MOTORSPORT: Beyond the fireworks a walkover

Altercations in successive races between an enraged four-time world champion and a brat have added interest to a Formula 1 that is otherwise a familiar story – two Mercedes and a Ferrari on the podium.

Just five days after his 22nd birthday, Daniil Kyvat banged into Sebastian Vettel twice within a couple of hundred metres of the start of the Russian Grand Prix – the second time putting Ferrari's main man into a safety fence hollering expletives heard by the global audience.

The knock-on effect from the first clash in Sochi was that it ruined the race of Kyvat's Australian teammate Daniel Ricciardo. Both Red Bulls were in the pits at the end of the first lap for new front wings and neither finished with a world championship point after high hopes with Ricciardo starting fifth and Kyvat in his home race.

Ricciardo, fourth in the first three GPs of the season, has dropped a spot in the world championship standings to fourth, behind Kimi Raikkonen – who was third last night behind the Mercs of Nico Rosberg and (from 10th on the grid) Lewis Hamilton.

However, there was good news out of the weekend about other Australians racing overseas.

Just a month and a half out from Le Mans, one of the new Ford GTs driven by Ryan Briscoe won its class in an American sports car round at California's Laguna Seca. Briscoe's best lap was almost as quick as the pacesetting Ferrari 488 GTE, while his British co-driver Richard Westbrook nursed the Blue Oval's creation to mark the 50th anniversary of its first Le Mans victory to the chequered flag on fumes.

And 20-year-old Joey Mawson, from Sydney like Briscoe, won his third race of the German Formula 4 Championship – this one at Sachsenring – to go 35 points clear of his main rival, Michael Schumacher's 17-year-old son Mick, at quarter distance in the series.

At home, Matt Campbell – the youngster chosen by Nissan to partner Todd Kelly in the carsales.com.au Altima in this year's V8 Supercar enduros – and Geoff Emery won both 34-lap legs of the Carrera Cup Pro-Am races during the Porsche Rennsport (meaning racing sport) festival at Sydney Motorsport Park. Another youngster, Jaxon Evans – representing McElrea Racing, like Campbell and Emery – notched three wins in the GT3 Cup Challenge there.

In Sweden, Volvo's Kiwi V8 Supercar star Scott McLaughlin was runner-up to former Garry Rogers Motorsport teammate Robert Dahlgren in the first race of the Scandinavian Touring Car Championship at Skovde but his S60 was biffed by a Saab in the second, reverse-grid race.

At the infamous Talladega track in Alabama, Brad Keselowski in one of Roger Penske's Ford NASCARs beat Toyota's reigning champion Kyle Busch to the chequered flag in the latest round of the Sprint Cup amid the usual huge wrecks in the closing laps.

A perfect 10 ... Mercedes closes on consecutive wins record
Much is being made of Nico Rosberg's hot run, but it is Mercedes – with his help – that is closing on one of the great records of F1.

The tristar marque's victory in Russia was its 10th consecutive GP triumph, just one short of McLaren's 11 straight in 1988, with Honda power and the genius of Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost in the cockpits.

Rosberg has not only won all four GPs this season but seven straight now – a feat only achieved previously by Alberto Ascari, Michael Schumacher and Sebastian Vettel.

It's also one more victory than Rosberg's father Keke won in the 1980s, which included the first Australian F1 GP in Adelaide in '85.

Now 43 points clear of teammate Lewis Hamilton, the younger Rosberg is well on course to emulate the elder's 1982 world title.

Last night's victory in Sochi was the 18th of his career, but this was the first time he'd had pole position, set the fastest race lap and taken the chequered flag having led every lap – a Grand Slam.

While he again marvelled at the machinery Mercedes has given him, team principal Toto Wolff said post-race that data from Rosberg's power unit "gave us some grey hair ... it looked at a certain stage that he wouldn't finish".

Hamilton, who closed to less than 8 seconds of Rosberg at one point but had to back off with suggestions of a recurrence of the power unit problem that beset him in qualifying and two weeks earlier in China, was dismissive of Wolff's comment.

Up against it to win a third straight title – and the fourth of his career – Hamilton said: "My concern is not about beating Nico. My concern is more the guys giving me a car to be able to fight equally."

Hamilton's second place last night was the fourth time he has finished on the podium after starting 10th or lower – an indication not only of the equipment he has had to work with but his talent.

Ricciardo looks ahead to Barcelona and Monaco
The Kyvat-Vettel clashes were the highlight of Sochi, but – while he was a victim – Daniel Ricciardo accepted his fate with remarkable grace.

"It's frustrating and a shame to be out of the race more or less from the first lap onwards, but these things happen in racing," Ricciardo said after scrambling to finish 11th, a lap down on the top five cars – which included the Williams-Mercedes' of Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa.

"After the start I felt a big hit. I saw Seb [Vettel] come into me, but it looked like he got hit as well."

He certainly did, by Kyvat.

"We had a lot of damage and had to pit.

"We thought we'd try the medium[-compound] tyres, but that wasn't really working.

