Lewis Hamilton inherits victory in frenetic Azerbaijan F1 Grand Prix

Lewis Hamilton enjoyed a slice of good fortune in Azerbaijan as he took his first win of the 2018 season in a manic race on the streets of Baku to take the lead in the drivers' championship for the first time this year.

The Briton was the beneficiary of a combative race which prevented rivals Sebastian Vettel and Valtteri Bottas claiming the victory.

Vettel appeared in control of the event, but a late safety car - and a botched overtaking attempt at the restart - denied the Ferrari man a chance to extend his championship lead.

Bottas then looked set to take the win after the restart, but a late puncture eliminated the Finn with just a handful of kilometres to go.

Kimi Raikkonen fought back from a lap one collision to take second place ahead of Sergio Perez, who fought off Vettel to claim Force India's first podium since 2016.

"It was such a roller-coaster. I had contact with a Williams at turn two, then I broke my front wing with Kimi, so I boxed, [then there was] the safety car, I had a penalty to serve as well," said Perez.

"At the end I was very happy with my fifth position because I knew I was on the wrong compound. They were the only tyres we had.

"I was struggling so much with [tyre] warm-up that I thought just to keep fifth would be a good result. After the restart I saw the drivers in front were struggling more than me. After lap one [after the safety car], I saw Sebastian was struggling more than me so I got close to him and overtook him."

At the race start, Vettel managed to take advantage of the Baku circuit having one of the shortest runs to turn one and maintained his lead on the opening lap. Hamilton held second place ahead of Bottas, Ricciardo and Verstappen.

Behind that, however, a more chaotic opening lap took place. The Williams of Sergey Sirotkin braked slightly too late into turn two and bumped into back of Sergio Perez's Force India, damaging both cars. Marcus Ericsson also came together with Kevin Magussen, the blame for which was placed on the Sauber driver later in the race.

Sirotkin was then caught up in another tangle on the run down to turn three. He was sandwiched between Renault's Nico Hulkenberg and McLaren's Fernando Alonso, the gap closed, and all three drivers came together.

Hulkenberg escaped any major damage, Alonso was forced to pit for two new tyres and a front wing and Sirotkin had to retire altogether.

Meanwhile, Ocon was challenging Raikkonen for sixth, but an attempt around the outside of turn three went badly and the pair came together, sending the Force India into the barrier.

The stricken cars of Sirotkin and Ocon were enough to trigger a lap one safety car, giving several drivers the chance to pit for repairs or change strategy altogether.

With Raikkonen having to pit for repairs, Ferrari gambled on equipping him with the hardest available tyre compound - the yellow-walled soft tyres.

With Vettel well aware of the potential to be overtaken on the long straight, he backed up the field for the safety car restart, accelerating away at the last possible moment.

His tactic worked as he maintained the lead at the restart ahead of Hamilton and Bottas, but Verstappen profited from the compacted field and passed team-mate Ricciardo with a late-braking move into turn two. Renault's Sainz swiftly followed and demoted the Red Bull driver down to seventh.

With the Red Bulls struggling to recharge their batteries and generate heat in their tyres, the Renaults took full advantage of using the softest available tyres by passing both Red Bulls to run with Sainz in fourth and Hulkenberg in fifth. Nerves would've been high in the Red Bull garage as Verstappen and Ricciardo briefly bumped wheels whilst taking turns at running in fifth place.

Despite his strong opening stint where he climbed from fourteenth on the grid, any outside hopes of Hulkenberg's first Formula One podium ended on lap eleven when he clattered the outside wall at turn four, damaging the suspension and retiring from the race.

With both Red Bulls overcoming their battery and tyre issues, their pace increased and, with Sainz pitting, they were free to try and gain lost ground on the leaders. However, by this point they were twenty seconds down on a podium place.

With most of the action taking place in the midfield, Vettel edged his lead up to four seconds over Hamilton, but a mistake at turn one from the Mercedes man on lap twenty-two allowed Vettel's lead to climb to eight seconds.

The lock-up prompted Mercedes to pit Hamilton and he was handed a set of the soft tyres, but the Briton was struggling to warm-up his fresh tyres and was losing time to both Vettel and team-mate Bottas, who both stayed out longer.

Hamilton even dropped back towards the Red Bulls, but the threat of being overtaken was reduced when Verstappen and Ricciardo decided to restart their duel.

Another passing attempt from Ricciardo around the outside of turn one was once again counter-attacked by Verstappen into turn two; Ricciardo tried to close the door but Verstappen launched his car down the inside and squeezed back through.

A clockwork pit stop from Ferrari at the end of lap thirty ensured Vettel returned to the track on soft tyres and several seconds ahead of Hamilton.

