#RussianGP: Lewis Hamilton drives to victory in Sochi with team orders, extend his lead by 50 points over Sebastian Vettel

2018-09-30 14:46

Janine Van der Post

Image: AFP / Andrej Isakovic

Lewis Hamilton has won the 2018 Russian Grand Prix in Sochi on Sunday with team mate Valtteri Bottas in second place.

Bottas had a really good start and led most of the race. Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel had a much better start than championship leader Hamilton. The two went wheel-to-wheel in turn 1 but it was all neat and tidy with no Lap 1 crashes.  The German took the third step on the podium.

In fact, there were no crashes or incidents during the entire race.

Hamilton now leads Vettel by 50 points in the championship title race.



Max Verstappen started the race in P19 for Red Bull and drove his way through the pack leading the race for a while on the same set of tyres for about 37 laps before he pitted. It would have been a marvelous 21st birthday gift to himself if he could have ended the race in P1. He was awarded the Driver of the Day by race fans.

We also saw team orders come into play when Mercedes told Bottas to allow Hamilton to take the lead.



Kimi Raikkonen was fourth for Ferrari while the Red Bulls of Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo came in fifth and sixth.

Sauber's Charles Leclerc was seventh and Kevin Magnussen was in P8 for Haas. 

The Force India drivers Esteban Ocon and Sergio Perez rounded up the top ten.



Team orders will most certainly be discussed after the race in the Mercedes camp as Bottas drove extremely well with no mistakes, only to be told to give up his position.

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