On 5 October, during Japan F1 Grand Prix, Mercedes Lewis Hamilton won the biggest championship lead he had enjoyed this season after a dominant drive to victory while his team mate Nico Rosberg’s title deficit grew to 10 points. It was Hamilton’s 30th Grand Prix victory and his first at Suzuka. Today again, after a week, Lewis Hamilton was the King of the 
when he won his fourth straight race at the inaugural Russian Grand Prix in front of the Russian President, Vladimir Putin. It looked like this track was made for him from first practice to final race.
Hamilton now leads the Formula One world championship by 17 points with three races and 100 points remaining. Hamilton became only the fourth driver in F1 history to win nine grands prix in a season thus equalling Nigel Mansell’s British record of 31 career wins after leading from start to finish in Sochi. It was the second time this season that Hamilton had won four races on the spin. For Mercedes, it was also the day they clinched their first ever constructors’ title. They needed 25 points to clinch the title and took a maximum 43. Hamilton said on the slowdown lap: “Congratulations on the Constructor’s Championship guys – great job! History in the making.”
The drive of the day came from his team-mate Nico Rosberg who went for 52 laps on the same set of medium tyres to take second place. “I was in a battle with Lewis and I messed up,” says Nico Rosberg. “I was a bad mistake too. It was my corner – or I thought it was – but it was the first time arriving there at full speed with full fuel. I thought I wouldn’t get into the top 10 after that but the car was amazing.” Looking ahead to the last three races, Rosberg adds: “I need to continue to attack and I need to look to win them. All the next three races are my favourites.”
Lewis Hamilton leads the way in the drivers’ standings with Nico Rosberg and Daniel Ricciardo second and third respectively. Valtteri Bottas moves up to fourth, with Sebastian Vettel dropping to fifth. Hamilton now heads the driver standings by 17 points from Rosberg, 291 to 274, with Ricciardo third on 199, still mathematically in title contention with 100 points available from the remaining three rounds. It was also a good afternoon for Valtteri Bottas in his Williams, who took his fifth podium position of the season to go fourth in the title race behind Daniel Ricciardo. Jenson Button was fourth, one ahead of his team-mate Kevin Magnussen, as McLaren continued their impressive weekend in Russia.
