Russian GP 2015

OCTOBER 12, 2015

Race Report - Ruling in Russia

Start, Russian GP 2015
© Active Pictures

 

BY DAN KNUTSON

Lewis Hamilton ruled in Russia, taking the victory while his Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg retired with a throttle problem while in the lead.

"I was excited because we were quite close together at the beginning," Hamilton said after scoring his 42nd career win, which is one more than his hero Ayrton Senna had, and equals the win tally of Sebastian Vettel, "and I was thinking, 'OK, we've got a race here.' For sure it's a shame for the team to have lost one of the cars and to not have a race. When I knew Sebastian (Vettel in the Ferrari) behind I was thinking to myself 'I wish he was right with me so we could be having a race, it would be great for the fans.' Nonetheless, I don't take what we have for granted."

Rosberg still has a faint mathematical chance to win the championship, but the title race is effectively over.

"Racing can be very tough," Rosberg said. "You put so much effort into a weekend but in the end I leave Russia with no points. A very disappointing weekend for me. It all went well until the safety car came out. My throttle pedal came into my direction. At one point I wasn't able to steer anymore as I had to lift my foot too much and touched the steering wheel with my knee.

"In the recent months I had some unlucky moments, which made it hard in the battle against Lewis. But I will come back and keep pushing. We can be very happy that we secured the constructors' title a second time in a row."

Even though Rosberg did not finish, Mercedes was able to clinch the constructors' championship in Russia despite Vettel talking second place and Kimi Raikkonen being classed in eighth place.

"It was a great day, a great race and I felt really good in the car," Vettel said. "In particular I am very happy for the team, they have done a great job, after the lacking practice the days before. My start was not so good, I struggled a little bit, but as the race went on I fought my way to the front.

"After the safety car came in I could overtake Kimi (Raikkonen) and start the hunt for Williams. As for my fight with Kimi, first of all I think we both enjoyed the battle that since it was still so early in the race, it was right to let us fight to provide some excitement. In the end I was just able to finish my race. Lewis deserved the win, but we were maybe closer than some had expected."

The battle for third place was a real drama. Sergio Perez, who had pitted early in the race for tires, was holding on to third in his Force India in the closing laps but by now his tires were really worn out. So both Valtteri Bottas (Williams) and Raikkonen hunted him down and demoted him to fifth. Then, on the last lap, Raikkonen tried to pass Bottas and they collided. Bottas was out of the race there and then. Raikkonen limped across the line in fifth place, but the officials penalized him 30 seconds and dropped him down to eighth place.

"I don't think it was a racing incident," Bottas fumed. "I didn't see anyone there and I was in front, quite clearly ahead and taking my line and then suddenly at the apex I felt someone hit me, so I don't really get the point to do moves like that in the last lap."

Raikkonen said he simply had nowhere to go.

"I tried to overtake," he explained. "I went inside and I think he never realized I was there. Obviously at the last moment I saw him turn in and tried to avoid contact, I went further inside, but he kept coming over and there was a contact.

"It is an unfortunate thing for us and for them, nobody want to have an accident even if it's part of racing. It's really a shame, but my move was based on a good chance and not something completely crazy."

Perez was absolutely delighted as he drove by and retook third place.

"When we had a second safety car we decided to box," he said. "We were one of the few cars to box. After the restart I was behind Felipe Massa and Felipe Nasr. I was just stuck there and couldn't get them so I decided to save my tires together with the team, to look after them at the end of the race and it worked really well.

"I think we lost a podium one lap before the end, but it was just very difficult to hold Valtteri and Raikkonen back. At the stage that my tires were (worn out), and I couldn't brake very hard, very late because I was at risk of flat-spotting my tires and retiring from the race.

"So there was a certain level of risk that I was able to take and I thought OK, if it's not a podium, let's really come back with the points and then in the last lap they had contact and it was very good to come back and give a second podium to the team. It's great news that I'm staying with the team, so we have a lot of momentum going."

Not happy was Perez's teammate Nico Hulkenberg who crashed on lap one.

"I didn't have the best of starts, but then I was able to pick the ideal line on the approach to Turn 2," Hulkenberg said. "Unfortunately, I locked the rears going into turn two and, when that happens, you just end up in a spin. I hoped the whole field would get past without hitting me but unfortunately Marcus Ericsson got stuck with me and I couldn't move away.

