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Championship contender Nico Rosberg achieved his ninth pole position of the Formula 1 season by edging out Lewis Hamilton at the Circuit of the Americas.

The Mercedes driver outpaced his team-mate by 0.376 seconds thanks to a superb final Q3 lap.

Rosberg had the advantage over Hamilton during the first runs in Q3, and he improved by just over two tenths on his second attempt to consolidate P1.

Hamilton was behind Rosberg on the track, so still had his lap to complete, but was unable to improve despite setting the fastest final sector seen in qualifying.

Valtteri Bottas beat team-mate Felipe Massa by three tenths as Williams took the second row, while Red Bull Racing’s Daniel Ricciardo making a big improvement on his final run to grab fifth.

Fernando Alonso was sixth for Ferrari ahead of Jenson Button, although the McLaren driver has to serve a five-place grid penalty for a gearbox change.

Kevin Magnussen will benefit over his team-mate’s penalty despite being eighth quickest. At least he edged out Kimi Raikkonen by a tenth of a second.

While Adrian Sutil made it through to Q3, the first time a Sauber has reached the top ten shoot out this season.

Thanks to the absence of Caterham and Marussia – due to the financial crisis hitting these two teams – only four drivers were eliminated in each of the first two stages of qualifying.

Pastor Maldonado narrowly missed out on his first Q3 appearance, ending up P11 after losing an estimated two tenths of a second with a slide in the penultimate corner.

Behind him, Sergio Perez jumped Force India team-mate Nico Hulkenberg with his final flying lap to take P12.

Daniil Kvyat complained of tyre temperature problems after his out-lap was compromised by traffic and could only manage P14.

He will also be hit with a ten-place penalty for changing a power unit component, some of which must now be carried over to next weekend’s Brazilian Grand Prix.

Jean-Eric Vergne missed out on making Q2 by just five hundredths of a second, the Toro Rosso driver ending up in P15 ahead of Esteban Gutierrez.

Sebastian Vettel, who completed a single run on soft tyres as he will start from the pits after a sixth power unit was fitted to his Red Bull, was P17.

Romain Grosjean was slowest having made a mistake on his sole lap on his final run, locking up the front-left wheel under braking for the left-hander at the end of the back straight and running off the track.

But even so, the Lotus driver suspected he would have been unable to advance to the next stage of qualifying because his car was not as competitive as it was during free practice.

So advantage Nico Rosberg at the United States Grand Prix. His 13th career pole position. Can he turn his championship around with race victory over Lewis Hamilton? Sunday’s race is going to be fascinating.

Qualifying positions at the Circuit of the Americas:

1 Nico Rosberg    Mercedes    1m36.067s
2 Lewis Hamilton    Mercedes    1m36.443s
3 Valtteri Bottas    Williams-Mercedes    1m36.906s
4 Felipe Massa    Williams-Mercedes    1m37.205s
5 Daniel Ricciardo    Red Bull-Renault    1m37.244s
6 Fernando Alonso    Ferrari    1m37.610s
7 Kevin Magnussen    McLaren-Mercedes    1m37.706s
8 Kimi Raikkonen    Ferrari    1m37.804s
9 Adrian Sutil    Sauber-Ferrari    1m38.810s
10 Pastor Maldonado    Lotus-Renault    1m38.467s
11 Sergio Perez    Force India-Mercedes    1m38.554s
12 Jenson Button    McLaren-Mercedes    1m37.655s*
13 Nico Hulkenberg    Force India-Mercedes    1m38.598s
14 Jean-Eric Vergne    Toro Rosso-Renault    1m39.250s
15 Esteban Gutierrez    Sauber-Ferrari    1m39.555s
16 Romain Grosjean    Lotus-Renault    1m39.679s
17 Daniil Kvyat    Toro Rosso-Renault    1m38.699s**
18 Sebastian Vettel    Red Bull-Renault    1m39.621s***

*Five-place penalty for gearbox change
**Five-place penalty for engine component change
***Pitlane start for taking sixth power unit

Lewis Hamilton achieved his fourth consecutive victory this season and thereby increasing his lead in the Formula 1 world championship to 17 points over team-mate Nico Rosberg with a commanding win in the inaugural Russian Grand Prix.

The championship leader also matched Nigel Mansell’s record of 31 Grand Prix victories, which secured Mercedes their first Constructors’ title with three races left in the championship.

Hamilton looked more at ease than Rosberg with the demands of the new 3.6-mile circuit in Sochi, and he converted pole position into his ninth win of the year with a measured drive.

Rosberg also started on the front row, and briefly headed his championship rival after sneaking up the inside after the first run through the flat-out Turn 1 right-hander, but Rosberg locked up heavily under braking for Turn 2 and flat-spotted his front tyres.

That forced Nico into the pits for a tyre-change at the end of the opening lap and effectively handed victory to Lewis.

Extraordinarily, Rosberg made his set of medium Pirelli tyres last 52 of the scheduled 53 laps as he limited the damage to his own championship aspirations by recovering to second in a processional race.

This was the Silver Arrows’ eighth one-two finish of the season which clinched the Constructors’ championship for the Brackley-based team.

Valtteri Bottas ran second for the majority of the first half of the Russian Grand Prix, but had to settle for the final podium spot once he had made his own pit stop and it became clear Rosberg’s tyres would last the distance.

Jenson Button recorded his best result since July’s British Grand Prix by finishing fourth, while McLaren team-mate Kevin Magnussen – who qualified sixth but started P11 thanks to a grid penalty for a gearbox change – made an excellent start and recovered well to finish fifth.

Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso also got away well from the grid to climb from seventh and lie fourth at the end of the first lap when Rosberg pitted, but the double world champion ultimately lacked the pace to fight the McLarens and also suffered a delay at his only pit-stop.

Alonso held off Daniel Ricciardo’s Red Bull to finish best of the non-Mercedes runners and round out the top six.

