Lucky Lewis lands an overdue win in Baku
Lewis Hamilton celebrated one of his luckiest wins on Sunday after a chaotic Azerbaijan Grand Prix catapulted him into the Formula One world championship lead.
Lewis Hamilton celebrated one of the luckiest wins of his career on Sunday after a crash-strewn and chaotic Azerbaijan Grand Prix that catapulted the Briton into the lead of the Formula One world championship.
The surprise victory, after teammate Valtteri Bottas suffered a puncture with three laps remaining while leading, ended a six-race drought for the fourtimes champion dating back to October 2017. It was the first victory of the season for champions Mercedes.
In a race where the safety car again played a major part, with a series of crashes and smashes, Kimi Raikkonen finished second for Ferrari while Mexican Sergio Perez was third for Force India.
Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel, who had led the championship before Baku and looked to be on course for a 50th career win and third out of four this season, started on pole position but finished fourth.
Hamilton now has 70 points to Vettel’s 66.
Red Bull’s Australian Daniel Ricciardo, 2018’s winner in Baku and also in China two weekends ago, smashed into the back of teammate Max Verstappen in a lap-40 collision that ended the race for both of them.
“It was quite an emotional race. Valtteri did an exceptional job and deserved to win, Sebastian also did a great job, so it feels a bit odd to be up here,” Hamilton said on the podium. “Definitely an untidy race for me.”
The Briton had started on the front row for the first time since he took pole in the Australian season opener but never looked like winning until Lady Luck removed both Vettel and Bottas from the equation.
“It was such a crazy race, such an exciting race… to come out with a win, I feel incredibly grateful,” said Hamilton.
Spaniard Carlos Sainz was fifth for Renault with Monegasque rookie Charles Leclerc sixth for Sauber, his first points in Formula One.