Nico Rosberg regains the Championship lead after winning the European GP

At the inaugural European GP in Baku yesterday, Nico Rosberg claimed his fifth victory of the season ahead of Sebastian Vettel and Sergio Perez in a race that didn't see any action but saw Rosberg regaining a 24 point lead over his team mate Lewis Hamilton.

The start of the race saw Nico Rosberg having a perfect getaway and he wasted no time building a lead over Daniel Ricciardo in second, who quickly came under attack from the Ferrari of Sebastian Vettel in third. The biggest surprise for me was the absence of a safety car period. Turn 1 passed without major incident as only Esteban Gutierrez miscalculated his braking point and made contact with Nico Hulkenberg.

Despite the overoptimistic move from the Haas driver, all 22 cars continued to Turn 2 without major damage and soon settled into position over the rest of the lap.

Vettel made his move stick at at the start of Lap six as he passed Ricciardo on the outside of Turn 1 thanks to superior straight-line speed on the preceding straight. Meanwhile Vettel's team mate Kimi Raikkonen latched on to Ricciardo’s gearbox over the rest of lap six, but as he slipstreamed the Australian on the pit straight Red Bull called its man in to the pits.

Raikkonen remained behind Ricciardo as the Red Bull aimed for the pit lane entrance and as a result found himself on the wrong side of the line dividing the approach to the pit lane and the race track. The stewards investigated the incident and soon slapped Raikkonen with his five-second time penalty.

Ricciardo’s strategy may have worked out with a well-timed safety car, but his stop on Lap six meant he ruled out a one-stop. Ferrari suggested Vettel pit two laps later, but the four-time champion questioned the call and decided to stay out — a decision that ultimately proved to be the quicker strategy.

Both Vettel and Rosberg pitted on Laps 20 and 21 respectively, and although Vettel rejoined behind Raikkonen, who pitted on Lap eight, Ferrari soon reshuffled its drivers to allow Vettel back ahead.

The first radio message relating to Hamilton’s issue was broadcast on Lap 27. He explained that his power unit was “de-rating everywhere”, meaning the Energy Recovery System was harvesting too much energy while failing to deploy maximum power when he needed it most.

Rosberg had a similar issue but was able to make changes on his steering wheel rectify the problem, while Hamilton was left making a series of increasingly desperate radio calls to the pit wall that, by regulation, had to go unanswered.

On Lap 34 Hamilton said he would try changing everything in the hope of lucking into the right mode, to which his engineer Peter Bonnington replied: We don’t advise that, Lewis.

Hamilton briefly found a setting on Lap 42 that allowed him to set the fastest lap at that point of the race, but it was ultimately beaten by Rosberg on lower fuel in the final eight laps. One team member later said to the media that it was like expecting Hamilton to do a crossword without any clues.

Under new regulations this season, the pit wall was unable to tell him how to rectify the issue and despite briefly finding a setting on Lap 42 that allowed him to up his pace by over a second, his lap times soon dropped off again as Fernando Alonso officially retired from the race.

Lap 6, Lap 31, Lap 39 saw Daniil Kvyat, Carlos Sainz Jr and Pascal Wehrlein officially retire from the race with various problems and it is especially a shame for the Toro Rosso drivers especially Kvyat who was impressive this weekend.

Sergio Perez had an amazing drive. He passed Raikkonen for third place at the start of the final lap, but a five-second penalty for the Ferrari driver for straying over the pit lane entry line earlier in the race meant the move, though impressive, was for show rather than position.

But it was Nico Rosberg who claimed his fifth victory of the 2016 season at the European GP ahead of Sebastian Vettel in second place who was 16.696 seconds behind him and ahead of Sergio Perez who finished in a superb third place who was 25.241 seconds behind Rosberg.

Kimi Raikkonen ended the race in a solid fourth place ahead of Lewis Hamilton in fifth place, Valtteri Bottas in sixth place, Daniel Ricciardo in seventh place, Max Verstappen in eighth place, Nico Hulkenberg in ninth place and Felipe Massa who rounded off the top ten finishers.

Jenson Button finished the race in eleventh place ahead of Felipe Nasr in twelfth place ,Romain Grosjean in thirteenth place, Kevin Magnussen in fourteenth place and Jolyon Palmer in fifteenth place.

As we head into the latter stages of the grid, Esteban Gutierrez finished the race in sixteenth place ahead of Marcus Ericsson in seventeenth place and Rio Haryanto in eighteenth place. Fernando Alonso, Pascal Wehrlein, Carlos Sainz Jr and Daniil Kvyat did not finish the race.

The classification for the European GP is as follows:-

1.Nico Rosberg, Mercedes, 1.32.52:366s
2.Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari, 16.696s
3.Sergio Perez, Force India-Mercedes, 25.241s
4.Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari, 33.102s
5.Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, 56.335s
6.Valtteri Bottas, Williams-Mercedes, 1.00.886s
7.Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull-TAG Heuer, 1.09.229s
8.Max Verstappen, Red-Bull-TAG Heuer, 1.10.696s
9.Nico Hulkenberg, Force India-Mercedes, 1.17.708s
10.Felipe Massa, Williams-Mercedes, 1.25.375s
11.Jenson Button, McLaren-Honda, 1.44.817s
12.Felipe Nasr, Sauber-Ferrari, 1 lap
13.Romain Grosjean, Haas Ferrari, 1 lap
14.Kevin Magnussen, Renault, 1 lap
15.Jolyon Palmer, Renault, 1 lap
16.Esteban Gutierrez, Haas Ferrari, 1 lap
17.Marcus Ericsson, Sauber-Ferrari, 1 lap
18.Rio Haryanto, MRT Racing, 1 lap
19.Fernando Alonso, McLaren-Honda, Not Classified
20.Pascal Wehrlein, MRT Racing, Not Classified
21.Carlos Sainz Jr, Toro Rosso, Not Classified
22.Daniil Kvyat, Toro Rosso, Not Classified

Nico Rosberg still leads the Driver's Championship with 141 points, Lewis Hamilton is in second place with 117 points, Sebastian Vettel is in third place with 96 points, Kimi Raikkonen is in fourth place with 81 points, Daniel Ricciardo is in fifth place with 78 points, Max Verstappen is in sixth place with 54 points, Valtteri Bottas is in seventh place with 52 points, Sergio Perez is in eighth place with 39 points, Felipe Massa is in ninth place with 38 points and Daniil Kvyat is in tenth place with 22 points.

Mercedes still lead the Constructors Championship with 258 points, Ferrari is in second place with 177 points, Red Bull is in third place with 140 points, Williams is in fourth place with 90 points, Force India is in fifth place with 59 points, Toro Rosso is in sixth place with 32 points, McLaren is in seventh place with 24 points, Haas is in eighth place with 22 points and Renault is in ninth place with 6 points.

Sarah Jones- @jonesy_laaa