After the setback of the past two races, Nico Rosberg returns to the winner circle with victory at the Baku street circuit.
The Mercedes driver’s fifth Grand Prix win this season means he has extended his world championship lead over title rival Lewis Hamilton by 24 points.
Rosberg led into the first corner from pole and set about building a lead he would never give up, while Mercedes team-mate Hamilton can only finish fifth.
Last weekend’s Canadian Grand Prix winner made good progress through the field from tenth, having crashed out in qualifying, but then encountered lower than maximum electrical deployment.
The reigning world champion repeatedly asked his team for help in solving the problem, but Mercedes was unable to tell him what to do under this season’s radio communication restrictions.
Hamilton was able to fix the problem in the closing stages of the European Grand Prix but it proved to be too late and he was unable to improve on fifth position.
Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel finished second for the second successive race with Force India’s Sergio Perez scoring his second podium in three races with third place.
‘Checo’ Perez passed Kimi Raikkonen on the final lap to snatch third, but he was set to get the place anyway as Raikkonen had been given a five-second time penalty for crossing the white line on pit entry earlier in the race.
Valtteri Bottas was a lonely sixth while Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen passed Nico Hulkenberg late on to finish seventh and eighth respectively.
The Red Bulls used a two-stop strategy, fitting the softs and the the mediums, while Hulkenberg only did a single pit stop so they had fresher tyres.
Hulkenberg held on to ninth, one position ahead of Felipe Massa, who scored points for the seventh time in eight races.
Jenson Button finished just outside the points in P11 but his McLaren team-mate Fernando Alonso was told to pit and retire the car with seven laps to go.
Felipe Nasr scored his best result of the season with P12, ahead of Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen, who started from the pitlane.
Pascal Wehrlein was running strongly when he suffered brake failure and retired his Manor for the first time this season.
The Toro Rossos were the only other retirements, both Daniil Kvyat and Carlos Sainz Jr suffering suspension issues.
So a great result for Nico Rosberg. Race victory has rebuild his confidence in the championship. As for the action at Baku, it lacked drama compared to the Le Mans 24 Hours, which clashed with the European Grand Prix.
European Grand Prix, race results after 51 laps:
1 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1h32m52.366s
2 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 16.696s
3 Sergio Perez Force India-Mercedes 25.241s
4 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 33.102s
5 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 56.335s
6 Valtteri Bottas Williams-Mercedes 1m00.886s
7 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull-Renault 1m09.229s
8 Max Verstappen Red Bull-Renault 1m10.696s
9 Nico Hulkenberg Force India-Mercedes 1m17.708s
10 Felipe Massa Williams-Mercedes 1m25.375s
11 Jenson Button McLaren-Honda 1m44.817s
12 Felipe Nasr Sauber-Ferrari 1 Lap
13 Romain Grosjean Haas-Ferrari 1 Lap
14 Kevin Magnussen Renault 1 Lap
15 Jolyon Palmer Renault 1 Lap
16 Esteban Gutierrez Haas-Ferrari 1 Lap
17 Marcus Ericsson Sauber-Ferrari 1 Lap
18 Rio Haryanto Manor-Mercedes 2 Laps
– Fernando Alonso McLaren-Honda Retirement
– Pascal Wehrlein Manor-Mercedes Brakes
– Carlos Sainz Toro Rosso-Ferrari Retirement
– Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso-Ferrari Retirement
Drivers’ standings:
1 Nico Rosberg 141
2 Lewis Hamilton 117
3 Sebastian Vettel 96
4 Kimi Raikkonen 81
5 Daniel Ricciardo 78
6 Max Verstappen 54
7 Valtteri Bottas 52
8 Sergio Perez 39
9 Felipe Massa 38
10 Daniil Kvyat 22
11 Romain Grosjean 22
12 Nico Hulkenberg 20
13 Fernando Alonso 18
14 Carlos Sainz 18
15 Kevin Magnussen 6
16 Jenson Button 5
17 Stoffel Vandoorne 1
18 Esteban Gutierrez 0
19 Jolyon Palmer 0
20 Marcus Ericsson 0
21 Felipe Nasr 0
22 Pascal Wehrlein 0
23 Rio Haryanto 0
Constructors’ standings:
1 Mercedes 258
2 Ferrari 177
3 Red Bull-Renault 140
4 Williams-Mercedes 90
5 Force India-Mercedes 59
6 Toro Rosso-Ferrari 32
7 McLaren-Honda 24
8 Haas-Ferrari 22
9 Renault 6
10 Sauber-Ferrari 0
11 Manor-Mercedes 0
Lewis Hamilton rages as team refuse to explain technical issue. News report provided by Eurosport:
Lewis Hamilton’s attempt to climb up the field from 10th on the grid was undermined when his car was put into the wrong mode during the European Grand Prix in Baku.
While Hamilton fumbled around to find the solution, he grew increasingly frustrated with his team who were unable to explain the issue due to restrictions on radio communication.
The situation led to the following back-and-forth between driver and team:
LH: “This is ridiculous guys, I don’t know. I’m looking at my frickin’ dash every five seconds trying to find a switch in the wrong position. I’ve not changed anything or done anything wrong that I’m aware of.”
