Heading to round 16 of the 2014 Formula One World Championship the Mercedes works team had to score 25 points to seal the World Constructors’ Championship (WCC). Should the Mercedes Russian GP campaign be successful it would be their first ever WCC, due to the title being introduced in 1958 and Mercedes’ withdrawal from motorsport in 1955 as a result of the famous crash at Le Mans.
The Silver Arrows drivers got off to the best possible start locking out the front row for the ninth time this season, Lewis Hamilton took his 38th career pole position while his team mate Nico Rosberg lined up alongside him with his 8th front row start in succession. The stage was set for the inaugural Russian Grand Prix at the Sochi Autodrom.
Both drivers got away well but heading towards the kink of turn one Hamilton looked to have the advantage. Rosberg reacted immediately picking up the slipstream then pulling alongside his team mate and dived down the inside into turn two. A massive lockup for the German put him out onto the runoff area and crucially flat spotted his tyres too badly to continue racing on that set.
The end of the first lap signalled a change of the lead as Nico begrudgingly gave the position back to Lewis and headed for the pits. After receiving a new set of the medium compound tyres Rosberg was told he had to make that set last to the end of the race.
By lap 10 the German driver had climbed his way back up the order to 15th and continued his advances while his British team mate was being kept in check by the ever impressive Williams driver – Valtteri Bottas. Surprisingly the pair was only separated by around three seconds.
Lap 20 saw Nico lunge down the inside of Sergio Perez and barge his way into 10th place and a points finish. A few laps later he complained of tyre degradation while Lewis revelled in first place and free air.
Hamilton made his first and only pit stop on lap 27 and re-joined with a 15 second lead. Meanwhile Rosberg had fought his way up to an impressive fourth place and joined the battle for second place with Sebastian Vettel and Valtteri Bottas. When Vettel pitted Rosberg decided to push, another dive down the inside of turn two got him past the Finn and into the second place spot behind Hamilton.
Bottas kept up the pressure as the gap remained around five seconds to Rosberg but inevitably the Mercedes Petronas cars finished in 1-2 formation for the ninth time this season. This meant the Brackley based outfit clinched their first WCC in Russia and are set to guarantee that one of their drivers wins the World Drivers’ Championship at the Grand Prix of America in three weeks time.
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