It was not until lap thirty-five that Ricciardo finally found a way past Verstappen. Once again he obtained a strong slipstream and made an attempt around the outside of turn one. This time, he managed to maintain a gap big enough to prevent any cutback from Verstappen and he held onto fourth place.

In turn, Ricciardo also took priority when the two Red Bulls made their pit stops on lap thirty-seven and thirty-eight respectively.

They both pitted for ultrasoft tyres but, owing to the difficulties in warming up tyres at the Baku circuit, Verstappen took advantage of Ricciardo's slow out-lap and 'overcut' his team-mate for fourth place.

Ricciardo sought to repeat his earlier overtake, but the Red Bull pair committed the ultimate motor racing sin and crashed into each other at turn one, eliminating both cars.

The Australian looked towards the inside of turn one, but the anticipated open door wasn't open enough and he rear-ended the sister Red Bull.

"Obviously it was a situation that none of us want to be in. Firstly, apologies to the team for the situation," said Ricciardo after the race.

"We want to be able to race, and I'm thankful that the team allow us to race, but when this happens you think 'what do you do?'

"I know we touched already earlier in the race...I don't know what we could've done differently."

The safety car was deployed for a second time and this fell directly into the hands of Mercedes, who had left Bottas out on track to profit from such a scenario.

The entire field pitted for ultrasoft tyres under the safety car, aside from Perez who was fitted with supersofts and served a time penalty for overtaking before the safety car line in the previous safety car period. Through the stops, Bottas was able to retain the lead ahead of Vettel, Hamilton, Raikkonen and Perez.

Haas' Romain Grosjean was running in sixth and looking set for his first points of the season, but his hard work was undone after he crashed out whilst weaving to generate heat into his tyres. This ensured the safety car stayed out.

The race restarted with just four laps to go and Bottas initially looked to have scampered away from Vettel at the restart, but the Ferrari managed to fend off Hamilton and launch an attack on Bottas into turn one.

Vettel threw the car towards the inside line but he locked up, ran wide and gifted second and third places to Hamilton and Raikkonen. He flat-spotted a tyre in the process and fell under pressure from Sergio Perez.

Bottas looked in control on the opening lap of the restart, but as he crossed the line with three laps to go, he suffered a heartbreaking right-rear puncture after running over some debris, handing the lead to Hamilton and eliminating him from the race.

At the same time, Perez took advantage of a supreme slipstream to breeze past Vettel into third place.

With his freshly-donated lead, Hamilton had enough pace to keep Raikkonen at bay and he secured his first win of the season, the 63rd of his career.

Perez held off Vettel to claim his eighth career podium - his second at Baku - and his first points of the year to give Force India's season a major shot in the arm.

The Mexican's podium was initially under scrutiny after he - along Stroll and Magnussen - were investigated for illegal use of the DRS. However, as no advantage had been gained by the system error, all drivers were cleared a couple of hours after the race.

Carlos Sainz secured a solid ten points for Renault in fifth, ahead of Sauber's Charles Leclerc, who claimed the first points of his Formula One career.

McLaren's Fernando Alonso fought back from his lap one damage to take seventh, passing Williams' Lance Stroll in the final laps.

His team-mate Stoffel Vandoorne made an impressive climb from fourteenth to ninth in the final sprint, whilst Toro Rosso's Brendon Hartley took his first Formula One point in tenth.

The results mean that Hamilton now leads the drivers' championship with seventy points, four clear of Vettel, and twenty-two clear of Raikkonen.

All Photos: Motorsport Images

What did you think of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix? Who is your driver of the day? Leave your comments in the section below.

AZERBAIJAN GRAND PRIX, 51 Laps,

1 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes

2 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 2.460s

3 Sergio Perez Force India/Mercedes 4.024s

4 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 5.329s

5 Carlos Sainz Renault 7.515s

6 Charles Leclerc Sauber/Ferrari 9.158s

7 Fernando Alonso McLaren/Renault 10.931s

8 Lance Stroll Williams/Mercedes 12.546s

9 Stoffel Vandoorne McLaren/Renault 14.152s

10 Brendon Hartley Toro Rosso/Honda 18.030s

11 Marcus Ericsson Sauber/Ferrari 18.512s

12 Pierre Gasly Toro Rosso/Honda 24.720s

13 Kevin Magnussen Haas/Ferrari 30.663s

14 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes Not running

15 Romain Grosjean Haas/Ferrari Not running

16 Max Verstappen Red Bull/Renault Not running

17 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull/Renault Not running

18 Nico Hulkenberg Renault 10 laps Not running

19 Esteban Ocon Force India/Mercedes 0 laps Not running