Lewis Hamilton once again finished in P1 at the end of the race in Sochi bringing his season point total to 306 and increasing his points haul to 50 over his closest rival Sebastian Vettel whom they're both involved in the tussle for a 5th F1 championship win. The race began with Valteri botas in P1, Hamilton in P2 and Vettel in P3. Hamilton had a battle against his fierce rival Vettel and had to hold him off to keep his P2 position on the grid at the start of the race, he also benefitted from team orders that made his team mate Bottas let him through to take pole position while bottas held on to P2. Hamilton credited his victory to team effort whilst also reserving special praise for his teammate Botas for being a gentleman. The driver of the day went to Max Verstarpen who began at the back of the grid and storming to P1 at a point in the race because he pitted late unlike the the drivers who began on pole who all pitted earlier than he did. Vettel now has a 'mountain to climb' in other to finish the season as the F1 champion, he has to hope that Hamilton has a series of bad races while he clinches P1 in the remainder of the five races.