F1: Rosberg wins at home

Nico Rosberg wins in front of his home crowd! Finn Valterri Bottas and Brit Lewis Hamilton occupy the podium alongside the 29 year old German. The race started off with a crash between McLaren’s Kevin Magnussen, and Bottas’ teammate Felipe Massa. The Williams rolled over after contact with the McLaren, but Massa managed to walk away without injury. From this point on it was pretty much game on, as we saw battles all throughout the field. It was Alonso, Vettel and Raikkonen early on in the race, with Raikkonen receiving a pounding in the duel. Hulkenburg and Vettel were at it for a while too. While this was happening, Bottas and Rosberg were gradually pulling away from the field. Yellow flags were then waved in sector 2 as a burning Toro Rosso of Danii Kyvat pulled off the side of the circuit at the hairpin. This was the 2nd Renault engine fire of the weekend, after Kamui Kobayashi’s Caterham caught fire in FP1. The car was soon cleared and the racing was back on. After contact with Button, Mercedes switched Hamilton to a 3 stop to fix the crash damage. They expected Lewis to jump Bottas with fresh options, but Sutil’s spin at the final corner pretty much ruined the charge. Anticipating a safety car, the Mercedes team brought Hamilton in to bolt on a fresh set of options. Within the space of 3 laps, the 7 or so second advantage Bottas had was gone. However, in a straight line, the Williams was superior, which made passing Bottas impossible. Hamilton was desperate to get past Bottas before his options will go off, but eventually, Bottas defended superbly to take his 3rd F1 podium in a row. Rosberg now leads the standings by 14 points from his teammate Hamilton, with Aussie Daniel Ricciardo in 3rd after a horror show of a grand prix.