Bottas wins in Russia as Hamilton is hit with two penalties

Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas won his second race of the 2020 Formula 1 season in Russia, bringing to an end an eight-race victory drought, following his Austrian Grand Prix success back in July.

Bottas, who started third, jumped Red Bull’s Max Verstappen at the start of the race and out-braked team-mate and pole-sitter Lewis Hamilton to grab the lead, only to cut Turn 2, allowing Hamilton to retake the lead.

However Hamilton’s chances of matching Michael Schumacher’s 91 victories this weekend would be dealt a major blow for a pre-race infringement, which earned the reigning champion two penalties!

Hamilton carried out two practice starts outside of the pre-determined area, which was noted by the FIA before the race started. It was until several laps into the race that the stewards handed Hamilton a five-second time penalty for each start, earning the Briton a 10-second time penalty and two penalty points – bringing his tally to ten and close to a race ban.

Hamilton served both time penalties during his one and only pitstop, which dropped him from the lead down to 11th. He would recover to third to claim the final podium position behind Verstappen, who drove a fairly anonymous race, unable to challenge race winner Bottas.

Full report to follow…

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