Hamilton takes victory in Russian Grand Prix

Lewis Hamilton returned to winning ways on Sunday at the Formula 1 Russian Grand Prix at Sochi Autodrom.

After starting from second and then gaining the lead while his chief rivals from Ferrari pitted, Hamilton later benefited from a virtual safety car period that allowed him to keep his position at the front. The Mercedes ace made no mistakes the rest of the way, ending Ferrari’s three-race winning streak while claiming an impressive ninth victory of the season.

The result was Hamilton’s 82nd triumph in Formula One and fourth at the Russian Grand Prix. While it inched him even closer to securing the World title, it was also the 143rd race led by Hamilton, breaking the record for most laps led in the top flight.

He led Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas to the chequered flag to secure the eighth one-two for Mercedes in 2019.

Hamilton completed the race in one hour 33 minutes 38.992 seconds. Bottas was 3.829 seconds behind while pole-sitter Charles Leclerc of Ferrari, who lost out on the lead due to the virtual safety car, had to settle for third 5.212s from first.

Sebastian Vettel in the other Ferrari led heading into the first turn at the start, but was forced to retire from the race after 26 laps with an engine problem.

The Red Bull Racing pair of Max Verstappen and Alexander Albon took fourth and fifth, respectively, while McLaren’s Carlos Sainz was sixth, Racing Point’s Sergio Perez seventh, and Lando Norris in the other McLaren eighth.

The top 10 was rounded out by Kevin Magnussen of Haas and Nico Hulkenberg of Renault.

Hamilton added an extra point to his season tally after clocking the fastest lap of 1:35.761.

Following the race, Hamilton commented: “This win feels like it has been a long time coming and it was just an incredible job from the whole team: never giving up, pushing forward, always trying to be innovative. It’s incredibly inspiring to be part of that and amazing to have this result today considering how quick the Ferraris were in that opening stint.

“It was a really hard task to keep up with them, especially on the offset tyre, but we kept pushing and the car felt really good today. We thought that their soft tyres would drop off during that opening stint, but they had such good pace that I was struggling to keep up with them – and that’s probably a little warning for us, because it looked like they got their calculations right in that regard.

“I managed to stay within shooting distance, though, and started closing down the gap as their tyres started to drop. Charles pitted, then I started catching Seb, and we were in a good position to offset and go long – even had the Safety Car not come out, it would have been a really good race. Then everything fell our way, and after that it was a question of building the gap, saving the tyres but also getting to the finish as smoothly as possible.

“Looking ahead, of course the races are counting down but we are just trying to take things one race at a time, put one foot in front of the other and not stumble. When you have a battle like this, you’re working flat out, turning over every stone and questioning every little thing you can do better.

“We love that challenge and I’m really excited for the next races.”

Hamilton (322 points) extended his lead in the Drivers’ Championship standings to 73 points from Bottas (249 points), while Leclerc is third on 215 points. Mercedes leads the Construcotrs’ standings with 571 points, followed by Ferrari with 409 and Red Bull with 311.

Only five races remain this Formula 1 season. Action resumes on October 13 with the Japanese Grand Prix.