Valtteri Bottas claimed his maiden Formula 1 victory on Sunday in the Russian Grand Prix as he held off a late charge from Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel, who started the race from pole position.
The Finnish driver got a great start to leap ahead of both Vettel and Kimi Räikkönen before Turn 2 and he remained in the lead until the chequered flag, only relinquishing the lead temporarily during the first round of stops.
The Ferrari duo held on for much of the race before third-placed Räikkönen dropped off in the latter stages. Vettel however remained close and a later stop than Bottas closed the gap further.
Vettel slashed Bottas' five-second advantage across the second stint and moved to within DRS range on the penultimate lap, but Bottas, who had earlier run deep into Turn 13, kept his nerve and stayed ahead, to record his maiden victory.
The race began with Fernando Alonso pulling off track during the formation lap, with a suspected ERS issue the cause of his retirement; that forced a second formation lap, reducing the race distance by a single lap.
A quick start by Bottas got him ahead as carnage broke out behind. Jolyon Palmer and Romain Grosjean made contact at Turn 1, with the Renault spinning into the Haas car and taking both out of the race, forcing an early Safety Car.
Meanwhile Lance Stroll spun after taking too much kerb, forced to do so by Nico Hulkenberg on the outside.
Verstappen managed to get up to fifth before the safety car came out and finished in that position as he drove a lonely race, finishing 24 secods adrift of Lewis Hamilton who never had the pace to challenge those ahead after overheating issues impacted his race.
Hamilton, courtesy of fourth, slipped 13 points behind Vettel in the standings as a result.
Verstappen's Red Bull team-mate Daniel Ricciardo retired on Lap 5 with a brake issue, having dropped to seventh at the start.
Force India continued their double points finishes from the opening three races of the season with sixth and seventh for Sergio Perez and Esteban Ocon respectively.
Nico Hulkenberg, Felipe Massa and Carlos Sainz Jr completed the top 10, the Williams driver slipping back after having to make a second stop due to a slow puncture.
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