Hamilton & Mercedes back on top with fortuitous win at favorite Sochi track, Bottas second for Silver Arrows 1-2; Leclerc 3rd for Ferrari but Vettel DNFs
After three post-break races in which they were thoroughly outclassed by their arch-rivals Ferrari, mighty Mercedes got back to their winning ways at the Russian Grand Prix on Sunday. Despite their inferiority to the Prancing Horses in a straight line, which saw young phenom Charles Leclerc start from pole for the Scuderia and Sebastian Vettel overtake P2 starter Lewis Hamilton with the aid of Leclerc’s slipstream on the opening lap, the Silver Arrows benefitted greatly from a mid-race Virtual Safety Car that enabled them to get a “free” pit stop, emerging with a 1-2 lead in a race that they would never relinquish. The fact that the VSC was caused by a failure of Vettel’s MGU-K unit, forcing the German to pull off to a runoff area while profanely wishing for the return of the simpler V-12 engines, made it all the more bitter of a pill for Ferrari to swallow. With his wingman Bottas able to hold off the hard-charging but lonely Ferrari of Leclerc for the last 23 laps of this 53 lap contest Hamilton cruised home to take his ninth victory of the season and fourth overall at Sochi Autodrom. It was Mercedes sixth win here and they are the only team to claim the top step since Sochi was added to the F1 schedule in 2014. Bottas held station for a P2 finish and the talented Leclerc was left with an unfulfilled third place.
Despite a somewhat anti-climactic second half, which truth be told was caused by F1’s foolish insistence on keeping the pits open during the first laps of a Safety Car or VSC period and allowing random track position to determine who gets the lucky quick pit stop, the opening of the race was gangbusters in terms of both on track action and intra-team intrigue. With the bitter taste of Singapore still in Leclerc’s mouth, where he was undercut on pit strategy by Vettel leading directly to the latter’s victory at Leclerc’s expense, Ferrari still insisted on playing Machiavellian games. With a prearranged move Vettel got the drop on Hamilton as the lights went out and then drafted his teammate Leclerc down the long front straight to also overtake the Monegasque for the lead of the race. During a brief Safety Car period from Laps 2 -3 caused by a 3-car shunt between Romain Grosjean, Daniel Ricciardo and Antonio Giovanazzi, Leclerc could be heard talking about doing what was asked of him at the start and wanting Vettel to give him back P1. But when the Safety Car period ended Vettel had other ideas, as well as the pace to keep Leclerc behind him.
To add fuel to those conspiracy minded among us, Ferrari then appeared to try and engineer an involuntary give back of the lead to Leclerc by keeping Vettel running on his opening set of Soft Pirelli tires a bit too long. By the time Vettel came in for the switch to Mediums on Lap 26 he was losing over a second to Leclerc on track. It was all rendered moot by Vettel’s engine failure just a lap after pitting but the head games from the masters of Maranello are sure to increase the growing tension and distrust between their two highly talented pilots, one a highly accomplished four-time World Champion and one ambitious in the extreme and seeking to make his mark in the sport. Compounding the complexity for Ferrari it was Vettel’s DNF that caused the Virtual Safety Car that enabled Hamilton and Bottas to dive to the pits to change off of Mediums and onto Softs in half the loss of track time as under Green flag conditions. Leclerc meanwhile stayed out and pitted two laps later on Lap 30 under another Safety Car period caused by the Williams of George Russell’s break failure and crash. But he gave up his leading track position even so and was only able to rejoin in P3, crucially behind the obstinate Merc of Bottas. So there will be a lot to discuss — and probably a lot of hard feelings — at team Ferrari’s post-race debrief!
Further down the finishing order Red Bull’s Max Vertsappen did his usual excellent work to pull will himself up from a penalty-effected P9 start on the grid to a P4 finish. Perhaps even more impressive was his young teammate Alexander Albon, who started from the pits due to a raft of parts changes after a big crash in qualifying. But while he had been looking shaky all weekend long Albon drove a very composed and effective race to come home a somewhat astonishing P5. That is a major result for a rookie looking to stick with the big team after his promotion from Toro Rosso four races ago. McLaren also had a very good day. Despite announcing they would be switching back to Mercedes power for 2020 this week their Renault engines delivered the goods at Sochi, with Carlos Sainz getting the luck and reliability he so desperately needed to finish P6 and his junior teammate Lando Norris holding his own in traffic for a solid P8. Sergio Perez also drove an excellent race, bringing his Racing Point home in a valuable P7, while the sole remaining Haas of Kevin Magnussen was relegated to P9 after a 5-second time penalty for missing a bollard on track reentry after running wide. And Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg took the last point with a desultory P10.
Top 10 finishers of the Russian GP:
| POS | NO | DRIVER | CAR | LAPS | TIME/RETIRED | PTS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 44 | Lewis Hamilton | MERCEDES | 53 | 1:33:38.992 | 26 |
| 2 | 77 | Valtteri Bottas | MERCEDES | 53 | +3.829s | 18 |
| 3 | 16 | Charles Leclerc | FERRARI | 53 | +5.212s | 15 |
| 4 | 33 | Max Verstappen | RED BULL RACING HONDA | 53 | +14.210s | 12 |
| 5 | 23 | Alexander Albon | RED BULL RACING HONDA | 53 | +38.348s | 10 |
| 6 | 55 | Carlos Sainz | MCLAREN RENAULT | 53 | +45.889s | 8 |
| 7 | 11 | Sergio Perez | RACING POINT BWT MERCEDES | 53 | +48.728s | 6 |
| 8 | 4 | Lando Norris | MCLAREN RENAULT | 53 | +57.749s | 4 |
| 9 | 20 | Kevin Magnussen | HAAS FERRARI | 53 | +58.779s | 2 |
| 10 | 27 | Nico Hulkenberg | RENAULT | 53 | +59.841s | 1 |
Complete race results available via Formula1.com.
The next tilt is a fortnight away from the always compelling Suzuka circuit in Japan. Can Ferrari get their house in order and get back to their second half winning ways? Or will Mercedes and Hamilton ride the momentum of the lucky win in Russia to another back-breaking victory? Hope to see you then to find out!