STORY OF THE RACE

■ Nico Rosberg leads on the run to Turn 2, while Kimi Raikkonen passes Valtteri Bottas for second.

■ Under braking for Turn 2, Daniil Kvyat hits the back of Sebastian Vettel and hits him again in Turn 3, firing the Ferrari into the barriers. Lewis Hamilton, Fernando Alonso and Kevin Magnussen best avoid the drama.

■ Further back, Esteban Gutierrez clatters into Nico Hulkenberg, who collects Rio Haryanto’s Manor and Marcus Ericsson’s Sauber.

■ The safety car is deployed on the opening lap to clear up the Turn 2 and Turn 3 incidents. ■ Red Bull pit both drivers under the safety car and switch to the medium compound tyre.

■ At the restart Bottas retakes Raikkonen for second, while Hamilton overtakes Felipe Massa for fourth.

■ On lap seven, Hamilton passes Raikkonen at Turn 5 for third. Kvyat is issued with a 10-second stop/go penalty.

■ Bottas is the first of the leaders to pit on lap 16. He switches from the supersoft to the soft tyre.

■ A lap later Hamilton makes his mandatory tyre stop, switching to softs, but remains behind the Williams. ■ Lap 19: Hamilton outbrakes Bottas into Turn 2 and Kimi comes out ahead of his compatriot when the Ferrari rejoins after his lap 20 pitstop.

■ Lap 21: Rosberg makes his one tyre stop and doesn’t relinquish the race lead.

■ On lap 37 Hamilton’s charge is thwarted when he’s informed he has a water pressure problem with his power unit.

■ Rosberg wins the Russian GP, ahead of Hamilton and Raikkonen, and collects the trophy on the podium from the Russian president Vladimir Putin.