Baku — Lewis Hamilton celebrated one of the luckiest wins of his career on Sunday after a crash-strewn and chaotic Azerbaijan Grand Prix that catapulted the Briton into the lead of the Formula One world championship. The surprise victory, after teammate Valtteri Bottas suffered a puncture with three laps remaining while leading, ended a six-race drought for the four-times champion dating back to October 2017. It was the first victory of the season for champions Mercedes. In a race where the safety car again played a major part, with a series of crashes and smashes, Kimi Raikkonen finished second for Ferrari while Mexican Sergio Perez was third for Force India. Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel, who had led the championship before Baku and looked to be on course for a 50th career win and third out of four this season, started on pole position but finished fourth. Hamilton now has 70 points to Vettel’s 66. Red Bull’s Australian Daniel Ricciardo, 2018’s winner in Baku and also in China two we...
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