Lewis took his second Russian Grand Prix win, becoming only the ninth driver to win the first two Grand Prix at a new circuit. The victory sealed the F1 Constructors' Championship for Mercedes-Benz for the second time in a row. The result also marks Lewis' 9th win of the season and 42nd of his Formula One career, drawing him level with Sebastian Vettel in the all-time standings. Nico was forced to retire on lap seven due to a failed throttle damper that the team are now investigating. Both drivers started on the option tyres, with Lewis pitting for his only stop on lap 32 to change to the prime tyres.
Mercedes AMG Petronas now lead Ferrari by 172 points in the Constructors' Championship. Lewis now leads the Drivers' Championship by 66 points from Vettel and 73 from Nico.
Toto Wolff, Head of Mercedes-Benz Motorsport: That was a day with every possible emotion: a bittersweet day on track, then a tense wait - and finally a confirmation that we have won a second world championship. Wow, there are never any simple days in this sport! But what a feeling it is to win a second title and a privilege to be part of this team. A world championship isn't just about points on a scoreboard, it's about many hours of hard work and sacrifice from every single member of the team, most of whom are away from the limelight and work with incredible dedication six or seven days a week. Well done to every one of them in Brackley, Brixworth and Stuttgart; you have done a sensational job. Likewise, it may sound like a corporate line, but I must say thank you to all of our partners who have supported us every step of the way to deliver this level of performance; they make a fundamental contribution to our success.
As for the race itself, it was a bittersweet experience. Lewis drove a fantastic race and didn't put a foot wrong even though he had some problems to manage, especially towards the end with an aerodynamic instability on his rear wing. But he brought the car home in a really controlled way and strengthened his lead, well done to him. But I'm gutted for Nico after a problem with his throttle mechanism forced him to retire. It shows how sport this cruel can be: he had a brilliant weekend and opening lap, and I can only take my hat off to him about how he handled the situation, both in the car trying to find a solution - and afterwards in his professionalism. It's another reminder to us that, even with the steps forward we have taken on reliability this year, our work is never done and we need to keep focusing on every tiny detail. But now we can sit back and savour the moment: the party will start tomorrow back at base!
Paddy Lowe, Executive Director (Technical): Fantastic news to get the second World Championship. A very strange way to get this now as a result of the penalty but the result still stands; a great credit to the teams at Brackley, Brixworth and Stuttgart for the fantastic effort that brought us to this stage with such dominance to win the Constructors' Championship before the end of the season. In the race itself, it was good to see both cars make a good start today and get cleanly through Turn Two. After the early Safety Car a problem emerged with Nico's throttle control, preventing him from lifting off fully and in an inconsistent manner. Eventually this got so bad, we retired the car. It's emerged as a mechanical failure of the throttle pedal damper, which was causing a blockage. We are very sorry to Nico to lose so many points from the lead. A much better day for Lewis; there were some issues to manage in terms of whether to pit under the safety car, but we picked the right strategy and had good pace and tyre consistency through the race to manage the gap well. He did have a bit of an issue with his rear wing towards the second half of the race which became worse towards the end, where we were seeing some loss of downforce during braking. We had to warn him about that and we will find out in due course what was causing that. A great win for Lewis in the end, so congratulations to him.
Christian Horner, Team Principal: "A real shame for Daniel today. With the early safety car we took a risk to go for an early stop switching him to the harder tyre and thereafter he made it work fantastically well, keeping the faster cars of Bottas and Raikkonen behind him until losing time with a backmarker, which allowed Bottas to get past him. Shortly after that, the car developed what we suspect is a suspension issue which caused his retirement. When the safety car came out, we elected to cover our options and with Dany we went for a more conventional strategy. Finishing P5*, having started eleventh, is a respectable result in his home race."
Matthieu Dubois, Renault: "The race was reasonably eventful for everyone so there is some satisfaction to be taken from the result today. Our power units operated without any issues on the demanding circuit. Faultless reliability has been our primary focus for some time and today we showed our efforts are paying off. We feel sorry for Daniel, who was equally on for a good result but I am sure there will be more opportunities to grab one in the four remaining races."
