• The late race downpour turned the race on its head and while it gave Hamilton a victory it helped Verstappen even more.
• Norris finally stopped after tip-toeing around the rest of the lap but the delay in coming in for tyres dropped him down to seventh place at the end.
Image: REUTERS
Lewis Hamilton won the Russian Grand Prix after a frantic last few laps caused by heavy rain dashed Lando Norris’ hopes of a maiden victory.
And the rain helped Hamilton’s title rival Max Verstappen vault from seventh to second in his Red Bull after timing his change to wet tyres perfectly. The Mercedes driver’s 100th career win puts him back into the title lead.
Verstappen’s drive from the back of the grid meant Hamilton’s advantage is only two points.
The late race downpour turned the race on its head and while it gave Hamilton a victory it helped Verstappen even more.
Norris, who took his maiden pole position on Saturday, was leading with five laps to go when it started to rain. The rain started light and only over a few corners, but Verstappen, who was at that point struggling in seventh place, was one the first drivers to pit for treaded intermediate tyres.
It was the making of his afternoon as Norris and Hamilton — more than 30 seconds up the road in their battle for the lead — initially stayed out.
A similar decision briefly vaulted Alpine’s Fernando Alonso, who was leading Verstappen in sixth place before the rain, to third. Halfway around the lap following Verstappen’s stop, Norris was asked if he wanted to stop for intermediate tyres and he said: “No.”
Hamilton was also saying it was not raining that heavily, but was advised to come in because more rain was coming. He stopped a lap after Verstappen, with four to go, leaving Norris out in front on his slick tyres as the rain fell increasingly heavily.
Hamilton was 14.9 seconds behind Norris a lap after he had stopped, but the rain was by now so bad that the seven-time champion caught the McLaren within five more corners and swept by into the lead.
Norris finally stopped after tip-toeing around the rest of the lap but the delay in coming in for tyres dropped him down to seventh place at the end.
Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz, who stopped for tyres at the same time as Verstappen, took third, while McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo and Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas also benefited from early stops for treaded tyres to take fourth and fifth ahead of Alonso.
The late rain was a bitter blow for Norris after appearing on course for an impressive maiden victory for so long. The 21-year-old lost the lead to Sainz at the start and tracked the Ferrari for 13 laps before re-passing for the lead.
Hamilton, meanwhile, had dropped from fourth on the grid to seventh on the first lap and he spent the first part of the race stuck in a train behind Williams driver George Russell in third, ahead of Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll and Ricciardo.
When Russell and Stroll pitted out of the way, Ricciardo appeared to be holding Hamilton back to give Norris some breathing space at the front.
At the same time Verstappen had made excellent progress from his place on the back row of the grid following an engine penalty and was only two seconds behind Hamilton - with team-mate Sergio Perez and Alonso between them - after just 20 laps.
After both Norris and Hamilton had pitted, Norris had a 10-second lead, which the Mercedes driver remorselessly closed.
But with 10 laps to go, Norris appeared to be in control, with Hamilton not able to get within a second of him, only for the rain to change everything.
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc was another to suffer for a late decision to change tyres. Starting from the back of the grid, he was ninth heading into the closing laps, two spots behind Verstappen, and was briefly up to fourth as the rain threw everything up in the air.
But stopping late on the same lap as Norris meant he dropped down out the points into 15th.
A decision to stop for fresh tyres on lap 26 - about half-distance - appeared to have been damaging for Verstappen when he could have stayed out longer on the hard tyres he had chosen at the start.
It dropped him behind a slow-moving pack of cars and he lost ground to the leaders. And things went from bad to worse when Alonso - who had also started on hards, but stopped 10 laps later for fresh tyres - passed him into Turn Two, Verstappen seemingly unable to do anything about reclaiming sixth place.
But the rain came to his rescue. He made the call to stop for intermediate tyres at exactly the right time and was able to vault up into second, in what could be a critical move in a championship battle so close.