At the Sochi Autodrom in Sochi, Russia, on Sunday, Nico Rosberg extended his win streak to seven races, having won the last three races of the 2015 season, and the opening four rounds of the 2016 season.
Rosberg was aided after his two main rivals found themselves mired back in seventh and 10th on the grid. Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel started seventh following a five-place grid penalty for a gearbox change, while Hamilton started 10th after a power unit failure ahead of the final qualifying session.
At the start, Nico Rosberg led the field away for the first of 53 laps, while Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen moved on by Williams driver Valtteri Bottas for second. However, behind them chaos broke out, as Haas F1 driver Esteban Gutierrez triggered a multi-car incident at the back of the field, while Daniil Kvyat ran into Sebastian Vettel twice, sending the Ferrari driver into the wall.
Lewis Hamilton made it through all of the carnage and emerged in fourth place as the Safety Car was deployed.
The two incidents resulted in retirements for Vettel, Nico Hulkenberg and Rio Haryanto; pit stops for Marcus Ericsson, Kvyat, Daniel Ricciardo, Sergio Perez and Gutierrez; and penalties for Gutierrez (drive-through) and Kvyat (stop-go), which they served during the race.
Valtteri Bottas got back by Kimi Raikkonen on the restart for second, but the two soon found themselves behind the Mercedes driver of Hamilton, who continued his charge up through the field. Raikkonen also got by Bottas.
Hamilton was closing in on Rosberg during the final laps, but then had to back off due to a water pressure issue.
Behind them, there were several drivers who brought home solid finishes for the midfield teams, with both McLarens finishing in the points, Kevin Magnussen taking seventh for Renault and Romain Grosjean scoring points again in eighth for Haas. Sergio Perez also scored his first points of the season in ninth, despite suffering a puncture in the opening lap carnage.
A lot of those results were aided by Red Bull's troubles, as the team brought their cars down under the Lap 1 Safety Car to switch to medium tires at the start, but neither driver was able to find pace on those tires.
Full race results:
