Britain’s Lewis Hamilton took his fourth successive victory of the Formula 1 season at today’s Russian Grand Prix in Sochi after F1 title rival and Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg fell out of contention for race victory at the very first lap of the race.
On the straight between turns 1 and 2, an opportunistic Rosberg dived down the inside of Hamilton, only to lock up his tyre and run wide at turn 2. Normally, drivers tend to get away with tyre lock ups but Rosberg wasn’t as lucky. A big flat spot necessitated a pit stop at the end of lap 1, dropping him down to 20th position.
He was then given the seeminlgy impossible task by Mercedes to complete the remaining 52 laps of the race on the same set of medium tyres. Thanks to a conservative tyre strategy by Pirelli and the inherent pace of the W05 Hybrid, Rosberg staged a superb recovery while keeping enough just life in his tyres to make it to the end of the race. He eventually took the runners spot of the podium.
After the chequered flag was waved on lap 53, the German admitted his mistake that dropped him 17 points behind race winner Lewis Hamilton in the F1 drivers standings with three races to go.
FIRST F1 CONSTRUCTORS' TITLE FOR MERCEDES
For Mercedes though, it is a moment of celebration as they secured their first ever constructors title as a full works team in F1. Mercedes needed to pick just 25 points at Sochi to seal the world title, but they got the maximum 43 points after their drivers finished in 1-2 formation.
Prior to buying into Brawn GP in 2010, the Stuttgart based company competed in two seasons in F1(championship era) in 1954 and 1955, winning drivers title on both occasions with the legendary Juan Manuel Fangio. A constructors title wasn’t introduced until 1958.
Behind the Mercedes duo came the Williams of Valtteri Bottas who finished on the podium for the fifth time in seven races to ensure that the Grove based squad extended its lead over Ferrari in the F1 constructors championship.
McLaren F1 team secured their best ever result since the season opener in Melbourne, Australia having shown good form all weekend. Jenson Button finished in fourth place, just five seconds off the podium while Kevin Magnussen took fifth after starting outside of top 10 following his gearbox penalty.
Fernando Alonso held on to sixth place from Red Bull of Daniel Ricciardo who pitted as early as lap 11. Alonso initially was ahead of Magnussen but a lengthy sole pit stop dropped him behind the Danish driver.
Sebastian Vettel did the opposite of Ricciardo in the sister Red Bull - going long in the first stint and doing a shorter stint on primes at the end. However, with others showing little degradation, Vettel couldn’t overtake any of his rivals on his second stint and finished in a disappointing eighth place.
Kimi Raikkonen finished 28 seconds behind Ferrari teammate and fellow world champion Fernando Alonso in ninth place despite starting side-by-side on the grid.
Sergio Perez took the final points finish for Force India despite being given repeated reminders by his team to save fuel.
Williams Felipe Massa mysteriously pitted at the end of lap 1, despite starting on the more durable prime tyres. On a two-stop strategy, he finished outside of the points in 11th, just ahead of Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg.
After showing superb one lap pace in qualifying, Toro Rossos struggled in race trim with Daniil Kvyat slipping number of places from his impressive grid spot of fifth. Jean Eric Vergne also not able to hold his ninth place grid start. Both drivers finished outside of points in 13th and 14th position with Vergne finishing ahead of the home hero and Red Bull bound Kvyat.
Esteban Gutierrez spent 39 laps on a single set of soft tyres to finish in 15th place ahead of Adrian Sutil in the other Sauber.
Max Chilton’s race came to an halt after Marussia called the Brit into the pits with a suspected problem.
In all, Russian Grand Prix failed to deliver to the expectations with the 5.8km Sochi Autodrom providing little on-track action. A safety car that would have definitely spiced up the action never arrived while a conservative choice by F1’s official tyre supplier Pirelli meant most drivers could complete the race with just two sets of tyres. Support races, however, provides some hope that track could offer some exciting races in the future.
F1 RUSSIAN GRAND PRIX RESULTS
1 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:43.396
2 Nico Rosberg Mercedes +13.6
3 Valtteri Bottas Williams +17.3
4 Jenson Button McLaren +30.1
5 Kevin Magnussen McLaren +53.4
6 Fernando Alonso Ferrari +59.8
7 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull +61.5
8 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull +65.8
09 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari +78.3
10 Sergio Perez Force India +79.3
11 Felipe Massa Williams +80.1
12 Nico Hulkenberg Force India +80.5
13 Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso +96.4
14 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso +1 lap
15 Esteban Gutierrez Sauber +1 lap
16 Adrian Sutil Sauber +1 lap
17 Romain Grosjean Lotus +1 lap
18 Pastor Maldonado Lotus +1 lap
19 Marcus Ericsson Caterham +2 laps
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