
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



















