Overview

From the moment practiced began, Mercedes emphatically declared they had slipped their one race “dip”. And that advantage never changed. In the end, it was Lewis Hamilton’s turn to win his 42nd Grand Prix, joining Sebastian Vettel just a week later in surpassing the great Ayrton Senna’s career victory total. The race was for all intents after the first three minutes. Hamilton got the better start over pole sitter Nico Rosberg. Just as Rosberg eased outside of Hamilton heading to the second corner, Hamilton gently, but firmly closed the door, hanging Rosberg out on the curb and causing his teammate to drop behind Vettel, and Valtteri Bottas’ Williams. Rosberg would spend the middle laps clawing his way past them, passing Bottas on lap 16, and undercutting Vettel via an earlier tire stop on lap 29. That’s the way they finished, 24 laps later.

During practice and qualifying, Daniel Ricciardo’s Red Bull looked set to be a giant killer from the first turn of a wheel; indeed he qualified the fastest of the Renault-powered cars in 7th. He had a great start, but he collided with Felipe Massa while trying to split Massa and Kimi Raikkonen. It was a desperate move that led to punctures for both Ricciardo and Massa. They would crawl back to the pits, get repairs and finish 15th and 17th respectively. Raikkonen for once came out the better and rallied to finish 4th.

Hamilton won with a lead of 18.964s, followed by Rosberg and Vettel. Bottas’ Williams hung on for fifth place, followed by Hulkenburg in the Force India. Back in the field, Grosjean and Maldonado brought their Lotus team seventh and eight place points. The final points went to the Toro Rosso duo of Verstappen and Sainz, who battled each other and Alonso. Verstappen finally claimed ninth from his teammate with a sliding pass at the final chicane, after climbing up from his 15th place starting position.