Hamilton handed victory at Russian GP

Lewis Hamilton won his 70th Grand Prix victory, his 8th of the season, at the end of the Russian GP contested on the Sochi circuit. Despite the Briton's 40-point lead, Mercedes preferred to pass team instructions by ordering Valtteri Bottas, polesitter and leader of the race, to give up his position to the leader of the Championship.

The Briton now has a 50-unit lead over Sebastian Vettel (Ferrari) who had to settle for the last step of the podium. The German briefly took the advantage over his title rival by making his stop more quickly, but the Mercedes driver was easily able to regain his due.

The rest of the classification respects the hierarchy since the Ferraris finish grouped, with Kimi Räikkönen 4th ahead of the Red Bull de Max Verstappen et Daniel Ricciardo parts of the back of the grid following penalties.

Charles Leclerc (Sauber) signs his second best result by taking 7th place ahead of Kevin Magussen (Haas). The Force India ofEsteban Ocon and Sergio Pérez complete the Top 10 ahead Romain Grosjean (Haas) which preceded Nico Hulkenberg (Renault), Marcus Ericsson (Sauber), Fernando Alonso (McLaren), Lance stroll (Williams), Stoffel Vandoorne (McLaren), Carlos Sainz Jr (Renault) and Sergey Sirotkin (Williams).

Toro Rosso had a catastrophic weekend. After starting from the back of the grid following penalties, Pierre Gasly et Brendon Hartley abandoned at the start of the race following mechanical problems.

BREED CLASSIFICATION: @LewisHamilton extends his championship lead to 50 points with five races to go #RussianGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/sPNfPstO9m

— Formula 1 (@F1) September 30, 2018

Discover the analysis of the Russian GP carried out by our special correspondents in issue 2185 of AUTOhebdo, available from Monday evening in digital version on all platforms, and from this Wednesday on newsstands.