BAKU, Azerbaijan – Valtterri Bottas won the Azerbaijan Grand Prix on Sunday to retake the Formula 1 World championship lead from team mate Lewis Hamilton after a fourth consecutive 1-2 finish for Mercedes.
The Finn started from pole and finished 1.524sec ahead of Hamilton so only one point separates them but the team is 74 points ahead of Ferrari in the Constructors’ standings.
“It was a tough race,” Bottas said in the post-race interviews. Lewis was putting pressure all the time, I could not make a mistake.” He held on until the end while nder constant pressure from Hamilton.
TWO WINS EACH
Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel finished well back in third.
The result means each Mercedes driver has two wins and two seconds so far in the 2019 season; Bottas’ lead comes from an extra point he scored through the new ‘fastest lap’ rule. Hamilton has 86 points, Bottas 87, and the team is the first pair to have started with season with four consecutive 1-2 finishes.
Max Verstappen was fourth for Red Bull ahead of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc.
READ THE full Reuters race report, with images, here.
