In Pictures: Russia 2020
From Russia with Love
Vettel crashed in qualifying, Hamilton was penalized in the race, twice, a couple of crashes on the first lap and ninth victory in Formula One for Valtteri Bottas.
Practices and qualifying went as expected, utter domination from the Mercedes duo, until Sebastian Vettel creased his Ferrari with only 2:15 minutes to the end of Q2. Logically, it was red flagged until everything was sorted out and everyone came out to try to pass to Q1, last in line was Lewis Hamilton, who managed to get by the start finish line with 1.25 seconds to spare, he passed to Q3 and then got pole with a record setting lap of 1:31.304, his 96th.
On Sunday, Hamilton and Mercedes got all wrong when Lewis, on his way to the grid, asked if it was ok to do a practice start at the end of the pit-lane, but outside the designated area, which he did. But that decision ended up costing him two separate 5-second penalties for practice start violations. Anyhow, before the stewards announced the before mentioned penalties, it was all Hamilton up front, but Carlos Sainz, who started 6th, took the run off area at turn 2 and crashed heavily trying to negotiate the bollards and the wall at the designated exit area, launching him into the racetrack and ending his race. A few turns ahead, Charles Leclerc touched the rear of Lance Stroll's Racing Point, sending him into the wall and ending his race. Safety car came out while the track was cleaned, repairs were made to the barriers, and cars were recovered.
Racing resumed on lap 6 with Hamilton getting away into the distance, followed by Bottas, Verstappen, Ocon, Ricciardo, Perez, Gasly and Leclerc. On the next lap, Hamilton was handed the two penalties.
On lap 16, Hamilton, who had started the race on softs (red tires) was called into the pits for a change of tires and to serve his penalties. He came back out more than 35 seconds behind the then leader Bottas but managed to reach P3 by the end.
So, it was Valtteri's ninth win in F1 in a racetrack he enjoys, followed by Max Verstappen, voted Driver of the Day, and a not so happy Lewis Hamilton.
QUOTES FROM THE PODIUM
““What a feeling! It’s been a little while since my last win, but I knew there would be opportunities heading into the race and luckily things went my way this time. It was a bit tricky at the start because an insect hit my visor just as I was entering the braking zone, which meant I couldn’t really see where to brake and so I went deep. But I knew it was going to be a long race and with the Medium tire, there would be chances later on. Lewis then had his penalty, and once I was in clean air, the pace was really strong, and I was able to control everything without any real concerns. Now I need to keep this momentum up. There are quite a few races to go and you just never know, so I’ll keep pushing, I won’t give up and we’ll see how it turns out in the end.””
““We can be very happy with second place today, especially on a track where we know that we aren’t normally so competitive. It is a good amount of points for the Team and what we needed after the last few races. There was very low grip on the inside of the grid at the start, which cost us a bit and the first few corners were pretty interesting, but we stayed calm and I quickly moved past Daniel again. It’s good to be back on the podium and we can definitely be pleased to finish within eight seconds of Bottas on this track.””
““Firstly, I want to say a big thank you to all the fans who came out this weekend, I hope you enjoyed the race. It wasn’t a great day for me, but it is what it is. We need to go through everything and understand exactly what went on to get those two penalties. It was just one of those days, but I’m grateful that I still managed to get a podium, bag some points and didn’t lose as much as I could have done. Congratulations to Valtteri on the win, and I’ll take the points and move forward.””
