Raikkonen broke a lengthy podium drought to take third, while Lewis Hamilton battled his overheating Mercedes to finish a distant fourth ahead of a lonely Max Verstappen’s Red Bull. His afternoon in Sochi may help swing him an extension.
The others: Keke Rosberg, Mika Hakkinen, Raikkonen, and the driver many tend to forget, Heikki Kovalainen.īottas, a late replacement for the retired Nico Rosberg, is currently on a one-year agreement with Mercedes. “I always trusted my ability, but this result confirms it,” added Bottas, the fifth Finn to win a Formula One race. I asked for a bit of radio silence just to get on it and focus. I also had a lockup with about 15 laps to go that hurt the pace, but it was manageable.
It was tricky to pass them without losing time. “The pressure from Sebastian wasn't too bad the main issue was with the lapped cars, trying to get past those. It was definitely one of my best races ever. “It's all a bit surreal, the first win and hopefully the first of many. “Normally I'm not that emotional but hearing the Finnish national anthem was very special for me. “It's going to take a while to sink in,” a calm and composed Bottas said afterwards. Still Bottas held firm, helped on his final lap by Felipe Massa, his old Williams teammate who held up Vettel enough to take the tension away. Then, as the leaders encountered lapped traffic, the Ferrari moved to within DRS range. Bottas kept his cool and carefully managed the squared-off tyre. With encouragement over his radio, Vettel chased hard on fresher rubber, the gap shrinking inexorably. The race only really came alive with 14 laps remaining when Bottas made his only mistake, flat-spotting his left front in a smoky brake lock-up to put his four-second margin over Vettel in some peril. The Ferraris of Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen earlier locked out the front row in qualifying (the first one-two for the Scuderia since Magny Cours in 2008).īut off the start Bottas, from grid position three, swept around the outside of both the red cars into the lead, and there he stayed.Īlthough there was some the usual first-lap biffo, it was a race of one-stop tyre strategy and precious little overtaking. After 84 races, Finn Valtteri Bottas has taken his maiden Formula One victory in his fourth start for the Mercedes team, triumphing in the Russian Grand Prix after sustaining heated closing-laps pressure from Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel.