MOTORSPORT: Silver Arrows through Ferrari hearts

Frictions are at boiling point within Ferrari after its team tactics blew up in the Russian Grand Prix and Mercedes crushed it.

Sebastian Vettel refused to adhere to orders to hand over the lead to young Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc at Sochi and his subsequent retirement became a gift to Mercedes, which maintained its unbeaten record in the six years of F1 racing there.

Daniel Ricciardo had a frustrating weekend, outqualified by Renault teammate Nico Hulkenberg, then retiring mid-race because of damage from a first-lap incident.

While Vettel, Leclerc and Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto danced around the team tactics that backfired after its hat-trick of wins since the mid-season break, Lewis Hamilton left Russia with his ninth win of the year.

He’s now had 82 victories in his career, just nine short of Michael Schumacher’s record.

After Mercedes’ eighth one-two finish of the season, and fourth at Sochi, Hamilton is 73 points clear of teammate Valterri Bottas (322-249) as he closes on a sixth world title.

“That’s exactly what we needed,” Hamilton said of the Sochi success after Ferrari’s recent revival and Leclerc setting the pace throughout the weekend, claiming his fourth pole position in a row as he outqualified Vettel for the ninth straight time.

However, from third on the grid, Vettel charged past Hamilton at the start and the slipstream from Leclerc was so good that the German was in the lead by the first corner.

On lap six Ferrari was telling Leclerc over the radio that Vettel would soon hand over the lead under an apparent pre-race pact.

But Vettel’s attitude was that Leclerc was not fast enough and sufficiently close to him for that to work without playing into Hamilton’s hands.

Leclerc was aggrieved, protesting that he had “played the team game” at the start.

Ferrari pitted the youngster first and he put in some quick laps on his fresh rubber to be ahead of Vettel after the latter’s stop.

But Vettel’s car had an energy recovery system failure on his out lap, creating a virtual safety car period which allowed the Mercedes pair a ‘free’ stop.

Then came a full safety car stint and Ferrari brought Leclerc in again, dropping him to third but with the hope of overhauling the Mercs.

It wasn’t to be. He couldn’t get past Bottas, let alone Hamilton.

“It’s deliciously ironic that Sebastian’s misfortune brought us our fortune,” said Mercedes technical chief James Allison.

Hamilton said it had been “incredibly hard keeping up with the Ferraris”.

The Red Bull-Hondas of Max Verstappen and Alex Albon finished fourth and fifth – the latter from a pitlane start after crashing in qualifying. The rookie has ended in the top six in all four GPs since his promotion from Toro Rosso.

McLaren’s Carlos Sainz and Lando Norris were sixth and eighth with their Renault power.

McLaren has now scored more than 100 points in the constructors’ championship for the first time since 2014 – its last season with Mercedes power, which it will return to in 2021.

It has gone further ahead of Renault’s factory team in the race to catch the ‘big three’ teams.

Hulkenberg salvaged a point with 10th place but carsales.com.au global ambassador Ricciardo said his race was “pretty much over from the start”.

“I had too much damage on the car to carry on,” Ricciardo said.

“It was a bit chaotic through turn two [on the first lap] and I had the inside line for turn four, where I thought I was ‘safe’.

“I got hit and had a puncture [to the left rear tyre] and damage to the floor.

“I’ll look at it with the perspective that if I qualify higher up the grid [than 10th at Sochi] then I’m less likely to be in the bad stuff.

“I’ll take responsibility for that, but in terms of the accident I was just a passenger.”

Renault team principal Cyril Abiteboul admitted that “we simply need to do a better job and offer our drivers better starting positions and straightforward races”.

“The car has the pace – we need to focus ourselves on achieving that,” Abiteboul said.

Ricciardo and Hulkenberg are equal 10th in the drivers’ championship on 34 points, just one ahead of Toro Rosso’s Russian Daniil Kyvat and Racing Point’s Mexican Sergio Perez.

Leclerc is now closest to the Mercedes drivers in third on 215 points, with Verstappen on 212 and Vettel 194.

Mercedes could clinch the constructors’ title at the first of the five remaining races at Japan’s Suzuka circuit. It has 571 points to Ferrari’s 409, Red Bull’s 311, McLaren’s 101 and Renault’s 68.