F1 2020 Russian Grand Prix

© J. Francois Barnard – September 27, 2020

Sochi has become a favourite of Valtteri Bottas, and we are here at the Formula 1 VTB Russian Grand Prix 2020 to see what he can produce this weekend.

Bottas was fastest in the first and second practice sessions and pipped in the third by his teammate, Lewis Hamilton.

At qualifying, Hamilton took pole position, followed by Verstappen, and Bottas could only manage to take the third position. But as Bottas says, "it is the race that counts!"

At the start, Bottas pulled ahead of Verstappen and even briefly ran ahead of Hamilton, but Hamilton retook the lead. Before the end of the first lap, Leclerc collided with Stroll sending him into the barrier. The safety car had to come out.

The stewards handed Lewis Hamilton two five-second penalties for doing practice starts outside the designated areas. He served it at his first pit stop. Ricciardo and Albon also received 5-second penalties for exceeding track limits at turn 2.

Picture credit: Autosport.com

Bottas eventually took the top step of the podium, and Verstappen joined next to him in second place. Hamilton fought long and hard with penalties against him to get to the third position on the podium.

Race classification: