ESPN rounds up the major talking points from the Russian Grand Prix after Valtteri Bottas took the first win of his F1 career.
Shock: After 48 laps of tedium, it was something of a surprise to see some genuine excitement towards the end of the Russian Grand Prix. A lock up by Valtteri Bottas on lap 39 gave Sebastian Vettel a sniff of victory and in the last four laps the Ferrari closed to within a second of the lead. That made for an incredibly tense finish as Bottas knew any further mistakes would cost him his first F1 victory, but the Finn held his nerve with a little help from former teammate Felipe Massa!
Shocker: This award goes to Honda -- and it may find a permanent place in the Sakura trophy cabinet by the end of the season. Just one race after Stoffel Vandoorne failed to make the start of the Bahrain Grand Prix, an ERS issue stopped Fernando Alonso at the end of the formation lap in Sochi. The problems just keep coming for Honda, and that's before we address the issue of performance, which left Vandoorne ahead of just the Saubers by the end of the race.
Overtake of the race: The entry list was pretty short for this award, but Bottas' decisive move on the run down to Turn 1 at the start of the race was the most significant. He wouldn't have won without it and it required a clean and controlled approach to Sochi's tricky Turn 2 to make it work.
Tyre saver: Nico Hulkenberg went 40 laps on a set of ultra-softs (44 laps including their qualifying usage), which is the softest compound in Pirelli's range. It underlined how little degradation there was on these tyres at this track, despite some blistering on the front lefts of a number of cars. It was an unusual strategy, prompted by Hulkenberg dropping to tenth on the first lap, but it allowed him to run as high as sixth during the race before a pit stop 12 laps before the end and dropped him to eighth place at the finish.
Overtake watch 2017: There were just 18 overtakes in Russia (most of which seemed to happen on the run down to the first corner) which is four more than there were at the season-opener in Australia. Last year at Sochi there were 31 overtakes, underlining the downward trend this year.
Driver of the race: It can only be Bottas. There was a mistake under braking on lap 39, but he made up for it with a steely nerve in the final few laps to hold off Vettel. A very well deserved - and very popular -- debut win in Formula One.