Blown tire dashes Bottas’ F1 victory hopes in Azerbaijan

Vettel, who won the first two races of the season, leads Hamilton by nine points after three grands prix this year.

Despite taking the standings lead for the first time this season, Hamilton said the win didn’t mark a turning point in the fight with Vettel and Ferrari.

Hamilton’s victory is his first in 2018 and his maiden win in Azerbaijan.

Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen and Sergio Perez of Force India made up the podium.

Hamilton now tops the championship leaderboard with 70 points, four more than Sebastian Vettel on 66, with Raikkonen third on 48.

When the Safety Car was deployed late in the race following a collision between Red Bull team-mates Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen, the battle for the win was opened up, with a large portion of the field pitting for a set of fresh Ultrasoft tyres for what would be a sprint to the finish.

The Englishman said: “He has been driving exceptionally well and he did the better job and deserved the win but circumstances prevented that”.

“We are thankful we are allowed to race, myself and Max love to race as we show”, said Ricciardo. At the same time, Perez passed Vettel to take fourth place, which became third thanks to Bottas’ retirement.

“It is a day I am grateful for and I honestly don’t feel I’m not at my best, I am just really struggling with the auto”, Hamilton said.

Sainz was fifth after a strong race. Charles Leclerc, the rookie French driver in a Sauber, finished sixth and was voted the “Driver Of The Day”.

“It felt like a win, I’m on a cloud now, it has been an unbelievable race”, said Leclerc.

McLaren drivers Fernando Alonso and Stoffel Vandoorne threaded their way through the carnage on the streets of Baku to claim seventh and ninth places respectively in today’s action-packed Azerbaijan Grand Prix. Raikkonen is now third in the Driver Standings with 48 points.

Now the F1 season moves on to its first European race of the season with the Spanish Grand Prix on the 11-13 May weekend. After banging wheels earlier in the race on lap 12, the pair finally pushed too far as Verstappen aggressively defended, moving right and then left, leaving Ricciardo with nowhere to go resulting in contact and the duo ending the race in the run-off area at Turn 1.

The Red Bulls were expected to contend for victory but instead in the opening laps found themselves under pressure from the Renaults of Carlos Sainz and Nico Hulkenberg, who were on softer tyres at the start.

Ricciardo and Verstappen could have collided several times before they eventually did, Ricciardo running into Verstappen while trying to pass at the first corner.

And the Mexican got the job done by passing the Ferrari on the run to Turn 1 demoting Sebastian to fourth. That sent them both off the track. “They will apologise to all of the staff before Barcelona”, he said.

Such talk met with short shrift from both driver and team boss Toto Wolff, however.

While under the safety vehicle, Romain Grosjean found a bit too much grip and slammed into the wall. On lap 30, Vettel pitted and rejoined behind Bottas and ahead of Hamilton in P2. In ’17, he had led until a loose headrest forced him to make an unscheduled pitstop which effectively cost him the win. It hurts a lot.

Racing director Eric Boullier bore a concerned expression in McLaren’s hospitality suite in the moments before qualifying, and his mood is unlikely to have improved following yet another dismal showing.