Lewis Hamilton won the Russian GP 2015 after his teammate Nico Rosberg had to retire early in the race. Vettel and Pérez completed the podium in a race full of action, incidents and overtakes.
Rosberg kept his pole on the first corners despite Hamilton’s attempts to overtake. Räikkönen had a better start than Bottas and Vettel and was 3rd by the time the Safety Car came out because of Hülkenberg‘s spin which ended up with Ericsson crashing into him and Verstappen having to pit to change a flat tyre. Grosjean also made contact and had an early pit stop when he was 8th.
Unfortunately, Rosberg had a problem with the throttle pedal and had to retire shortly after the Safety Car left the track. Hamilton was leading ahead of Bottas, Räikkönen, Vettel, Pérez, Kvyat, Ricciardo, Nasr, Massa and Maldonado.
Grosjean lost control of his Lotus and had a huge crash against the barriers, which brought the Safety Car back on track. Some drivers decided to pit during the SC period, but the leaders stayed out. Vettel overtook Räikkönen for 3rd and we witnessed a beautiful battle between Ricciardo and Sainz for 10th.
Bottas pitted earlier than the Ferraris, but got stuck in traffic so he lost position with Vettel and almost with Räikkönen. Vettel overtook Pérez, who had been the first one to stop, and was finally 2nd. Bottas was 5th ahead of Kimi and behind Pérez and Ricciardo with older tyres.
With less than 10 laps to go, Bottas could finally overtake Ricciardo, leaving Kimi behind. Meanwhile, Carlos Sainz lost the brakes while he was 7th and had to retire. It took Kimi a few laps to overtake Ricciardo, and then the Australian had to retire too.
The fight for 3rd position was very close between Pérez, Bottas and Räikkönen. Bottas overtook Pérez after an intense fight with 2 laps to go and so did Räikkönen, but on the last lap Kimi tried an overoptimistic move on Bottas which left the latter out of the race, while Kimi lost position with Pérez and Massa to finish 5th.
That was Lewis Hamilton‘s 42nd win in Formula 1, equaling Sebastian Vettel, who was 2nd today. Pérez completed the podium followed by Massa, Räikkönen, Kvyat, Nasr, Maldonado, Button and Alonso.