"Unfortunately the damage was so much that we didn't really learn anything from today's race and we don't know what our pace was.

"Barcelona and Monaco [the next two GP venues] should be better, so we have a few races to be excited about."

Kyvat clearly entered the first corner too fast and said his RB12 was "a bit out of control" as he locked the brakes.

"On Turn three I couldn't see what was happening ahead, Sebastian seemed to slow down and unfortunately I didn't have time to react and this caused the second contact," he said.

"I'm sorry for Sebastian and also to the team as we gave away a lot of points today from both my side and Daniel's.

"It doesn't feel great ... this is probably the messiest first lap of my career.

"All the mess came from me ... but these things happen sometimes.

"Of course, apologies to everyone involved.

"Everyone will attack me, but I'm OK with that."

Vettel, who won his four world titles with Red Bull before switching to Ferrari last season and now finds himself 67 points behind Rosberg with this 21-race season not 20 per cent completed, took his complaints to his former team principal Christian Horner, who could only concede Kyvat's errors and apologise.

"Dany hasn't been involved in an incident like this before and I am sure he will learn from it."

Red Bull's powerful Dr Helmut Marko will see to it that Kyvat does ... otherwise he'll be getting much more than the 10-second stop-go penalty of last night.

Despite Kyvat's third place two weeks earlier in China, where Vettel branded him a "torpedo, madman and suicidal", the ruthless Marko won't hesitate to boot Kyvat out to make way for teenager Max Verstappen from the energy drink company's Toro Rosso junior team.

Haas a model newcomer, McLaren-Honda and Renault on the up
Some other teams had things to cheer about in Sochi.

McLaren-Honda scored its first double points finish since last year's Hungarian GP, with Fernando Alonso sixth and Jenson Button 10th – although neither qualified in the top 10, and the Brit was ahead of the Spaniard, and they were a lap down on the top five.

McLaren's only previous point this season had come from Stoffel Vandoorne, who deputised for an injured Alonso in Bahrain.

Renault, so thoroughly outpaced by Red Bull with the same power unit this year, finally got in the points in its return as a fully-fledged constructor, with Kevin Magnussen seventh.

And Romain Grosjean, once the bad boy as Kyvat now is, scored his third points finish (eighth place) in four races with new American team Haas for a season tally of 22.

The enterprise of American industrial tools tycoon Gene Haas has shown how to enter F1 – in a proper alliance with an established constructor, Ferrari, and with an accomplished team principal, Gunther Steiner – unlike most of the sorry examples of the past, many of which folded without ever scoring points.

Haas is fifth of the 11 teams in this year's constructors' championship, while third-placed Red Bull is now just six points clear of Williams, which has had both its cars in the points at every race. McLaren has moved ahead of Force India, while embattled Sauber is pointless.

Contrary to earlier indications, engine rules have been agreed for next season – but still require a final tick from the World Motor Sport Council.

Drivers will be limited to just three power units for the year before incurring a penalty.

The token system for upgrades will be dropped, providing scope for serious development during the season.

The costs to customer teams will supposedly be reduced, while manufacturers in the sport more than a year with the V6 hybrids could be compelled to supply at least three teams.

A decision on the introduction of greater cockpit protection – seemingly a choice between Red Bull's 'aeroscreen' displayed by Daniel Ricciardo for a lap in Sochi on Friday and the 'halo' concept of Mercedes and Ferrari – is expected by July 1.

Formula One World Championship driver standings after four of 21 rounds – 1. Nico Rosberg (Germany, Mercedes) 100 points; 2. Lewis Hamilton (Great Britain, Mercedes) 57; 3. Kimi Raikkonen (Finland, Ferrari) 43; 4. Daniel Ricciardo (Australia, Red Bull-Renault) 36; 5.  Sebastian Vettel (Germany, Ferrari) 33; 6. Felipe Massa (Brazil, Williams-Mercedes) 32; 7. Romain Grosjean (France, Haas-Ferrari) 22; 8. Daniil Kvyat (Russia, Red Bull-Renault) 21; 9.  Valtteri Bottas (Finland, Williams-Mercedes) 19; 10. Max Verstappen (Netherlands, Toro Rosso-Ferrari) 13; 11. Fernando Alonso (Spain, McLaren-Honda) 8; 12. Kevin Magnussen (Denmark, Renault) 6; 13. Nico Hulkenberg (Germany, Force India-Mercedes) 6; 14. Carlos Sainz Junior (Spain, Toro Rosso-Ferrari) 4; 15. Sergio Perez (Mexico, Force India-Mercedes) 2; 16. Jenson Button (GB, McLaren-Honda) 1; 17. Stoffel Vandoorne (Belgium, McLaren-Honda) 1.

F1 constructor standings – 1. Mercedes 157 points; 2. Ferrari 76; 3. Red Bull-Renault 57; 4. Williams-Mercedes 51; 5. Haas-Ferrari 22; 6. Toro Rosso-Ferrari 17; 7. McLaren-Honda 10; 8. Force India-Mercedes 8; 9. Renault 6.