Rosberg had started on pole but was forced to retire after a throttle issue allowed Hamilton to swoop past and take a lead that he never looked like surrendering as he moved above Ayrton Senna with 42 Grand Prix victories.
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Rosberg’s retirement has dropped him third in the Drivers’ standings behind Sebastian Vettel while the gap to race victor Hamilton is now 73 points.
Bottas and Raikkonen’s battle continued and they found themselves scrapping over third place on the final lap. “A racing driver never gives up, and especially Nico”.
Raikkonen however was hauled in front of the stewards after the race in the wake of his last-lap collision with Valtteri Bottas and was subsequently hit with a 30-second timed penalty.
Mercedes clinched their second successive Formula One constructors’ championship today, with Hamilton taking a huge stride towards his third drivers’ title.
If Raikkonen is not penalised the Silver Arrows will have to wait until the next race in the US to take the team honour.
Although Hamilton and Vettel easily sailed through the finish to gain their respective positions on the podium, the real action was in the fight for the third position plus the multiple collisions in the duration of the event.
Venezuelan Pastor Maldonado took eighth for Lotus and the two McLaren cars both claimed points with Briton Jenson Button finishing ninth and Italian Fernando Alonso 10th, having started on the back row of the grid.
Verstappen had lost out at the start when he picked up a puncture after Nico Hulkenberg spun at Turn 2 and collected Marcus Ericsson, triggering the first safety auto period. “My throttle pedal is broken”, he said – and just three laps later the problem became terminal.
“I’m very happy. It’s been a hard weekend because of the little running we got, we didn’t get much practice”, said a jubilant Rosberg.
Although Rosberg is still mathematically in with a chance of the title, his manner after the race betrayed the reality that his hopes are over for another season.
The second came after 12 laps when Romain Grosjean crashed heavily in his Lotus, but climbed out of the wreckage unhurt.
The team achieved their 11th two auto finish of the season.
After 32 laps on used Option supersofts, Hamilton pitted from the lead to switch to the Prime tyres for the final 21 laps.
“They’ve done an even better job this year than they did last year, which is just – and I continue to say this – phenomenal”. Hamilton’s new record was later eclipsed by Raikkonen, and then Vettel.
Hamilton, wearing a traditional Russian ushanka (fur hat), picked up the Russian Grand Prix trophy from Russian President Vladimir Putin, who watched the race from the stands.
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It was Rosberg’s 18th pole of his career and came after a dramatic morning during which Spaniard Carlos Sainz of Toro Rosso escaped injury in a heavy crash at Turn 13 after careering out of control at more than 300km/h.