Reigning world champion Sebastian Vettel ran ahead of his slow-starting Red Bull team-mate Ricciardo in the early stages, but his strategy of running an extended first stint didn’t work out and Vettel had to settle for eighth.

Kimi Raikkonen finished a distant ninth for Ferrari, while Force India’s Sergio Perez survived fears of excessive fuel consumption to claim the final point by rounding out the top ten.

Perez held off the second Williams of Felipe Massa, who started P18 after a fuel pressure problem ruined his qualifying session.

Massa attempted an aggressive two-stop strategy in an effort to recover the lost ground, but in the end fell short to score any points.

Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg took a close P12, while Russian home hero Daniil Kvyat started a superb fifth but slipped backwards after a scruffy opening lap and wound up finishing P14, behind Toro Rosso team-mate Jean-Eric Vergne.

All the drivers stood united at the front of the grid ahead of the Russian Grand Prix, as a mark of respect to injured Marussia driver Jules Bianchi.

The French racer’s team-mate Max Chilton raced on in Marussia’s sole entry, but retired with a front-left vibration at the end of his ninth lap.

Russian Grand Prix race results, 53 laps
1 Lewis Hamilton    Mercedes    1h31m50.744s
2 Nico Rosberg    Mercedes        +13.657s
3 Valtteri Bottas    Williams-Mercedes     +17.425s
4 Jenson Button    McLaren/Mercedes    +30.234s
5 Kevin Magnussen    McLaren-Mercedes     +53.616s
6 Fernando Alonso    Ferrari       +1m0.016s
7 Daniel Ricciardo    Red Bull-Renault      +1m1.812s
8 Sebastian Vettel    Red Bull-Renault      +1m6.185s
9 Kimi Raikkonen    Ferrari       +1m18.877s
10 Sergio Perez    Force India-Mercedes      +1m20.067s
11 Felipe Massa    Williams-Mercedes       +1m20.877s
12 Nico Hulkenberg    Force India-Mercedes     +1m21.309s
13 Jean-Eric Vergne    Toro Rosso-Renault     +1m37.295
14 Daniil Kvyat    Toro Rosso-Renault    +1 Lap
15 Esteban Gutierrez    Sauber-Ferrari    +1 Lap
16 Adrian Sutil    Sauber-Ferrari    +1 Lap
17 Romain Grosjean    Lotus-Renault   +1 Lap
18 Pastor Maldonado    Lotus-Renault    +1 Lap
19 Marcus Ericsson    Caterham-Renault    +2 Laps

Not classified/retirements
Kamui Kobayashi    Caterham-Renault    21 laps completed
Max Chilton    Marussia-Ferrari    9 laps completed

Fastest lap
Valtteri Bottas    Williams-Mercedes     1m40.896s, lap 53

Drivers’ championship
1 Lewis Hamilton    291
2 Nico Rosberg    274
3 Daniel Ricciardo    199
4 Valtteri Bottas    145
5 Sebastian Vettel    143
6 Fernando Alonso    141
7 Jenson Button    94
8 Nico Hulkenberg    76
9 Felipe Massa    71
10 Kevin Magnussen    49
11 Sergio Perez    47
12 Kimi Raikkonen    47
13 Jean-Eric Vergne    21
14 Romain Grosjean    8
15 Daniil Kvyat    8
16 Jules Bianchi    2
17 Adrian Sutil    0
18 Marcus Ericsson    0
19 Pastor Maldonado    0
20 Esteban Gutierrez    0
21 Max Chilton    0
22 Kamui Kobayashi    0

Constructors’ championship
1 Mercedes    565
2 Red Bull-Renault    342
3 Williams-Mercedes    216
4 Ferrari    188
5 McLaren-Mercedes    143
6 Force India-Mercedes    123
7 Toro Rosso-Renault    29
8 Lotus-Renault    8
9 Marussia-Ferrari    2
10 Sauber-Ferrari    0
11 Caterham-Renault    0

Next race: United States Grand Prix, Circuit of the Americans. November 2.

Championship leader Lewis Hamilton achieved his seventh pole position of the season at the brand new Sochi Autodrome circuit.

Hamilton outpaced his Mercedes team-mate Rosberg by two tenths of a second while Valtteri Bottas was a contender for pole.

The Williams driver set the fastest sector times of all in the first two sectors, but the rear stepped out at the final corner and he ran wide, which cost him any chance of beating the Silver Arrows and left him in third position.

McLaren pairing Jenson Button and Kevin Magnussen continued the strong form for the Woking-based team in fourth and sixth place.

In between them is the star of qualifying and home crowd favourite Daniil Kvyat, who qualified a career-best fifth after a strong performance in the Toro Rosso.

Daniel Ricciardo was seventh on a weekend of damage limitation for Red Bull, ahead of the  Ferraris of Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen.

Jean-Eric Vergne, was slowest in Q3 and qualified tenth.

Reigning Formula 1 world champion Sebastian Vettel was eliminated in Q2, his final lap only good enough to take P11, 0.123 seconds slower than his Red Bull stablemate Vergne.

Vettel did not report any specific car problems, although he had been struggling with the balance of his RB10.

Just behind were the Force Indias, with Nico Hulkenberg narrowly ahead of team-mate Sergio Perez.

Esteban Gutierrez won the intra-Sauber battle, over four tenths faster than team-mate Adrian Sutil. The Mexican doing a good job after sitting out the first practice session in favour of Sergey Sirotkin.

Lotus driver Romain Grosjean was slowest in Q2, ending up P16.

Caterham’s Marcus Ericsson continued his recent run of good form with P17, fastest of those to be eliminated in Q1.

Ericsson’s final lap allowed him to jump ahead of Williams driver Felipe Massa, who ended up P18.

Massa had looked set to qualify well, but a fuel pressure problem that the team did not have time to fix meant that he was down on power.

