In a chaotic Russian Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton took his 100th victory after Lando Norris decided not to pit for wet tyres at the end. Max Verstappen, who started at the back of the grid, drove incredibly to finish second with Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz taking home the final podium spot.
Grid penalties were the talk of the town on Sunday morning with Mercedes putting a new power unit into Valtteri Bottas’ car to see him start 16th with Verstappen starting 20th (having taken a new Honda engine earlier in the weekend) and Charles Leclerc 19th with a new Ferrari unit.
Although he fell to seventh at the start, Hamilton’s pace was competitive on his medium tyres and he pitted on lap 27 for hard tyres, before Norris. But when Norris pitted he remained ahead of Hamilton, but the seven-time world champion was charging.
Norris managed to keep Hamilton just out of DRS range for the majority of the race and was closing in on his first victory in Formula 1. But then, with just a few laps to go, the rain hit.
Lead pair Hamilton and Norris stayed out after others pitted for inters and it was the Mercedes man who made the decision to pit first, switching with three laps left – as Norris stayed out. But the rain kept coming.
The McLaren driver did his best to keep the lead but, with the rain getting heavier by the second, he eventually slid off the track and Hamilton passed him for P1. Norris eventually finished seventh having pitted at the very end but will find himself in trouble with the stewards after overshooting the white line at pit entry. Something that is a slam dunk penalty.
The other McLaren of Daniel Ricciardo kept his cool in the changing conditions and came home to finish fourth. Bottas started 16th but took fifth having pitted for mediums just after Verstappen, while Fernando Alonso started sixth and finished there with a long first stint on hard tyres.
Kimi Raikkonen kept his cool to make up places in the late wet conditions and finished eighth – leaving Sergio Perez and George Russell to take the final points for Red Bull and Williams, respectively.
By Charlie Parker
