BUBBLY BOTTAS LEAVES LEWIS FEELING FLAT
LEWIS Hamilton spent the day so far away from Valtteri Bottas that he couldn’t catch the champagne fumes in the rarefied air around the winner as he carried his trophy into the Mercedes sanctuary.
When the Russian Grand Prix was over, 36 seconds separated three-time champion Hamilton and the Finn who was recording his first race victory at the 81st attempt.
First versus fourth — and by that bruising margin — is a rare indignity for Hamilton, and proved that the obstacles to the Briton claiming a fourth title are coming from both Finland and Ferrari. The two super-fast red cars were sandwiched between the distant Mercedes men.
It was straight upstairs with his engineers for Hamilton and a rapid review of what had gone wrong. His boss Toto Wolff talked of the team taking the ‘wrong turn’ in setting up his car, leaving the star man struggling for balance, even before an overheating engine compromised him.
Hamilton said: ‘I can’t explain it right now, but we will do some work over this week to fully understand it. I need to understand where the speed was, where I went wrong with the set-up, then come back fighting.
‘I am still second in the championship, so it is not the end of the world, but I need to recover the pace I had because it was a very, very unusual weekend.’
To dwell on Hamilton’s problems is to minimise the quality of Bottas’s drive, though. He established his win at the first opportunity, charging on the outside of pole- sitter Sebastian Vettel through the gentle first curve so that, travelling at some 220mph, he was far enough in front by the tight second bend to zip across and cover the racing line.
Credit to the 27-year- old from Nastola, southern Finland, where he cuts holes in the ice to bathe in the cold days of long winters.
Bottas needed similarly iceveined qualities as Vettel hunted him down towards the end of the race, just after Vladimir Putin arrived in the sun-warmed Autodrom he built on the Winter Olympic Park dedicated to the glory of the Russian Federation.
It got nervy out there as Vettel closed in. But Bottas held on to win by just over half a second from the German. Kimi Raikkonen was third.
Putin watched from a balcony seat as the drama unfolded. With him were Bernie Ecclestone, the one-time ringmaster and a Putin friend whom the president bearhugged on his arrival, and Chase Carey, the new boss and his predecessor’s deposer. Putin, the peacekeeper, sat between them.
Men with shoulders the size of the Kremlin stood guard, close to the post-race ceremony. But once Bottas had been allowed in it was clear he was emotional. There is no equivalent in Finnish for the word ‘excitement’, but he wore his delight in a faltering voice.
‘I am not usually emotional,’ said Bottas, who has conducted himself with great cordiality — and no little competitive zeal — since joining Mercedes from Williams this season.
‘But hearing the anthem was special. It is a good feeling and the first of many.’
He talked of winning the title, while Wolff said he expected a ‘bit of a ding-dong’ between his racers, who are 13 points (Hamilton) and 23 points (Bottas) behind Vettel with four races done.
Hamilton was not the only crestfallen Briton. Jolyon Palmer’s race ended through no fault of his own on that self- same second corner where Bottas had struck.
Haas’s Romain Grosjean caught the Renault man as they braked and Palmer collected his destroyer as they both spun out. Palmer, who started 16th after a crash in qualifying, could hardly believe luck had run so cruelly against him. ‘He was too ambitious,’ said Palmer of Grosjean. ‘I had cars outside me. I had to turn the corner and hope he used his brain.’
It was another dire day for McLaren, who seem unable to start both cars. It was Stoffel Vandoorne who missed out in Bahrain a fortnight ago, and this time Fernando Alonso’s Honda engine conked out during the formation lap.