Lewis Hamilton took his 31st career win at Sochi to extend his championship lead to 17 points and to give himself and Mercedes their first Formula One Constructors Championship. It was a dominant drive from Hamilton after team mate and championship rival Nico Rosberg locked up going into turn 2 causing him to run off the track and Pit at the end of the lap. The Williams of Felipe Massa also followed Rosberg in at the end of the lap to get his mandatory stop out of the way. Rosberg’s escapade left McLaren’s Jenson Button in a comfortable 3rd in similar fashion to Japan 1 week ago. The 2009 World Champion had been under slight pressure from the Ferrari of Fernando Alonso who reportedly will take Button’s seat at McLaren for next season. While 2nd place Valtteri Bottas kept Hamilton honest during the early stages at Sochi. While after a promising qualifying the Torro Rosso’s of Jean-Eric Vergne and Daniil Kvyat kept falling through the field with the two Red Bull’s and McLaren’s Kevin Magnussen getting past in the opening 3 laps. On lap 8 Rosberg was instructed to try and stretch the Prime Medium compound tyre all the way to the end of the race surprising many people including Jenson Button who when told about Rosberg’s plan said “No Chance”. But on lap 20 Rosberg passed the struggling Force India of Sergio Perez to regain a place in the points as Felipe Massa followed him through but the German was 34 seconds off the lead with Hamilton yet to make his pit stop. Button pitted on lap 23 for his prime tyres but came out behind Rosberg putting him a net 4th but under pressure from Alonso who tried the overcut but a dodgy pit stop from his Ferrari mechanics saw him drop behind both McLarens and Massa’s Williams. Race leader Hamilton pitted on the end of lap 27 and retained 1st as Sebastian Vettel did the opposite to team mate Daniel Ricciardo whom had pitted before lap 20 to try and do the undercut whereas Vettel tried a big overcut which ultimately didn’t work in his favour. Shortly after his pit stop Bottas was passed by Rosberg on lap 31 but Williams like most of the paddock believed that he would need to pit again due to degradation. With 13 laps to go Rosberg was asked if he could get to the end in a competitive state as the pit window was open Rosberg stated “EASY! Well not easy but the tyres feel good.” Massa then took the bold decision to pit for a second time for another set of the Option Soft compound tyres which once again dropped him down the field. Around lap 45 President Putin arrived at the track, just as well that he was late because home boy Kvyat was down in 14th after starting 5th. Romain Grosjean was given a 5 second penalty and 2 penalty points for contact with Sauber’s Adrian Sutil while Kamui Kobayashi claimed that Caterham retired a healthy car as the team went into administration and the Brit max Chilton had a suspension failure wrapping up a dier week for Marussia at their home GP. But in the Championship battle Hamilton capitalised on another error by Rosberg and with Hamilton winning the inaugural US GP back in 2012 and with his current form many wouldn’t bet against him to take another win in Austin.
- Lewis Hamilton
- Nico Rosberg
- Valtteri Bottas
- Jenson Button
- Kevin Magnussen
- Fernando Alonso
- Daniel Ricciardo
- Sebastian Vettel
- Kimi Raikkonen
- Sergio Perez
- Felipe Massa
- Nico Hulkenberg
- Jean-Eric Vergne
- Daniil Kvyat
- Esterban Gutierrez
- Adrain Sutil
- Romain Grosjean
- Pastor Maldonado
- Marcus Ericsson
Kamui Kobayashi DNF
Max Chilton DNF