Bottas ends F1 winless streak with Russian GP victory as Hamilton hit by penalty
Valtteri Bottas took advantage of a penalty for Mercedes Formula 1 teammate Lewis Hamilton to win the Russian G꧙rand Prix.
Bottas claimed his sec🦋ond victory of the season, and first since the season-opening Austrian Grand Prix, after Hamilton was hit with a 10-second time penalty for making two illegal practice starts before the race.
Polesitter Hamilton was given two separate five-second 🦹time penalties for the double violation and subsequently dropped from🥃 the lead down to 11th after serving the penalty during his pit stop.
The Briton recovered from the setback to complete the podium in third place, behind Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and Bottas, who capitalღised on a rare error from Hamilton to end his winless streak of eight races with an untrouble🌠d drive to the flag.
It was a much-needed victory for Bottas, who has reduced what had been꧙ a 55-point deficit to Hamilton ꦬin the championship down to 44 points with seven rounds remaining of the 2020 season thanks to his 11-point swing.
Hamilton had held off Bottas’ attack at the start to lead a chaotic opening stint which was interrupted by a Safety Car on the opening lap following separate incidents which eliminated both McLaren’s Carlos Sainz andᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚ Lance Stroll, who was tagged and spun around into retirement by Charles 𝔉Leclerc’s Ferrari.
But Hamilton, who was frustrated by the penalty and ignored Mercedes team orders to pit, finally relinquished his lead ൲after stopping at the end of Lap 16 as he fell down the order.
Hamilton was ab♓le to recover to seal the final podium spot but missed out on the chance to equal Michael S🥃chumacher’s record of 91 grand prix victories.
Sergio Perez took his best result of the season with a strong fourth place for Racing Point, ahead of Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo and Lec𓃲lerc, who recorded Ferrari’s highest finish since claiming fourth at the 70th Anniversary Grand Prix.
Esteban Ocon successfully fended off a late-charging Daniilᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚ Kvyat to take seventh by just se♈ven-tenths, with the second AlphaTauri of Pierre Gasly taking ninth.
Alex Albon recovered from his gearbox-related grid drop and starting 19th to complete the top-10 and ♑record the final point on offer as the last classꦿified finisher on the lead lap.
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