Baku: A determined Valtteri Bottas resisted an attacking final charge by his Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton to win Sunday’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix and regain the lead in the 2019 drivers’ title race.
In a thrilling, closely-fought and dramatic race, the Finn came home 1.5 seconds ahead of Hamilton as Mercedes swept to a fourth successive season-opening one-two finish, the first team to do so since Ferrari in 1952.
It was Bottas’ second win this year and delivered some redemption after leading last year on the streets of Baku until his car suffered a puncture with three laps remaining.
The two Mercedes men came home ahead of Sebastian Vettel of Ferrari, Max Verstappen who was fourth for Red Bull and, after a storming effort, Ferrari new boy Charles Leclerc, who started eighth on the grid and scored the fastest lap after a late pit stop.
Bottas’ fifth win lifted him one point clear of Hamilton in the embryonic championship courtesy of his fastest lap in Australia. Bottas has 87 points, Hamilton 86 and Vettel has 52.
Vettel stayed third, but his Ferrari team-mate Leclerc climbed from 10th, having started eighth, to fifth by the end of lap eight. On lap 10, he passed Verstappen with aplomb at Turn One to go fourth behind Vettel.
The Racing Point team began the pit stops, followed by Daniel Ricciardo’s Renault and then Vettel, attempting an under-cut for Ferrari, with a stop in 2.4 seconds.