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Lewis Hamilton next to Lando Norris: An ups and downs of feelings followed
Photo: Pool / Getty Images
Battle against the world champion - and the weather
: Lando Norris is considered a talent of the century in Formula 1. The 21-year-old Briton led the Russian Grand Prix for a long time in a McLaren, heading for his first victory in the racing series. But after the engines were switched off, he stood sadly in front of the "Sky" microphone and wiped around in his right eye. What happened? On the final laps of the rain in Sochi, the teams had to decide whether to call their drivers into the pits to change their tires. Norris was asked if he wanted to come in. "No!" He shouted over the radio and "Shut up" when the route was slippery. At this point he was being chased by Lewis Hamilton, there were only four laps left. The world champion drove into the pits, Norris turned and was passed through. From the dream.
The result:
Formula 1 has been a guest in Sochi for eight years, and no other team than Mercedes has ever won there.
Hamilton made his 100th Grand Prix victory perfect, with Max Verstappen (Red Bull), who started from behind, surprisingly in second place ahead of Carlos Sainz (Ferrari).
Read the race report here.
The start:
was as important as it was unpleasant for Hamilton.
He was the only one from the top group of the World Cup to start the race from the front of the field, from fourth place.
Because overtaking at the Sochi Autodrom is difficult, Hamilton had to drive up right at the start to secure a good starting position.
But this failed thoroughly.
While Sainz Norris took the lead, Hamilton lost three more places.
Bottas does not resist:
World Cup competitor Verstappen
did
better, who had already worked his way up to 17th place in lap two - two places behind Bottas, whose car Mercedes had ordered a drive change and who therefore also found himself at the end of the field at the start.
Two laps later, the Red Bull driver drove directly behind the Finn, on lap seven he passed inside turn 13 on his first overtaking maneuver at the end of the second DRS zone.
Bottas was in the process of charging his battery and did not even start defending himself.
Max Verstappen's race to catch up:
And the Red Bull driver
set course for the points: after a quarter of the race distance, Verstappen grabbed Vettel and was tenth.
He slipped even further through pit stops by the competition, was then the fastest driver in the field and was suddenly only three places and five seconds behind Hamilton - at the start of the race, the two rivals had separated 16 positions.
The boss intervenes:
At halftime, both went to the pits one after the other (lap 27), which was the turning point for Hamilton.
He came out on the open road, but Verstappen got into traffic and was slowed down.
On lap 30, Mercedes motorsport director Toto Wolff switched himself on via radio: "Lewis, we can win the race," he said.
And Hamilton went hunting for Norris.
The onset of rain changed everything:
He showed one fastest lap after the other and came very close to the McLaren drivers. But the youngster countered with best times. A few laps before the end of the race, the outcome of the race was completely open. Then it started to rain and Mercedes played on its experience. Although Hamilton was initially reluctant to follow the call for rain tires, he finally gave in - and was then able to pass Norris, who slipped off the track in the wet. Verstappen also benefited and finished on the podium on intermediates. "When I woke up today, I definitely did not expect this result," said the Dutchman.
70 days of waiting:
"It took a long time to make the 100," said Hamilton about his special victory, which also took him over the World Cup lead from Verstappen. He also had praise for his young competitor: "It would have been difficult to get past Lando without traffic or a mistake, and he made no mistakes," said Hamilton.
Norris contrites:
At McLaren, however, they quarreled with the tire decision that they had not correctly assessed the amount of rain.
"We didn't get the information right or processed it properly, and the others did a better job," said Norris after the race.
"We gambled away, together with Lando," said McLaren team boss Andreas Seidl at Sky.
»We were convinced that one more round was possible with our forecast.
It didn't work out. ”The team could have“ outvoted ”Norris.
"But in the end we made this decision together to stay outside," he added.
