Lewis Hamilton WINS Azerbaijan Grand Prix – Red Bulls collide and more

Lewis Hamilton has scored his first victory of 2018 at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix as a chaotic race saw the Red Bulls collide and Bottas get a puncture when victory seemed certain.

The record books will show that the 2018 Azerbaijan Grand Prix was won by Lewis Hamilton – hist first win of 2018 – that Kimi Raikkonen grabbed second place and Sergio Perez got a podium for Force India in third. But it was all a lot more complicated than the podium results.

In a nutshell, a late safety car after the Red Bulls collided (more on that later) saw Mercedes jump Sebastian Vettel – long time race leader – and Bottas looked to be set for a win, but a puncture in the closing laps saw him out and the race handed on a plate to Lewis Hamilton.

Bottas had emerged after a pit stop under the safety car in the lead, but Vettel made a lunge at the start with just four laps remaining, ran wide and let Hamilton and Raikkonen through, with Perez passing in his Force India shortly after.

As for the Red Bulls, Ricciardo seemed the faster after they finally got some temperature in their tyres, and by lap 35 had passed Verstappen. But as the Red Bulls pitted two laps apart Verstappen somehow ended up in front.

Ricciardo set about righting that wrong, but as he pushed hard to make a move Verstappen looked to be overdoing the weaving to keep his position, and Ricciardo ended up going in to the back of his team mate. They were both at fault – although Verstappen more so than Ricciardo – but that’s not going to make it any easier explaining to their team how it happened.

Behind the top four it was Sainz in the Renault, a cracking drive from Leclerc in the Sauber, points for Alonso and McLaren with a seventh place finish, Stroll giving Williams their first points of the season in eighth, Vandoorne adding to McLaren’s points tally in ninth and Hartley taking the last points position for Toro Rosso.

Lewis Hamilton now leads the drivers’ title race, but Mercedes still look to be a lesser package than Ferrari. With the Grand Prix Circus returning to Europe with the Spanish Grand Prix in a fortnight it could all get really quite interesting.