It was not the typical Mercedes snoozefest but it was another version of the typical Mercedes snoozefest as Mercedes went 1-3 at the 2020 Russian Grand Prix with Valtteri Bottas winning the race after six-time defending Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton was assessed a 10-second pre-race penalty. Red Bull’s Max Verstappen was the other beneficiary of Hamilton’s penalty, being gifted second place on the podium.
Hamilton entered the race as the pole position winner – albeit after a tumultuous qualifying session – and immediately took command of the race while Bottas quickly nabbed second place on the race start. An opening lap kerfuffle took out McLaren’s Carlos Sainz, Jr. as well as Racing Point’s Lance Stroll and caused a yellow flag until the fifth lap.
But it was not until Lap 17 when the drama – such as it was – began. Hamilton came in for his pit stop and was assessed a 10-second penalty – two five-second penalties apiece for practicing his race starts in the wrong part of the track in the pre-race warm-ups – and emerged from the pits in 10th place. Hamilton was able to move up to third place in the ensuing 14 laps but that was as far as he could get to make up the time deficit and in the final 22 laps of the race, there was no change in the final podium finishing order.
Hamilton still maintains a commanding lead in the 2020 Formula 1 driver standings with 205 points and Bottas extends his lead over Verstappen with 161 points to Verstappen’s 128 points.
2020 Russian Grand Prix Top 10
1 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes
2 Max Verstappen Red Bull
3 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes
4 Sergio Pérez Racing Point
5 Daniel Ricciardo Renault
6 Charles Leclerc Ferrari
7 Esteban Ocon Renault
8 Daniil Kvyat AlphaTauri
9 Pierre Gasly AlphaTauri
10 Alexander Albon Red Bull
