Nico Rosberg extended his lead in the Formula One World Championship with his fourth win of the season in Russia.
Here are five things we learned:
1 ROSBERG ON EASY STREET
2 NO CONSPIRACY AT MERCEDES
The conspiracy theorists were out en mass following yet another car failure for Hamilton in Sunday’s race. The
suggestion is that Mercedes are sabotaging his season in a bid to pave the way for Rosberg – a German driver – to win the title for a German team. Toto Wolff said it was a school of thought assembled by “a bunch of lunatics”, and of course he is right.
3 HAMILTON DOWN ON HIS LUCK
Hamilton must be praised for his admirable response to a season fraught with difficulties, but it appeared on Sunday, that another car failure, this time a water leak from within his Mercedes engine, was starting to take its toll. The world champion dodged spraying any champagne on the podium, and then cut a rather sombre figure
in his post-race media duties.
4 NO HOME COMFORTS FOR KYVAT
Daniil Kvyat will want to forget his home race in a hurry. The young Russian was the centre of attention in front of his home support after hitting Sebastian Vettel not once, but twice, on the opening lap – the force of the second impact causing the Ferrari driver to crash out. A red-faced Kvyat later revealed he called Vettel to apologise.
5 MCLAREN SHOWING ENCOURAGING SIGNS
McLaren secured their first double-points finish since last year’s Hungarian Grand Prix – an unwanted streak of 12 races. This should hardly be cause for wild celebrations for a team which has won 12 driver championships,
but there is now at least an air of optimism.