Team by team analysis of the Russian Grand Prix

Published May 1, 2017

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Sochi, Russia – Team by team analysis of Sunday's Russian Formula One Grand Prix (round four of 20, listed in championship order):

MERCEDES

(Valtteri Bottas 1, Lewis Hamilton 4)

Bottas took the first win of his F1 career, in his 81st race. The Finn becomes the sport's 107th different winner since 1950 and the first since Max Verstappen in Spain last year. Bottas started third but passed both Ferraris off the start. Hamilton struggled with an overheating car and finished off the podium for the first time since Malaysia in October 2016. Champion Mercedes retook the lead from Ferrari by a single point.

FERRARI

(Sebastian Vettel 2, Kimi Raikkonen 3)

Vettel started on pole with Raikkonen alongside in Ferrari's first front-row lockout since 2008. The race was lost at the start, despite the German's best efforts in the closing laps. Raikkonen returned to the podium for the first time since Austria last July, and also set the fastest lap.

RED BULL

(Max Verstappen 5, Daniel Ricciardo retired)

Verstappen improved from seventh at the start, passing Ricciardo and Massa, but the rest of the race was uneventful. He was at least lucky to make the grid, after a water leak was detected just before the start. Ricciardo retired with an overheating right rear brake that caught fire.

FORCE INDIA

(Sergio Perez 6, Esteban Ocon 7)

Perez chalked up his 14th successive points finish as Force India closed the gap on Red Bull to 26 points and consolidated fourth place. Ocon had his best result so far as the team had their seventh double-scoring finish in a row.

WILLIAMS

(Felipe Massa 9, Lance Stroll 11)

Massa was sixth for much of the race but had to make a second stop on lap 41 due to a slow puncture. Stroll spun early on, dropping the rookie to the back of the field, but he recovered for his first finish in Formula One.

TORO ROSSO

(Carlos Sainz 10, Daniil Kvyat 12)

Sainz had a three-place grid penalty and started 14th, with Kvyat 12th, but still scored for the third time in four races to deny his team-mate a point in the Russian's home race. Kvyat lost out at the start and was unhappy with an early pit-stop called by the team.

HAAS

(Kevin Magnussen 13, Romain Grosjean retired)

Magnussen collected a five-second penalty for exceeding track limits and finished where he started. Grosjean was in a collision with Palmer at Turn 2 of the first lap, with each blaming the other and stewards taking no action.

RENAULT

(Nico Hulkenberg 8, Jolyon Palmer retired)

Hulkenberg added four points to the two he scored in Bahrain for an improving team which is closing on Haas. Palmer has yet to score and endured a troubled weekend, with a chassis and engine change on Saturday followed by crashes in qualifying and race.

SAUBER

(Marcus Ericsson 15, Pascal Wehrlein 16)

Still no points for the Swiss-based team, which announced a Honda engine deal for 2018 earlier in the day. Sauber struggled to get the tyres working properly.

McLAREN

(Stoffel Vandoorne 14, Fernando Alonso non starter)

Another dismal weekend. No points yet this season and for the second race in a row only one car on the grid. Alonso stopped on the formation lap, causing the start to be aborted, with a Honda power unit problem. Vandoorne started last after a 15-place penalty due to other problems with the engine.

Reuters

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