Hamilton’s first stop after cruising to victory by 5.9 seconds over Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel was the drivers’ room where he gave Mr Putin a huge hug.
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The German, who had started the race 48 points adrift of double world champion Lewis Hamilton with 100 points remaining to be won after Sochi, had complained of a broken throttle pedal. “I don’t know how many times I’ll be in that position again, so really cherishing the moment and feeling really blessed”. We will add a little bit of history and nobody can take that away from us, so that is important. However, the incident had no impact on Hamilton’s progress, with the Brit coasting to his ninth victory of a dominant campaign.
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. As mentioned, it remains to be seen whether Sainz is able to start.
“It doesn’t matter if he’s penalised, because I’m never getting those points back”, said Bottas bitterly.
“Today we had to just sit and wait, and hope that the rain stopped”.
But Raikkonen was under investigation for a collision that cost fellow-Finn Valtteri Bottas third place for Williams and it was just a question of what kind of a penalty he was given. Sergio Perez (Force India) 28.918, 4.
After 32 laps on used Option supersofts, Hamilton pitted from the lead to switch to the Prime tyres for the final 21 laps. “It’s a very special result and one that fills me with expectation ahead of the races in Austin and especially Mexico City”. Raikkonen limped across the line in fifth with a badly damaged auto, with Red Bull’s Daniil Kvyat coming home in sixth to give the home fans something to cheer about. Felipe Nasr (Sauber AG) 56.508, 7. Jenson Button in contrast, with contract freshly signed, celebrated with a decent 13th in the recalcitrant McLaren, well ahead of team-mate Fernando Alonso.
On lap six he was gobbled up by Hamilton for the lead and then on lap seven his race was over, and seemingly so too his slim hopes of catching his Mercedes team-mate in this year’s title race. “I was glad when I opened my eyes I was fine”, he said as he returned to the pits.
“After the Safety auto I couldn’t come off the throttle any more”.
After another curtailed practice session during the morning, when Sainz survived his high-speed crash, qualifying began with the two Mercedes men, led by Rosberg, leading the way in welcome dry conditions.
“You just have to be realistic now”. But by the time the German had got to turn four the safety auto had been deployed. It doesn’t change my approach, still pushing to the maximum and committed.
“Everything was over-confident that we were going to win it here”, he said.
His main rival Nico Rosberg failed to finish the race. No other driver is in contention. Both were left stranded, bringing out the safety vehicle.
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Hamilton’s vehicle lost telemetry at the start of Q2, but Rosberg had to use a new set of supersofts to pip him to fastest time of 1m 37.500s, as Bottas headed the Ferraris in third place.
