‘Fortunate’ Hamilton leads race after chaotic Baku battle
DEFENDING world champion Lewis Hamilton claimed his first win of the year yesterday and took over as leader of the title race when he triumphed in a dramatic, crash-strewn Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
The 33-year-old Briton, who had struggled for outright pace, managed to steer his Mercedes through a chaotic race in Baku and capitalise on others’ misfortunes to register his first victory in seven races and the 63rd of his career.
Sebastian Vettel, of Ferrari, looked set to turn pole position into a victory until a second safety car intervention left him lunging to pass Valtteri Bottas and locked up and run off.
Bottas then seemed sure to win, but suffered a sudden right rear puncture on his Mercedes after running over metal debris on the straight.
Hamilton flew past to return to the top of the podium
“That was quite an emotional race, to be honest,” Hamilton said.
He now leads the championship by four points from Vettel.
“Valtteri deserved to have 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,” he said.
Vettel managed to continue and finish fourth ahead of his teammate Kimi Raikkonen and Mexican Sergio Perez of Force India.
Carlos Sainz finished fifth for Renault and Charles Leclerc sixth for Sauber, in his first points finish.
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, who scored his first F1 point.
The race was heavily punctuated by accidents which included one in which the two Red Bulls of Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen collided while fighting for fourth place in the closing stages, the pair having banged wheels and battled for positions throughout the race.
They ended up among the seven retirements on a challenging day on the second-longest circuit on the calendar. – AFP