* Kvyat finished P6 however moves up one place due to 30 second penalty on car 7 (Raikkonen)
Felipe Massa finished 4th, with Valtteri Bottas classified 12th after an accident on the final lap ended his chances of a podium in today's Russian Grand Prix. Valtteri was set for third place after overtaking Perez on the penultimate lap on newer tyres, but was hit by Raikkonen on the final lap and his race ended in the barrier at T4. Starting down in P15, Felipe drove a strong and consistent race to make his way through the pack and score some valuable points for the team. Congratulations to Mercedes who have clinched the 2015 Constructors' Championship today.
Rob Smedley, Head of Performance Engineering: Obviously we are bitterly disappointed to lose what looked like a deserved podium finish on the last lap of the race. The team has done a good job and made the right strategy calls, and both drivers did a fantastic job, so to come away with less points than we should have and no silverware is frustrating. Pirelli did a good job with the tyres this week and on different strategies our cars managed to make them work for us when needed. We now have to go on to the USA and Mexico in good spirits and to use the positives of this race weekend and the strong pace we have shown to make amends and have another strong weekend.
Maurizio Arrivabene: "Once again, as I said many times before, I was impressed by Seb's skills. He proved to be a good asset for the team and he shows at every race what a great driver he is. He drives a very good car, that's for sure, but he can add that little extra that is a champion's trademark. As for his battle with Kimi in the first stages of the race, our drivers are well aware that the team has its rules of engagement: so it was a nice fight between two great drivers. Our race strategy was the right one, congratulations to Iņaki Rueda: if Kimi had managed to get past Bottas in the final round, that would have further shown that we were on the right tactics. It's up to the Stewards to decide on the accident they had, but to me it clearly looked like a normal race episode. Now Seb is running second in the Drivers' standing and, mathematically, the race to the championship is still open: but our humbleness says this is not the case. So, as a priority, we have to work race-by-race to consolidate our current position".
They say that to finish first, first you have to finish. While we did not achieve the former, we certainly did the latter - and on an afternoon when many did not. As a result, McLaren-Honda scored two points, Jenson taking full advantage of the chaos in the closing laps to secure ninth. Fernando finished 10th, but was later demoted to 11th, following a stewards' decision, for corner-cutting.
From the start, both drivers raced on the fringes of the top 10, but were gradually pushed back as other cars overtook them. Both drivers pitted under the Safety Car dispatched to enable Romain Grosjean's Lotus to be cleared from the track, and then successfully measured their tyres and fuel to the end.
Late-race retirements for Carlos Sainz Jnr, Daniel Ricciardo and Valtteri Bottas helped both our drivers into the points.
Eric Boullier, Racing director: "Rarely, if ever, have two world championship points been harder earned or more richly deserved, for Jenson and Fernando both drove the wheels off their MP4-30s here in Sochi today.
"This circuit isn't one that suits our car well, and our boys duly found it difficult to defend their positions on the straights in particular. But they didn't put a foot wrong all afternoon, finishing ninth and 10th on the road, and I'm delighted that, as a result, we were able to score another points finish, even though sadly Fernando later lost his 10th place in the stewards' room.
"I'd also like to say 'well done' to our friends at Honda, whose power units again performed with commendable reliability.
"We-ve got a lot of work still to do, but the good news is that, together, we're successfully doing it.
"Next up is the United States Grand Prix at Austin, where we're hoping to continue making steady progress. We know we're not where we want to be yet, but we're getting there."
Yasuhisa Arai, Honda R&D senior managing officer - chief officer of motorsport: "I'm glad to have two cars home after such a chaotic race - and for Jenson to score two points for ninth position. Not only was this a difficult track for our power units, but there were also two Safety Car incidents and many more retirements.
"Our drivers and team remained calm throughout the afternoon, and we were able to stick to our strategies. I'm sure it was difficult to save fuel, keep calm, and push when needed during the race, but I think we came together in the end as a team.
"This points finish will be good motivation for further improvement at our next grand prix, in the United States."
