Nico Rosberg Extends Title Lead Over Lewis Hamilton

 

Nico Rosberg eased to victory at the Russian GP to extend his championship lead to 43 points over Lewis Hamilton. The German was in supreme form in Sochi on Sunday and led from start to finish as he maintained his 100 per cent victory record in 2016.

Defending world champion Hamilton recovered from 10th on the grid following more unreliability problems in qualifying to take second place and limit the damage to his title chances. The Briton also had further reliability issues during the race and was instructed his car had a water pressure problem with less than 20 laps to go after he had cut Rosberg's lead down to seven seconds.

However, one driver who now appears to be out of championship contention is Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel, who was hit twice in two corners by Red Bull's Daniil Kvyat. The Russian carried too much speed into Turn Two on the opening lap and hammered into the back of the Ferrari, before hitting Vettel again at Turn Three and firing him into the barriers. The German launched a foul-mouthed tirade over the radio before exiting his car and then went to visit Red Bull boss Christian Horner on the pit wall when he returned to the pits.

Kvyat was handed a 10-second stop/go penalty for causing the collision and after the highs of China, he will now find his future under further scrutiny with Red Bull's Helmut Marko thought to be keen on promoting Max Verstappen to the senior team.

Russian GP result

1. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes, 53 laps

2. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, +25.022

3. Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari, +31.998

4. Valtteri Bottas, Williams, +50.217

5. Felipe Massa, Williams, +1:14.427

6. Fernando Alonso, McLaren, +1 lap

7. Kevin Magnussen, Renault, +1 lap

8. Romain Grosjean, Haas, +1 lap

9. Sergio Perez, Force India, +1 lap

10. Jenson Button, McLaren, +1 lap