Lewis Hamilton celebrated one of the luckiest wins of his career after a crash-strewn and chaotic Azerbaijan Grand Prix that catapulted him into the lead of the Formula One world championship.
The surprise victory, after team mate Valtteri Bottas suffered a puncture with three laps left while leading, ended a six race drought for the four times champion dating back to last October 2017.
In a race where the safety car again played a major part, with a series of crashes and smashes, Kimi Raikkonen finished second for Ferrari while Mexican Sergio Perez was third for Force India in a chaotic, incident-strewn Azerbaijan Grand Prix in which both Red Bulls sensationally collided with each other.
It was the first victory of the season for champions Mercedes team.
Vettel and Ferrari stuck it out with a conventional strategy, stopping on lap 28 for soft tyres, while Mercedes left Bottas out hoping for a safety car period.
It came, thanks to the Red Bulls, as Ricciardo cannoned into the back of Verstappen into Turn One.
Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel, who had led the championship before Baku and looked to be on course for a 50th career win and third out of four this season, started on pole position but finished fourth the race.
Up until Sunday, Lewis Hamilton had not had the best of luck in Azerbaijan. He had never managed a top four finish. He was also winless in the last six races. But in a crazy Grand Prix, it all came good for the Briton thanks to some extremely good fortune along the streets of the capital of Azerbaijan Baku.
Having arrived in Baku with a nine-point deficit to Vettel in the standings, Hamilton now heads the Ferrari driver by four points, with Kimi Raikkonen 18 further back in third.
We'll be back again in two weeks as the European part of the season gets underway in Barcelona.
Full race results for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, the fourth round of the 2018 F1 season at the Baku City Circuit, Azerbaijan.
1. Lewis Hamilton GBR Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport 51 laps, 1hr 43m 44.291s
2. Kimi Raikkonen FIN Scuderia Ferrari +2.460s
3. Sergio Perez MEX Sahara Force India F1 Team +4.024s
4. Sebastian Vettel GER Scuderia Ferrari +5.329s
5. Carlos Sainz Jr. ESP Renault Sport Formula One Team +7.515s
6. Charles Leclerc MON Alfa Romeo Sauber F1 Team +9.158s
7. Fernando Alonso ESP McLaren F1 Team +10.931s
8. Stoffel Vandoorne BEL McLaren F1 Team +12.546s
9. Lance Stroll CAN Williams Martini Racing +14.152s
10. Brendon Hartley NZL Red Bull Toro Rosso Honda +18.030s
11. Marcus Ericsson SWE Alfa Romeo Sauber F1 Team +18.512s
12. Pierre Gasly FRA Red Bull Toro Rosso Honda +24.720s
13. Kevin Magnussen DEN Haas F1 Team +30.663s
Did not finish
Valtteri Bottas FIN Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport 48 laps
Romain Grosjean FRA Haas F1 Team 42 laps
Max Verstappen NED Aston Martin Red Bull Racing 39 laps
Daniel Ricciardo AUS Aston Martin Red Bull Racing 39 laps
Nico Hulkenberg GER Renault Sport Formula One Team 10 laps
Esteban Ocon FRA Sahara Force India F1 Team 0 laps
Sergey Sirotkin RUS Williams Martini Racing 0 laps.
The next race is the FORMULA 1 GRAN PREMIO DE ESPAÑA EMIRATES 2018 Catalunya. Fri 11 May – Sun 13 May 2018
0 comments:
Post a Comment