Hamilton dominates in Russiaposted in F111 | 10 | 2015
LEWIS HAMILTON DOMINATED the Russian Grand Prix and moved within touching distance of his third Formula One Word Championship, and second in a row, helped by the retirement of his Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg.
The German had started from pole position and led through the opening laps, with Hamilton in second, before problems with his throttle pedal forced Rosberg to crawl back to the pits before retiring.
With his team-mate out, and Hamilton cursing to the 42nd grand prix win of his career, the Englishman now leads his nearest challenger by 73 points with only four races, and 100 points, remaining.
That closest rival is now Sebastian Vettel. The German moved into second in the championship when he brought is Ferrari home in second place.
If Hamilton outscores Vettel by nine points and Rosberg by two in the next races in America, he will be champion.
After choosing to pit under a second safety car and running a long stint on the softs, Sergio Perez scored Force India's third-ever podium.
"If you look at my performance, you can see I'm going through the best moment in my career," a delighted Perez said.
"I was confident going into the race. I was not expecting a podium at all, but the race started quite well. When we had the second safety car, we were one of the few cars to box.
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"At the restart I was stuck behind Felipe Nasr and (Felipe) Massa, so I decided together with my team to save my tyres and it worked really well.
"We have a lot of momentum with us and I hope we can maintain it through to the end of the year."
But the Mexican's achievement was only sealed following a bizarre incident when, having been overtaken by both the Williams of Valtteri Bottas and Kimi Raikkonen's Ferrari on the final lap, the Finns collided.
Bottas appeared to be on his way to the final step of the podium when, in what appeared a rush of blood, Raikkonen lunged down the inside of his fellow countryman at Turn 4 pitching the Williams into the barrier.
Not surprisingly, stewards penalised the Finn for his lunge, dropping him from fifth to eight. The decision allowedMercedes to officially clinch the 2015 Formula 1 constructors' championship. For Bottas and Williams though, the punishment was hollow.
"It doesn't give me back the podium place I had, nor the championship points for me and the team," Bottas said afterwards.
"I don't think it was a racing incident. I didn't see anyone there and I was in front, and then suddenly someone hits me."
The Safety Car made its first appearance of the day on the first-lap following a collision between Nico Hulkenberg's spinning Force India and a helpless Marcus Ericsson.
It appeared again when hen Grosjean lost the rear end of his Lotus at Turn 3. Having tried to correct it, the car wobbled the other way and sent him onto the marbles and into the barriers. Thankfully the Frenchman walked away from the incident.
F1 — Russian Grand Prix, Result:
1. Lewis Hamilton GBR Mercedes-Mercedes 53 laps 1hr 37m 11.024s
2. Sebastian Vettel GER Ferrari-Ferrari +05.9s
3. Sergio Perez MEX Force India-Mercedes +28.9s
4. Felipe Massa BRZ Williams-Mercedes +38.8s
5. Daniil Kvyat RUS Red Bull-Renault +47.5s
6. Felipe Nasr BRZ Sauber-Ferrari +56.5s
7. Pastor Maldonado VEN Lotus-Mercedes +1m 01.0s
8. Kimi Raikkonen FIN Ferrari-Ferrari +1m 12.3s*
9. Jenson Button GBR McLaren-Honda +1m 19.4s
10. Max Verstappen NED Toro Rosso-Renault +1m 28.4s
11. Fernando Alonso ESP McLaren-Honda +1m 31.2s**
12. Valtteri Bottas FIN Williams-Mercedes +1 lap
13. Roberto Merhi ESP Manor-Ferrari +1 lap
14. Will Stevens GBR Manor-Ferrari +1 lap
Retired:
Daniel Ricciardo AUS Red Bull-Renault 48 laps completed Carlos Sainz Jr ESP Toro Rosso-Renault 47 laps
Romain Grosjean FRA Lotus-Mercedes 12 laps
Nico Rosberg GER Mercedes-Mercedes 7 laps
Nico Hulkenberg GER Force India-Mercedes 0 laps
Marcus Ericsson SWE Sauber-Ferrari 0 laps
* denotes driver receiving 30secs penalty for causing a collision
** denotes driver receiving 5secs penalty for exceeding track limits
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Jim McGill