Valtteri Bottas put in a textbook performance to take the chequered flag in Baku, holding off Lewis Hamilton to clinch his second win of the season and return to the top of the championship standings.
The Finn looked composed and comfortable throughout a surprisingly incident-free race on Baku City Circuit, his Mercedes team mate Lewis Hamilton having to settle for second after an initial wheel-to-wheel battle at the start of the 1001 Formula One race.
Despite being considered to have the much faster car this weekend, Ferrari seemed unable to match the Silver Arrows for race pace with Sebastian Vettel finishing in third ahead of team mate Charles Leclerc who pulled off a nice bit of damage limitation after his crash in qualifying the previous day.
It was the second win of the season for Bottas and fifth of his career and delivered him some redemption after leading last year’s race until his car suffered a puncture with three laps remaining to go.
“Yes, ha!” said the delighted Bottas. “Amazing job guys. Really, really strong. I am so proud to be part of this team.”
“We are all performing really, really well,” said Bottas of the Mercedes team.
His win lifted him one point clear of Hamilton in the F1 championship courtesy of his fastest lap in Australia. Bottas has 87 points, Hamilton 86 and Vettel has 52.
Full results of the 2019 Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
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