Kamui Kobayashi ended up just a tenth off Massa after improving by almost six tenths on his final run for Caterham.

This was enough to put him ahead of Lotus driver Pastor Maldonado, who received an apology over the radio for what was described as a “shambles” after a problem delayed him.

He has to serve a five-place grid penalty anyway, a consequence of using his sixth engine during the Japanese Grand Prix weekend, so will drop to last.

Max Chilton in the sole Marussia was P21, just over four tenths slower than Maldonado.

Qualifying positions, Russian Grand Prix:

1 Lewis Hamilton    Mercedes    1m38.513s
2 Nico Rosberg    Mercedes    1m38.713s
3 Valtteri Bottas    Williams-Mercedes    1m38.920s
4 Jenson Button    McLaren-Mercedes    1m39.121s
5 Daniil Kvyat    Toro Rosso-Renault    1m39.277s
6 Daniel Ricciardo    Red Bull-Renault    1m39.635s
7 Fernando Alonso    Ferrari    1m39.709s
8 Kimi Raikkonen    Ferrari    1m39.771s
9 Jean-Eric Vergne    Toro Rosso-Renault    1m40.020s
10 Sebastian Vettel    Red Bull-Renault    1m40.052s
11 Kevin Magnussen    McLaren-Mercedes    1m39.629s*
12 Sergio Perez    Force India-Mercedes    1m40.163s
13 Esteban Gutierrez    Sauber-Ferrari    1m40.536s
14 Adrian Sutil    Sauber-Ferrari    1m40.984s
15 Romain Grosjean    Lotus-Renault    1m41.397s
16 Marcus Ericsson    Caterham-Renault    1m42.648s
17 Nico Hulkenberg    Force India-Mercedes    1m40.058s*
18 Felipe Massa    Williams-Mercedes    1m43.064s
19 Kamui Kobayashi    Caterham-Renault    1m43.166s
20 Max Chilton    Marussia-Ferrari    1m43.649s
21 Pastor Maldonado    Lotus-Renault    1m43.205s*

*Magnussen, Hulkenberg and Maldonado have had five-place penalties applied

Lewis Hamilton extended his lead in the Formula 1 world championship by defeating Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg to victory in a Japanese Grand Prix shortened by an accident for Jules Bianchi.

After losing out to pole position to his title rival, Hamilton turned the tables in the wet Suzuka weather with a brilliant round-the-outside passing move at Turn 1.

Rosberg had led for the first 28 laps of a race that began behind the Safety Car, thanks to appalling conditions.

When the race got going properly after nine laps behind the Safety Car – interrupted by a red flag following the first two because of rain – the Mercedes driver held a small advantage over his British team-mate as the Silver Arrows streaked clear in the spray.

Rosberg looked comfortable on extreme wet weather tyres, but complained of oversteer after switching to intermediate tyres when circuit conditions improved.

He held Hamilton off until lap 29 when, having suffered a twitch accelerating onto the start-finish straight at the end of the previous lap, he lost enough momentum to allow Hamilton to attack.

Rosberg went defensive, but Hamilton – assisted by extra speed from the DRS – swept around the outside of his team-mate to take the lead through Turn 1.

Once released from following Rosberg’s gearbox, Hamilton pulled away to take his third consecutive grand prix victory in a race that was red-flagged for a second time under the safety car, after Jules Bianchi’s Marussia went off at Dunlop Curve where marshals were craning away Adrian Sutil’s Sauber following an earlier crash.

Bianchi was taken to the circuit medical centre. His Marussia reportedly struck the crane at the crash site.

Red Bull deliberately compromised its dry qualifying pace by setting the RB10 up for the wet conditions, and its drivers used this to good effect to finish third and fourth.

Ferrari-bound reigning world champion Sebastian Vettel completed the podium, despite a trip through the gravel at the Esses, while team-mate Daniel Ricciardo overcame Jenson Button’s McLaren to finish in fourth.

Button held third position for most of the first half of the race, after being the first driver to pit for inters, but he lost time to a steering wheel change at his second pit stop, which dropped him behind Vettel, before Ricciardo further demoted the McLaren driver with a firm pass on the inside of the hairpin on lap 43 – a lap before the result was taken.

The Williams pair of Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa started third and fourth, but both struggled badly in wet conditions and trailed home sixth and seventh.

Nico Hulkenberg’s Force India stopped at the end of the pitlane as the race was red-flagged for the final time, but he finished eighth on count back, while Toro Rosso’s Jean-Eric Vergne charged from the back of the grid to claim two points for ninth.

Hulkenberg’s Force India team-mate Sergio Perez rounded out the points scorers in tenth.

Ferrari scored no points from the Japanese Grand Prix. Kimi Raikkonen finished P12, while Fernando Alonso retired with a mechanical problem under the Safety Car before the race began properly.

Japanese Grand Prix, race results after 44 laps:

1 Lewis Hamilton    Mercedes    1h51m43.021s
2 Nico Rosberg    Mercedes    9.180s
3 Sebastian Vettel    Red Bull-Renault    29.122s
4 Daniel Ricciardo    Red Bull-Renault    38.818s
5 Jenson Button    McLaren-Mercedes    1m07.550s
6 Valtteri Bottas    Williams-Mercedes    1m53.773s
7 Felipe Massa    Williams-Mercedes    1m55.126s
8 Nico Hulkenberg    Force India-Mercedes     1m55.948s
9 Jean-Eric Vergne    Toro Rosso-Renault      2m07.638s
10 Sergio Perez    Force India-Mercedes    1 Lap
11 Daniil Kvyat    Toro Rosso-Renault    1 Lap
12 Kimi Raikkonen    Ferrari    1 Lap
13 Esteban Gutierrez    Sauber-Ferrari    1 Lap
14 Kevin Magnussen    McLaren-Mercedes    1 Lap
15 Romain Grosjean    Lotus-Renault    1 Lap
16 Pastor Maldonado    Lotus-Renault    1 Lap
17 Marcus Ericsson    Caterham-Renault    1 Lap
18 Max Chilton    Marussia-Ferrari    1 Lap
19 Kamui Kobayashi    Caterham-Renault    1 Lap
20 Jules Bianchi    Marussia-Ferrari    Spun off
21 Adrian Sutil    Sauber-Ferrari    Spun off
– Fernando Alonso    Ferrari    –    Retirement

