Russian Grand Prix: Ferrari failed, handed victory to Lewis Hamilton

Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) has won Russian Grand Prix at Sochi Autodrom, the 16th round of the 2019 Formula One World Championship season. It’s his ninth win in 2019 and 83rd victory in a career.

Hamilton continues the domination of Mercedes at Sochi Autodrom, scoring sixth consecutive Russian victory for the German manufacturer and fourth victory for himself. Valtteri Bottas completed Mercedes celebration with the second-place finish, holding off the late charge of Charles Leclerc (Ferrari).

Hamilton and Bottas gave one more 1-2 victory to mercedes

Sebastian Vettel took a surprise lead at the start from P3 on the grid, in front of pole-sitter Leclerc and Hamilton. Vettel refused to hand the place back to Leclerc but the Monegasque driver returned to the lead after pit stops.

Unfortunately for Ferrari, Vettel stopped on track with an energy recovery problem, causing the Virtual Safety Car and allowing Lewis Hamilton to use a free pit stop for taking the lead. Leclerc also pitted for a fresh set of softs, dropping behind Bottas. Leclerc’s hopes that he would return to the top in the last twenty laps failed and he has to be satisfied with the third-place finish.

The other points scorers are Max Verstappen (Red Bull, 4th), Alex Albon (Red Bull, 5th), Carlos Sainz (McLaren, 6th), Sergio Perez (Racing Points, 7th), Lando Norris (McLaren, 8th), Kevin Magnussen (Haas, 9th) and Nico Hulkenberg (Renault, 10th).

Lewis Hamilton stretched his championship lead to 73 points with just five Grands Prix remaining. The next race is the Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka, scheduled for October 13.