Nico Rosberg has cruised to victory at the Russian grand prix to extend his championship lead to 43 points over team mate Lewis Hamilton.
Rosberg never lost the lead of the race once and looked like he was in total control as he led home a Mercedes 1-2. The German’s near faultless drive saw him score the first Grand Slam of his career (winning a race from pole while leading every lap and scoring the fastest lap.) All this occurred despite the fact the team were worried about a similar issue developing with his MGU-H unit, that has plagued Hamilton the last two races. While Hamilton himself was suffering with a water pressure issue in the last 20 laps. When asked about his race though, Rosberg was rather philosophical, saying that the ecstasy wasn’t there because he never battled Hamilton.
“I can’t say l miss it [fighting with Hamilton] because it is awesome to win races and in the end it doesn’t matter how,” Rosberg admitted. “Winning is great and what I’m here for. But the ecstatic feeling isn’t there, it’s there when l win a battle with Lewis, that’s what gives the ultimate thrill.”
Meanwhile Rosberg’s team mate Hamilton was rather disappointed with the weekend, despite his drive from 10th to 2nd. While he didn’t let his frustrations out, he did snub the traditional spraying of the Champagne on the podium. It was clear he was unhappy with the way this weekend had gone. And that he felt he could have challenged Rosberg for the win had he not been suffering from his water pressure issue.
“There wasn’t a doubt in my mind that I couldn’t win it. I had the pace, but then I had the problem with the engine again so I had to back off. I wasn’t at full throttle down the straights.” A rather grumpy Hamilton told the media. He is now nearly two race wins behind his team mate in the drivers’ standings, with the gap increasing to 43 points after this weekend.
He wasn’t the only championship contender to suffer from a bad race, as once again Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull’s home grown talent Daniil Kvyat tangled on the opening lap. The Russian carried too much speed into turn two and bashed into the back of Vettel, this caused Vettel to give the other Red Bull of Daniel Ricciardo a good thump as well. All three cars continued into turn three when Kvyat struggled with breaking before hitting Vettel once again and firing him into the barriers. Vettel was out on the spot, while Riccardo and Kvyat carried on with damage to their cars. Kvyat later received a ten second stop go penalty for his misdemeanour.
This was no comfort to Vettel who launched into an expletive-ridden rant about this incident over team radio, and it’s fair to say someone owes the swear jar at Ferrari quite a bit of money.
“Oh for f**k sake! Who the f**k?! I’m out! Crashed! Somebody hit me in the f**king rear turn two! And then they hit me in the f**king rear again turn three! F**k sake! What the f**k, are we doing here?!”
Vettel’s anger did not seem to stop here. As minutes later he could be seen standing with his press officer Britta Roeske reviewing footage of the incident, where he could clearly see it was Kvyat that hit him. After a few slightly less expletive ridden interviews in the press pen Vettel confronted team boss Christian Horner about his driver’s antics.
“All I could do was apologise, because this week it was a mistake by Daniil Kvyat,” Horner explained to the media after the brief exchange with his former driver. “Daniil just misjudged his braking spot. Emotions run high – in his home race, I think he has just gone for too much too soon at the start.”
It was better news for Vettel’s team mate Kimi Raikkonen though, who managed to get third place on the podium, securing Ferrari’s 700th podium in Formula 1. Behind him in 4th and 5th place was the Williams of fellow Finn Valtteri Bottas, and Felipe Massa. Valtteri had a great start and even held up the Mercedes of Hamilton till the pit stops. It was incredibly close, but a faster pit stop by the Williams team gave Bottas the edge, though they knew they were sitting ducks when Hamilton got within DRS range of the Williams. Eventually leading him to pass Bottas and chase after Rosberg. From then on in it was a quiet second half of the race for both Williams drivers. Though they did manage to score a chunk of point to get them closer to their third place rivals in constructors, Red Bull.
“The car performance is going forward, even in race trim today,” said Williams head of performance,Rob Smedley, after the race. “We had improving pace against Ferrari and Mercedes and that’s what we need to keep heading towards… We’ve developed the car a lot, but we need another two or three tenths, and we just need to keep developing it, in all areas. Nobody is free from finding performance in Formula One, and certainly not at Williams, but I think we got the most we could have done out of today.”
Fernando Alonso managed to bring his McLaren home in an impressive 6th place, while team mate Jenson Button brought his car home 10th. The result is McLaren have managed their first double points finish since Hungary 2015. They were not the only team to celebrate points today, as Renault picked up their first points since returning to the sport when Kevin Magnussen finished in 7th place. While the Haas of Romain Grosjean held of a charging Sergio Perez in the closing laps to gain 8th place and some needed points for Haas. While Perez came 9th to score points on his 100th race weekend.
Overall the race wasn’t something special. The street track layout of Sochi means the race often is a bit of a procession. And thanks to the issues with Hamilton and Vettel we were robbed once again of our chance to see a good scrap for the victory. As fellow Overtake Reporter Mathew Hull described it, “this track is bad. This is the new Valencia. It’s so dull and uninspired. It’s a car park surrounded by a prison camp.” I’m kind of inclined to agree with him. Though for me, the highlight of this weekend was definitely Vettel’s radio. It’s just too funny…
https://twitter.com/FansOfSebVettel/status/726747403911491585
Russian GP result
1. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes,
2. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes,
3. Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari,
4. Valtteri Bottas, Williams,
5. Felipe Massa, Williams,
6. Fernando Alonso, McLaren,
7. Kevin Magnussen, Renault,
8. Romain Grosjean, Haas,
9. Sergio Perez, Force India,
10. Jenson Button, McLaren,
11. Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull,
12. Carlos Sainz, Toro Rosso,
13. Jolyon Palmer, Renault,
14. Marcus Ericsson, Sauber, +1 lap
15. Daniil Kvyat, Red Bull, +1 lap
16. Felipe Nasr, Sauber, +1 lap
17. Esteban Gutierrez, Haas, +1 lap
18. Pascal Wehrlein, Manor, +1 lap
DNF Max Verstappen, Toro Rosso,
DNF Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari,
DNF Nico Hulkenberg, Force India,
DNF Rio Haryanto, Manor,
Feature Image Credit: Mercedes AMG Petronas Press Release