Drivers’ championship:

1 Lewis Hamilton    266
2 Nico Rosberg    256
3 Daniel Ricciardo    193
4 Sebastian Vettel    139
5 Fernando Alonso    133
6 Valtteri Bottas    130
7 Jenson Button    82
8 Nico Hulkenberg    76
9 Felipe Massa    71
10 Sergio Perez    46
11 Kimi Raikkonen    45
12 Kevin Magnussen    39
13 Jean-Eric Vergne    21
14 Romain Grosjean    8
15 Daniil Kvyat    8
16 Jules Bianchi    2
17 Adrian Sutil    0
18 Marcus Ericsson    0
19 Pastor Maldonado    0
20 Esteban Gutierrez    0
21 Max Chilton    0
22 Kamui Kobayashi    0

Constructors’ championship:

1 Mercedes    522
2 Red Bull/Renault    332
3 Williams/Mercedes    201
4 Ferrari    178
5 Force India/Mercedes    122
6 McLaren/Mercedes    121
7 Toro Rosso/Renault    29
8 Lotus/Renault    8
9 Marussia/Ferrari    2
10 Sauber/Ferrari    0
11 Caterham/Renault    0

Next race: Russian Grand Prix, Sochi. October 10-12.

Championship contender Nico Rosberg beat his Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton to pole position at the Suzuka International Circuit.

Rosberg had set the pace in Q2 and on the first runs in the top ten shootout. The Silver Arrows driver then secured his place in top spot by shaving just over a tenth off his time on his second run.

After Rosberg crossed the line for the final time, Hamilton completed his lap but a lock-up at the hairpin cost him and he ended up two tenths slower.

This mean that both of Rosberg’s flying laps in Q3 were good enough for what could prove to be an important pole position in the world championship battle.

The Williams pairing of Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa lock out the second row, with Fernando Alonso taking his usual slot of fifth for Ferrari.

As for Red Bull, this was a difficult session. Daniel Ricciardo ended up sixth despite on the edge of elimination in Q1, while Sebastian Vettel was only ninth. Both drivers carrying wet set-ups in anticipation of a rain-hit Japanese Grand Prix.

Kevin Magnussen won the intra-McLaren duel by beating Jenson Button to seventh position, with Kimi Raikkonen rounding up the top ten.

Jean-Eric Vergne was the fastest of those to be eliminated in Q2 in P11, falling two tenths short of relegating Vettel with his final lap.

Despite this, Vergne is still ahead of Force India driver Sergio Perez, who complained of a power problem during Q2. Vergne’s Toro Rosso team-mate Daniil Kvyat will start in P13 after failing to improve on his second run.

Because of breaking into his sixth power unit, Vergne is set to be hit with a ten-place grid penalty for the race.

Nico Hulkenberg will start in P14 and edged out both Saubers of Adrian Sutil and Esteban Gutierrez.

Pastor Maldonado was bumped out of Q2 contention in the final seconds of the first part of qualifying by Sutil.

The Lotus driver, will drop back ever further on the grid thanks to using his sixth V6 engine of the season. He was less than a tenth second off his team-mate Romain Grosjean.

Because Maldonado is only able to serve five of his ten-place grid drop, the remaining positions will be rolled over to next weekend’s Russian Grand Prix.

Caterham driver Marcus Ericsson’s strong weekend continued, as he ended qualifying P19 ahead of Marussia’s Jules Bianchi.

As for home hero Kamui Kobayashi, whose Friday afternoon session was ruined by a crash, the Japanese ended up in P21 ahead of Max Chilton.

So another Silver Arrows one-two with Nico Rosberg achieving his twelfth career pole position. He now equals his pole position record with Gerhard Berger and David Coulthard.

Qualifying positions, Japanese Grand Prix:

1 Nico Rosberg    Mercedes    1m32.506s
2 Lewis Hamilton    Mercedes    1m32.703s
3 Valtteri Bottas    Williams-Mercedes    1m33.128s
4 Felipe Massa    Williams-Mercedes    1m33.527s
5 Fernando Alonso    Ferrari    1m33.740s
6 Daniel Ricciardo    Red Bull-Renault    1m34.075s
7 Kevin Magnussen    McLaren-Mercedes    1m34.242s
8 Jenson Button    McLaren-Mercedes    1m34.317s
9 Sebastian Vettel    Red Bull/-Renault    1m34.432s
10 Kimi Raikkonen    Ferrari    1m34.542s    2.036s
11 Jean-Eric Vergne    Toro Rosso-Renault    1m34.984s
12 Sergio Perez    Force India-Mercedes    1m35.089s
13 Daniil Kvyat    Toro Rosso-Renault    1m35.092s
14 Nico Hulkenberg    Force India-Mercedes    1m35.099s
15 Adrian Sutil    Sauber-Ferrari    1m35.364s
16 Esteban Gutierrez    Sauber-Ferrari    1m35.681s
17 Romain Grosjean    Lotus-Renault    1m35.984s
18 Marcus Ericsson    Caterham-Renault    1m36.813s
19 Jules Bianchi    Marussia-Ferrari    1m36.943s
20 Kamui Kobayashi    Caterham-Renault    1m37.015s
21 Max Chilton    Marussia-Ferrari    1m37.481s
22 Pastor Maldonado    Lotus/Renault    1m35.917s

Four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel will leave Red Bull Racing at the end of the 2014 Formula 1 season and his seat will be taken by Daniil Kvyat.

