He had closed to seven seconds behind Rosberg and was entertaining thoughts of winning the race when the team told him to back off because his engine was losing water pressure.
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With Vettel, who has quietly had almost as many setbacks as Hamilton this season, out, Ferrari teammate Kimi Raikkonen would claim a quiet third and final spot on the podium, ahead of the Williams duo of Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa.
“It’s not that it hurts”, said Hamilton, who was closing on Rosberg in Russian Federation before being told to back off because his engine was losing water pressure. Mercedes are again dominating this season on 157 points with Ferrari (76), Red Bull Racing (57) and Williams (51) jostling for second place.
But don’t bet against it.
In formula one, it was like another routine run from pole to the checkered flag for Nico Rosberg at the Russian Grand Prix.
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 auto – to sear through the field and, briefly, threaten a challenge for the lead.
“We were surprised this weekend because we have always said they [Ferrari] were close, but this weekend they were not close at all”, he said.
“Of course we don’t do it deliberately and the team has been abused in some of the social media and conspiracy theories are out there”, Wolff said.
Teammate Lewis Hamilton took advantage of an early appearance by the safety vehicle to move from P10 in the starting grid to a second-place finish, giving the team its second one-two finish this year so far.
The world champion would make it through the race without issue, but would start from tenth on the grid as a result of a problem at the start of Q3 on Saturday.
Rosberg has never beaten Hamilton in their three previous seasons together at Mercedes, and remains wary of the threat still posed by the world champion.
Hamilton then began the chase, trying to cut down Rosberg’s advantage of 12s.
“Great job from Lewis to come up to second so quickly”.
Fourth went to Bottas, ahead of Massa and Fernando Alonso, who achieved McLaren’s best finish of the season with sixth place.
Kevin Magnussen did similarly for team Renault in seventh, as Haas’s Romain Grosjean and Force India’s Sergio Perez rounded out the top ten.
The Briton has not won a race since October, when he took his third title in Texas, while Rosberg has started the year with four straight victories.
There was no disguising the German’s anger as he delivered an expletive-strewn tirade over the Ferrari team radio while around him cars slithered and crashed amid flying debris.
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Sunday’s Russian race saw Hamilton survive the first lap without incident for the first time this year.
