Valtteri took his maiden Formula One victory today after jumping the two Ferraris off the start, then edging out Sebastian Vettel in a nailbitting, race-long battle. Lewis produced a battling drive to finish P4 after struggling with overheating throughout the race.
Today's result marks the 400th podium finish for Mercedes-Benz Power in Formula One. Lewis (73pt) is P2 in the Drivers' Championship, 13 points behind Vettel (86pt) in P1. Valtteri is in P3 (63pt), with Kimi Raikkonen fourth (49pt).
Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport (136pt) lead the Constructors' Championship by a single point from Scuderia Ferrari (135pt).
Toto Wolff, Head of Mercedes-Benz Motorsport: A fantastic first win for Valtteri this afternoon and an amazing day for him. He controlled the race perfectly: a great start, then a perfect restart after the Safety Car and a fantastic first stint where he built the gap on the UltraSoft. But then it got tense: we stopped, didn't quite have the pace on the SuperSoft, hit traffic and it needed nerves of steel to handle the pressure in those final laps with a four-time champion closing in. But in the joy of Valtteri's first win, the result was also a reminder that we still have work to do. Lewis had to manage temperatures from very early on, which meant he couldn't unlock the potential of the undercut around the stops. After that, it was a question of managing the race and collecting the points. But it's clear we didn't give him the car to do the job this weekend and it is a priority for us to sort this out before Barcelona.
James Allison, Technical Director: We're all so pleased to see Valtteri on the top step of the podium. A driver's first win is always very special but especially when it comes like it did this weekend, off the back off some difficult sessions. That makes victory all the sweeter. Our happiness is tempered though by the fact that we couldn't get Lewis into a position where he could be properly competitive. It's a reminder to us that we have more work to do before we can put a car on the track for both Saturday and Sunday that we know is going to absolutely top rank competitive, which is what we'll need to do in this, such a hard-fought and competitive season.
Christian Horner, Team Principal: "Firstly, congratulations to Valtteri Bottas on his first grand prix victory, a great win for him. For us, it was a real disappointment to lose Daniel early in the race with a right rear brake issue, straight after the safety car restart. We need to understand exactly what the cause of failure was; the outcome was similar to that which happened with Max in Bahrain but it looks like a different issue, so that needs thorough exploration. Max drove a strong race today, he had a good start but then he was in only racing himself in no man's land; putting a significant gap to the cars behind but not being able to keep up with the cars ahead. So, at a circuit that we know doesn't play to our strengths at least we got to our optimum with Max and hopefully in Barcelona we can start making some progress."
Maurizio Arrivabene: A shame, because today's result could have been better. We didn't get a great start and that penalised us for the rest of the race, on a track where overtaking is difficult. Our race pace was very good, as indeed was our strategy. Once again, both Seb and Kimi proved their worth, driving great races. Now it's already time for us to look ahead to the next Grand Prix in Spain.
Sahara Force India scored 14 points in today's Russian Grand Prix with Sergio Perez racing to sixth place ahead of Esteban Ocon in seventh.
Robert Fernley: "Congratulations to the whole team on another double points finish. The 14 points scored strengthen our fourth place in the championship and are a nice reward for a weekend where we maximised all our opportunities. Esteban achieved his best ever result in Formula One and continues his 100% points-scoring record with us. Sergio's sixth place means he has now finished in the points in fourteen consecutive races and that's a wonderful achievement. The one-stop strategy was clearly the way to go today and we made all the correct calls from the pit wall. All in all it's been a very encouraging weekend: the car has worked well; we've made good progress with our qualifying speed and scored points once again with both cars on Sunday."
Felipe Massa finished ninth and Lance Stroll 11th as misfortune hindered Williams in the Russian Grand Prix. Felipe passed Ricciardo at the start and kept him at bay through the opening corners to hold sixth, while Lance made up two places off the line but dropped back to P14 with a spin later during the first lap.
Felipe ran sixth for most of the race but was forced to pit for a second time on lap 41 with a slow puncture, which dropped him to ninth place. Lance managed to pass Kvyat for 11th, thanks to some quick laps before his only pit stop, and he was catching Sainz to challenge for the final points position in the closing stages.
Felipe also caught Hulkenberg and Ocon towards the end, but ran out of laps before he was able to regain any of the places lost to his puncture.
Felipe scored two points but drops to eighth place in the Drivers' Championship, behind Perez, while Williams remains fifth in the Constructors' Championship, now 13 points behind Force India.
