00:00And it's right out and away we go, they were held for quite a long time, and Sebastian Vettel got a really good start, he's already well to will, and passed by Hamilton, and here comes Carlos Sainz as well, Leclerc leads, Sebastian Vettel pulls over to the right hand side, the McLaren's getting in treated, the Mercedes are dropping back, and Sebastian Vettel takes the lead into the first corner, then comes Charles Leclerc, after their loose handle to the Carlos Sainz going wide, the two houses are Magnussen, Ada Grosjean, Magnussen are the great stuff,
00:30from 13th, and he's ahead of his team mate, but Sebastian Vettel, what a lot!
00:34He makes his way at 60 kilometres an hour, down the pit lane, Ted Kravitz, let's head down to you, good afternoon.
00:40Hi Crofty, hi Paul, hi everyone, that's tactical for Kibitza, it's the hard tyre, you'll see it on the second, it's the right tyre, as we see the sorry Haas being wheeled away.
00:50A few places there as well, Romain Grosjean to repeat, if you're just joining the race, is out, and Daniel Ricciardo has been in and out of the pit.
01:00Here's Giovinazzi, he's up the inside, all Ricciardo's on the inside of Giovinazzi, Giovinazzi has nowhere to go, Ricciardo's got nowhere to go, and Grosjean, he's unexpected.
01:09Here's Verstappen up in the 7th place, Anthony, you're monitoring the Team Radio Ferrari.
01:15Can we hear over for Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc? Leclerc has been told the prize is his, but what's going to happen on this next lap?
01:23This is Max Verstappen, oh, Sergio Perez, nice move, round the outside, before turn four, and then he gets the inside line.
01:30Do you hear that flattened out?
01:32And then see what we can do with the major ones.
01:34Good, so thanks ever so much indeed, we'll be back with you a little bit later on.
01:40Ferrari have got more of a problem coming there, Wayne Hamilton has now just done the quickest sector of anybody in the first one.
01:45He's quicker than Leclerc in sector two, so he's going to be under pressure.
01:48As this lap develops, Vettel still able to take another 3 tenths out of Leclerc in the middle centre.
01:54As it comes to the end of the lap, Vettel sets another fastest lap of the Grand Prix, 385.
01:58Charles Leclerc crosses the line, and does a 388 personal best, but still far away, and Hamilton's just done the best last sector.
02:07AWS powering live data on Formula One Insights and Max Verstappen.
02:12I think if they pitted Leclerc first, they'd bring him out behind Max Verstappen.
02:16That might not be a very good idea.
02:17Oh, well, he might get by him, but anyway, I have a word from Ferrari.
02:22So, this is from the team, I said, you know, what's going on with these orders?
02:27They say they discussed different scenarios pre-race, so that's confirmation that there was a plan.
02:33There was a plan, as Charles said on the radio, he stuck to his side.
02:37He feels Sebastian didn't stick to his side.
02:40I haven't seen anything, maybe I can have a look at Opmors, but I haven't seen any evidence of any grain in,
02:45any blister, and even on the medium tyre or the soft, so I would say Ferrari at this moment would probably want to stick to the softer tyre and try and keep the performance in there.
02:55Leclerc is...
02:56And Albon's going to come back at Gasly on the inside through turn three here.
03:04This is properly personal, is this?
03:06And is Alex Albon in head?
03:07No, Gasly has got the inside line making it very difficult for Albon in the red ball to get past the man who would dearly long to be sat in that red ball,
03:17but that he can see the tyre muscle in his rear mirrors, but this was cracking basic form.
03:22Nice to see some overtaken on a different bit of track as well.
03:25These new generation of cars are much better than the old ones around this track.
03:29They can run close because it's easy back through there, they can get a nice star anyway,
03:32and hopefully damages tyres, and when they battle, give that buffer.
03:36I think Ferrari might be losing it.
03:38Beto's just done a 39-0.
03:39Daniel Ricciardo has just come into the pits, and I think he's been retired from this race.
03:44Zayas, feeling okay?
03:47Understood, Max.
03:48Keep pushing.
