British Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton steers his vehicle during the Formula One Russian Grand Prix at the Sochi Autodrom racetrack in Sochi, Russia, Sunday, May 1, 2016.
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Hamilton, who started 10th, avoided the carnage of a first lap multiple collision that eliminated Sebastian Vettel of Ferrari-hit again by Russian rival Daniil Kvyat of Red Bull, who twice rammed into his vehicle – to sear through the field and, briefly, threaten a challenge for the lead.
Rosberg becomes only of only four men to have reeled off seven straight wins, joining Italian Alberto Ascari and Germans Michael Schumacher and Vettel.
He subsequently crossed the line 25 seconds behind his team-mate.in second with Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen completing the podium places.
The suggestion is that Mercedes are sabotaging his season in a bid to pave the way for Rosberg – a German driver – to win the title for a German team.
Hamilton ended by thanking his team for their efforts in ensuring he started tenth on the grid, which included flying parts in by private jet overnight and long hours to prepare his vehicle.
Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen was fourth in qualifying, followed by Bottas’ Williams teammate, Felipe Massa, and Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo.
The defending world champion managed to work his way up to second position in Sochi, but he fell short of applying pressure on Rosberg who maintained his 100 per cent record this season.
Following the Formula 1 Russian Grand Prix, Vladimir Putin had a brief meeting with members of the Russian junior SMP Racing team and wished the young athletes a success.
Elsewhere, Bottas and Massa finished fourth and fifth for Williams, while both McLaren drivers finished in the points for the first time since last year’s Hungarian Grand Prix – an unwanted run of 12 races.
“Great job from Lewis (Hamilton) to come up to second so quickly”. I was enjoying it out there, just flat-out to the end.
“I don’t think things can be explained as bad luck, there are mostly human mistakes behind the story”. A gearbox penalty meant that even when he qualified second, he still got demoted to seventh on the grid at the opening of the race.
“Do I think it is not going to happen again?”
“I don’t believe that that’s happened”, Hamilton told Sky Sports of the conspiracy theories, “it’s not happened in the last three years and I don’t have any reason to believe that would happen now”.
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“This weekend really went really perfectly for me”.
