2015 Russian Grand Prix: Hamilton becomes champion in waiting

The Formula One community arrived in Russia with the Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 team drivers locked in a tight battle for the Drivers Championship. Leading the standings, Lewis Hamilton enjoys a buffer of 48 points over Nico Rosberg, while Scuderia Ferrari pilot Sebastian Vettel is in 3rd, 41 points adrift. As the checkered flag fell on qualifying, Nico Rosberg was locked in pole position and with it the advantage of having his main rival start on the dirty part of the track. Lewis could only muscle his car to P2 while Valtteri Bottas claimed P3 ahead of Sebastian Vettel, who closed out the second row in P4.

At the start, both Mercedes cars had a great take off and were wheel to wheel as they arrived at turn 1. Nico was able to hold off the challenge of Lewis to maintain the lead. Hamilton had no alternative but to follow his teammate in the series of corners to secure second. Kimi Raikkonen also had a fantastic start. The Finn was able to vault past Valtteri Bottas and Sebastian Vettel to claim P3.

Meanwhile, down the grid, Hulkenberg and Ericsson came together with both suffering race-ending damage. This incident also took with it young Max Verstappen. The Toro Rosso damaged its left rear and had to make its way around the track to get back into the pits. The safety car was brought out by race control as the marshalls retrieved the bits and pieces strewn on the track. When the safety car came in, Rosberg assumed his position in front, followed by Lewis, with Bottas muscling his way past Raikkonen to claim P3.

A lap later, a call was made by Rosberg reporting a problem with his clutch, and it didn’t take long for the German to be overtaken by Hamilton. He was a sitting duck and was not in a position to defend. Rosberg’s race and possibly his championship challenge was coming to a bitter end. There was nothing he or the team could do about it. Nico suffered a devastating blow to his championship assault.

Lap 13 saw a major shunt for Romain Grosjean, his Lotus plowing into the tech-pro barriers. This brought out the safety car as the crews retrieve the stricken Lotus. At the restart, Hamilton maintained the lead and was unchallenged for most of the race. The gap was so big that even when he came into the pits, Lewis still managed to come out in front of his rivals. The win was his. All he had to do was bring the W06 hybrid across the finish line.

In the closing laps, it was Hamilton, Vettel and Perez, with Bottas hounding the Force India. Kimi Raikkonen, who was helped by a reported broken suspension on the Red Bull of Ricciardo, was now up to 5th and has sets his sights for a podium spot. With two laps to go, and both Bottas and Raikkonen took a stab at the Force India at turn 13. Perez had no option but to yeild the position. Sergio was now relegated to 5th.

Kimi, sensing a double podium for the Scuderia, tried to climb over the back of the Williams of Bottas, but Valtteri was able to hold of the charge momentarily. But with the aid of DRS, Kimi was able to get close to the Williams, and in turn 4, made a lunge that was viewed by many as an amateurish move, not reflective of a former world champion. Kimi basically t-boned the Williams into retirement. He eventually brought his damaged Ferrari across the line in fifth. The collision was assessed by the stewards after the race and a corresponding penalty was imposed.

Hamilton crossed the line to take his ninth win of the season and in the process etched his name in the all time wins list. He eclipsed the great Ayrton Senna and tied Sebastian Vettel in 3rd spot with 42 career wins. Alain Prost and Michael Schumacher are the only drivers with more wins that the Brit.

Lewis now leads the championship with 302 points. 66 points adrift is new second place man, Sebastian Vettel, while Nico Rosberg has tumbled to 3rd, a further 73 points back of his teammate.

With only 4 races to go and 100 points on offer, Lewis just has to win once and get a decent points finish in the remaining races, to solidify his claim to the 2015 Drivers Title.