Nico Rosberg made it seven wins in a row at the Russian Grand Prix as Sebastian Vettel was dramatically punted out of the race on the first lap.

Rosberg led away from pole position and never looked threatened throughout the race, with all the drama occurring behind him early on. Vettel, starting seventh after a gearbox penalty, was hit by Kvyat coming through Turn 2 and then again at the next corner, ending his race in the barriers on the outside of Turn 3. Lewis Hamilton recovered from tenth position to finish second ahead of Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen, but a water pressure issue at mid-distance destroyed any chance he had of taking the fight to teammate Rosberg out in front.

The win extends Rosberg's championship lead over Hamilton to 43 points, with Vettel already a massive 67 points behind. Behind the battle at the front, there was joy for McLaren as it returned both cars home in the points, with Fernando Alonso finishing sixth and Jenson Button crossing in tenth position, while Kevin Magnussen also recorded Renault's first points since returning to the sport as a constructor this year in seventh position.

There was chaos at the first corner, as Vettel was clipped from behind by Kvyat, the man he angrily blamed for causing a Turn 1 collision in China, which bumped him into the other Red Bull of Daniel Ricciardo. Vettel's misery was compounded at the next corner when Kvyat slammed into the back of him again, spinning the Ferrari into the wall and out of the race -- triggering an expletive-laden radio message from the four-time world champion. While many disagreed with Vettel blaming Kvyat for the China incident it was obvious who was at fault this time around and on lap six Kvyat stopped to serve a ten-second stop-go penalty in front of a grandstand of home fans.

Behind that, Esteban Gutierrez clipped Nico Hulkenberg, spinning the Force India driver around and also collecting the Manor of Rio Haryanto. While the Haas driver recovered to the pit lane for a new front wing, the incident ended the race for both Hulkenberg and Haryanto.

The safety car was deployed for two laps and after the restart Valtteri Bottas reclaimed second position from Raikkonen while Hamilton overtook Massa for fourth. On lap five Hamilton dove down the inside of Raikkonen at Turn 5 to move up to third with a brilliant move, but Bottas' Williams was a harder obstacle to overcome. Hamilton was finally released into second when Bottas pitted on lap 15, but by then was 15 seconds behind leader Rosberg. The world campion pitted himself for soft tyres a lap later and was just beaten to Turn 2 by Bottas, though he passed the Williams driver at the same point one lap later.

Raikkonen pitted from second on lap two, behind Hamilton but crucially ahead of Bottas in the battle for the final place on the podium. Rosberg pitted from the lead the following lap. In the second stint Hamilton started cutting the gap and at one stage looked to be reeling the championship leader in, only for Mercedes to report a water pressure issue when the gap was down to seven seconds. Immediately after that Rosberg set a fastest lap and opened the gap out to above 11 seconds before Mercedes told Hamilton the problem had stabilised, but it prevented any chance of a showdown between the two Silver Arrows.

Raikkonen returned to the podium with a solid drive to third ahead of Williams pair Bottas and Massa. Max Verstappen had looked on for a finish in the top six before his Toro Rosso broke down on lap 35. That meant sixth was inherited by Alonso, who had a brilliant getaway at the start and turned in a great drive for sixth -- his first points of the campaign and further proof of the progress being made at McLaren and Honda.

Magnussen also recorded Renault's first points of the campaign with a great drive to seventh, ahead of Romain Grosjean's Haas -- an impressive finish given the team's struggles with tyre pressures this weekend. Sergio Perez finished ninth ahead of Button, who moved into tenth late on with a nice pass on Carlos Sainz at the penultimate corner. Sainz crossed the line in 11th but dropped below Daniel Ricciardo to 12th immediately after the race with a ten-second penalty given to him for forcing Renault's Jolyon Palmer wide on the exit of Turn 2.

Palmer himself crossed 13th, ahead of Sauber's Marcus Ericsson and Kvyat, who was always in for a long race after serving his stop-go penalty. Felipe Nasr crossed in 16th, ahead of Gutierrez -- whose race was ruined after contact at the first lap -- and the Manor of Pascal Wehrlein.

Source:
courtesy of ESPN

by Nate Saunders

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