Team: “There is nothing you are doing wrong, just a setting that is incorrect.”
LH: “In HTB?”
Team: “I’m afraid I can’t say.”
LH: “I might not finish this race as I’m going to try and change everything.”
Team: “We do not advise that Lewis.”
LH: “Can I make suggestions and you say if it’s OK or not?”
Team: “No, that’s not allowed. Let’s just got our heads down and focus on the job.”
Meanwhile, anyone with a link to Mercedes’ Twitter account knew exactly what the problem was as the team tweeted: “Lewis Hamilton experiencing de-rates (lower than maximum electrical deployment).”
The situation eventually resolved itself, with Hamilton remarking: “Thank f*** man, I have power back.”
The Canadian Grand Prix winner went on to finish in fifth place.
European Grand Prix race review as reported by Formula1.com:
Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg dominated Sunday’s 2016 Formula 1 Grand Prix of Europe, beating Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel and Force India’s Sergio Perez to victory at the new Baku City Circuit. With Lewis Hamilton finishing fifth, Rosberg extended his championship lead over his team mate to 24 points.
Rosberg led into Turn 1 and was never challenged as a tactical battle unfolded behind him to see who would finish ‘best of the rest’. Starting 10th on the grid, Hamilton rose as high as fourth before his charge was halted by ERS problems on his F1 W07. After several laps down on power, the world champion eventually found the right settings on his steering wheel to resolve the issue, but by then it was too late to improve his position.
Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen took fourth, while Valtteri Bottas was the lead Williams in sixth, ahead of the two-stopping Red Bulls of Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen. Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg and Williams’ Felipe Massa completed the top ten.
Rosberg’s was a superb redemptive victory – his fifth of the season – and the German never put a wheel wrong on a day when Mercedes crushed Ferrari. Against all expectations after two carnage-ridden GP2 races with multiple safety car deployments, there were no major incidents – but lots of passing.
Rosberg was in charge from the start and was completely unchallenged. Ricciardo gave chase initially until Vettel powered his Ferrari past the Red Bull on the main straight on the sixth lap as the Australian pitted early to switch from supersoft Pirelli tyres to softs. A handful of others did likewise on two-stop strategies, but when he was instructed to pit on the eighth lap, Vettel overrode Ferrari and would stay out until lap 20, a lap before Rosberg pitted.
Instead, Raikkonen took that stop, and as Vettel finished second, 16.6s behind Rosberg – it had been as much as 19.8s on the 44th lap – the Finn seemed set to finish third after a lengthy second stint. But he had incurred a five-second penalty for crossing the pit entry line without entering the pits, and with Perez thundering along in fourth within that window in the final laps, the Mexican was clearly going to be the final podium finisher.
The Mexican rammed the point home however – as Raikkonen suffered late ERS problems (as he had in Canada), Perez jumped him going into Turn 1 on the final lap to put the gloss on an excellent drive for Force India that made up for his shunt in FP3 which cost him his rightful second place on the grid thanks to a gearbox-change penalty.
Hamilton had quickly moved up from 10th, avoiding putting himself at risk in the opening laps, but when he failed to pass Perez it became clear that he had trouble. He struggled with a persistent de-rating problem with his ERS – when he had lower than maximum electrical deployment in his powertrain – and became increasingly frustrated as his engineers were not permitted by the radio rules to advise him on the exact nature of it. For a while he got his power back after endless fiddling with controls on the steering wheel, and set the race’s fastest lap on the 42nd, but then he began going slower again and was 56.3s behind his team mate at the finish.
Interestingly, Rosberg said he had a similar issue but got out of it by altering the “right controls”.
Bottas could do no better than sixth for Williams, as team mate Massa slumped from running ahead of him prior to the pit stops to finish 10th. Neither the Brazilian nor Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg had any answer to Red Bull’s late pace as Ricciardo and Max Verstappen – both on more durable medium tyres – took seventh and eighth places in the closing stages.
Button just missed a point in a tough race for McLaren in which Fernando Alonso ran just ahead of him before joining the retirements list with downshift problems. Already on that list were Pascal Wehrlein, who had a feisty single-stop race for Manor before running out of brakes, and the Toro Rosso duo Carlos Sainz and Daniil Kvyat who had mechanical problems.
Felipe Nasr survived a brush with a wall for 12th for Sauber, leading home Romain Grosjean’s Haas, Kevin Magnussen’s single-stopping Renault and the Dane’s team mate Jolyon Palmer, Esteban Gutierrez in the second Haas, Marcus Ericsson’s Sauber and Rio Haryanto’s Manor.
Rosberg’s lead in the world championship jumps up from nine points after Canada to 24, with 141 to Hamilton’s 117, and Vettel is closing on the reigning champion with 96. Raikkonen reclaims fourth from Ricciardo, with 81 to 78, as Verstappen overtakes Bottas, 54 to 52, and Perez passes Massa, 39 to 38.
In the constructors’ stakes, Mercedes have 258 to Ferrari’s 177, Red Bull’s 140, Williams’ 90 and Force India’s 59.