F1 Russian GP Live Updates - race day
By: Jake Boxall-Legge
Summary
Valtteri Bottas wins the 2020 Russian GP from Max Verstappen | |
Lewis Hamilton finishes third after serving 10s penalty for practice start violations | |
Sergio Perez takes fourth after extending opening stint on soft tyres, ahead of Daniel Ricciardo's Renault - despite a 5s time penalty for running wide at Turn 2 in bungled change of positions between himself and team-mate Esteban Ocon | |
Pierre Gasly makes extra pitstop late on under VSC but recovers to finish ninth | |
Race paused behind safety car after both Carlos Sainz Jr and Lance Stroll crash out on lap one |
Status: Stopped
That's all from us - we'll see you in two weeks' time for the Eifel Grand Prix at the Nurburgring. Bye!
Champagne sprayage is very muted on the podium, or should that be Moeted? Other brands are available.
Everyone's wearing gloves on the podium, this is very full-kit territory given the FIA's new protocols.
Hamilton: "First I want to say a big thank you to all the fans that came this weekend. Spasibo. Not the greatest day but it is what it is."
Verstappen: "After the restart we were a bit slower on the mediums, but once we got on the hard tyres we were more competitive. We split the Mercedes cars, so we can be happy with that."
Russell had a tilt at fastest lap, slapping on softs and going for it - but he's just 0.3s off Bottas' purple time.
Perez secures fourth after a quiet race, as Ricciardo's hefty gap over Leclerc is enough to absorb a five-second penalty to secure fifth.
Albon has been given a five-second time penalty for going off track at Turn 2, but he has a healthy gap to Giovinazzi so he will keep hold of 10th place.
Russell pits for the third time this afternoon and puts on the soft tyres for a crack at the fastest lap on the final lap. Because why not.
These frontrunners are disrupting an tasty late battle between Giovinazzi in P11 and back to Raikkonen in P14, with Magnussen and Vettel in the middle of the Alfa Romeo pair.
Gasly sets a 1m37.231s to hold the fastest lap for a few seconds, before Bottas punches in a 1m37.030s. Seems like it's game, set and match.
Bottas now opens lap 51 with a quick-looking lap, aiming to get the point for fastest lap. Gasly's challenging him for it, however.
As we hit lap 50, Bottas has 5.5s of Verstappen. Bottas had traffic, which Verstappen's now coming up to.
While that on-track action was taking place Grosjean was investigated by the race stewards for going off the circuit at Turn 2 but was cleared of any penalty, probably because he battered the bollards in a glorious attempt to show he wasn't breaking the rules.
The hard tyres have cried enough for Norris as he locks up at Turn 13 which allows Albon to breeze by on lap 48. McLaren duly pit their driver having seen him drop out of the points places.
But Gasly keeps tucked under the rear wing of the McLaren driver to line up a move along the main straight and under braking at Turn 2. The French driver is up to P9 on lap 48.
Gasly, on the fresher mediums, is all over the rear of Norris but the McLaren driver defends strongly on the inside at Turn 13.
On lap 46 the midfield fight comes alive as Albon gets alongside Norris at Turn 7 but has to back out of the move. That invites Gasly into the fray and the AlphaTauri driver makes no hesitation to get ahead of the Red Bull driver to take P10.
At the end of lap 45, Verstappen got within 10s of Bottas. There might not be enough time to close him up, but the Red Bull has pace.
"OK Pierre, let's go and get what we deserve," Gasly is told over his AlphaTauri team radio. He's directly behind Albon and Norris after his pitstop.
Verstappen's re-opened up the gap to Hamilton, who set a 1m40 dead on the previous lap as Verstappen tickled the 1m38s.
Grosjean also pitted having collected the bollards at Turn 2 and is now in last place behind the Williams pair.
That super quick Virtual Safety Car period looks to have caught out AlphaTauri's strategy gamble as the team pits Gasly but that drops him behind Norris and Albon.
With Vettel taking the inside line, Grosjean is edged wide and off track, and in a bid to prove he is following the rules to avoid a five-second time penalty, the Haas driver swerves off the track in an attempt to go through the Turn 2 bollard but in the process smashes them into lots of small pieces.
Grosjean will have nightmares about cars overtaking him at Turn 2 tonight as one lap later Vettel repeats the trick on the Haas driver to take 14th place.
Grosjean loses two places in two laps at the same spot on the track, as Giovinazzi powers alongside and outbrakes the Haas driver to go around the outside at Turn 2 to take P13.
Hamilton took half a second out of Verstappen last time around, but Verstappen's managing to do enough to keep the Mercedes' gains small.
Albon will want to make quick work of overtaking the Haas drivers if he is to take any points this afternoon. Just as that thought comes up, the Red Bull driver powers by Grosjean on the long main straight to take P12.
Norris has quietly gone about his work climbing up the order following his tough opening lap. The McLaren driver is up to P10 having moved ahead of both Haas drivers. Further back Albon gets ahead of Giovinazzi at Turn 13 for P13.
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