"The first lap is always a unique situation: I didn't brake any later, but with cold tires it's really tricky and once the tires locked there was nothing I could do to save it. It's always a pity to go out at the start and it's really frustrating because our pace seemed really good this weekend."

Felipe Massa took fourth place after starting 15th in his Williams.

"It was a good result for me today and we managed to do well to fight back from a disappointing qualifying yesterday," he said. "I lost a bit of time behind slower cars at the beginning of the race because I was on harder tires than those around me, but the pace was very good on the super softs at the end. This allowed me to close up and be in a position to collect more points on the final lap due to the incidents up ahead."

Local hero Daniil Kvyat crossed the line in sixth place in his Red Bull and was promoted to fifth because of Raikkonen's penalty.

"I think we squeezed everything out of it today and ten points at the end of such a complicated race is a very good achievement," the Russian driver said. "With hindsight, you could say we could have run a slightly better strategy, but you can never be completely sure how these things will turn out and you never stop learning in this respect.

"It was nice to see all the people that came here to support me today; it's a great feeling and hopefully it will continue and get better and better. I could also see that other drivers had their fans in the crowd as well which was nice, it's a true passion and it looks like in Russia the sport is growing a lot and many people are coming which is great to see."

Felipe Nasr did a great job to take sixth in his Sauber.

"It was an intense race from the beginning to the end," he said. "The pace of the car was quite competitive, especially on the super soft tires, and we were temporarily able to keep ahead of some strong competitors. The balance of the car with the soft tires was not as good as with the super softs."

Pastor Maldonado ended up seventh while his Lotus teammate Romain Grosjean had a big accident.

"It was a bit tough today," Maldonado said, "but we opted for the right strategy from the beginning starting on the soft tires and going longer on the first run. Unfortunately we lost a lot of time on the second stint with the new super soft tires. Our car didn't perform as expected at the beginning of the run but then after a few laps we started to get back into the rhythm."

Grosjean was sore but uninjured.

"I lost the rear end in a very high speed corner going through turn three and couldn't recover it," he said. "We don't know exactly why yet. We need to check what has happened - was it a driver error or something technical? We'll see. I feel sorry for the guys because there will be a lot of work to repair the car. I feel okay physically and I'll certainly be a bit sore tomorrow morning, but I'll be completely fine again after a couple of days. We lost some good points today but let's understand what happened and look forward to the next race."

Raikkonen and Jenson Button (McLaren) were classed eighth and ninth.

"I was a sitting duck for the first couple of laps," Button said. "I couldn't really fight off the people behind; my deployment was cutting off at the end of the straights, so it was very easy for people to overtake. That was tricky: they were trying to pass me into Turn 13, which is a pretty scary place, especially when you don't have DRS and can't gauge the closing speed of the cars behind.

"Still, it wasn't bad. I was racing Fernando (Alonso) for the whole race, which was all I could really do, as all the other cars were quicker."

Fernando Alonso crossed the line in 10th place, but the officials gave him a five second penalty for cutting a corner and that dropped him to 11th.

"To have both cars finish in the top 10 at a circuit where we didn't expect to fare well, was a nice surprise. It was just a shame to lose out afterwards," he said. "In fact, the car performed very well in the race - I think we were able to look after the tires a little bit better than the cars around us, and, on an afternoon where every little bit helped, we made the most of that."

So Max Verstappen (Toro Rosso) was classed 10th. He had to pit at the end of lap one with a punctured rear tire.

"It certainly wasn't the best of race starts, as I got clipped because the cars in front of me crashed and from then on it was a very difficult race," he said. "I had a lot of damage on the car, especially at the rear, and it wasn't behaving as it should've been. It was very difficult for me to continue, but we tried to, hoping we could get back into the points."

And speaking of points, Hamilton earned 25 by ruling in Russia, which clinched the constructors' championship for Mercedes, and moved him into position to win his third drivers' championship.

"I couldn't have done it without this amazing team, as I always say," Hamilton said. "As I said on the radio, I'm incredibly proud to be part of this team and coming into those last couple of laps I was just thinking 'what a dream this is for me.'"