This big news announcement has certainly shake up the form order for next season. After so many years of success with the Milton Keynes-based team, scoring the outfit’s first win at China 2009 and winning the championship four times during 2010 to 2013, Sebastian Vettel is heading off.

Rumours are saying that Vettel will go to Ferrari to take Fernando Alonso’s place at the team. And yet, the first official move in the driver market has been taken by the reigning world champion.

“Sebastian Vettel has advised us that he will be leaving Infiniti Red Bull Racing at the end of the 2014 season,” said Red Bull in a statement.

“We’re pleased to announce that Daniel [Ricciardo] will be joined in the team for 2015 by another rising star from the Junior Programme, Daniil Kvyat.”

Red Bull guided Vettel’s progress towards Formula 1 which led to him joining the main team in 2009 from Toro Rosso. He won his first of four consecutive drivers’ championship titles with the outfit in 2010.

The decision marks a surprise promotion for Kvyat, who made his debut for Scuderia Toro Rosso at the beginning of the season.

Initially, Kvyat would remain with Toro Rosso for a second season, alongside newcomer Max Verstappen, but his impending switch to the main Red Bull team leaves a vacancy in their line-up.

So a big shock at Suzuka in the lead up to the big event. Which team will Sebastian drive for? Ferrari seems the most likely destination with Kimi Raikkonen as his new team-mate.

As for Fernando Alonso, the question is what’s next for the double world champion? Taking a sabbatical from the sport or a move to McLaren, which will use the Honda power unit next season. Interesting times in the world of Formula 1.

Lewis Hamilton achieved his 29th career victory in Formula 1 and has now taken the lead of the world championship, as his Mercedes team-mate and rival Nico Rosberg retired with technical issues.

Rosberg led Hamilton by 22 points coming into the Singapore Grand Prix, but now trails his rival by three after a disastrous race.

Having narrowly missed out on pole position to Hamilton by a tiny margin of 0.007 seconds in qualifying, the expectation was for another close contest between the Silver Arrows duo.

But Rosberg’s problems began before the start, when his team discovered a glitch on the W05 and was forced to swap its steering wheel.

Rosberg then had to start the race from the pitlane when he found he could not pull away from the grid for the formation lap.

As the five red lights went out, Hamilton sprinted into the immediate lead chased by the Red Bulls of Sebastian Vettel and Daniel Ricciardo.

Into Turn 1, Fernando Alonso outbraked himself and was forced to hand the position back to Vettel. As for Rosberg, his technical troubles continued.

Rosberg made little progress during the first stint, failing even to pass Marcus Ericsson’s Caterham as he battled problems that were affecting his DRS, energy recovery systems and his gearbox.

He eventually retired at on lap 13 during the first pitstop, after yet another steering wheel change. But the car refused to re-engage first gear.

With his main championship rival removed from the race, Hamilton looked set for a comfortable win, but his superiority came under threat when the Safety Car made an appearance following the collapse of the front wing on Sergio Perez’s Force India at half distance.

Mercedes decided not to pit Hamilton (yet to run the soft compound Pirelli) under the Safety Car, requiring him to stop again under racing conditions.

So the 2008 world champion began pushing with fastest laps following the race restart, in order to open a big enough gap to the chasing pack to get in and out of the pits with his lead intact.

However, the chasing Red Bulls of Vettel and Ricciardo were attempting to make their first set of soft tyres last to the end of the Singapore Grand Prix, easing the pressure on the leader.

Hamilton stretched out more than 25 seconds over Vettel before making his final pitstop with nine of the scheduled laps to run, but this wasn’t enough to keep him ahead.

Hamilton just fended off Ricciardo into Turn 3 as Vettel claimed the lead, but with fresher set of tyres Hamilton easily retook the position and drove on to win by a comfortable 13.5 seconds margin as the race ran past the two-hour limit with a lap of the scheduled 61 to run.

Having jumped Vettel at the first round of pitstops, Alonso conceded track position to both Red Bulls by pitting under the Safety Car.

The 2005/06 world champion sat behind Ricciardo waiting for his rivals’ tyres to fall apart, but the Red Bulls held on to score their first double podium finish of the season, with Vettel bagging his best result of a difficult year in second position.

Felipe Massa’s Williams re-passed the fast-starting Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen for fifth at the first round of pitstops and raced on to a lonely finish.

While Jean-Eric Vergne (twice penalised five seconds for exceeding track limits) scored a season’s best sixth after gambling on a third pitstop after the Safety Car and using his fresher soft tyres to pass a train of cars in the closing stages with some bold late-braking moves.

Perez recovered from his wing failure following contact with Adrian Sutil’s Sauber, to execute a similar strategy to Vergne and finish seventh as the tyres on the cars around him gave up towards the end.

Raikkonen paid dearly for his earlier loss of track position, and trailed home eighth despite pitting for fresh tyres under the Safety Car.

Nico Hulkenberg and Kevin Magnussen rounded out the top ten, as the tyres on Valtteri Bottas’ Williams – which ran as high as sixth at one point – gave up on him. Eventually finished in a pointless P11.

McLaren’s Jenson Button also looked on course to score points, after a fine start and good strategy carried him from P11 on the grid to seventh, but the 2009 world champion’s car broke down seven laps from the finish.

So a fantastic result for Lewis Hamilton. Leading the championship by three points with five races left in a exciting season. It still all to play for Nico Rosberg especially the double points in the season finale, but the winning form is with Hamilton.

Singapore Grand Prix, race result after 60 laps:

1 Lewis Hamilton       Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team    2h00m04.795s
2 Sebastian Vettel    Infiniti Red Bull Racing    2h00m18.329s
3 Daniel Ricciardo    Infiniti Red Bull Racing    2h00m19.068s
4 Fernando Alonso    Scuderia Ferrari    2h00m20.184s
5 Felipe Massa    Williams Martini Racing    2h00m46.956s
6 Jean-Eric Vergne    Scuderia Toro Rosso    2h01m01.596s
7 Sergio Perez    Sahara Force India F1 Team    2h01m03.833s
8 Kimi Raikkonen    Scuderia Ferrari    2h01m05.436s
9 Nico Hulkenberg    Sahara Force India F1 Team    2h01m06.456s
10 Kevin Magnussen    McLaren Mercedes    2h01m07.025s
11 Valtteri Bottas    Williams Martini Racing    2h01m09.860s
12 Pastor Maldonado    Lotus F1 Team    2h01m11.710s
13 Romain Grosjean    Lotus F1 Team    2h01m12.824s
14 Daniil Kvyat    Scuderia Toro Rosso    2h01m16.803s
15 Marcus Ericsson    Caterham F1 Team    2h01m38.983s
16 Jules Bianchi    Marussia F1 Team    2h01m39.338s
17 Max Chilton    Marussia F1 Team    –

Retirements/non-finish:

Jenson Button    McLaren Mercedes    –
Adrian Sutil    Sauber F1 Team    –
Esteban Gutierrez    Sauber F1 Team    –
Nico Rosberg    Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team    –
Kamui Kobayashi    Caterham F1 Team    –

Drivers’ championship

1 Lewis Hamilton    241
2 Nico Rosberg    238
3 Daniel Ricciardo    181
4 Fernando Alonso    133
5 Sebastian Vettel    124
6 Valtteri Bottas    122
7 Jenson Button    72
8 Nico Hulkenberg    72
9 Felipe Massa    65
10 Sergio Perez    45
11 Kimi Raikkonen    45
12 Kevin Magnussen    39
13 Jean-Eric Vergne    19
14 Romain Grosjean    8
15 Daniil Kvyat    8
16 Jules Bianchi    2
17 Adrian Sutil    0
18 Marcus Ericsson    0
19 Pastor Maldonado    0
20 Esteban Gutierrez    0
21 Max Chilton    0
22 Kamui Kobayashi    0

Constructors’ championship

1 Mercedes    479
2 Red Bull/Renault    305
3 Williams/Mercedes    187
4 Ferrari    178
5 Force India/Mercedes    117
6 McLaren/Mercedes    111
7 Toro Rosso/Renault    27
8 Lotus/Renault    8
9 Marussia/Ferrari    2
10 Sauber/Ferrari    0
11 Caterham/Renault    0

Next race: Japanese Grand Prix, Suzuka. October 4-6.

Championship contender Lewis Hamilton achieved his 36th career pole position at Marina Bay, Singapore by beating his Mercedes team-mate by seven thousandths of a second.

Hamilton was only sixth quickest on his first run in the Q3 top ten shootout but despite a lock-up at Turn 1 on his final lap, a particularly strong run through the middle part of the lap allowed him to beat Rosberg by a tiny margin.

Red Bull Racing locked out the second row, with Daniel Ricciardo again out-qualifying his world champion colleague of Sebastian Vettel. The difference was only half-a-tenth.

Fernando Alonso was fifth fastest, only a tenth behind the leading Red Bull, although Ferrari team-mate Kimi Raikkonen was not able to do better than seventh after suffering a power problem on his second run.

In between the Scuderia is Felipe Massa. The Williams driver putting in an impressive lap to go provisional pole on the first-run times, but was only able to make a tiny improvement on his second lap.

Williams team-mate Valtteri Bottas was eighth and was unable to improve on his second run.

Kevin Magnussen was ninth for McLaren, only 0.569 seconds off Hamilton’s pole position time, while Daniil Kvyat was slowest in Q3 after having only one set on super-soft rubber available for the final qualifying session.

Jenson Button and Jean-Eric Vergne were in the top ten in Q2 on their first runs, but with both Williams drivers setting slow times after choosing to run used super-softs for their first run, were always in danger of missing the cut.

They were bumped down to P11 and P12 when Massa and Bottas improved on a fresh set of Pirellis.

Button was able to improve on his second run, but a lock-up at the hairpin cost him time and he missed the cut by 23 thousandths of a second, ending up P11.

Vergne was unable to improve on his second run, complaining about front-end grip and suffering a costly lock-up, meaning he qualified P12.

The Force India pairing of Nico Hulkenberg and Sergio Perez also both failed to improve on their second runs, ending up P13 and P15 respectively.

They were split by Esteban Gutierrez, showing a strong turn of pace in the upgraded Sauber.

Romain Grosjean was slowest of those who made it to Q2 and was very vocal on the team radio about an engine problem that cost him time.

Adrian Sutil came close to escaping Q1, but failed to relegate Perez into the dropzone with his final lap in Q1 and ended up P17.

Pastor Maldonado blamed a power unit problem on his final run for failing to reach Q2.

He was unable to fully recharge the battery, meaning he was lacking full power on his final lap, ending up P18, behind Jules Bianchi.

The Marussia driver put in a superb lap on his final effort to jump ahead of his team-mate Max Chilton, who ended up P21, with Caterham’s Kamui Kobayashi doing a good job to separate the pair.

Marcus Ericsson joined the session late after the Caterham team had to work flat out to solve an electrical problem that had struck in free practice, ending up last.

So an extremely close qualifying session with the top seven covered by less than half-a-second. It was another Mercedes front-row but Red Bull and Ferrari are not far behind.

