Rookie Valtteri Bottas wastes little time gaining 1st F1 title

Valtteri Bottas claimed his maiden Formula One victory on Sunday when he resisted intense pressure from championship leader Sebastian Vettel to triumph for Mercedes in a tense Russian Grand Prix.

The Finnish driver, starting from third place on the grid, grabbed the initiative at the start by powering past both Ferraris and into the lead while his Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton struggled home fourth.

Four-time champion Vettel finished second ahead of Ferrari team-mate Kimi Raikkonen, who claimed his first podium finish since last year’s Austrian Grand Prix.

The popular Bottas’s first win was warmly received by his fellow drivers and the paddock, Hamilton hugging him after he had jumped into the arms of his crew and Vettel joining the reception, Russian President Vladimir Putin also present for congratulations and prize giving.

“Worth the wait!” said the unflappable Bottas in typical understated style after coming home just six-tenths of a second ahead of Vettel at the flag.

Vettel was seemingly as pleased for Bottas as if he had won himself.

“I tried everything to catch him and I thought there would be an opportunity on the back straight,” the German said.

“I thought I could do it, but I wasn’t sure what Felipe Massa would do and I ended up losing out. It doesn’t matter though. Big congratulations to Valtteri. This is his day.”

Raikkonen said: “I have had a bit of a rough start to the season, but this week has been a step forward, but we still only finished third. So, we’ll keep trying.”

By lap 18, Bottas was controlling events with a 4.5-sec lead and the top four were separated by less than 14 seconds.

The leading positions remained unchanged until the pit-stops, which saw Bottas first in for super-softs followed by Raikkonen and Hamilton, Vettel leading from lap 27 until lap 34 when he finally pitted for new rubber.

This enabled Bottas to regain the initiative, but an error at Turn 13 on lap 38, when he had a serious lock-up and narrowly avoided the wall, invited Vettel, on fresher tyres, back into contention.

Needing no second invitation, the German closed the gap to 1.5 seconds with 10 laps to go and set up a grandstand finish, but Bottas hung on to take his first emotional and welcome victory in his 81st Grand Prix.

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