EUROPEAN GRAND PRIX (AZERBAIJAN) - RACE
Rosberg started at the front of a mixed up grid, with Hamilton starting tenth after crashing out in qualifying.
With the narrow style of the fast street circuit, chaos was expected on the opening lap, but everybody managed to make it around the first lap unscathed.
The first big battle came on lap four, when Valtteri Bottas closed in on Max Verstappen. The Williams managed to get past the Red Bull, only to give Verstappen a tow and allow the teenager to re-pass.
Bottas was only able to make the move stick when Verstappen ran wide at turn one, allowing a recovering Hamilton past too and Romain Grosjean to close in. The teenager closed the door before the Frenchman could get past, but the Red Bull soon pitted for soft tyres.
Ahead of him, team mate Daniel Ricciardo had lost sight of Rosberg. The Australian had started on the front row of the grid after Sergio Perez’s five place penalty, but the Red Bull didn’t have the pace on the fast street circuit. Third place starter Sebastian Vettel soon took advantage of that, moving into second on the fifth lap and immediately pulling away from his former team mate.
Everybody was being careful around the beautiful streets of Baku, and the first retirement surprisingly wasn’t due to a crash. Daniil Kvyat came into the pits on the eighth lap with suspension problems. The Russian’s luck just keeps getting worse and worse, this is his second retirement of the season.
Hamilton was slowly making his way through the field, picking off drivers one by one, when he began to complain about brake vibrations. It was a sign that the tyres were coming to the end of their lives, and he pitted on the next lap, coming out ahead of Verstappen. Once he’d pitted, Hamilton soon set the fastest lap of the race, closing in on Sergio Perez and Felipe Massa.
By the time Rosberg came into the pits just before the half way mark, he’d built up enough of a lead to the second place driver that he managed to come out of the pits in first. It was one of the few points of the race for Rosberg, as he spent most of the race on his own.
Kimi Raikkonen was running in second ahead of team mate Vettel by this point, with Vettel only pitting a few laps before. The Finn had a five second penalty for crossing the line at pit entry earlier in the race and he soon gave the second place up to his team mate, telling his engineer to make sure Vettel didn’t keep him up. He didn’t, quickly setting off to catch up with Rosberg, who was eighteen seconds ahead.
Further back, Hamilton was having more problems, and this time a pit stop couldn’t stop him. The Mercedes was stuck in the wrong setting, meaning it couldn’t use the electrical power the way it should. It would have a simple fix but, unfortunately, Hamilton’s engineers couldn’t tell him what that fix was, the new radio rules banning them. The defending champion was left to fiddle with switches and struggle on his own.
Hamilton wasn’t the only one having trouble, though Raikkonen’s was more conventional for racing drivers. Perez was catching up, the Mexican driver looking to match the best ever podium finishes for a Mexican in Formula One.
Perez was, due to Raikkonen’s penalty, technically third already, but he wanted to make the place on the track, and the Mexican was putting pressure on the Ferrari driver. Raikkonen’s experience served him well, though, and he defended well against Perez.
Sainz was the second retirement of the day, a problem with suspension sending him down an escape road in the first sector. Pascal Wehrlein in the Manor was doing amazingly. After staying out longer than anybody, the Manor driver was having a surprisingly interesting race, getting stuck into battles and not just looking out for blue flags. That came to a stop on the forty first lap, when he said over the radio that he had no brakes, and he was forced to retire.
Fernando Alonso was the fourth and final retirement of the weekend. The McLaren driver had been stuck in fourth gear and, with the problem only getting worse, he pitted six laps before the end of the race to retire.
Back on track, Hamilton had solved the problem with his engine, and was soon making up for that with a fastest lap. He was running in fifth, far enough ahead of Bottas to not have to worry about the Williams but a little too far behind the battle between Perez and Raikkonen to challenge.
The laps ticked down and, on the final Perez was still pushing hard against Raikkonen. The Mexican was now less than a second behind the Ferrari, well within the penalty range. On lap fifty one of fifty one, he managed to get past Raikkonen, into third. Raikkonen was far enough ahead of Hamilton to keep fourth place.
Rosberg had a reasonably quiet race. Two backmarkers making contact right in front of him was the height of the German’s excitement, but the win and the extension of his lead at the top of the championship leaves him with nothing to complain about.
RESULTS:
1. Nico Rosberg / Mercedes-Mercedes / Germany / + 25 Points
2. Sebastian Vettel / Ferrari-Ferrari / Germany / + 18 Points
3. Sergio Perez / Force India-Mercedes / Mexico / + 15 Points
4. Kimi Raikkonen / Ferrari-Ferrari / Finland / + 12 Points
5. Lewis Hamilton / Mercedes-Mercedes / Great Britain / + 10 Points
6. Valtteri Bottas / Williams-Mercedes / Finland / + 8 Points
7. Daniel Ricciardo / Red Bull-TAG-HEUER / Australia / + 6 Points
8. Max Verstappen / Red Bull-TAG-HEUER / Netherlands / + 4 Points
9. Nico Hulkenberg / Force India-Mercedes / Germany / + 2 Points
10. Felipe Massa / Williams-Mercedes / Brazil / + 1 Point
11. Jenson Button / McLaren-Honda / Great Britain
12. Felipe Nasr / Sauber-Ferrari / Brazil
13. Romain Grosjean / Haas-Ferrari / France
14. Kevin Magnussen / Renault-Renault / Denmark
15. Jolyon Palmer / Renault-Renault / Great Britain
16. Esteban Gutierrez / Haas-Ferrari / Mexico
17. Marcus Ericsson / Sauber-Ferrari / Sweden
18. Rio Haryanto / Manor-Mercedes / Indonesia
RETIRED – Fernando Alonso / McLaren-Honda / Spain / Gearbox
RETIRED – Pascal Wehrlein / Manor-Mercedes / Germany / Brakes
RETIRED - Carlos Sainz / Toro Rosso-Ferrari / Spain / Suspension
RETIRED - Daniil Kvyat / Toro Rosso-Ferrari / Russia / Suspension
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Article Written By: Bethonie Waring
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