Nico Rosberg wins his seventh consecutive career win in Formula One at the Russian Grand Prix

At the Russian GP in Sochi, Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg took his seventh consecutive win in Formula One ahead of his team mate Lewis Hamilton and Kimi Raikkonen. Rosberg is now the fourth driver in the history of the sport to achieve seven consecutive wins in the sport and joins an exclusive club of driverswhich includes Sebastian Vettel, Michael Schumacher and Alberto Ascari.

The start of the Russian Grand Prix was chaos especialy at the first corner, as Vettel was clipped from behind by Kvyat, the man he angrily blamed for causing a Turn 1 collision in China, which bumped him into the other Red Bull of Daniel Ricciardo.

Vettel’s misery was compounded at the next corner when Kvyat slammed into the back of him again which then spun the Ferrari into the wall and out of the race. This then triggered an expletive-laden radio message from Vettel who you could understand the way he reacted even though many fans disagreed with Vettel blaming Kvyat for the China incident. But on Lap six of the race, Kvyat stopped to serve a ten-second stop-go penalty in front of a grandstand of home fans.

While the battle between Kvyat and Vettel was ongoing, Haas F1 driver Esteban Gutierrez clipped Nico Hulkenberg, spinning the Force India driver around and also collecting the Manor of Rio Haryanto. While the Haas driver recovered to the pit lane for a new front wing, the incident ended the race for both Hulkenberg and Haryanto.

The safety car was deployed for two laps and after the restart Valtteri Bottas reclaimed second position from Kimi Raikkonen while Lewis Hamilton overtook Massa for fourth.
Lap 6 saw Daniil Kvyat and Marcus Ericsson battling hard for fifteenth place, with Ericsson defending very well but sadly having to concede to the home driver. On Lap seven, Hamilton dove down the inside of Raikkonen at Turn 5 to move up to third with a brilliant move, but Bottas’ Williams was a harder obstacle to overcome.

Hamilton was finally released into second when Bottas pitted on Lap 15, but by then was 15 seconds behind leader Rosberg. Hamilton then pitted himself for soft tyres a lap later and was just beaten to Turn 2 by Bottas.

But he managed to pass the Williams driver at the same point one lap later with a great move on the inside of Turn 2; even though Bottas had DRS on the run to the corner due to Fernando Alonso being ahead of him on track.

Once in clear air on the Sochi circuit, Hamilton did close on Rosberg, reducing the gap to 7.5s by two-thirds distance prior to being warned of the water pressure problem that led to him easing off while it was checked. But Rosberg was just in a class of his own and did everything he needed to do in order to get the car home.

In the second half of the race, we saw the McLaren Honda drivers of Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button battling through the field and running in the points at one stage with Alonso who was driving superbly. But the turning point of the race came on Lap 35 of the race,

Max Verstappen while running sixth in the race had to retire his Toro Rosso due to engine problems which then put McLaren-Honda driver Fernando Alonso into the points, scoring his first points since the 2015 Hungarian Grand Prix as his team mate Jenson Button makes it a double points finish as well by finishing in tenth place.

We also saw the battle for eighth between Kevin Magnussen, Romain Grosjean, Daniel Ricciardo and Carlos Sainz Jr building up nicely. Ricciardo passes Magnussen, Magnussen regaining the position as Grosjean sees an opportunity to pass Ricciardo which he does and Sainz Jr gaining on them all the time.

In the latter stages of the race, Sergio Perez managed to pass Jenson Button on the track, with the latter then being able to pass Carlos Sainz Jr at the penultimate corner. Sainz Jr crossed the line in eleventh place but dropped below Daniel Ricciardo to twelfth place immediately after the race with a ten-second penalty given to him for forcing Renault’s Jolyon Palmer wide on the exit of Turn 2.

But it was Nico Rosberg who took victory at the Russian Grand Prix (his fourth of the season) and extends his championship lead ahead of his team mate Lewis Hamilton in second place to 43 points who was 25 seconds behind him and was ahead of Kimi Raikkonen in third place who was 31.998 seconds behind Rosberg.

Valtteri Bottas finished the race in fourth place ahead of Felipe Massa in fifth place, Fernando Alonso in sixth place, Kevin Magnussen in seventh place who scores Renault's first points since returning to the sport as a works based team, Romain Grosjean in eighth place, Sergio Perez in ninth place and Jenson Button who rounded off the top ten finishers.
Daniel Ricciardo ended the race in a disappointing eleventh place ahead of Carlos Sainz Jr in twelfth place(who took a ten second time penalty), Jolyon Palmer in thirteenth place, Marcus Ericsson in fourteenth place, Daniil Kvyat in fifteenth place and Felipe Nasr in sixteenth place.

As we head into the latter stages of the grid, Esteban Gutierrez ended the race in seventeenth place ahead of Pascal Wehrlein in eighteenth place. Max Verstappen, Sebastian Vettel, Nico Hulkenberg and Rio Haryanto did not finish the race.

The classification for the Russian GP is as follows:-

1. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes, 1.32:41.997
2. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, 25.022s
3. Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari, 31.998s
4. Valtteri Bottas, Williams-Mercedes, 50.217s
5. Felipe Massa, Williams-Mercedes, 1.14.427
6. Fernando Alonso, McLaren-Honda, 1 lap
7. Kevin Magnussen, Renault, 1 lap
8. Romain Grosjean, Haas Ferrari, 1 lap
9. Sergio Perez, Force India-Mercedes, 1 lap
10. Jenson Button, McLaren-Honda, 1 lap
11. Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull-Renault, 1 lap
12. Carlos Sainz Jr, Toro Rosso, 1 lap
13. Jolyon Palmer, Renault, 1 lap
14. Marcus Ericsson, Sauber-Ferrari, 1 lap
15. Daniil Kvyat, Red Bull Renault, 1 lap
16. Felipe Nasr, Sauber-Ferrari, 1 lap
17. Esteban Gutierrez, Haas Ferrari, 1 lap
18. Pascal Wehrlein, MRT Racing, 2 laps
19. Max Verstappen, Toro Rosso, Not Classified
20. Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari, Not Classified
21. Nico Hulkenberg, Force India-Mercedes, Not Classified
22. Rio Haryanto, MRT Racing, Not Classified

Nico Rosberg leads the Drivers' Championship with 100 points, Hamilton is second with 57 points, Raikkonen is third with 43 points, Ricciardo is fourth with 36 points, Vettel is fifth with 33 points, Massa is sixth with 32 points, Grosjean is seventh with 22 points, Kvyat is eighth with 21 points, Bottas is ninth with 19 points and Verstappen is tenth with 13 points.

Mercedes lead the Constructors Championship with 157 points, Ferrari is second with 76 points, Red Bull are third with 57 points, Williams are fourth with 51 points, Haas are fifth with 22 points, Toro Rosso are sixth with 17 points, McLaren are seventh with 10 points, Force India are eighth with 8 points and Renault are ninth with 6 points.

Sarah Jones- @jonesy_laaa