Lewis Hamilton was not expecting a good weekend and barely gave himself a chance to win after he racked up his third consecutive pole position for the Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 team.
In a challenging race which saw him drop a place or two and then gain ground after hitting the pits, Hamilton drove hard and consistent and took a comfortable win. This was also Mercedes’ 350th Grand Prix as an engine supplier and their 80th as a constructor.
When the red lights went out, Hamilton got off to a storming start, while team-mate Nico Rosberg got caught on the wrong side of a battle and went off, returning only to have a bump with Felipe Massa’s Ferrari. This dropped him from 5th to 12th. Lap 12 saw the first round of pit stops begin with Hamilton coming in, followed by Vettel in the Red Bull leaving Romain Grosjean in the lead in his Lotus Renault, until he pit two laps later in a double stack which saw Raikkonen follow him in. Webber was now leading fro Red Bull.
Adrian Sutil, who was in his 100th Grand Prix, was forced into retirement after his Force India suffered hydraulics issues. On Lap 24, Webber pitted and the scrap for the lead saw Jenson Button ahead of Vettel, Grosjean and Alonso. Vettel performed a clean overtake on Button. Grosjean then followed in the same vein, but made contact and both were punted across the track, Grosjean got through, as did the Ferrari of Alonso, and Button found himself down three places. Grosjean was then handed a drive through penalty for causing a collision.
By Lap 34, Hamilton had upped his pace, overtaking Webber, and as Vettel entered the pits, he began a flurry of quick laps, setting the fastest lap of the race on Lap 40 and then again on Lap 42. Lap 45 saw yellow flags come out and DRS disabled after Williams driver Valtteri Bottas suffered a career first retirement. Lap 49 was when the yellows went away and the race resumed. On Lap 51, Hamilton came into the pits and almost dropped to 3rd place, as he exited just ahead of Webber, triggering a battle. Webber went past around the corner but Hamilton fought back and grabbed the racing line, squeezing the Red Bull off the track, with the presence of the Sauber of Nico Hulkenberg handing him the advantage.
On Lap 56, Vettel pitted, dropping to 4th place and emerging behind Kimi Raikkonen’s Lotus. Kimi had pitted on Lap 37 and was on his final set, but with Webber to pit soon, Raikkonen was leaving nothing to chance and gunned it. Lap 58 saw Vettel set the fastest lap, closing in ever so steadily on Raikkonen; the gap being 2.2 seconds. Webber pit on Lap 60, leaving Raikkonen in 2nd and Vettel in 3rd. Lap 65 saw a Mercedes engine blow as Nico Rosberg retired from the race. Lewis Hamilton was still pushing at the front of the order, chasing his first win for the Mercedes team and he could smell victory. Behind Hamilton, Vettel had reduced the gap to just 0.4 of a second, but getting past was something that Raikkonen just wouldn’t allow. Vettel went off the track twice and even locked up his brakes a couple of times as Kimi firmly closed the door in his face. With tyre degradation at its peak, the battle continued till the chequered flag as Hamilton clinched his first win for Mercedes AMG F1 and Kimi Raikkonen took a hard fought 2nd place, having successfully kept Sebastian Vettel in 3rd. Mark Webber finished 4th, while Fernando Alonso finished in 5th.
Sebastian Vettel leads the driver’s championship with 172 points. Kimi Raikkonen is now in 2nd place with 134 points, just 1 point ahead of Fernando Alonso; 3rd with 133. In the constructor’s championship, Red Bull lead with 277 points, Mercedes are 2nd with 208, while Ferrari are in 3rd with 194.
