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Report

Background

The race was moved from its April date to September to fill the vacancy of the Malaysian Grand Prix, which was discontinued at the end of the 2017 Formula One season.⁸⁹ During the weekend, the first DRS zone was extended by 100 meters so that the beginning of the DRS zone started 95 meters before turn 1.¹⁰

Practice

Artem Markelov replaced Carlos Sainz Jr. at Renault during the first practice session.

Qualifying

Bottas took pole ahead of Hamilton ahead of Vettel with a Q2 exit for Red Bull Racing drivers of Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo. It was Red Bull's last double elimination until the 2023 Singapore Grand Prix.

Race

At the start, Sebastian Vettel got a better start than Lewis Hamilton but there was no room to overtake heading into turn one.¹¹ On lap 4, both Scuderia Toro Rosso drivers Pierre Gasly and Brendon Hartley suffered brake failures which forced both to retire; they were the only retirements of the race.¹² Later on lap 14, Hamilton made his one and only pitstop of the race, putting him behind Vettel.¹³ Two laps later, Hamilton made a move on Vettel at turn 3 and passed him into fourth place into turn 4.¹⁴

The most notable moment of the race came on lap 26, when Mercedes asked Valtteri Bottas to let Hamilton through into second at turn 13, gifting the Briton the race win.¹⁵ Max Verstappen, who led the race since lap 19, came in for his pitstop on lap 42.¹⁶¹⁷ Hamilton won the race for the third time in his career, with Bottas second and Vettel completing the podium in third place.¹⁸¹⁹ As a consequence, Hamilton extended his lead over Vettel in the championship to 50 points.²⁰

Classification

Qualifying

• ^1 – Max Verstappen received a 43-place grid penalty: 35 places for exceeding his quota of power unit elements, 5 places for an unscheduled gearbox change and 3 places for a yellow flag infringement in qualifying.²²
• ^2 – Daniel Ricciardo received a 40-place grid penalty: 35 places for exceeding his quota of power unit elements and 5 places for an unscheduled gearbox change.²³
• ^3 – Pierre Gasly received a 35-place grid penalty for exceeding his quota of power unit elements.²⁴
• ^4 – Brendon Hartley received a 40-place grid penalty for exceeding his quota of power unit elements.²⁵
• ^5 – Fernando Alonso received a 30-place grid penalty for exceeding his quota of power unit elements.²⁶
• ^6 – Stoffel Vandoorne received a 5-place grid penalty for an unscheduled gearbox change.²⁷

Despite receiving no penalties, both of the Renault drivers elected not to run any laps on Q2 due to them automatically receiving places 11 and 12. They were then able to start the race on fresh tyres of their choice.²⁸

Race

Championship standings after the race

• Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.
• Bold text and an asterisk indicates competitors who still had a theoretical chance of becoming World Champion.

See also

• 2018 Sochi Formula 2 round
• 2018 Sochi GP3 Series round

References

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3. "Russia 2018". StatsF1. Retrieved 11 January 2019. https://www.statsf1.com/en/2018/russie.aspx ↩

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7. "Opinion: Why Mercedes used team orders – and why they were right to do so". Formula1.com. Retrieved 11 January 2019. https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article.opinion-why-mercedes-used-team-orders-and-why-they-were-right-to-do-so.1VZaX1iWz284gcGia6mmC6.html ↩

8. "Советник Козака: перенос Гран-при России "Формулы-1" на осень сделан в интересах зрителей". ТАСС (in Russian). Retrieved 11 January 2019. https://tass.ru/sport/4349444 ↩

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25. "Red Bulls, Toro Rossos and Alonso set for Russia grid penalties for changing multiple power unit elements". Formula1.com. Retrieved 11 January 2019. https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article.red-bulls-toro-rossos-and-alonso-to-start-russia-race-from-back-of-the-grid.313MzJAMxqaEQGygqoOWeg.html ↩

26. "Red Bulls, Toro Rossos and Alonso set for Russia grid penalties for changing multiple power unit elements". Formula1.com. Retrieved 11 January 2019. https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article.red-bulls-toro-rossos-and-alonso-to-start-russia-race-from-back-of-the-grid.313MzJAMxqaEQGygqoOWeg.html ↩

27. "Vandoorne hit with Sochi grid penalty after gearbox change". Crash. 30 September 2018. Retrieved 11 January 2019. https://www.crash.net/f1/news/906488/1/vandoorne-hit-sochi-grid-penalty-after-gearbox-change ↩

28. "F1: Renault on not appearing in Q2 for qualifying in the 2018 Russian Grand Prix". Formula1.com. Retrieved 11 January 2019. https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article.renault-explain-their-q2-no-show-in-russia.6vZv81vhReSOiU6Y2uccGq.html ↩

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