Turkish Grand Prix LIVE: F1 result as Valtteri Bottas beats Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen to victory
Follow all the fallout live from Istanbul, where Bottas claimed the win as Verstappen went six points clear of Hamilton in the title race
Follow all the fallout from the Turkish Grand Prix as Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen resumed their razor-tight race for the world championship but were upstaged by the victorious Valtteri Bottas.
An increasingly acrimonious rivalry between Hamilton and Verstappen saw the Briton lead the standings by just two points heading into today’s race, but Verstappen leaves Istanbul Park with a six-point lead over the defending champion. Hamilton was handed a 10-place grid penalty this week after Mercedes replaced his Internal Combustion Engine for a third time this season, one more change than is permitted under Formula One regulations. It meant that Hamilton started from 11th on the grid, having been the quickest in qualifying.
He finished fifth as Mercedes teammate Bottas – who had inherited pole position, having finished 0.13 seconds behind the Briton in qualifying – crossed the line first. Red Bull’s Verstappen, meanwhile, started second on the grid and finished in the same place as teammate Sergio Perez rounded out the podium places.
Follow all the fallout from the grand prix below, and read a full race report by clicking here.
Perez defends superbly from Hamilton
LAP 35/58
Lewis Hamilton and Sergio Perez are fighting wheel-to-wheel for four corners at the end of the lap and the Mexican driver puts up a stunning defence into turn 1 to maintain fourth place.
It looked as though Hamilton had more traction and pace out of the final corner to get the move done but the Red Bull driver does a magnificent job to hold the Mercedes man off.
That was a wonderful bit of battling from both drivers.
Bottas dropping Verstappen
LAP 32/58
Valtteri Bottas is dropping Max Verstappen now, with the Finn extending his lead from 2.2s to 4.5s in a matter of laps.
Behind them, Hamilton is now within just over a second of Sergio Perez who remains fourth.
Mazepin blocks Hamilton
LAP 30/58
Nikita Mazepin is shown blue flags as Lewis Hamilton approaches to lap him, but the Russian driver refuses to cede ground and blocks the Mercedes driver over the crest of turn 11 in a dangerous way.
The Haas man has demonstrated a consistent level of incompetence throughout the season and Hamilton is livid with him, having easily lost over a second in that moment.
Vettel expecting dry tyres
LAP 29/58
Sebastian Vettel has been on the Aston Martin team radio saying that he expected dry tyres to be necessary before the end of the race.
Anything could still happen here as the drivers try to pick their moment perfectly.
Bottas given reassurance over tyres
LAP 28/58
Race leader Valtteri Bottas has been assures by his race engineer Riccardo Musconi that his “pace is still very good, we’re going long.”
Bottas responds by saying he feels comfortable right now, saying: “These tyres are like slicks now, they’re good.”
Leclerc fastest man on track
LAP 25/58
Charles Leclerc has set a new fastest lap from third place in his Ferrari as he closes the gap to Max Verstappen to less than two seconds.
Sergio Perez is also getting quicker and maintaining a gap of three seconds to Hamilton behind.
Ricciardo slower on new tyres
LAP 24/58
The Ricciardo experiment doesn’t seem to have worked for McLaren, with the Australian now lapping slower on new intermediate tyres than he was on his previous set.
Ferrari are on the radio to Charles Leclerc to tell him that new tyres aren’t necessary right now.
Tsunoda off the track at turn 1
LAP 23/58
Yuki Tsunoda suffers a snap of oversteer on the inside line at turn 1, over-corrects, and ends up with his car facing the wrong way on the run-off area.
That moves the Alpha Tauri man down to 13th, losing out to Vettel, Ocon, Giovinazzi and Raikkonen.
Ricciardo is first driver to pit
LAP 22/58
Daniel Ricciardo is the first driver to pit, taking a new set of intermediate tyres.
McLaren clearly aren’t confident that the circuit will dry out, and with the Australian pitting from a lowly 16th, they have very little to lose.
Sainz makes tenth overtake
LAP 19/58
Carlos Sainz is driving a superb race so far and has now moved up to ninth having started 19th thanks to a lovely overtake on Yuki Tsunoda over the crest after turn 11.
The former McLaren man is now chasing down Lance Stroll and Lando Norris and is showing extremely strong pace.
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