hamilton had already missed four opportunities to take his landmark NUMBER_TOKENth fNUMBER_TOKEN when and when his qualifying problems which culminated in spinning and lightly backing into the wall at turn NUMBER_TOKEN on his one push lap on slicks in qNUMBER_TOKEN left him fourth on the grid it was clear he was up against it again the dynamics of the race were determined not only by the unusual grid but also by the way things panned out into turn two at the start of the race hamilton was boxing at turn two dropping behind lance stroll and fernando alonso and later in the lap daniel ricardo who he had battled with through the early corners to run seventh he re-passed alonso easily enough on the second lap but was stuck behind ricardo until the mclaren driver stopped at the end of lap NUMBER_TOKEN. hamilton had been told to do the opposite of ricardo so stayed out and put in four quick laps in clear air to use up the remaining tire life before pitting after the pit stop shook out hamilton's target was norris and a NUMBER_TOKENth victory norris rejoined eight seconds ahead of hamilton but with hamilton unleashed in a quicker car and with norris having to save fuel to bring himself back on schedule norris opted to look after his tires too this was crucial in ensuring that he had the grip later in the race to keep hamilton at arm's length the cap came steadily down as the laps ticked away before the rain came hamilton had got to within NUMBER_TOKEN seconds of norris but struggled to get any closer thanks to the understeer he picked up in the mclaren's wake with mercedes spotting the aforementioned second bank of reign hamilton was called in initially on lap NUMBER_TOKEN which he disregarded because the track was drying then again on lap NUMBER_TOKEN. hamilton then took the lead when norris spun at turn five on lap NUMBER_TOKEN leading the final two and a half laps to bag that NUMBER_TOKENth win and take the world championship lead albeit by only two points given verstappen jump from seventh to second thanks to his well-timed stop for intermediates let us know in the comments what you made of mclaren's decision-making process and hamilton's NUMBER_TOKENth victory and if you enjoyed this look at the amazing russian grand prix make sure you like and subscribe
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