F1 results: Valtteri Bottas wins 2017 Russian Grand Prix, plus full finishing order

Valtteri Bottas of Mercedes won the 2017 Formula 1 Russian Grand Prix from Sochi Autodrom on Sunday. Bottas went from third on the starting grid to first place around the first corner of the race, and he held that lead despite an extremely dangerous, surging Sebastian Vettel of Ferrari, to win a race for the first time in his career.

Vettel stayed out eight laps longer than Bottas for first pit stops, and after said pit stops, Vettel was just five seconds behind Bottas. By the time the final laps were approaching, Vettel was on much fresher tires and flirted with the DRS zone.

He was unable to get into the zone however, and some backmarkers may have helped Bottas in the end.

There have been two wins for Mercedes and two wins for Ferrari thus far this season. Vettel has won two, Lewis Hamilton has won one, and now Bottas has won one.

The start of the race wasn’t a start at all for Fernando Alonso of McLaren, who has not seen a checkered flag this season. His car quit on him during the formation lap, prompting a second formation lap for the rest of the grid.

Once they were set on the grid, all four of the front cars had great starts. But it was Bottas who got the best one, putting his car in front of Vettel’s around the first corner. Hamilton also got off the line well, but he was unable to get past either Ferrari and settled into fourth.

Verstappen managed to get past Felipe Massa, and then we had two incidents that brought out the safety car. The first was a minor collision between Nico Hulkenberg and Lance Stroll, and the second was a major crash between Jolyon Palmer and Romain Grosjean.

The latter two were taken out of the race, and when the race started again, Bottas got a good start and quickly put himself out of DRS range of Vettel behind him.

Daniel Ricciardo had his brakes catch on fire not long after that and had to stop. His pit crew was unable to revive the brakes, and his race came to an end. Kevin Magnussen got handed a five-second time penalty for going off the track and not rejoining properly while the crashes were happening with other cars on Lap 2.

Bottas continued to put in great laps and put himself more than 4.5 seconds clear of Vettel. On Lap 16, Vettel responded by setting the fastest lap of the race. Vettel asked his team radio where he was losing time to Bottas, and they replied that it was the first sector. Meanwhile, Hamilton asked his team why his car was overheating, to which it replied it is an issue happening all over the grid.

Hamilton struggled through the final sector, taking a corner hard and narrowly losing control on Lap 24. At that same time, Vettel took half a second out of Bottas’ lead while other cars started to come in for their pit stops. By Lap 26, Vettel had taken two seconds out of Bottas.

Bottas came on his radio and said he was losing too much time, but his team kept him in. It’s unclear why, with Vettel completely dominating Bottas in lap times. Bottas finally came in at Lap 28 and rejoined the track in fourth. After a lap, all of Vettel, Raikkonen, and Hamilton stayed out. Bottas, fortunately, had around 10 seconds of clean air with which to work.

Raikkonen came in on Lap 30, with Vettel staying out along with Hamilton. Bottas then set the fastest lap of the race. Hamilton did go in as well and came out behind Raikkonen. Vettel kept out until Lap 33, when he was finally called into the pits ... and then told to stay out.

Vettel’s lap times were still good. He came in at Lap 35 finally, with tires now a few laps newer than Bottas’. Vettel came out in second place behind Bottas but ahead of Raikkonen and Hamilton. Bottas’ gap was quickly around five seconds, which is about the gap that Vettel took out of him prior to the pit stops.

With just a handful of laps to go, Vettel was getting closer and closer to DRS range behind Bottas. On the last lap, Bottas made it past Massa, the backmarker, and Vettel lost some time trying to get past Massa himself. Bottas managed to get the victory, hanging on to the end.

Below is the full finishing order for Sunday’s race, and you can find a list of standings in the Drivers and Constructors Championships right here.