Paddy Lowe, Chief Technical Officer: It was a very disappointing day because we were in great shape for some good points. Felipe drove a fantastic race, but we had two slow punctures on his car. The first one wasn't too damaging because it came at a reasonable time for a one-stop strategy, but the second one took him well out of position to ninth, which is a much worse result than the sixth place he was on for. On Lance's side, he had an unfortunate spin very early on, but drove a good, solid race after that and narrowly missed out on the points. Without the spin he could have certainly been in the points, but he put in some pace when he needed to and gained a position through the pitstops, and it's great that he's got his first race finish of his career. Overall we're disappointed, we need to understand the reasons for the punctures as there may be more to it than bad luck. We'll look into that, and look forward to getting better results in Spain, which the car and the drivers deserve. Finally, congratulations to Valtteri for his first race win. We consider him a home driver, he learned a lot of his craft at Williams and we're delighted to see him get his first victory in Formula One.
A hugely disappointing afternoon for the whole McLaren-Honda team after Fernando Alonso failed to start the Russian Grand Prix, and Stoffel Vandoorne took the chequered flag in 14th position.
Fernando suffered an ERS software fault on the parade lap, and, despite attempting to restart it during the lap, he was unable to make it back to the pits and was left stranded on the circuit.
Stoffel put his head down and drove a tidy, measured race, finishing 14th - getting the best from his car but unable to challenge any of the runners ahead of him.
Eric Boullier: "You cannot hide behind a result like this: finishing 14th is not why McLaren-Honda goes racing, and, believe me, we are working hard to make sure this level of performance doesn't last for long.
"That said, it's still extremely disappointing to run into reliability and performance issues during a race weekend - we must work together to pull ourselves out of this position.
"Given the performance limitations he had today, Stoffel drove a very measured and efficient race, doing everything that was asked of him to look after his tyres and fuel. As I say, 14th is not a notable result, but it's exactly what we could expect from his car this afternoon. It's pleasing that he was able to make the finish and gain some useful mileage.
"As for Fernando, I share his frustration - it's not acceptable to start the second consecutive grand prix with only one car, and we need to address this shortcoming immediately. He is naturally disappointed, but things will get better."
Yusuke Hasegawa: "We've had an incredibly difficult and ultimately disappointing weekend here in Russia. "That said, it was a positive that Stoffel finished the race, especially in such tough conditions, starting from the back of the grid. Today his running was impressive and he kept consistent pace in a difficult situation with tyre and fuel management. Stoffel hasn't had an easy start to the season with many issues during each race weekend, so we're happy that he finally took the chequered flag, albeit in P14 which is of course not where we want to be.
"Fernando lost the power from his deployment with the system failure of ERS during the formation lap. Although we tried to fix it by rebooting the system while running, we weren't able to recover it. As a result, we had to stop the car out on the track and were unable to start the race. We'll be investigating the cause of the system failure.
"It's a big disappointment for us that we're not able to complete the race with both drivers, but we will move forwards from this and keep pushing. We're expecting some updates to the PU over the next few races, and we'll continue working on our development in order to be more competitive with better reliability."
Franz Tost (Team Principal): "Sochi wasn't an easy race weekend for us, as we struggled with the speeds on this circuit's long straights. Therefore, we didn't manage to do a good qualifying session yesterday. As for today's race, in the end, both cars saw the chequered flag and Carlos managed to score a point, which is important for the Constructors' Championship. We knew from the beginning that this would have been a tough race for us, but we are positive for the future and looking forward to the next race in Barcelona. We will be bringing some upgrades there - let's see what the rest of the teams do, but I'm confident we can get back into the fight for the top positions of this intense midfield battle."
It was a tale of two races for Haas F1 Team in the Russian Grand Prix Sunday at Sochi Autodrom. The fourth round of the 2017 FIA Formula One World Championship saw Kevin Magnussen finish 13th while Romain Grosjean crashed out on the opening lap.
Magnussen qualified 14th but started 13th due to a five-place grid penalty being served by Toro Rosso's Carlos Sainz Jr., who qualified 11th. Grosjean qualified 20th but started 19th as 17th-place qualifier Stoffel Vandoorne of McLaren also served a grid penalty.
Grosjean's race ended quickly. A collision with the Renault of Jolyon Palmer in turn two of the opening lap around the 5.848-kilometer (3.634-mile), 18-turn circuit bounced Grosjean's Haas VF-17 into the wall and out of the race. He was classified 19th.
Magnussen, meanwhile, had an excellent start to the 52-lap race, picking up three positions to rise to 11th behind the 10th-place Renault of Nico Hulkenberg and 12th-place Sainz.
When Daniel Ricciardo began experiencing brake problems on his Red Bull after five laps, his trip to the garage allowed Magnussen to pick up another spot and crack the top-10.
Magnussen pitted at the end of lap 21, swapping the Pirelli P Zero Purple ultrasoft tires he started the race with for a set of Red supersofts that would carry him to the finish. The scheduled stop dropped Magnussen to 14th, as an FIA-mandated five-second penalty was served for exceeding track limits in turn two of the opening lap.
Magnussen displaced Vandoorne for 13th on lap 26 and then set his sights on the Toro Rosso duo of Daniil Kvyat in 12th and Sainz in 11th.