03:49Confirmation from Renault, tyre, and Ricciardo out, loss of pace,
03:54sustaining that first lap, incident, too much damage, end of race for Daniel Ricciardo.
04:00The Gasly was passed by Alex Albon on the last lap.
04:02There's Danny Kvyat doing wonders for the Russian fans here,
04:07and their enjoyment of this Russian Grand Prix by getting past his teammate.
04:10That is how Gasly was passed by Carlos Sainz as well.
04:14Still no movement, Paul, at Ferrari.
04:16Disaster for him.
04:17Sebastian Vettel was leading this race.
04:20He might need at least three limoncellos now,
04:24because he is out of the Russian Grand Prix,
04:28after Ferrari sweeps the cars in the pit lane between the two Ferrari drivers.
04:33Ah, this is just played right into Hamilton.
04:35Look, of course, they'll pit under the virtual safety car, won't they?
04:37And they'll be in the pit for that.
04:38So Mercedes will pit under the virtual safety car, you would imagine,
04:41and they're getting ready down at Mercedes at the moment.
04:44There's a long way to go before the drivers get anywhere near the pit lane.
04:47But that loss, Paul, that 28-second or so loss that you get by pitting under normal conditions,
04:53gets reduced to about 15 seconds under the virtual safety car.
04:58And Lewis Hamilton at the moment has an eight.
05:01Now, George Russell, I would imagine, just pitted.
05:04That'll be a full safety car.
05:06He had just pitted, and he's gone straight on into the tyre barrier at the left half of about turn eight, I think that is.
05:14Simple throw.
05:16Yeah.
05:16He's lost the brakes on P6 at the end, or do you think you can challenge Sainz in front?
05:22No, I would be more than happy with P6 in the moment.
05:26Any point would make me happy at the moment.
05:28Well, good luck, and let's hope that you do eventually get some points.
05:34And also negate his new attires, let him burn them out while not getting past Bottas.
05:39And that takes the heat.
05:40Two seconds, 10, because Hulkenberg has got past Truffle and Gasly,
05:43who was going far too fast into turn two,
05:46and a bid to get past Danny Kriya.
05:48Nicely.
05:49It's another race that he'll have come into as it stands at the moment,
05:53and extended his championship leaver who really didn't think that that might happen.
05:57Sebastian Vettel gets 23% of the vote for driver of the day.
06:04What if Sebastian Vettel hadn't a stop with that MG UK problem?
06:08You will never know.
06:09This is Albon and Sainz from the helicopter shop here through turn three.
06:14Is Albon going to have another go around that?
06:17Try and follow the car in front, then dive down the inside.
06:19Do you know what?
06:20He certainly did have a go, didn't he?
06:22Sainz knew he was coming and didn't fight.
06:24So that they do, what's that, 73 points over Valtteri Bottas.
06:30The lead that was 62, 65, 63, 65, and now 73.
06:34Which is really interesting that Hamilton was able to do that at the time,
06:38and Leclerc not able to beat it.
06:40I know he's taken a lot of energy out of his tyres,
06:42but it shows that Mercedes-Benz on the same set of tyres and soft had the speed in it all along, at the end at least.
06:48So we came to Sochi off the back of Singapore,
06:51and the form book said it's going to be a 1-2 finish,
06:54but it was a 1-2 finish for the scooter rear that everyone was expecting.
06:58It's turned out to be a 1-2 finish for the Silver Arrows,
07:03who keep up their golden touch in Russia.
07:05Lewis Hamilton wins the Russia Grand Prix, Valtteri Bottas.
07:10I mean, their car is there,
07:12around all of those medium-speed corners and high-speed corners.
07:15The thing that really happened here, of course, was the long straights,
07:18especially in qualifying.
07:21Absolutely.
07:21They're getting stronger all the time.
07:23Well, they are.
07:25And Lewis Hamilton wanted his team to rise to the challenge,
07:28and that's what Mercedes did.
07:30They extended their lead.
07:31He extended his lead in the Constructors and Drivers' Championship,
07:35and we march on to Japan in a Formula 1 season in 2019.
