Lewis Hamilton wins Russian Grand Prix

Reigning World Champion and current leader Lewis Hamiton won the Russian Grand Prix as he controlled the race after pole sitter and Mercedes team mate Nico Rosberg retired due to throttle failure on lap 7 while leading the race. Vettel on the Ferrari and Sergio Perez of Force India grabbed the remaining podium spots.

Rosberg started from pole for the second race in a row but looked cautious not to lose the race to Hamilton at the start as it happened in Suzuka in the previous round.

At the lights Rosberg made a strong start not letting his team mate get any advantage and looked strong and confident of a win. Hamiton held second ahead of Bottas, Vettel and Raikkonen. 

At turn 2, Nico Hulkenberg of Force India spun out on cold tyres taking out Max Verstappen (Torro Rosso) and Marc Ericsson (Sauber) leading to a safety car, Verstappen continued while Ericsson had to retire.

At the restart Rosberg continued with his lead but not for long as his Mercedes was a sitting duck to a throttle failure which made him lose position to Hamilton and others eventually retiring out of the race on lap 7.

From then on Hamilton controlled the lead with the remains to be take by the others.

On lap 12 Lotus driver Romain Grosjean crashed heavily going off line on turn 3 and narrowly escaping serious injury calling again for a safety car stint. 

Sergio Perez is one of the few drivers who got advantage with an early pit stop during the safety car period and was running 3rd behind Vettel.

As Perez was struggling with worn out tryres during the last few laps, Bottas and Raikkonen caught up and overtook the Force India on the penultimate lap but to the fortune of the Force India, a few corners later Raikkonen took out Bottas with a wild move handing back 3rd to Perez.

Hamilton crossed the line first with a clear advantage over the Ferrari of Sebastian Vettel while Perez crossed took 3rd place with Massa finishing 4th. 

Raikkonen managed to finished 5th with a battered car but was penalized for the cause of a collision retiring Bottas and ended up 8th.

Young Daniil Kyvat on the Red Bull finished 5th in front of his home crowd ahead of Felipe Nasr and Pastor Maldonado. McLaren driver Jenson Button finished 9th ahead of his team mate Fernando Alonso who was later penalized 5secs for exceeding track limits ending up in 11th and promoting Max Verstappen to 10th.

Formula 1 2015 Russian Grand Prix - Race Results