Lewis Hamilton, after an already superlative season with a dominant Mercedes from which he has extracted the absolute maximum, put one hand on his third Formula One world championship title with a win here in Russia, where his team-mate and title rival Nico Rosberg failed to finish after a mechanical failure.
Hamilton, who also won here last year at the Sochi Autodrom's first race, now leads Rosberg by 73 points in the championship battle with four races remaining and a maximum of 100 points available. A terrible result then for Rosberg, whose title chances have all but gone and with Sebastian Vettel taking second place, insult was piled on injury as the Red Bull driver overhauled him in the world championship, 66 behind Hamilton. If the latter scores two points more than Rosberg and nine more than Vettel at the US Grand Prix, which is the next round, it would be enough for the title.
Doubtless the victory bringing him closer to the championship will mean the most to the British driver but he will surely also remember it as the race that put him ahead of his hero Ayrton Senna in grand prix wins, the 42nd of his career, also bringing him equal to Sebastian Vettel’s tally. Enough to understandably put a smile on Hamilton’s face.
“Guys thank you so much for everything you do. I feel incredibly privileged to be part of this team,” he said, before receiving his trophy from Vladimir Putin. “This is a special moment for me to surpass Ayrton,” Hamilton added. “What a dream this is for me.”
For his team, it was a case of celebrations delayed. Although that may yet change. Mercedes had needed to outscore Ferrari by three points to take their second constructors' championship in a row but with Rosberg's retirement and Vettel in second and Kimi Raikkonen, taking fifth place respectively, they may have to wait at least the next round in Austin.
It remains a possibility that it may yet come to them here, as in a dramatic final lap Raikkonen clashed with the Williams of Valtteri Bottas, taking the latter out. Raikkonen finished the race despite damage causing sparks to stream from the underside of his car. But the incident is under investigation and if Raikkonen is given a penalty that demotes him to below seventh place, Mercedes could yet break out the victory t-shirts.
The clash gave the third podium spot to Force India’s Sergio Pérez, his team’s first of the season. It was well-deserved however, after he made a determined run from seventh on the grid, making up places through the stops and doing a fine to job had to manage his worn front tyres to make them last to the finish.
Where at the last round in Japan, where Rosberg was on pole, and Hamilton squeezed past him at turn two on his way to the win, this time the German driver firmly held his line on the opening lap and kept his foot down to deny Hamilton any way through. The safety car was deployed midway through the lap after Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg span and caught the Sauber of Marcus Ericsson but Rosberg maintained his lead on the restart two laps later.
However, soon afterwards Rosberg noted on team radio that his throttle was sticking as he lifted off, which the team believed could be handled in race, but by lap seven it proved unmanageable. He was wide into turn two and Hamilton slid by, as did Bottas from third shortly afterwards. It proved undriveable and Rosberg pitted at the end of the lap to retire. The team attributed the DNF to a throttle damper failure, only their second retirement of the season but enough, thus far, to deny them the constructors championship.
“It’s not nice when there is a problem with the throttle pedal, I had to lift my complete leg off the pedal to come off, I couldn’t steer like that. It was unbelievable that something like that had to happen,” said Rosberg.
He was insistent he would fight on for the title. “I’m disappointed. I will think about the rest afterwards. I never write anything off and picking myself up is never a problem,” he added.
Hamilton continued on at the front but when Romain Grosjean lost the back end of his Lotus on the marbles and suffered a major crash, with the initial impact side-on into the barriers on the exit of turn three, the safety car was deployed again on lap 12, with the driver fortunately climbing from his car unscathed. With safety on the agenda again after Carlos Sainz Jr suffered a very heavy accident in the third practice session, Grosjean was pleased his car and the barriers had worked well to absorb a major impact. “Tomorrow morning it’s going to be a little bit sore but I can be very happy with the safety in F1. Here I am. I feel sorry for the guys because there is going to be a lot of work on the car,” he said.
Five laps later they were racing again and although Hamilton had complained he was losing tyre temperature behind the safety car, he was no slouch at the restart and within three laps had amassed a full 3.5 second gap to Bottas in second. That lead had extended sufficiently by lap 33, when he made his only stop of the race to pit and return to the front unchallenged.
He remained so for the rest of the race and where he finished a major step closer to that third title.
Williams did take some comfort with a fourth place for Felipe Massa, from 15th on the grid. Daniil Kvyat’s Red Bull was in sixth, Felipe Nasr’s Sauber in seventh, Pastor Maldonado’s Lotus in eighth, while McLaren enjoyed a relatively good day, with Jenson Button in ninth and Fernando Alonso in 10th, only the second time this season they have put two cars in the points.
(Guardian service)