Qualifying positions, Singapore Grand Prix:

1 Lewis Hamilton      Mercedes    1m45.681s
2 Nico Rosberg    Mercedes    1m45.688s
3 Daniel Ricciardo    Red Bull-Renault    1m45.854s
4 Sebastian Vettel    Red Bull-Renault    1m45.902s
5 Fernando Alonso    Ferrari    1m45.907s
6 Felipe Massa    Williams-Mercedes    1m46.000s
7 Kimi Raikkonen      Ferrari    1m46.170s
8 Valtteri Bottas    Williams-Mercedes    1m46.187s
9 Kevin Magnussen    McLaren-Mercedes    1m46.250s
10 Daniil Kvyat    Toro Rosso-Renault    1m47.362s
11 Jenson Button       McLaren-Mercedes    1m46.943s
12 Jean-Eric Vergne    Toro Rosso-Renault    1m46.989s
13 Nico Hulkenberg    Force India-Mercedes    1m47.308s
14 Esteban Gutierrez    Sauber-Ferrari    1m47.333s
15 Sergio Perez    Force India-Mercedes    1m47.575s
16 Romain Grosjean    Lotus-Renault    1m47.812s
17 Adrian Sutil    Sauber-Ferrari    1m48.324s
18 Pastor Maldonado    Lotus-Renault    1m49.063s
19 Jules Bianchi        Marussia-Ferrari    1m49.440s
20 Kamui Kobayashi    Caterham-Renault    1m50.405s
21 Max Chilton      Marussia-Ferrari    1m50.473s
22 Marcus Ericsson    Caterham-Renault    1m52.287s

Championship contender Lewis Hamilton overcame a poor start to win the Italian Grand Prix at Monza.

This was Hamilton’s sixth win this season and his 28th in Formula 1.

Just twenty-two points separate the Mercedes drivers and it shows how fortunes can ebb and flow between Hamilton and Nico Rosberg.

Starting on pole position, Lewis Hamilton was slow away from the grid.

This removed any chance of a repeat of the collision between the Silver Arrows, which handed Red Bull Racing’s Daniel Ricciardo victory in the previous Grand Prix in Spa-Francorchamps.

Rosberg streaked away at the front as Hamilton fell behind the Williams of Felipe Massa and the fast-starting McLaren of Kevin Magnussen, who launched his way up from fifth on the grid to second place.

Hamilton struggled initially with his car becoming stuck in ‘RS mode’, but he soon got back to full speed and began to charge.

The 2008 world champion took advantage of Massa passing Magnussen at the second chicane on lap five to take third on the following run to the first Lesmo, before driving around the outside of Massa at the first chicane on lap ten.

By then Rosberg had already straight-lined the first chicane and Hamilton set about closing down his title rival further.

The Mercedes duo traded fastest laps initially, as Massa tried in vain to go with the leaders, but Hamilton then began to assert his speed advantage over Rosberg as the first half of the race wore on.

He closed to within 1.5 seconds of his Mercedes team-mate but could not leapfrog Rosberg in the pits as the leaders stopped on consecutive laps.

Hamilton was much quicker than Rosberg in the following laps on Pirelli’s harder tyre, and Rosberg gave the victory away to his team-mate by locking up his brakes and again straight-lining the first chicane on lap 29.

From that moment, Hamilton eased away to record his sixth victory of the season by just over three seconds.

Massa completed a lonely run to third place, thus recording his first podium finish since the 2013 Spanish Grand Prix.

Williams team-mate Valtteri Bottas was the pre-race favourite to take that final podium spot, having qualified third, but a terrible start dropped him outside the top ten on the opening lap.

The Finn spent most of the rest of the race slipstreaming his way back through the field, usually passing rivals before the entry to the first chicane, and eventually made his way back to fourth place.

Reigning world champion Sebastian Vettel lost fifth in the closing stages to Red Bull team-mate Daniel Ricciardo.

Vettel gambled on making an earlier pitstop than anyone else to gain track position, but could not make his hard tyres last well enough to hang on to the chequered flag.

Ricciardo benefitted the alternative strategy – running long in the first stint and stopping late – and made some impressively decisive passing moves as he recovered well from a poor start.

Vettel defended hard into the first chicane with five laps left to run, but was passed easily down the inside into the second chicane on tyres eight laps older than Ricciardo’s.

Magnussen finished seventh on track, but was penalised five seconds for forcing Bottas off the track at the first chicane during the Finn’s earlier slipstreaming charge, dropping McLaren’s rookie to tenth place.

Sergio Perez thus inherited seventh for Force India, after a close battle with the McLaren of Jenson Button, who ran sixth early on but lost track position to Perez at the stops.

The pair ran side-by-side through the Lesmos at one point, but Button could not force his way decisively back ahead of the Force India.

Kimi Raikkonen finished in ninth on a disappointing day for Ferrari at the Scuderia’s home race.

Team-mate Fernando Alonso started seventh, but recorded his first mechanical non-finish for five years after his F14 T suffered an ERS failure.

Toro Rosso’s Daniil Kvyat should have inherited the final point for tenth when Magnussen’s penalty was applied, but the Russian frighteningly straight-lined the first chicane at high speed on the penultimate lap and trailed home P11, complaining of a brake problem.

So a great result for Team Brackley. Their seventh one-two finish this season. Just twenty-two points the difference between the Mercedes drivers.

It’s going to be an interesting fight for title honours with six races remaining.

Italian Grand Prix race results, after 53 laps:

1 Lewis Hamilton    Mercedes    1h19m10.236s
2 Nico Rosberg    Mercedes    3.175s
3 Felipe Massa    Williams-Mercedes    25.026s
4 Valtteri Bottas    Williams-Mercedes    40.786s
5 Daniel Ricciardo    Red Bull-Renault    50.309s
6 Sebastian Vettel    Red Bull-Renault    59.965s
7 Sergio Perez    Force India-Mercedes    1m02.518s
8 Jenson Button    McLaren-Mercedes    1m03.063s
9 Kimi Raikkonen    Ferrari    1m03.535s
10 Kevin Magnussen    McLaren-Mercedes    1m06.171s
11 Daniil Kvyat    Toro Rosso-Renault    1m11.184s
12 Nico Hulkenberg    Force India-Mercedes    1m12.606s
13 Jean-Eric Vergne    Toro Rosso-Renault    1m13.093s
14 Pastor Maldonado    Lotus-Renault    1 Lap
15 Adrian Sutil    Sauber-Ferrari    1 Lap
16 Romain Grosjean    Lotus-Renault    1 Lap
17 Kamui Kobayashi    Caterham-Renault    1 Lap
18 Jules Bianchi    Marussia-Ferrari    1 Lap
19 Esteban Gutierrez    Sauber-Ferrari    2 Laps
20 Marcus Ericsson    Caterham-Renault    2 Laps

