After a Ferrari lockout at the start of the grid at the Russian Grand Prix at Sochi, it seemed Sebastian Vettel was set for another win this season. However, Mercedes' new recruit Valtteri Bottas managed to show top notch performance and took home his first ever GP win, 0.617 seconds ahead of Sebastian. Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen took third place, securing his first podium of the season.
Starting at P3, Bottas raced ahead of the Ferraris in the initial turns
Starting at P3 just behind the two Ferraris, Bottas was off to a stunning start at Sochi, passing the slow-starting Raikkonen and then Vettel at Turn 2 to take the lead. However, a collision between Romain Grosjean and Jolyon Palmer saw the safety car being called out on the track. Bottas retained his lead over Vettel after the race restarted and extended the gap to well over 4 seconds.
Grosjean crashed into Palmer at Turn 2 while trying to overtake
Nevertheless, Vettel managed to cut down the gap by 2.5 seconds after Bottas was caught in traffic ahead of the pitstops, before Mercedes called its driver on Lap 27 to change tyres from ultra-softs to supersofts. Vettel pitted after Lap 35 to switch to supersofts.
It was a front row Ferrari lockout on the grid, last seen in the 2008 French GP
Vettel was now concentrating to cut down the time and up the pressure on Bottas. At the chequered flag, the German narrowed the time down to six tenths of a second making for a spectacular finish.
Meanwhile, it was not the best day for Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton, who despite a good start struggled with acceleration issues. Hamilton complained of overheating with his W08 in the first half of the race and was unable to catch up with Kimi Raikkonen, staying in fourth for the entirety of the 53 lap race. It was a distant fifth for Max Verstappen as well as he could not catch up to the pace of the Ferraris or Mercedes. That said, he enjoyed a nearly 26 second lead over Sergio Perez of Force India, who finished at sixth.
Vettel build intense pressure in the final stages of the race with a gap of just 0.617s
After a slow start this season, Force India scored its first double points at Sochi with Esteban Ocon taking the seventh place. Coming in eighth was Renault's Nico Hulkenburg; while Felipe Massa of Williams was consistently at sixth for most of the race, but dropped to ninth after a slow puncture.
Toro Rosso's Carlos Sainz finished tenth while Massa's teammate Lance Stroll finished 11th in his first grand prix. Sauber's Marcus Ericsson and Pascal Wehrlein finished 12th and 13th respectively, and it was McLaren's Stoffel Vandoorne ending the race at 14th.
Vettel leads in championship points for the 2017 season
The most disappointing retirement was of Fernando Alonso, failing to start the race after stopping the car at the pit entry on the formation lap. Honda said the loss of power was due to an ERS issue, but is investigating it. Meanwhile, both Grosjean and Palmer had an early exit from the race after the former tried to pass Palmer at Turn 2 on the inside. Daniel Ricciardo, on the other hand, retired after slowing on track having faced a problem with the rear brakes.
