Lewis Hamilton wins Russian GP for his 100th F1 race victory

SOCHI, Russia — Lewis Hamilton became the first Formulation 1 driver to get one hundred races with victory in the Russian Grand Prix on Sunday to retake the championship lead from Max Verstappen.

Hamilton dropped to seventh place when he was boxed in at the first corner but fought again and handed Lando Norris for the get when the McLaren driver stayed out on slick tires in late rain and slid off the monitor.

“It’s taken a long time to get to one hundred and at periods, I wasn’t confident it would occur,” Hamilton said. It was Hamilton’s fifth get of the year and his first since the British Grand Prix in July.

“It’s a magical second,” Hamilton said. “I could only have dreamed of still being below and getting this possibility to get these races and get to push with these phenomenal abilities this late in my vocation.”

Hamilton turned Verstappen’s five-point championship lead into a two-point lead of his possess after the Dutch driver concluded 2nd after a spectacular push from last on the grid. Carlos Sainz led the race early on and concluded 3rd for Ferrari.

Soon after his tough start off, Hamilton started transferring up with a tough overtake around the exterior of Fernando Alonso, a duel with echoes of their year as teammates when Hamilton was a rookie in 2007.

Verstappen started last after a penalty for an motor transform in his Crimson Bull but sliced through the area and experienced Hamilton in sight by the midway phase. Hamilton’s Mercedes labored much better on the hard tires in the 2nd fifty percent of the race and Verstappen’s charge appeared to have stalled when he was overtaken by the Alpine of Alonso and trapped in seventh.

But then the rain came and Verstappen switched to intermediate tires early, allowing him to declare an unanticipated podium complete and limit the harm to his hopes of a first title.

“We did not shed so several details currently, so which is genuinely, genuinely superior,” Verstappen informed his crew above the radio. 1 essential query for the rest of the year is irrespective of whether Hamilton far too will require to use an more motor and acquire a penalty.

It will not acquire a lot rain to make a difference in Sochi, where by the flat monitor suggests water is sluggish to drain away.

Norris trailed in seventh after his failed gamble to remain on dry tires irrespective of warnings from his crew about how slippery the monitor was starting to be. If not for the rain, Hamilton said, “it would have been tough to get earlier Lando. He experienced great speed.” Norris experienced been aiming to give McLaren again-to-again wins after Daniel Ricciardo took victory at the last race in Italy when Hamilton and Verstappen collided.

Hamilton has now received the Russian Grand Prix on five of eight occasions, and his victory Sunday proceeds a thoroughly clean sweep of victories in Russia for Mercedes cars.

Ricciardo narrowly missed the podium for McLaren in fourth and Hamilton’s teammate Valtteri Bottas was fifth after an eventful race for the Finn. Mercedes’ selection to swap the motor in Bottas’ motor vehicle and acquire a penalty prompted speculation the crew was deploying Bottas to maintain up Verstappen, a thing the crew denied. Irrespective, it did not acquire long for Verstappen to swoop earlier Bottas.

Alonso was sixth for Alpine, ahead of Norris and Alfa Romeo’s Kimi Raikkonen. The 2nd Crimson Bull of Sergio Perez was ninth and George Russell took the last point for Williams in 10th. Russell skilled 3rd and held up the cars driving — which includes Hamilton, his teammate upcoming 12 months at Mercedes — for a lot of the early component of the race.

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