2015 Russian Grand Prix - Race Recap and Analysis: Hamilton has dominant win as Force India achieve unexpected podium.

The 2015 Russian Grand Prix has finished and it saw Lewis Hamilton take his 9th victory of the 2015 season. He now leads the World Drivers Championship by 66 points from Sebastian Vettel and only needs to score 11 more points than Vettel in the next round to take the Title. Mercedes have also rapped up the 2015 Constructors Championship after Kimi Raikkonen received a 10 second time penalty which dropped him lower than the points Ferrari needed to still be a mathematical chance.

Race winner Lewis Hamilton.

The race was contested over 53 laps and saw Nico Rosberg start from the pole. People were very optimistic that Rosberg could produce a result as he had dominated Hamilton all weekend. It came to the start and Rosberg got away ahead of Hamilton and slip stream saw them go side by side through Turn 1 and into Turn 2. Rosberg got Hamilton up the inside through 2 and we were expecting a good battle through the next corners but it was cut short as the safety car was deployed for trouble down the field. Nico Hulkenberg had spun by himself on the exit of Turn 2, this caused Verstappen to spin and get a right rear puncture and Marcus Ericsson had no where to go but straight into Hulkenberg, taking them both out of the race.

The first lap incident between Nico Hulkenberg and Marcus Ericsson.

The safety car was in on lap 3 and we were back to racing. On the restart the Mercedes engine in Valtteri Bottas's Williams showed its strength as he overtook Raikkonen for 3rd behind the two works Mercedes. But 2 laps later trouble began. Nico Rosberg reported a "sticky" throttle pedal. Then on lap 7 Lewis Hamilton breezed past Nico Rosberg as he struggled to slow the car down for Turn 2 having clear problems with the throttle. Then on lap 8 he pulls into the pits to retire, an unfortunate end to what was looking like a good weekend. Hamilton took a comfortable lead from Bottas, Raikkonen then Vettel.

Fast forward to Lap 12 and the safety car was back out, Romain Grosjean had a snap of oversteer through the endless left hander of Turn 3 and he found himself in the wall. Sergio Perez and Daniel Ricciardo dive for the pits whilst the top 4 all choose to stay out. This decision by the leader not to pit put the people who choose to stay out, mainly Sergio Perez and Daniel Ricciardo in a very strong position to challenge for the podium.

On the restart on Lap 16 Vettel found himself side by side with Raikkonen down into Turn 2. Raikkonen was forced wide and off the track but rejoined ahead in Turn 3, Kimi yielded the position in the next corners and Vettel was ahead into 3rd. After this Vettel began to catch Bottas ahead in 2nd. By Lap 26 Vettel had closed the gap down so much he was within DRS range. Lap 27 Bottas takes a gamble and pits, but comes out behind traffic. Vettel takes the opportunity and puts his foot down and boxes 5 laps later on lap 31. The traffic proved to difficult for Bottas and Ferrari's excellent pit stops saw Vettel get out ahead with Ricciardo in between the two drivers. Raikkonen also had a chance of jumping Bottas after some fast laps but he only managed to come out just behind his fellow country man.

Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen.

As we got up to round about lap 35 everyone had made there one stop and one thing was becoming very clear, Sergio Perez and Daniel Ricciardo's gamble to pit under the safety car was paying off big time as they found themselves in effective 3rd and 4th respectively. Sergio Perez was in the better position though as Daniel Ricciardo backed Bottas and Raikkonen behind, creating a gap to Perez ahead. Bottas couldn't find a way past Ricciardo and it stayed like that till lap 45 when Bottas slip-streamed past down the start/finish straight.

It then briefly looked like another safety car was going to spoil the fight between Bottas and Perez as Carlos Sainz spun with a brake failure and lightly hit the wall, dropping debris on the track as he tried to recover. Sector 3 yellows were out, but no safety car. At this stage Lewis Hamilton was a comfortable win, Vettel 2nd with the biggest battle being Bottas catching Perez for third and Raikkonen and Ricciardo just seconds behind them.

1 lap later Raikkonen then got past Ricciardo through Turn 2 and looked like joining the Bottas/Perez fight up ahead. Just after this overtake was made, another yellow was out for Daniel Ricciardo who was forced into retirement for a presumed suspension issue. After the yellow was lifted 4 laps were left. Valtteri Bottas in 4th was much faster than Sergio Perez in 3rd, with Raikkonen 2 seconds back in 5th. On the penultimate lap at Turn 13 Bottas made the move down the inside and got by Perez for third and this also allowed Raikkonen to sneak through. In the space of one corner Sergio Perez dropped from 3rd to 5th. As the trio came onto the last lap Raikkonen was now attacking Bottas for 3rd place. Both Bottas and Raikkonen came into the Turn 4 right hander and Raikkonen decided to make a risky divebomb move which backfired when he made contact at the apex, damaging his car and taking Bottas out of the race. After fighting for nearly 15 laps holding Bottas off, Perez had lost his podium and now he had got it back. He sped past the limping Raikkonen who would eventually finish 5th and drop to 8th after receiving a 10 second time penalty for his role in the incident. Bottas did not finish and was classified 12th. He commented on the team radio: "What the f*ck did he (Raikkonen) do?".

The Raikkonen/Bottas incident.

Eventually after the spectacle of the last lap ended, the race order looked like this:

1) Lewis Hamilton - Mercedes
2) Sebastian Vettel - Ferrari
3) Sergio Perez - Force India-Mercedes
4) Felipe Massa - Williams-Mercedes
5) Daniil Kvyat - Red Bull Racing-Renault
6) Felipe Nasr - Sauber-Ferrari
7) Pastor Maldonado - Lotus-Mercedes
8) Kimi Raikkonen - Ferrari (10 SECOND TIME PENALTY)
9) Jenson Button - McLaren-Honda
10) Max Verstappen - Toro Rosso-Renault
11) Fernando Alonso - McLaren-Honda
12) Valtteri Bottas - Williams-Mercedes
13) Roberto Merhi - Manor-Ferrari
14) Will Stevens - Manor-Ferrari
15) Daniel Ricciardo - Red Bull Racing-Renault (DNF)
16) Carlos Sainz - Toro Rosso-Renault (DNF)
17) Romain Grosjean - Lotus-Mercedes (DNF)
18) Nico Rosberg - Mercedes (DNF)
19) Nico Hulkenberg - Force India-Mercedes (DNF)
20) Marcus Ericsson - Sauber-Ferrari (DNF)

Overall this has been focused very much on the most exciting battle between Perez, Bottas and Raikkonen and many people have been forgotten. Felipe Nasr deserves a mention for a brilliant maintained 6th place finish as well as Jenson Button who finished 9th for McLaren.

Sergio Perez got his first podium since the 2014 Bahrain Grand Prix.

A team by team analysis will follow in the next few days.

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