Hanging on to victory by half a second, Rosberg retakes the championship lead. Starting on pole, Rosberg led from the start but was put under pressure in the final laps, with Ricciardo gaining over two seconds a lap. The Red Bull driver just missed out on the win, running out of laps to pass Rosberg. Forced to settle for third, Hamilton struggled with brakes for the whole race and was just able to keep ahead of Raikkonen.
Unlike last race, Hamilton had a strong start, but it wasn’t enough to snatch second from Ricciardo. Meanwhile, a poor start for Verstappen from 4th triggered a crash between Hulkenberg and Sainz, sending the Force India driver flying into the wall.
A safety car was deployed straight away but it only lasted two laps, going in at the end of the second lap. Rosberg was able to maintain the lead at the restart and kept Ricciardo behind. Hamilton was unable to challenge for second, struggling with brake temperatures for the entirety of the race.
On lap 15, Hamilton and Ricciardo came in, with the former complaining to his team for putting him on a ‘conservative’ strategy with the soft tyres whilst the Red Bull driver was on supersofts. Rosberg pitted a lap later, also changing onto the softs.
A mistake for Hamilton on lap 33 allowed Raikkonen to pass, dropping Lewis to fourth and out of podium position. However, his final stop with 16 laps to go put him on fresh supersofts and he put in a brilliant out lap. Pitting the lap after, Raikkonen switched to the faster ultrasofts but it was too late and Hamilton had made it past. For the rest of the race, Hamilton was able to keep ahead of the Ferrari to claim third.
Pitting on lap 47 for supersofts, Ricciardo had reduced Rosberg’s lead by four seconds by lap 49. Under pressure, Rosberg opted not to pit as this would drop him to 4th and went to the end on the softs. Taking over two seconds every lap, Ricciardo had the once 26-second lead down to just two going on the final lap.
But the end of the race came just too soon for the Australian, finishing just half a second off Rosberg, given one more lap and the victory could have been his. The eighth victory of the year for Rosberg puts him ahead in the championship battle by 8 points, but with six races to go it is still all to play for.
An incredible drive from the back of the grid for Vettel saw him finish in 5th, with plenty of fresh tyres to help him work his way through the order. After a poor start, Verstappen also found himself fighting his way through the pack, pulling off some spectacular passes with a brilliant drive. He finished 6th, just ahead of McLaren driver Alonso.
Perez held of Kvyat for 8th, the gap just four tenths as they crossed the line. The final point went to Magnussen in the Renault, with Gutierrez and Massa missing out on a top ten finish.