Retirements:

Fernando Alonso    Ferrari    ERS issue
Max Chilton      Marussia-Ferrari    Spun off

Drivers’ championship:

1 Nico Rosberg    238
2 Lewis Hamilton    216
3 Daniel Ricciardo    166
4 Valtteri Bottas    122
5 Fernando Alonso    121
6 Sebastian Vettel    106
7 Jenson Button    72
8 Nico Hulkenberg    70
9 Felipe Massa    55
10 Kimi Raikkonen    41
11 Sergio Perez    39
12 Kevin Magnussen    38
13 Jean-Eric Vergne    11
14 Romain Grosjean    8
15 Daniil Kvyat    8
16 Jules Bianchi    2
17 Adrian Sutil    0
18 Marcus Ericsson    0
19 Pastor Maldonado    0
20 Esteban Gutierrez    0
21 Max Chilton    0
22 Kamui Kobayashi    0

Constructors’ championship:

1 Mercedes    454
2 Red Bull-Renault    272
3 Williams-Mercedes    177
4 Ferrari    162
5 McLaren-Mercedes    110
6 Force India-Mercedes    109
7 Toro Rosso-Renault    19
8 Lotus-Renault    8
9 Marussia-Ferrari    2
10 Sauber-Ferrari    0
11 Caterham-Renault    0

Next race: Singapore Grand Prix, Marina Bay. September 19-21.

Lewis Hamilton took his first pole position since May’s Spanish Grand Prix by setting the pace in qualifying at Monza.

The Mercedes driver dominated all three segments for qualifying at the Italian Grand Prix. His team-mate and championship rival Nico Rosberg had to settle with second place.

Hamilton set his provisional pole lap of one minute, 24.109 seconds on his first run in Q3. This was four tenths clear over Rosberg and it was good enough to score his 36th career pole in Formula 1.

Rosberg did improved his lap time thanks to a second Q3 attempt, but it was not enough to knock his team-mate off top spot.

Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa locked out the second row for Williams, both drivers unable to improve on their second runs.

But behind them was the big winner of the final seconds of qualifying, Kevin Magnussen, who leaped from eighth to fifth with his final attempt.

His McLaren team-mate Jenson Button was sixth after failing to improve on his final run, just ahead of Fernando Alonso.

The Ferrari driver had made a slight improvement on his final attempt to relegate Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel to eighth position.

Daniel Ricciardo and Sergio Perez in the Force India completed the top ten at Monza.

Daniil Kvyat was the quickest of those eliminated in Q2 despite a valiant attempt to snatch a place in the pole position shootout on the last lap.

However, the Toro Rosso driver will be given a ten-place grid penalty for using his sixth engine of the season.

Raikkonen ended up P12 ahead of Jean-Eric Vergne, with Nico Hulkenberg unable to match his Force India team-mate Perez and down in P14.

Adrian Sutil prevailed in the intra-Sauber battle with Esteban Gutierrez by improving on his final run.

This was a difficult qualifying session for Lotus. Pastor Maldonado edged out his team-mate Romain Grosjean, but both will start right at the back.

Grosjean was only able to complete five laps thanks to the team having to fix a fluid leak detected in the build-up to the session.

Kamui Kobayashi, reinstated in the lead Caterham after sitting out the Belgian Grand Prix, was a superb P19 ahead of Jules Bianchi thanks to a combination of an excellent lap and a tow from team-mate Marcus Ericsson.

Ericsson ended up in P22, three tenths behind the Marussia of Max Chilton.

So it’s another Silver Arrows front row with the top six cars powered by the Mercedes-Benz power unit.

Sunday’s Italian Grand Prix is going to be fascinating and the race to the first chicane on the opening lap between the Mercedes drivers is going be frantic following what happened at Spa…

Qualifying positions, Italian Grand Prix:

1 Lewis Hamilton     Mercedes    1m24.109s
2 Nico Rosberg    Mercedes    1m24.383s
3 Valtteri Bottas    Williams-Mercedes    1m24.697s
4 Felipe Massa    Williams-Mercedes    1m24.865s
5 Kevin Magnussen    McLaren-Mercedes    1m25.314s
6 Jenson Button    McLaren-Mercedes    1m25.379s
7 Fernando Alonso    Ferrari    1m25.430s
8 Sebastian Vettel    Red Bull-Renault    1m25.436s
9 Daniel Ricciardo    Red Bull-Renault    1m25.709s
10 Sergio Perez    Force India-Mercedes    1m25.944s
11 Kimi Raikkonen    Ferrari    1m26.110s
12 Jean-Eric Vergne    Toro Rosso-Renault    1m26.157s
13 Nico Hulkenberg    Force India-Mercedes    1m26.279s
14 Adrian Sutil    Sauber-Ferrari    1m26.588s
15 Esteban Gutierrez    Sauber-Ferrari    1m26.692s
16 Pastor Maldonado    Lotus-Renault    1m27.520s
17 Romain Grosjean    Lotus-Renault    1m27.632s
18 Kamui Kobayashi    Caterham-Renault    1m27.671s
19 Jules Bianchi    Marussia-Ferrari     1m27.738s
20 Max Chilton    Marussia-Ferrari     1m28.247s
21 Daniil Kvyat    Toro Rosso-Renault    1m26.070s*
22 Marcus Ericsson    Caterham-Renault    1m28.562s

*Ten-place grid penalty for a power unit change