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ISTANBUL , Oct 10 (AP) \u2014 Valtteri Bottas scored his first win of the season Sunday at the Turkish Grand Prix, a mixed day for Mercedes when Max Verstappen reclaimed the overall championship lead from title rival Lewis Hamilton.<\/p>\n
Hamilton started 11th because of a 10-place grid penalty, drove his way to third, but wound up a disappointing fifth after a late-race tire change. The Mercedes strategy allowed Verstappen to swing the championship race from down two points to Hamilton to now leading by six with six races remaining.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been close the whole year,\u201d Verstappen said. \u201cThis season has been really good.\u201d<\/p>\n
F1 now leaves Europe, and next up is the U.S. GP on Oct. 24.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith the (six) points it\u2019s not going to be easy. We\u2019ll see in Austin how it\u2019s going to go,\u201d Verstappen said. \u201cI think some tracks can be a bit better (for us).\u201d<\/p>\n
Sergio Perez capped a strong day for Red Bull by finishing third.<\/p>\n
Hamilton was fastest in Saturday qualifying but wasn\u2019t credited with the pole because of an engine change by his Mercedes team. He seemed headed for a podium finish but Mercedes called him in for the tire change over Hamilton\u2019s objections.<\/p>\n
The call may have given Verstappen a bigger gap in the championship.<\/p>\n
Hamilton finally came in for new tires on Lap 51 but did not agree with the decision.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy did you give up that place?\u201d a frustrated Hamilton barked on team radio using an expletive.<\/p>\n
Hamilton was getting increasingly agitated after his pit stop as he lost ground to Charles Leclerc and had Pierre Gasly\u2019s AlphaTauri gaining on him.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust leave it alone,\u201d he snapped to his race engineer when informed of Gasly\u2019s gap.<\/p>\n
Leclerc pitted earlier than Hamilton and finished fourth, missing out on a 14th career podium. Gasly finished sixth ahead of Lando Norris of McLaren.<\/p>\n
Carlos Sainz Jr. drove his Ferrari from the back to a strong eighth-place finish, both he and Daniel Ricciardo of McLaren started from the back after complete engine changes.<\/p>\n
Sainz Jr. was voted the day\u2019s best driver, to his surprise when told about it.<\/p>\n
Bottas locked up his first win of the year when he passed Leclerc with about a dozen laps left. It was the first win for Bottas since the Russian GP in September last year.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been a while\u201d he said. \u201cProbably one of my best races ever in Formula One, everything was under control.\u201d<\/p>\n
His 10th career win was a much-needed one during a frustrating last season with Mercedes before joining Alfa Romeo next year. He clocked the fastest lap on the 5.3-kilometer (3.3-mile) Istanbul Park circuit beneath a grey sky amid persistent drizzle.<\/p>\n
Bottas made a better start than Verstappen, which has rarely been the case. The Finnish driver hit 100 kph (62 mph) in 3.09 seconds compared to 3.17 for Verstappen as spray kicked up from the wet track.<\/p>\n
Starting fifth, Fernando Alonso made a move on the outside of Gasly, who clipped Alonso\u2019s rear left tire and sent him spinning off. Back on track, Alonso also had contact with Haas driver Mick Schumacher. Gasly and Alonso both got five-second time penalties for the incidents.<\/p>\n
Hamilton soon jumped from 11th to ninth on the start but had trouble getting past AlphaTauri\u2019s Yuki Tsunoda with no DRS. Tsunoda blocked one attack well, but Hamilton overtook on the outside then caught Lance Stroll on the next lap, and Norris soon after.<\/p>\n
Hamilton then clocked three straight fastest laps as he chased down Gasly in fifth. He got him, too, on Lap 15 but his relentlessly high speed was wearing down his tires.<\/p>\n
As Sainz Jr. carved his way through the field, fastest laps switched between Bottas, Verstappen, Hamilton again, and Leclerc. Drivers waited for the track to dry out more before changing tires. But the rain started falling again.<\/p>\n
Mercedes told Hamilton to box for new tires on Lap 42.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy?\u201d said Hamilton, and did not come in.<\/p>\n
\u201cOK, we\u2019ll stay out one more lap,\u201d his engineer told him.<\/p>\n
Hamilton refused again.<\/p>\n
When he did, Mercedes may have made the wrong call in overruling a record-equaling seven-time world champion with a record 100 wins.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
ISTANBUL , Oct 10 (AP) \u2014 Valtteri Bottas scored his first win of the season Sunday at the Turkish Grand Prix, a mixed day for Mercedes when Max Verstappen reclaimed the overall championship lead from title rival Lewis Hamilton. Hamilton started 11th because of a 10-place grid penalty, drove his way to third, but wound […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-173898","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173898","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=173898"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173898\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=173898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=173898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=173898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}