Valtteri Bottas leads championship after one-two win in Baku
Baku — Valtteri Bottas won the Azerbaijan Grand Prix on Sunday to retake the Formula One world championship lead from teammate Lewis Hamilton after a stunning fourth successive one-two finish for Mercedes. The Finn, who started on pole position, crossed the line 1.524sec ahead of Hamilton to make up for the agony of 2018 when he was denied victory in Baku by a late puncture. The pair is now separated by just one point with 17 races remaining. Mercedes are 70 points ahead of Ferrari in the constructors’ standings. “It was actually a tough race,” said Bottas, who went side-by-side with Hamilton on the opening lap and showed plenty of grit and determination in fending off the Briton to hold on to his position. “Lewis was putting pressure all the time, I could not do any mistakes,” the 29-year-old added, after coming under renewed threat from Hamilton in the dying laps. Sebastian Vettel in his Ferrari was a distant third as the Italian preseason favourites again failed to convert their ...
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