Lewis Hamilton won an incident-strewn Azerbaijan Grand Prix on Sunday to take the lead in the F1 drivers’ championship.
Hamilton’s Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas looked set to win the race, having taken advantage of a late safety car, only to suffer a puncture.
That came after Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel had thrown away second place with a mistake at the restart. He went on to finish fourth.
The late safety car had been triggered by a crash between Red Bull drivers Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen.
Hamilton now leads the drivers’ championship on 70 points, four ahead of Vettel.
‘It was really quite an emotional race,’ said the defending champion after his first race win of the season. ‘Valtteri did such an exceptional job and deserved to have the win, Sebastian did a great job.
‘I was very fortunate today. It feels odd to be up here but I’ve got to take it. I didn’t give up, I kept pushing.
‘To come out with a win, I feel incredibly grateful. You have to take the ups with the downs. I can’t complain that I won.
‘Valtteri was unfortunate. I wouldn’t have got by him at the end. Straight away when I got out the car, I went back to see Valtteri to congratulate him on a great job, which is why I was late to the podium.’
