From pole position, Hamilton led the charge from pole position – starting on the soft tyre as opposed to rivals Bottas and Max Verstappen (Red Bull) on the mediums. But his race winning hopes were truly dashed by race control, which revealed two 5-second penalties for practice start violations.
Mercedes decided to pit Hamilton early, putting him on the hard tyres for the rest of the race. Bottas was released out front and pulled well clear of the opposition, which was led by Verstappen.
Hamilton recovered to finish third, complaining multiple times about the penalties and that the team stopped him too early, ahead of Racing Point’s Sergio Perez.
Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo got a 5s time penalty for not going through the Turn 2 bollards after overshooting while he passed teammate Esteban Ocon, but he pulled out enough of a gap over Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc to make that irrelevant to claim fifth.
AlphaTauri’s Daniil Kvyat started the race on hard tyres, and ran as high as third before stopping. He charged back to eighth on fresh rubber, but couldn’t find a way past Ocon, with teammate Pierre Gasly also making a late stop and passing Alex Albon (who scored the final point) and Lando Norris to take ninth.
Alfa Romeo’s Kimi Raikkonen ran in the points for a while on the day he equalled Rubens Barichello’s record of F1 starts, but finished 14th after a slow pitstop.
Carlos Sainz and Lance Stroll went out of the race on the opening lap after crashes.
F1 Russian Grand Prix race results
| Cla | Driver | Chassis | Engine | Laps | Time | Pits | Points | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | Mercedes | 53 | 1 | 26 | |||
| 2 |  Max Verstappen | Red Bull | Honda | 53 | 7.729 | 1 | 18 | ||
| 3 |  Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | Mercedes | 53 | 22.729 | 1 | 15 | ||
| 4 |  Sergio Perez | Racing Point | Mercedes | 53 | 30.558 | 1 | 12 | ||
| 5 |  Daniel Ricciardo | Renault | Renault | 53 | 52.065 | 1 | 10 | ||
| 6 |  Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | Ferrari | 53 | 1'02.186 | 1 | 8 | ||
| 7 |  Esteban Ocon | Renault | Renault | 53 | 1'08.006 | 1 | 6 | ||
| 8 |  Daniil Kvyat | AlphaTauri | Honda | 53 | 1'08.740 | 1 | 4 | ||
| 9 | Pierre Gasly | AlphaTauri | Honda | 53 | 1'29.766 | 2 | 2 | ||
| 10 |  Alex Albon | Red Bull | Honda | 53 | 1'37.860 | 2 | 1 | ||
| 11 |  Antonio Giovinazzi | Alfa Romeo | Ferrari | 52 | 1 lap | 1 | |||
| 12 |  Kevin Magnussen | Haas | Ferrari | 52 | 1 lap | 1 | |||
| 13 |  Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | Ferrari | 52 | 1 lap | 1 | |||
| 14 | Kimi Raikkonen | Alfa Romeo | Ferrari | 52 | 1 lap | 1 | |||
| 15 | Lando Norris | McLaren | Renault | 52 | 1 lap | 2 | |||
| 16 |  Nicholas Latifi | Williams | Mercedes | 52 | 1 lap | 1 | |||
| 17 | Romain Grosjean | Haas | Ferrari | 52 | 1 lap | 2 | |||
| 18 | George Russell | Williams | Mercedes | 52 | 1 lap | 3 | |||
| 19 |  Carlos Sainz Jr. | McLaren | Renault | 0 | |||||
| 20 | Lance Stroll | Racing Point | Mercedes | 0 | |||||
| View full results | |||||||||
F1 Russian Grand Prix fastest laps
| Cla | Driver | Chassis | Engine | Laps | Time | Gap | Interval | km/h | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | Mercedes | 51 | 1'37.030 | 216.972 | |||
