Posted on 1st May 2017
At the Russian GP on Sunday, Valtteri Bottas held off a late charge from Sebastian Vettel to claim his maiden Formula One win at the Russian Grand Prix ahead of Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen.
The start of the race saw more drama for Honda, with Fernando Alonso pulling up with a suspected ERS failure on the formation lap, his first DNS since the infamous 2005 United States Grand Prix at Indianapolis. It overshadowed a day which had started with the Japanese manufacturer announcing it will supply Sauber in 2018.
When the race did start properly, Bottas had a blistering start and jumped Kimi Raikkonen off the line and then winning the drag race with Sebastian Vettel down to Turn 2. Behind Vettel and Bottas, both Raikkonen and Hamilton were sandwiched by the Red Bulls of Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen as they went four-wide through the ‘Turn 1’ kink, but held on to third and fourth respectively at the first proper corner.
To give Hamilton some well-deserved credit, he did extremely well to avoid losing his front wing at Turn 2, backing off to avoid Raikkonen as the Ferrari swung across the corner.
The race was immediately neutralised by an incident further back, which saw Renault’s Jolyon Palmer squeezed Haas driver Romain Grosjean as they pair turned into the Turn 2 right-hander. The pair made contact, before Grosjean swung back into the Renault, launching his car into the wall and out of the race.
The crash was investigated after the race, but Grosjean’s censored radio message after the incident made it clear where the Frenchman believed who was to blame.
As the Safety Car was deployed, Williams’ Lance Stroll spun coming out of Turn 4, complaining he had been squeezed by Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg, though it was apparent the two had not made contact. However Bottas comfortably led away at the restart and started pulling a gap to the chasing Ferraris behind, while Hamilton started struggling with cooling in his Mercedes.
Further back down the grid, Red Bull’s disappointing start to the season continued as Ricciardo slowed with a rear brake problem, which saw him immediately return to the pits to retire the car.
In the race for the lead, Bottas seemed comfortable out in front and had soon built a gap to Vettel behind. The race was less plain sailing in the other Mercedes, as the team told Hamilton to try and cool his W08 as it continued to overheat.
After being told to look after the car at one stage, the three-time world champion complained “I’m out of the race [for the lead]” as he had to stop pushing, but as the pit stop window approached it appeared he was starting to manage the situation.
Bottas pitted on Lap 28 and put Vettel into the lead of the race and ending Mercedes run of leading every lap since the Sochi Autodrom joined the calendar in 2014. Raikkonen and Hamilton pitted soon afterwards but Vettel stayed out until Lap 35, but emerged four seconds behind Bottas as it appeared the battle for the lead had ended.
But drama followed with Bottas locking up heavily into Turn 11 on lap 38; narrowly avoiding the wall and taking a big chunk out of his front right. That brought Vettel to within three seconds of his lead and suddenly Bottas had a flat-spotted tyre and a fast-approaching Ferrari of Vettel close behind.
As the pressure intensified in the closing laps Bottas asked for “less talking” from Mercedes on his radio. For a while it appeared Vettel was unable to get past the 1.4s mark but he had saved enough of his tyres (they were seven laps younger than Bottas') for a late charge at the end.
A fastest lap followed on Lap 48 as Vettel moved within DRS range but he was unable to get close enough. His charge halted on the final lap when Massa yielded under blue flags for Bottas at Turn 2, but then took the next corner ahead of Vettel, dropping the Ferrari man out of DRS range and giving Bottas the first win just four races into his time at Mercedes.
But it was Valtteri Bottas who won his first race of his Formula One career and his first for the Mercedes team at the Russian GP. The win is Bottas’ first in 81 attempts and moves him within 10 points of teammate Hamilton, though Sebastian Vettel still holds the outright lead of the championship by 13 points. It marked a dramatic turnaround from Mercedes’ qualifying fortunes, which had seen the world champion team locked out of the front row of the grid for the first time since the 2015 Singapore Grand Prix.
Bottas finished ahead of Sebastian Vettel in second place who was 0.617 seconds behind him and ahead of Kimi Raikkonen in third place who was 11 seconds behind Bottas.
Lewis Hamilton ended the race in fourth place ahead of Max Verstappen in fifth place, Sergio Perez in sixth place, Esteban Ocon in seventh place, Nico Hulkenberg in eighth place, Felipe Massa in ninth place and Lance Stroll who rounded off the top ten finishers and scored his first point in his career after Carlos Sainz Jr had to take a penalty.
Carlos Sainz Jr ended the race in eleventh place ahead of Daniil Kvyat in twelfth place, Kevin Magnussen in thirteenth place, Stoffel Vandoorne in fourteenth place and Marcus Ericsson in fifteenth place.
As we head into the latter stages of the grid, Pascal Wehrlein ended the race in sixteenth place. Daniel Ricciardo, Romain Grosjean, Fernando Alonso and Jolyon Palmer did not finish the race.
The classification for the Russian GP is as follows:–
1. Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes, 1.28:08.743s
2. Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari, 0.617
3. Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari, 11.000s
4. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, 36.320s
5. Max Verstappen, Red-Bull-TAG Heuer, 1.00.416s
6. Sergio Perez, Force India-Mercedes, 1.26.788s
7. Esteban Ocon, Force India-Mercedes, 1.35.004s
8. Nico Hulkenberg, Renault, 1.36.188s
9. Felipe Massa, Williams-Mercedes, 1 lap
10. Lance Stroll, Williams-Mercedes, 1 lap
11. Carlos Sainz Jr, Toro Rosso, 1 lap
12. Daniil Kvyat, Toro Rosso, 1 lap
13. Kevin Magnussen, Haas Ferrari, 1 lap
14. Stoffel Vandoorne, McLaren-Honda, 1 lap
15. Marcus Ericsson, Sauber-Ferrari, 1 lap
16. Pascal Wehrlein, Sauber-Ferrari, 2 laps
17. Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull-TAG Heuer, Not Classified
18. Romain Grosjean, Haas Ferrari, Not Classified
19. Fernando Alonso, McLaren-Honda, Not Classified
20. Jolyon Palmer, Renault, Not Classified
Sebastian Vettel leads the 2017 Formula One Drivers Championship with 86 points, Lewis Hamilton is in second place with 73 points, Valtteri Bottas is third with 63 points, Kimi Raikkonen is fourth with 49 points, Max Verstappen is fifth with 35 points, Daniel Ricciardo is sixth with 22 points, Sergio Perez is seventh with 22 points, Felipe Massa is eighth with 18 points, Carlos Sainz Jr is ninth with 10 points, Esteban Ocon is tenth with 9 points, Nico Hulkenberg is eleventh with 6 points, Romain Grosjean is twelfth with 4 points, Kevin Magnussen is thirteenth with 4 points, Daniil Kvyat is fourteenth with 2 points and Lance Stroll is fifteenth with 1 point.
Ferrari leads the Constructors Championship with 136 points, Mercedes are second with 135 points, Red Bull is third with 57 points, Force India are fourth with 31 points, Williams are fifth with 18 points, Toro Rosso are sixth with 12 points, Haas are seventh with 8 points and Renault are eighth with points.
Sarah Jones- @jonesy_laaa
