alonso reported that his McLaren was losing
charge.
After 40 laps, with 12 to go, it
was down to just 1.5s. Soon he would be within range to use his DRS system to
attempt an overtaking move, and the closing laps were real nail-biters as they
threaded their way through traffic. Going into the final lap Vettel was only
seven-tenths of a second behind. But keeping his nerve and lapping Felipe
Massa’s Williams and leaving the German to follow the Brazilian through the
long, fast Turn 3, Bottas got the break he needed and took a crucial victory
for Mercedes by 0.6s.
Raikkonen was third, 10.3s behind,
with the very unhappy Hamilton fourth after suffering intermittent overheating
issues for much of the afternoon. Max Verstappen was a lonely fifth on a day
when Red Bull team mate Daniel Ricciardo succumbed early to rear brake
problems, while Force India scored their 14th consecutive set of points, and
maintained their 2017 record of getting both cars into them, as Sergio Perez
led home team mate Esteban Ocon, the latter a career-best seventh. On a day
when Bottas joined the F1 elite in tremendous style, Vettel came away with an
extended championship lead over Hamilton. His advantage is up to 13 points, 86
to 73, while Bottas has closed in on 63 in third, with Raikkonen fourth on 49.
In the constructors’ stakes Mercedes now lead Ferrari by just a single point,
136 to 135.
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