Bottas Wins in Sochi

Valtteri Bottas (Mercedes) has won the seventh Russian Grand Prix.

The Finnish driver took victory ahead of second placed Max Verstappen (Red Bull) and Silver Arrows teammate and Championship leader Lewis Hamilton (third place) – who failed to equal Schumacher’s all time win record of 91 race victories.

Despite Hamilton being unable to equal the win record – Kimi Raikkonen (Alfa Romeo) was able to equal Rubens Barrichello’s record of 322 race starts.

The only real excitement in the race was during the first eight laps, with crashes on the first lap including Carlos Sainz (McLaren) who had to go around the bollards coming into turn two who then clipped the wall which left him with three properly attached wheels and out of the race.

A second crash was just a few corners later with Lance Stroll loosing the rear of his Racing Point which left him in the wall at turn seven.

This caused a first lap Safety Car which lasted until lap eight. Just moments after we got back racing Lewis Hamilton was given two five second time penalties for two dangerous practice starts before the race – he served his ten seconds in his first stop which put him out in 11th place.

After Hamilton pit this left Bottas out in front and able to build a gap to Verstappen and control the race which he did.

Ricciardo was later given a penalty for ignoring Race Director instructions. But this didn’t affect his final position.

Drivers who had a tough race include Albon (Red Bull) who was able to eventually finish in 10th place. Lando Norris (McLaren) and Sebastian Vettel (Ferrari) who both finished outside the points.

The next race is the German Grand Prix.