| 2 | Pierre Gasly | AlphaTauri | Honda | 50 | 1'37.231 | 0.201 | 0.201 | 216.523 | |
| 3 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | Honda | 53 | 1'37.332 | 0.302 | 0.101 | 216.298 | |
| 4 | George Russell | Williams | Mercedes | 52 | 1'37.352 | 0.322 | 0.020 | 216.254 | |
| 5 | Lando Norris | McLaren | Renault | 50 | 1'37.377 | 0.347 | 0.025 | 216.198 | |
| 6 | Daniel Ricciardo | Renault | Renault | 53 | 1'37.886 | 0.856 | 0.509 | 215.074 | |
| 7 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | Mercedes | 48 | 1'38.075 | 1.045 | 0.189 | 214.660 | |
| 8 | Sergio Perez | Racing Point | Mercedes | 52 | 1'38.141 | 1.111 | 0.066 | 214.515 | |
| 9 | Alex Albon | Red Bull | Honda | 51 | 1'38.377 | 1.347 | 0.236 | 214.001 | |
| 10 | Kimi Raikkonen | Alfa Romeo | Ferrari | 37 | 1'38.858 | 1.828 | 0.481 | 212.960 | |
| 11 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | Ferrari | 47 | 1'39.053 | 2.023 | 0.195 | 212.540 | |
| 12 | Daniil Kvyat | AlphaTauri | Honda | 48 | 1'39.133 | 2.103 | 0.080 | 212.369 | |
| 13 | Esteban Ocon | Renault | Renault | 48 | 1'39.216 | 2.186 | 0.083 | 212.191 | |
| 14 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | Ferrari | 46 | 1'39.588 | 2.558 | 0.372 | 211.398 | |
| 15 | Romain Grosjean | Haas | Ferrari | 44 | 1'39.614 | 2.584 | 0.026 | 211.343 | |
| 16 | Antonio Giovinazzi | Alfa Romeo | Ferrari | 44 | 1'39.766 | 2.736 | 0.152 | 211.021 | |
| 17 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas | Ferrari | 52 | 1'40.380 | 3.350 | 0.614 | 209.731 | |
| 18 | Nicholas Latifi | Williams | Mercedes | 47 | 1'41.044 | 4.014 | 0.664 | 208.352 | |
| View full results | |||||||||
F1 Russian Grand Prix tyre strategy
| Cla | Driver | Chassis | Engine | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | Mercedes | M | 29 | H | 27 | |||||
| 2 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | Honda | M | 28 | H | 28 | |||||
| 3 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | Mercedes | S | 19 | H | 37 | |||||
| 4 | Sergio Perez | Racing Point | Mercedes | S | 23 | H | 33 | |||||
| 5 | Daniel Ricciardo | Renault | Renault | S | 18 | H | 38 | |||||
| 6 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | Ferrari | M | 28 | H | 25 | |||||
| 7 | Esteban Ocon | Renault | Renault | S | 21 | H | 35 | |||||
| 8 | Daniil Kvyat | AlphaTauri | Honda | H | 30 | M | 23 | |||||
| 9 | Pierre Gasly | AlphaTauri | Honda | S | 21 | H | 24 | M | 11 | |||
| 10 | Alex Albon | Red Bull | Honda | S | 5 | H | 26 | M | 26 | |||
| 11 | Antonio Giovinazzi | Alfa Romeo | Ferrari | M | 16 | H | 36 | |||||
| 12 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas | Ferrari | M | 19 | H | 33 | |||||
| 13 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | Ferrari | M | 30 | H | 22 | |||||
| 14 | Kimi Raikkonen | Alfa Romeo | Ferrari | H | 35 | M | 17 | |||||
| 15 | Lando Norris | McLaren | Renault | S | 4 | H | 46 | M | 5 | |||
| 16 | Nicholas Latifi | Williams | Mercedes | M | 17 | H | 35 | |||||
| 17 | Romain Grosjean | Haas | Ferrari | M | 17 | H | 25 | M | 10 | |||
| 18 | George Russell | Williams | Mercedes | M | 1 | H | 13 | M | 38 | S | 2 | |
| Carlos Sainz Jr. | McLaren | Renault | S | 3 | ||||||||
| Lance Stroll | Racing Point | Mercedes | M | 0 | ||||||||
| View full results | ||||||||||||
F1 Russian Grand Prix as it happened