30 April,2018 11:05 AM IST | Baku | AFP
Hamilton with the winner's trophy. Pics/AFP
Defending world champion Lewis Hamilton claimed his first win of 2018 yesterday and took over as leader of the title race when he triumphed in a dramatic, crash-strewn Azerbaijan GP. The Hamilton, 33, steered his Mercedes through a chaotic race and capitalised on others' misfortunes for his first win of 2018 and 63rd of his career.
Sebastian Vettel of Ferrari looked set for a pole-to-finish win until a second Safety Car intervention left him lunging to pass Valtteri Bottas and locked up and off. Bottas then seemed sure to win, but suffered a right rear puncture on his Mercedes after running over metal debris. Hamilton flew past to return to the top of the podium. "That was quite an emotional race," said Hamilton, who leads the World Championship by four points from Vettel. "Valtteri deserved the win and also Sebastian did a great job. I was very fortunate today, so it feels a bit odd to me to be here."
Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton negotiates a turn during the Azerbaijan F1 GP in Baku yesterday
Force India sixth
Vettel finished fourth ahead of teammate Kimi Raikkonen and Mexican Sergio Perez of Force India. Carlos Sainz finished fifth for Renault and Charles Leclerc sixth for Sauber. Fernando Alonso finished seventh for McLaren ahead of Canadian Lance Stroll of Williams, Stoffel Vandoorne in the second McLaren and New Zealand's Brendon Hartley of Toro Rosso. The race was punctuated by accidents which saw the two Red Bulls of Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen colliding while fighting for fourth place. There were seven retirements.
The drama unfolded from the start. As the lights went out, Vettel was away fast from his 53rd pole to hold off Hamilton in second, but behind them mayhem erupted. Raikkonen, starting sixth, attempted to pass inside Ocon's Force India, but the Frenchman turned in and as the pair collided he crashed into the wall. In the surrounding chaos, Sergey Sirotkin was also contacted and he went down an escape road, while Raikkonen limped back to the Ferrari pits. The luckless Alonso suffered punctured right front and rear tyres. The multiple incidents required a Safety Car before the action settled and racing resumed, after five laps.
Vettel pulled away to open a three seconds lead ahead of Hamilton and Bottas after 10 of the scheduled 51 laps. On lap 11, Nico Hulkenberg lost control of his Renault and clipped a wall at Turn Four as Ricciardo banged wheels with his Red Bull teammate.
Eventful finish
With 20 laps to go, Vettel finally pitted and passed the lead to Bottas, but rejoined 8.5 seconds ahead of Hamilton. After their pit-stops reversed positions, Ricciardo rammed into Verstappen on lap 41. The Safety Car was deployed again and the leaders pitted for new ultra-soft tyres. With four laps remaining, Vettel lunged to take the lead from Bottas, but locked up and fell to fourth. Then, with two laps remaining, Bottas suffered a right rear puncture after running over debris.
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