Hamilton ends Ferrari winning streak with action-packed victory in Russian GP as Vettel forced out
LEWIS HAMILTON ended Ferrari's winning run with a victory in the Russian Grand Prix - leaving the Italian team baffled as to how they stuffed it up.
Despite Ferrari being the favourites, Hamilton benefitted from a perfectly executed strategy and a bit of good fortune, as Sebastian Vettel retired with an engine failure.
Hamilton said: "An incredible job by the guys, who never give up and were trying to be innovative.
"It is incredible to have this result , just keeping up with Ferrari was a hard task. They were just so fast.
"I try not to think about the championship, just take it one race at a time. It is getting harder as the season goes on but one foot at a time, we mustn't stumble."
Vettel made a fantastic start and launched into the lead - thanks to a bit of help from his teammate, Charles Leclerc, who started on pole.
And the German was at his ruthless best - defying team orders to swap places with Leclerc.
Not that it mattered for a MGU-K failure on lap 28 forced him to stop - and denied a thrilling end to this race.
Vettel's retirement was a double gift for Hamilton, who also set the fastest lap to open up a 73-point lead over Valtteri Bottas in the championship.
It not only catapulted him into the lead, the subsequent virtual safety car while the Ferrari was removed from the track, allowed him to make a pitstop for fresh tyres.
And for the remaining 24 laps he cruised to the finish line while behind him Bottas did his best to hold off Leclerc - who was suffering from the red mist.
Leclerec, who took pole the previous day, was furious with his Ferrari team, and despite coming in to this weekend promising to bite his tongue after his outburst in Singapore, he could not hold back.
It all started before the race, with Ferrari's bizarre strategy to promise to swap their drivers around if one provided the other with a tow into turn two.
'LET CHARLES BY'
Leclerc felt he did his part of the deal, as Vettel benefited from slipstreaming behind his teammate.
And then came the radio messages:
Lap eight
Ferrari to Vettel: "Let Charles by."
Leclerc to Ferrari: "You put me behind and I respected everything. We will talk later."
Lap nine
Ferrari to Vettel: "Let Charles by."
Vettel to Ferrari: "He'll have to close up..."
Lap ten
Ferrari to Leclerc: "Charles we will do the swap later on. Lewis is a bit close, and we want to push now into the race. We will do it later, just focus on your race, thank you"
Leclerc to Ferrari: "I completely understand. The only thing is that I respected. I gave the slipstream, no problems. But then I tried to push at the beginning of the race, but it's no problems. Manage the situation."
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Leclerc will now seek explanations from his Ferrari team as to why Vettel defied the pre-agreed team order to swap places.
It is not the first time he has been guilty of it, as there was the "multi-21" incident with Mark Webber when they raced together at Red Bull.
Meanwhile, Max Verstappen was fourth and Alex Albon was fifth, despite starting from the pitlane.
