Lewis Hamilton took his 100th Grand Prix victory in a Russian Grand Prix that started in dry conditions and ended under rain, team strategy came at play, making a late switch to intermediate tyres to take the lead when pole-sitter Lando Norris slid out of the lead with just two laps left. Max Verstappen for redbull made it from P20 to P2, and Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz took third having started second.
What was quite an interesting grid to begin with, as the regular pole sitters were either caught up in the mid field or were at the end of the grid due to penalties. That meant, we had a McLaren, a Ferrari and a Williams as P1-P2-P3, followed by Hamilton, Ricardo & Alonso at P4-P5-P6 and others.
As the lights went out, Lando had a great start, but behind him Sainz squeezed Russel to come at the top at the end of turn two into the breaking zone. After not so great start, Hamilton dropped from P4 to P7 behind Alonso, but quickly made up some places. However, he did find himself stuck behind Daniel through out the first stint. At the back of the field, Leclerc, Max & to some extent Bottas were making some steady progress, and the best from the rest had to be Max. P20 to P2 reminded us of Michael Schumacher Era.
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The first team to start the series of undercut were Aston Martin with Lance Stroll pitting in 5th and coming out 15th on lap 13. Russel responded followed by Sainz. While Hamilton chose to stay out, behind him Max was setting blistering laps and at one point in time, he was just 8 seconds behind Hamilton.
Daniel pitted on Lap 23 from P2 and a slow pit stop saw he losing few seconds and emerge 14th. Although Hamilton was 13 seconds behind leader Norris, he was finally in clean air and what followed was few fastest after fastest laps. He made up ground but bit the bullet on Lap 27, pitting for hards – while Verstappen also chose to pit (for mediums) seconds later. They emerged ninth and 12th, respectively, but Verstappen soon swiped P11 off Russell (who had pitted much earlier) and only had Ricciardo between himself and Hamilton.
Norris responded to the championship protagonists’ pistops on Lap 29, a solid stop seeing him emerge in P4 with Leclerc, Alonso and Perez ahead, and none of them having pitted.
“Lewis, we can win this race,” were the words from Mercedes boss Toto Wolff on Lap 30 after the Briton dispatched Stroll and Sainz for P6. Gasly was next. Then Hamilton was up to P5 on Lap 31, with Norris just eight seconds ahead.
Finally, as the top 3 pitted, the attention now was squarely drawn at the battle upfront, both Brit drivers, both with Mercedes Powered Engines, and both driving fantastically well.
But as fate had it, light shower turned into a downpour which dramatically changed the drivers order.
The rain tumbled down, the gap between Hamilton and Norris shrinking by the corner, and then came the moment that changed the race: Norris slid off the track on the penultimate lap. His hopes of a maiden win were over in the cruellest fashion, and he limped back to the pits for those intermediates, collecting a reprimand for crossing the entry on his way in.
And the chaos in pit stops to switch over to intermediates created a change in order, with Hamilton taking the win, Max Verstappen coming home second and Carlos Sainz coming home third. The rest of the drivers to finish in points was Daniel, Valtteri, Fernando, Lando, Kimi, Sergio, and George.
From here, its is Turkey next, and Lewis Hamilton is 2 points behind his championship rival Max Verstappen.
Will Lewis Hamilton regain the championship lead or will Max Verstappen increase the lead, stay tuned for it.
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Nice good read