After a three race victory drought, Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg cruised unchallenged to victory in the European Grand Prix, held for the first time at the Baku Street Circuit in Azerbaijan.
It was a classic lights-to-flag win in which, after a good start, he simply disappeared into the lead where he remained throughout the 51 laps and thus increase his Formula 1 world championship points lead to 24 points.
During the race he was up to 20 seconds ahead of his closest rival, at one point the lead dipped to just under 15 seconds, but then he soon had it back in control around the 18 seconds zone in the final stages to notch up his 19th career victory and the fifth of his season so far.
Sebastian Vettel chased hard all afternoon but Ferrari simply had no answer to the Silver Arrows on a track which combined high speed sections with tight twisty bits this weekend. Kimi Raikkonen was fourth despite incurring a five seconds penalty for a pit lane white line infringement.
Splitting the reds and claiming the final podium spot was Sergio Perez, who once again shone for Force India, by taking third place and proving that his qualifying form 24 hours earlier was no fluke.
After crashing in qualifying and starting tenth in the race, Lewis Hamilton was in damage limitation mode and although he finished fifth, he had a problem plagued afternoon which probably cost him a podium finish.
Report in progress…
Read the full story at GRAND PRIX 247
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