F1 2016: Rosberg wins inaugural race at Baku City Circuit

Nico Rosberg dominated the 2016 European Grand Prix from start to finish to claim victory at the brand new Baku City Circuit.

Rosberg dived into the first corner after a good start to lead the race for Mercedes all the way from lights to the flag to win the first ever Formula One race in Azerbaijan.

Ferrari, after struggling all weekend, finally managed to find the face from their car. Sebastian Vettel was able to take second place after a small battle with Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo. Ricciardo was struggling to get his tyres up to temperature, leaving him wide open for Vettel to attack. On lap 6, Vettel easily got past Ricciardo to get into P2.

On Lap 8, Kimi Raikkoenen stopped for a set of new soft tyres. But around lap 14, Raikkonen clipped the pit lane line on track and was awarded a five-second stop and go penalty. While the entire grid decided to pit for their two stop strategies, Ferrari decided to keep the Finn out all the way to the end of the race. Raikkonen was soon holding a track position of P2.

Vettel pitted on lap 21 for the soft compound tyre and crucially came out ahead of Ricciardo. Vettel being on a different strategy to Raikkonen, was asked to swap places with Kimi and slot into second place once Vettel was close enough. Riakkonen having pitted back in lap 8 had a 5 second penalty that would be added to his final time if he did not pit. But a charging Sergio Perez, who would have gotten the last podium spot anyway for Force India, made a move on a struggling Raikkonen to take third position and not rely on the Ferrari driver’s penalty.

Raikkonen and Lewis Hamilton both struggled with engine settings. Due to the ban on radio messages from the pit wall, the team could do nothing to aid their desperate drivers out on track. Raikkonen finished fourth, while Hamilton, who was well over five seconds adrift from the Ferrari, finished fifth. Ricciardo dropped down to seventh after being overtaken by Valterri Bottas in the Williams for sixth place.

After many speculation of crashes and numerous claims that a safety car would be necessary at least once during the race, only four drivers retired from the race. But none of the retirements were due to crashes. all of them were credited to mechanical and reliability issues and the safety car was never summoned.

2016 F1 EUROPEAN GRAND PRIX (19/06/2016)
BAKU CITY CIRCUIT – 6.003KM, 20 TURNS (51 LAPS)