Sochi, Krasnodar Krai - Lewis Hamilton took full advantage of his Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg's mechanical misfortunes to seize a commanding victory in Sunday's incident-filled Russian Grand Prix and take a huge lead in the title race.
The defending double world champion started from second on the grid and inherited the lead when Rosberg slowed, and then retired after seven laps, with throttle pedal problems and claimed his ninth win of the season and 42nd of his career with ease.
That took Hamilton up to 302 points in the championship standings, with Sebastian Vettel, who finished second in his Ferrari, moving up to second on 236 points, demoting Rosberg, now 73 points adrift on 229, to third.
If the cards fall in his favour Hamilton can clinch the title at the next race in the United States on 25 October.
“I was excited because Nico and I were quite close together at the beginning," Hamilton said. "It was a shame for the team to lose one of the cars. I don't take what we have for granted.”
Vettel chimed in: “I thought there was a slight chance to catch Lewis at one point but he had so much pace in hand.”
Despite his ill luck Rosberg refused to concede the title.
“Formula One is pretty incredible sometimes, how tough it is,” he said. “I am never going to win a championship like that, when normal things break on a day when I should have won the race, but I will come back, as I always do.”
In a race with two Safety Car interventions, several accidents and a series of retirements, Carlos Sainz Jr, who had crashed heavily in his Toro Rosso on Saturday, was passed fit to start from the back of the grid, worked his way up to 10th - and then retired after spinning off in the closing laps.
An opening lap multi-car collision caused the first Safety Car. The second came after 12 laps when Romain Grosjean crashed heavily in his Lotus and climbed out of the wreckage unhurt.
Another crash on the final lap, involving Kimi Raikkonen of Ferrari and Valtteri Bottas of Williams as they battled for third gifted third instead to Sergio Perez, who claimed only the third podium in Force India's history.
“It's just feels great to be back," said Perez. "One lap before the end it seemed like everything went away from us. I was very unhappy with myself but in the end I thought 'I gave it all'.
“On the last lap when it came it was just amazing.”
Felipe Massa secured some compensation for Williams by finishing fourth ahead of Raikkonen, local hero Russian Daniil Kvyat of Red Bull and Felipe Nasr of Sauber.
Pastor Maldonado took eighth for Lotus and the two McLaren cars both claimed points with Jenson Button finishing ninth and Fernando Alonso 10th, having started on the back row of the grid.
After the race the stewards handed Raikkonen a 30 second penalty for his part in the crash involving fellow Finn Valtteri Bottas in a Williams. The penalty moved Raikkonen down from fifth to eighth, thus scoring only four points rather than 10 and handing Mercedes an unassailable lead in the Constructors' standings.
It was a second consecutive title for Mercedes which also clinched the trophy at Sochi in 2014.
Results of the Russian Grand Prix in Sochi:
1 Lewis Hamilton (Britain) Mercedes - 1hr37m11.024s
2 Sebastian Vettel (Germany) Ferrari +5.953sec
3 Sergio Perez (Mexico) Force India +28.918
4 Felipe Massa (Brazil) Williams +38.831
5 Kimi Raikkonen (Finland) Ferrari) +42.358
6 Daniil Kvyat (Russia) Red Bull +47.566
7 Felipe Nasr (Brazil) Sauber +56.508
8 Pastor Maldonado (Venezuela) Lotus +1:01.088
9 Jenson Button (Britain) McLaren - +1:19.467
10 Fernando Alonso (Spain) McLaren +1:26.210
11 Max Verstappen (Netherlands) Toro Rosso +1:28.424
12 Valtteri Bottas (Finland) Williams +1 lap
13 Roberto Merhi (Spain) Marussia +1 lap
14 Will Stevens (Britain) Marussia +2 laps\
15 Daniel Ricciardo (Australia) Red Bull +6 laps
Retirements
Marcus Ericsson (Sweden) Sauber: 1st lap
Nico Hulkenberg (Germany) Force India: 1st lap
Nico Rosberg (Germany) Mercedes: 8th lap
Romain Grosjean (FranceO Lotus: 12th lap
Carlos Sainz Jr (Spain) Toro Rosso: 47th lap
Daniel Ricciardo (Australia) Red Bull: 48th lap (classified)
Valtteri Bottas (Finland) Williams: 53th lap (classified)
Championship standings - Drivers
1 Lewis Hamilton (Britain) 302
2 Sebastian Vettel (Germany) 236
3 Nico Rosberg (Germany) 229
4 Kimi Raikkonen (Finland) 129
5 Valtteri Bottas (Finland) 111
6 Felipe Massa (Brazil) 109
7 Daniil Kvyat (Russia) 74
8 Daniel Ricciardo (Australia) 73
9 Sergio Perez (Mexico) 54
10 Romain Grosjean (France) 44
11 Nico Hulkenberg (Germany) 38
12 Max Verstappen (Netherlands) 32
13 Felipe Nasr (Brazil) 23
14 Pastor Maldonado (Venezuela) 20
15 Fernando Alonso (Spain) 12
16 Carlos Sainz Jr (Spain) 12
17 Marcus Ericsson (Sweden) 9
18 Jenson Button (Britain) 8
Constructors
1 Mercedes 531
2 Ferrari 365
3 Williams 220
4 Red Bull 147
5 Force India 92
6 Lotus 64
7 Toro Rosso 44
8 Sauber 32
9 McLaren 20
AFP