Nico Rosberg put in a flawless drive en route to winning the 2016 Formula 1 Grand Prix of Europe on Sunday, held for the first time in Baku, Azerbaijan.
The Mercedes ace won from pole position and enjoyed a comfortable lead, all alone and unchallenged in front for the majority of the race.
Rosberg registered a total winning time of one hour 32 minutes 52.366 seconds. With the result, the German came away with his fifth win of the 2016 FIA Formula 1 World Championship and 19th overall of his career.
Rosberg said after the race:
“I am so happy to win here in Baku,”
“I really felt at one with the car in a way I’ve never felt before. I didn’t have the feeling that something would go wrong at any point today. The car was awesome this weekend, so thank you so much to the team for this.
“It was a pretty straightforward afternoon for me at the front. There was only one little concern when I felt that I was down on power a bit in the middle of the race. The engineers weren’t allowed to tell me what I had to do, so I had a look at my steering wheel and tried to fix it myself, which worked out well. Sagol! – which means ’thank you very much’ - to Baku for this great weekend. I look forward to Austria now!”
Ferrari star Sebastian Vettel finished as the runner-up 16.696 seconds behind Rosberg while Force India’s Sergio Perez completed the podium placers 29.131s back. Perez passed Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen on the final lap to snatch third, although he was set to get the place anyway as Raikkonen had been given a five-second time penalty for crossing the white line on pit entry earlier in the race.
Raikkonen was eventually classified fourth, Lewis Hamilton fifth for Mercedes and Valtteri Bottas sixth for Williams, while the Red Bull Racing tandem of Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen rounded out the top eight.
Full Results
| Pos | Driver | Car | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 1h32m52.366s |
| 2 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 16.696s |
| 3 | Sergio Perez | Force India/Mercedes | 25.241s |
| 4 | Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | 33.102s |
| 5 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 56.335s |
| 6 | Valtteri Bottas | Williams/Mercedes | 1m00.886s |
| 7 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull/Renault | 1m09.229s |
| 8 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull/Renault | 1m10.696s |
| 9 | Nico Hulkenberg | Force India/Mercedes | 1m17.708s |
| 10 | Felipe Massa | Williams/Mercedes | 1m25.375s |
| 11 | Jenson Button | McLaren/Honda | 1m44.817s |
| 12 | Felipe Nasr | Sauber/Ferrari | 1 Lap |
| 13 | Romain Grosjean | Haas/Ferrari | 1 Lap |
| 14 | Kevin Magnussen | Renault | 1 Lap |
| 15 | Jolyon Palmer | Renault | 1 Lap |
| 16 | Esteban Gutierrez | Haas/Ferrari | 1 Lap |
| 17 | Marcus Ericsson | Sauber/Ferrari | 1 Lap |
| 18 | Rio Haryanto | Manor/Mercedes | 2 Laps |
| - | Fernando Alonso | McLaren/Honda | Gearbox |
| - | Pascal Wehrlein | Manor/Mercedes | Brakes |
| - | Carlos Sainz | Toro Rosso/Ferrari | Suspension |
| - | Daniil Kvyat | Toro Rosso/Ferrari | Suspension |
The Formula 1 season now heads to Red Bull Ring in Spielberg for the Austrian Grand Prix on July 3, which will mark the ninth of 21 rounds in the 2016 season.
