BAKU, Azerbaijan -- Nico Rosberg took a lights to flag victory at the Grand Prix of Europe to score his fifth win of the season and re-establish a 24-point lead over Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton in the drivers' championship.
Hamilton's was left fifth at the end of the race after an incorrect setting saw him down on power and as much as two seconds per lap slower than race leader Rosberg. Under new regulations this season, the pit wall was unable to tell him how to rectify the issue and despite briefly finding a setting on lap 42 that allowed him to up his pace by over a second, his lap times soon dropped off again.
Meanwhile, Sebastian Vettel was able to salvage second place on a tough weekend for Ferrari, 16.6s down the road from the imperious Rosberg. Sergio Perez took his second podium in a row in third place after an impressive comeback drive from a five-place grid penalty on Saturday. He passed Raikkonen for third place at the start of the final lap, but a five-second penalty for the Ferrari driver for straying over the pit lane entry line earlier in the race meant the move, though impressive, was for show rather than position.
Valtteri Bottas took sixth place, just 4.5s behind Hamilton's hamstrung Mercedes in fifth, but with a comfortable 8.3s buffer to Daniel Ricciardo behind. A two-stop strategy saw Ricciardo drop from second on the grid to seventh by the finish, but Red Bull also struggled with a lack of straight-line speed throughout the race. Both he and Verstappen were sitting ducks for rivals in the early stages of the race, but undoubtedly strategy let Red Bull down again.
Nico Hulkenberg struggled to ninth on an unusual strategy after Force India started him on softs, forcing him to complete a 31-lap stint on the super-softs in the second half of the race. It was still enough, however, to beat Felipe Massa on a two-stop strategy in the Williams.
The story of the race
Perhaps the biggest surprise in Baku was the absence of a safety car period. Turn 1 passed without major incident as only Esteban Gutierrez miscalculated his braking point and made contact with Nico Hulkenberg. Despite the overoptimistic move from the Haas driver, all 22 cars continued to Turn 2 without major damage and soon settled into position over the rest of the lap.
Rosberg wasted no time building a lead over Ricciardo in second, who quickly came under attack from the Ferrari of Vettel in third. Vettel made his move stick at at the start of lap six as he passed the Red Bull driver on the outside of Turn 1 thanks to superior straight-line speed on the preceding straight. Raikkonen latched on to Ricciardo's gearbox over the rest of lap six, but as he slipstreamed the Australian on the pit straight Red Bull called its man in to the pits. Raikkonen remained behind Ricciardo as the Red Bull aimed for the pit lane entrance and as a result found himself on the wrong side of the line dividing the approach to the pit lane and the race track. The stewards investigated the incident and soon slapped Raikkonen with his five-second time penalty.
Ricciardo's strategy may have worked out with a well-timed safety car, but his stop on lap six meant he ruled out a one-stop. Ferrari suggested Vettel pit two laps later, but the four-time champion questioned the call and decided to stay out -- a decision that ultimately proved to be the quicker strategy. Vettel and Rosberg pitted on lap 20 and 21 respectively, and although Vettel rejoined behind Raikkonen, who pitted on lap eight, Ferrari soon reshuffled its drivers to allow Vettel back ahead.
The first radio message relating to Hamilton's issue was broadcast on lap 27. He explained that his power unit was "de-rating everywhere", meaning the Energy Recovery System was harvesting too much energy while failing to deploy maximum power when he needed it most. Rosberg had a similar issue but was able to make changes on his steering wheel rectify the problem, while Hamilton was left making a series of increasingly desperate radio calls to the pit wall that, by regulation, had to go unanswered.
On lap 34 Hamilton said he would try "changing everything" in the hope of lucking into the right mode, to which his engineer Peter Bonnington replied: "We don't advise that, Lewis". Hamilton briefly found a setting on lap 42 that allowed him to set the fastest lap at that point of the race, but it was ultimately beaten by Rosberg on lower fuel in the final eight laps. One team member later said it was like expecting Hamilton to do a crossword without any clues.
The end result saw Hamilton's points gain at the Canadian Grand Prix one week earlier reversed as well as putting an end to Rosberg's run of three races without a podium.