Sergio Perez raced to a well-deserved podium finish in today's Russian Grand Prix to score 15 world championship points. Teammate Nico Hulkenberg retired on lap one after spinning at turn two.
Robert Fernley, Deputy Team Principal: "We have to compliment the team on a great performance and a perfect strategy. Pitting Sergio under the safety car was an aggressive call, but it paid off. We knew we would be under pressure towards the end, but having track position was crucial and the events on the final lap vindicated our decision. Checo did a great job defending against Ricciardo first and Bottas later until the very final stages and then we had some good fortune on the final lap. The only blot on our copybook today was Nico-s accident at the start. It was unfortunate but he will bounce back in Austin. Our recent run of form is testament to the great job we have done over the last few months and it's incredibly satisfying to deliver on the potential we have shown with a podium. We're on target to consolidate our fifth position in the championship and that has to be our objective for the end of the season before we push hard to move forward next year."
Franz Tost (Team Principal): "It was a very difficult and emotional race weekend for the team, with a lot of up and downs. Of course, Carlos' crash in yesterday's FP3 was the worst moment, especially the minutes just after the accident, when we didn't know what had happened as we lost all radio connections. Fortunately, everybody was delighted once we found out he wasn't injured and that he was in a position to race today. Max did a very good qualifying yesterday, finishing in P9, which showed the potential of the car. Today in the race, unfortunately he wasn't able to avoid the collision between Ericsson and Hulkenberg at Turn 2, as he was hit and damaged his tyre. He came back to the pits and we changed it, but we also saw that the floor and the rear suspension were also damaged, so his race was compromised because of this. He attacked and did a good race, but in the end he couldn't do more than finish in P11 unfortunately. Carlos did a fantastic race. He was on the way to a sixth or seventh position finish, because he was 10 seconds ahead of Kvyat, who finished in P6. He had some problems with the front-left brake, which was overheating, so therefore he had to retire. Currently we don't understand how this happened, because the data shows that the brake system worked quite well from the beginning onwards, but with only ten laps to go suddenly the temperatures increased dramatically. It would've been a fantastic recovery for Carlos after yesterday's accident."
Cedrik Staudohar (Renault Sport F1 track support leader): "First of all, everyone is really happy that Carlos was fine and able to participate to the race after his huge crash yesterday. I would like also to say a big thank you to our mechanics who did a great job to rebuild the car with a new power unit that worked well in the race without any issues. Obviously we are disappointed with the final results but the performance of the car in normal conditions was good, which is a positive on a demanding circuit. Reliability was also there yet again here so we have to keep it in that sweet spot until the end of the season."
Romain Grosjean emerged unscathed from a high speed tangle with the barriers whilst Pastor Maldonado finished in eighth in today-s Russian Grand Prix. Romain had been fighting back from a pit stop to replace his front wing after first lap contact before hitting the barriers and retiring on lap 12.
Romain started from P8 on the grid on his qualifying super soft compound tyres. He stopped for a new front wing and new soft tyres at the end of the first lap. He retired from the race after contact with the barriers on lap 12. Pastor started from P14 on new soft tyres, changing to new super soft tyres on lap 30.
Federico Gastaldi, Deputy Team Principal: "The most important thing from today is that Romain's okay after his crash. We were all very relieved when we saw him jump out of the car and he was his usual happy self when he came to the garage to tell everyone about what happened. Pastor had a solid race into the points from a less than ideal starting position so a good performance from him."
Alan Permane, Trackside Operations Director: "We are looking at the data and speaking with Romain to ascertain what happened but obviously we're glad all the safety measures did what they should. Pastor was able to make progress in a race that saw a reasonable amount of incidents. Not our strongest weekend so we'll be looking to do better in Austin."
The Sauber F1 Team finished the Russian Grand Prix back in the points. Felipe Nasr took the chequered flag in his Sauber C34-Ferrari in P7. At the very end of the Russian Grand Prix, Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari) caused a collision, and he was given a 30 second penalty added to the elapsed race time. This decision moved Felipe Nasr up into P6, and he collected eight world championship points. This was his second best result after the Australian Grand Prix, in which the Brazilian finished in P5. Marcus Ericsson was unlucky the whole weekend. Directly after the race start, the Swede ran into another competitor after he spun in turn two.
