Concern for Hamilton despite his landmark
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/58698229
Almost a side issue in the excitement was the realisation Hamilton had achieved yet another monumental landmark in his career. The 100th victory has been a long time coming since he took his 99th at Silverstone back in July. So long, Hamilton said, that he had begun to wonder if it ever would.
Now it has, he added: "It's a magical moment. I could only ever have dreamed of still being here and having this opportunity to win these races and get to drive against such phenomenal talent this late in my career."
That last remark was a reference to Norris, but also, among others, to Verstappen, who ended the day the with what had appeared for a long time a very unlikely second place.
The Red Bull driver started from the back. By lap 20, he had Hamilton within two seconds of him, such had been his impressive progress. Then he dropped back again with heavy tyre wear caused by all the traffic he was having to clear, and was even passed by Fernando Alonso's Alpine.
For a long time it looked as if Verstappen was going to have to make do with seventh place. But the rain gave him an opportunity and he, and Red Bull, grasped it with both hands.
Going into the race, Red Bull team principal Christian Horner said if Verstappen could make it back to fifth place "we would take that". That would have meant a loss of 15 points to Hamilton. As it was, Verstappen lost only seven, and although the Mercedes driver regained the championship lead, his rival is just two points behind.
"The race itself was not very easy because it was very difficult to pass again and once you got stuck it was very easy to damage your tyres," Verstappen said. "Luckily, with the rain it helped us to make that last jump.
"With the [grid] penalty we had, to only lose one spot basically is definitely not too bad. When I woke up this morning, I definitely didn't expect this result."
While this was a good outcome for Red Bull, Mercedes left Russia with concerns.
They had hoped to capitalise heavily on the last two races in Monza and Sochi, two tracks that historically have been very strong for them. In the end, though, Hamilton has achieved only a five-point swing in the championship.
Will they regret not maximising their opportunities at these races?
"Look," Hamilton said, "it's not only the two races. There's been plenty of races where we've not maximised, as a team, collectively, both drivers and everyone.
"But we're still in the fight and we can continue to improve. There are definitely things that we will try and do better moving forwards but we just won't give up, we'll just keep trying, keep pushing, remain hopeful."
The title race could hardly be any closer and, if anything, the run-in looks tougher for Hamilton than Verstappen.
While Red Bull got their engine-related grid penalty out of the way in Russia, Hamilton is likely to have one himself somewhere down the line. Mercedes won't say that for sure, but the chances of them making it to the end of the season with just the two used engines Hamilton has available are minimal.
Not only that, but of the remaining seven races, they expect to have pretty much no chance of beating Red Bull at one - Mexico - and the others are too close to call.
How, the two contenders were asked, did they rate their chances of winning the title?
"Undoubtedly it's going to be tough," Hamilton added. "For two thirds of the season so far they've had the edge.
"However, it's obviously been difficult, with all sorts of things, curve balls sent to both of us and our teams.
"There's still everything to play for in these next races. I think they've got a good set of circuits coming up and I anticipate it will just continue to be really close between us. Just got to be hopeful of some good races."
And Verstappen? "50-50," he said, matter-of-fact as ever. "Yes or no."