Lewis Hamilton won the inaugural Russian Formula One Grand Prix and extended his championship lead to 17 points on Sunday in a Mercedes one-two that clinched the team’s first constructors’ title.
The Briton, who started on pole position, chalked up his fourth win in a row and ninth of the season after German team-mate Nico Rosberg locked up at the first corner and damaged his tyres in a costly error.
With 100 points still to be won from the final three races, thanks to double points in Abu Dhabi, Hamilton has 291 points to Rosberg’s 274 with everything still to play for.
Hamilton, the 2008 champion, also became only the fourth driver in F1 history to win nine races in a single season and equalled Nigel Mansell’s British record of 31 career victories.
On a warm and sunny afternoon in the Black Sea resort, Rosberg kept himself firmly in contention with a fine recovery drive from 20th place after his second lap pitstop.
Praise for teammate “Nico did a great job to return from his mistake,” said Hamilton. “To get the first championship for Mercedes Benz is amazing, a beautiful day. “It’s very cool to have won the first race here.”
Finland’s Valtteri Bottas finished third for Williams, and set the fastest lap, in a race watched by Russian President Vladimir Putin at a circuit snaking around some of the landmark venues from this year’s Winter Olympics.
Putin also presented the trophies, in what Hamilton described as a ‘kind of surreal’ moment, with the drivers making sure he had left the podium before spraying the champagne that had lain virtually untouched last weekend following Jules Bianchi’s horrific accident in Japan.
The one-two was the ninth of the season for Mercedes, one shy of McLaren’s 1988 record, and formally ended Red Bull’s run of four titles in a row.
Before the start, the 21 drivers had stood silently in a circle on the starting grid in a tribute to Bianchi, who remains critically injured.
While Hamilton had an easy afternoon on the track, others remained haunted by Suzuka.
Marussia entered only one car for the race, keeping Bianchi’s in the garage, with Britain’s Max Chilton lasting just 10 laps before returning to the pit lane and retiring.
Rosberg admits mistake Rosberg, who started alongside Hamilton on the front row, got ahead of his team mate at the start but then locked up and went wide, ‘flat spotting’ his front tyres in the process.
“It was just a mistake on my side...after that the tyres were just square, vibrating so much. I thought that was it,” said the German.
After a change from the soft to medium tyres, he rejoined with only Brazilian Felipe Massa behind him in the second Williams, asking over the radio ‘what’s the strategy now?’.
“We think we need to go to the end on these,” came the reply and Rosberg did just that, making the tyres last for the remaining 52 laps.
McLaren’s Jenson Button finished fourth with Danish team mate Kevin Magnussen fifth.
The results: 1. Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) 1:31:50.744, 2. Nico Rosberg (Mercedes) +00:13.657, 3. Valtteri Bottas (Williams) 00:17.425, 4. Jenson Button (McLaren) 00:30.234, 5. Kevin Magnussen (McLaren) 00:53.616, 6. Fernando Alonso (Ferrari) 01:00.016, 7. Daniel Ricciardo (Red Bull) 01:01.812, 8. Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull) 01:06.185, 9. Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari) 01:18.877, 10. Sergio Perez (Force India) 01:20.067, 11. Felipe Massa (Williams) 01:20.877, 12. Nico Hulkenberg (Force India) 01:21.309, 13. Jean-Eric Vergne (Toro Rosso) 01:37.295, 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. Retired: Kamui Kobayashi (Caterham), Max Chilton (Marussia).
Drivers’ standings: 1. Hamilton 291 points, 2. Rosberg 274, 3. Ricciardo 199, 4. Bottas 145, 5. Vettel 143, 6. Alonso 141, 7. Button 94, 8. Hulkenberg 76, 9. Massa 71, 10. Magnussen 49, 11. Perez 47, 12. Raikkonen 47, 13. Jean-Eric Vergne 21, 14. Grosjean 8, 15. Kvyat 8, 16. Jules Bianchi (Marussia) 2.
Constructors’ standings: 1. Mercedes 565, 2. Red Bull 342, 3. Williams-Mercedes 216, 4. Ferrari 188, 5. McLaren 143, 6. Force India123, 7. Toro Rosso 29, 8. Lotus 8, 9. Marussia 2.