Monisha Kaltenborn, Team Principal: "A great job by the team - here in Sochi as well as at the factory in Hinwil. Felipe had a very good race. Directly after the start he was lucky enough to drive around a tricky situation. With a strong performance, he was able to show the potential of the car. There is even more to extract from the Sauber C34-Ferrari. Unfortunately, Marcus had no luck. It was not his weekend. He managed to have a good start, but then ran into another competitor after he spun."
The Manor Marussia F1 Team notched up their 11th two-car finish of the season in Sochi today, where Roberto Merhi and Will Stevens ended the 2015 Formula 1 Russian Grand Prix in 13th and 14th positions respectively.
John Booth, Team Principal: "We leave Sochi pleased to bring both cars to the chequered flag, once again highlighting the excellent reliability of our package. Several events in the race enabled us to improve our position, with Roberto faring slightly better on his return to the cockpit for the penultimate time this season. Will had a more difficult race and his advantage was lost when he flat-spotted his tyres under braking, so he will be disappointed with that. Now we focus on the four remaining races, in The Americas and Abu Dhabi, and what we can learn there to aid the development of next year-s package. The next race in particular, in Austin, will be a biggie for us with Alexander in the car and we're looking forward to that."
Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton has won an eventful Russian Grand Prix with a one-stop strategy. The Englishman started on the supersoft and then switched to the soft on lap 32, meaning that he spent more of the race on the supersoft tyre than the soft after starting from second on the grid. This was made possible by two safety car periods in the first part of the race. It was Hamilton's 42nd win, equalling the recent total of Sebastian Vettel, and puts him close to another driver's title at the next race.
As has been the case all weekend in Russia, conditions were quite cool with low track temperatures that made tyre warm-up an essential part of the race strategy.
All the drivers used the supersoft tyres at the race start apart from Pastor Maldonado (Lotus), Felipe Massa (Williams), Marcus Ericsson (Sauber) and Fernando Alonso (McLaren).
A number of drivers - but not the leaders - took advantage of the second of two safety cars (from lap 11 onwards) to make a pit stop, with Force India's Sergio Perez emerging as the top contender of those who stopped under the second safety car. In the end, the Mexican finished third from seventh on the grid, having managed his tyres very effectively all the way to the finish.
The Toro Rosso of Carlos Sainz was forced to start from the back as the Spaniard missed qualifying due to his accident in FP3. Using a clever one-stop strategy allied with a strong race pace, he was able to climb into a points-scoring seventh place before retiring as a result of mechanical issues with six laps to go.
The low wear and degradation meant that the majority of drivers adopted a one-stop strategy: the default tactics in Russia because of the smooth asphalt surface. The two safety cars also increased stint lengths.
Before the start of the race, the news emerged that Pirelli has concluded a commercial deal to remain in Formula One for the 2017-2019 period. More details will follow as per the procedure laid down by the FIA: the governing body of world motorsport.
Paul Hembery: "First and foremost, we're delighted to confirm that we reached a commercial agreement with Bernie Ecclestone to remain in Formula One for the 2017-2019 period. The process to the formal FIA official nomination will follow with its procedure.
Looking at the race, with very little practice time and therefore tyre information, the drivers and strategists had to think on their feet, reading the race carefully in order to react to changing situations in real time. It's a testimony to the high level at which Formula One operates that they all rose to this unique challenge with no real issues. We saw a variety of different strategies, and some very effective tyre management that helped many drivers move up the field in an action-packed race."
Truth-O-Meter
We predicted a one-stopper as the most likely winning scenario for the 53-lap race, and this is exactly what Hamilton chose. Our prediction said that after starting on supersoft, it would be quickest to stop for soft during a window from lap 18-22. Hamilton made his stop after 32 laps without losing the lead, with the pit stop windows having been stretched by the appearance of two safety cars.
