MOTORSPORT: Mercedes clinches F1 constructors’ title

Now it’s for Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg to fight out the drivers’ title over the remaining three GPs.

Australia’s Daniel Ricciardo is the only other driver with a mathematical chance to be world champion, but he would need Hamilton and Rosberg almost not to score a point in America, Brazil and Abu Dhabi.

Hamilton’s win at Sochi in Russia overnight was his fourth on the trot, his ninth this season and the 31st of his career - equalling Nigel Mansell’s record by a British driver.

Hamilton stretched his championship lead to 17 points over teammate Rosberg, who ruined his tyres as he braked trying to overtake Hamilton within seconds of the start, had to pit immediately, then drove 52 laps on one set of tyres to regain second place.

Valterri Bottas was third for Williams, his fifth podium of the year and putting him ahead of four-time world championship Sebastian Vettel on the points table.

McLaren had its best weekend since the start of the season in Melbourne, with Jenson Button and Kevin Magnussen fourth and fifth, in front of Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso, followed by Red Bull pair Ricciardo and Vettel.

Ricciardo had wanted Red Bull to order Vettel to let him overtake early in the race, but it declined - and he was always going to need to pit soon as one of the tyres he started on had blistered in qualifying.

He gained the place anyway as Vettel stayed out longer on his soft tyres but the West Australian finished more than a minute behind victor Hamilton.

He was close behind Alonso, but his Renault-powered car did not have the pace on the straight to challenge.

All drivers carried a message of support on their helmets for Jules Bianchi, the French driver critically injured the previous Sunday in the Japanese GP. Bianchi’s plight overshadowed the debut of F1 in Russia and the Mercedes success.

Nonetheless, Mercedes team chairman, renowned hard-nut Niki Lauda,  admitted to being “a little emotional” about the Silver Arrows clinching the constructors’ title, which began in 1958 - after the successes of Juan-Manuel Fangio and Stirling Moss for the manufacturer.

Mercedes’ motorsport chief executive Toto Wolff paid tribute to former team principal Ross Brawn for laying the foundations of championship success and to “the big boys back in Stuggart”.

The Mercedes team has accumulated 565 points from the 16 GPs so far this season - just 31 fewer than last year’s constructors’ champion Red Bull over the whole of the 20-race 2013 season. Mercedes-powered cars - Williams, McLaren and Force India also use its hybrid units - have accounted for 35 podiums of the possible 48 to date this year.

Hamilton, winner of the 2008 world title with McLaren, said the Mercedes factory team’s W05 chassis and engine were “just mind-blowing”.

Wolff said Hamilton and Rosberg would be left “to race each other hard and respectfully” in the remaining GPs.

“We have a healthy lead over Daniel Ricciardo in third place, but nothing will change in our approach,” Wolff said.

Rosberg admitted he had “got it completely wrong” in trying to overtake Hamilton so early with a 160kg full tank of fuel.

“It was actually an easy situation … but I braked too late and that’s it,” Rosberg said.

“Very unnecessary, because it was ‘my’ corner and I should have been in the lead... After that my tyres were just square. They were vibrating so much I couldn’t see where I was going, so I knew I had to pit.

“Half of me is extremely disappointed that I messed up, but the other half is really, really happy because the most important title of the year for the team is the constructors’ championship," he said.

The Marussia team ran only one car as a mark of respect to Bianchi, although it had nominated its reserve driver, American Alex Rossi, to substitute for the Frenchman. Its regular British driver, Max Chilton, retired after only 10 laps with a balance problem in his car.

Webber helps Porsche to sportscar podium
Mark Webber was on the podium for Porsche at the fifth round of the World Endurance Championship at Fuji Speedway in Japan.

Webber was fighting for the early lead in the six-hour race in the Porsche 919 Hybrid but had to pit after 10 laps because of a punctured left rear tyre. He then drove a double stint on a single set of tyres, including the fastest lap of the race, but he and his co-drivers (German  German Timo Bernhard and New Zealander Brendon Hartley), finished third behind the two Toyota TSO40 Hybrids which have given the Japanese team the lead in the manufacturer standings.

It was Porsche and Webber’s second podium of the season - the first was in the opening round of the championship at Britain’s Silverstone in April.

The other 919 finished fourth at Fuji, with the Audi R18 e-tron quattros only fifth and sixth this time.

Toyota now has 183 points, Audi 175 and Porsche 109.

The new Ligier-Nissan JSP2 coupe claimed its first victory in the Le Mans Prototype 2 category.

Stateside, Marcos Ambrose ended three laps down in 25th place in his Ford in the latest round of NASCAR’s Sprint Cup, won by Kevin Harvick for the Stewart-Haas Chevrolet team.

There were several brawls at the end of the race involving Penske driver Brad Keselowski. In one incident Keselowski ran into Harvick’s teammate and boss Tony Stewart while aiming for Matt Kenseth’s Toyota.

Stewart, who hit and killed a fellow driver walking on a sprintcar track in August but won’t face criminal charges, responded to Keselowski’s actions by reversing into his Ford.

Meanwhile, the 11th and penultimate round of the World Rallycross Championship at Istanbul Park in Turkey was won by factory Ford driver Andreas Bakkerud of Denmark.

Norwegian Petter Solberg, who already had won the new series, stalled his Citroen on the grid in heats three and four but made it to the back row of the six-car final with a third place in the semi-finals, only to have start-line problems again and retire on the first lap.