The distance to Kvyat was great, however, and even with another 26 laps remaining, the gap was too much to overcome. Magnussen's 14th-place finish was his first outside of the top-10 in three career Formula One starts at Sochi Autodrom.
Valtteri Bottas won the Russian Grand Prix to score his maiden Formula One victory by .617 of a second over Scuderia Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel. The fifth-year driver earned the win in his 81st career Formula One start but only his fourth with Mercedes. Bottas took over for reigning series champion Nico Rosberg after Rosberg retired at the conclusion of the 2016 season. The triumph also kept Mercedes' record at Sochi Autodrom perfect, as the manufacturer won the Russian Grand Prix in 2014 and 2015 with Lewis Hamilton and the 2016 race with Rosberg.
Four rounds into the 20-race Formula One schedule, Haas F1 Team remains seventh in the constructor standings with eight points, five behind sixth-place Toro Rosso and two ahead of eighth-place Renault. Grosjean and Magnussen are tied for 11th in the driver standings with four points apiece.
Guenther Steiner: "The weekend ended how it started - badly. I think the best thing we can do is put it behind us and concentrate on Spain. Obviously, Romain had the incident when Palmer ran into him at turn two. That was his race done. With Kevin, he got the five-second penalty and that put us out of the running. We just lost too much time and that was the race. We just tried to bring the car home because there was nothing to be gained or lost. We started 13th, we finished 13th. Now we go to Barcelona."
Renault Sport Formula One Team secured its second points-scoring finish of 2017 with a robust eighth place from Nico Hulkenberg in the VTB Russian Grand Prix at the Sochi Autodrom. Nico started eighth then ran a mammoth 40-lap stint on his qualifying Ultrasort tyres before changing to the Supersoft tyres for a final 12-lap bid to wrestle seventh place from Esteban Ocon. Jolyon Palmer's race ended at the second corner, the victim of an ambitious over-the-kerbs overtake attempt from Romain Grosjean.
Nico started the race in P8 on his qualifying Ultrasoft tyres, changing to a set of fresh Supersoft tyres on lap 40. Jolyon started the race from P16 on a new set of Ultrasoft tyres before retiring from the race after contact from Romain Grosjean at Turn Two on the first lap.
Cyril Abiteboul, Managing Director: "Another step forward for the team this weekend, not only confirming that we are regular top ten qualifiers but also showing that our race pace has improved relative to our qualifying performance too. Today was a really exciting race for Nico as we ran a reactive strategy after a poor first lap, trying to take the fight to the Force India cars as best we could. With a unusual strategy, we kept the pressure on them for most of the race, but eventually Nico had to manage his fuel and could not really threaten Esteban. We did everything we could at a circuit we knew would not be one of the most favourable for our package. Our overall performance gives us strong optimism as we head to tracks which should be more suited to our car, especially as we have a healthy development program lined-up. Jolyon had a very tough race weekend with a very short race after Romain's ambitious move. It is a real shame as he had shown clear signs of competitiveness on Friday and Saturday. We owe a big thanks to everyone in the garage this weekend as there have been some very long hours worked, without a single fault. Finally, congratulations to Valtteri Bottas on his first Grand Prix victory."
A difficult Russian Grand Prix weekend has come to an end: Marcus Ericsson and Pascal Wehrlein finished the race on the Sochi Autodrom in P15 and P16. Throughout the whole weekend, the Sauber F1 Team had difficulties getting the tyres to work properly. Next on the calendar is the Spanish Grand Prix - in less than two weeks, the Formula 1 European season starts in Barcelona.
Monisha Kaltenborn, Team Principal: "Considering the whole weekend, we unfortunately expected such a result. Despite these circumstances and limitations of our car, Marcus showed his fighting spirit. Once again, he proved his strength and didn't give up in difficult moments - it shows, that Marcus is an important support for the team. It is a shame that he was not able to overtake the car in front of him. Regarding Pascal, we need to analyse why he was having some issues. We have to tick off this result and concentrate on our updates that we will introduce in Barcelona."
The Russian Grand Prix was won with a one-stop strategy by Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas, who claimed his debut victory. Just one pit stop was used by nearly all drivers, as has always been the case in Sochi. The Finn took the lead on the first corner from third on the grid using ultrasoft, stopping for the supersoft tyre before his key rival: Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel. Vettel stayed out six laps longer, using his fresh tyres to catch Bottas in the closing stages of the race. The top eight all used an ultrasoft-supersoft strategy.
Mario Isola: "The Russian Grand Prix played out as we expected it to strategically, despite an early safety car and temperatures that were the highest we have seen all weekend. There was a small amount of blistering on the front left tyre for some drivers, due to the long Turn 3, but this didn't influence performance. The smooth surface meant that it was a one-stopper for the vast majority of competitors, with low degradation as expected. We saw some different thinking about the timing of the pit stops, especially from Bottas and Vettel, which made for an exciting run to the chequered flag."
