It was an emotional, emotional day for Valtteri Bottas, who had come into raceday feeling good about himself, all charged up to defend his 2017 Russian GP win.
However, his world came crashing down when Mercedes decided to impose team orders, asking the race leader Bottas to move aside and let Hamilton by.
Bottas was visibly upset by the move and wanted Mercedes to know that he was indeed going to go faster the next lap.
Hamilton was under a little threat from Vettel, but not one that could have threatened his track position.
In the end, with Hamilton cruising to another win, some fans had assumed that the duo might switch back places, but nothing of that sort happened, despite Bottas trying to put it out there.
In the end it was Lewis Hamilton who won the Russian GP, with Bottas and Vettel occupying the other podium places.
Lewis’ post race celebrations were pretty mellow as he felt for his teammate and good friend.
Valtteri was emotional as he saw a race win being snatched away from him, but was a gentleman as usual, taking it all in his stride.
The duo shared a wonderful embrace after getting out of their cars, but the moment of the day came on the podium, when Hamilton offered his winners trophy to Bottas, with Bottas respectfully refusing it.
Hamilton currently has a 50 point advantage over Vettel in the driver’s standings and would be hoping that it swells up in the next race so as to almost confirm a 5th title for him.
Check out the video:
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