Lewis Hamilton boosted his title hopes with a comfortable lights-to-flag victory in the inaugural Russian Grand Prix as Mercedes wrapped up the constructors crown.
The Brit produced a faultless drive having capitalised on an error from Mercedes Nico Rosberg on the opening lap.
With Rosberg out of sink having been forced to pit on the opening lap for a new set of tyres, Hamilton went on to lead every lap at the Sochi street circuit as he claimed his fourth win on the trot.
The 2008 world champion has moved into a 17 point lead with Rosberg recovering to second at the chequered flag, while Williams‘ Valtteri Bottas racked up his fifth podium of the season in third.
A ninth one-two of the season handed Mercedes the constructors title with three races remaining.
The Mercedes duo of Hamilton and Rosberg made equal starts with the latter taking the lead through the opening turn.
However, the German locked his front brakes on the entry to Turn 2 forcing him to use the run off area. After gaining an advantage, Rosberg elected to let Hamilton through to the lead.
As a result of his lock up Rosberg was forced into the pits to change his severely flat spotted tyres pushing him to the back of the pack.
Hamilton took full advantage of his team mates troubles by quickly opening up a lead over Bottas and the McLaren of Jenson Button.
The Red Bulls of Sebastian Vettel and Daniel Ricciardo ran strongly in the opening stages as they quickly passed the Toro Rosso of Daniil Kvyat, who had started from fifth.
Once in front Hamilton controlled the race from start to finish as he went on to equal Nigel Mansell's British record of 31 grand prix victories.
Despite the early drama, Rosberg managed to nurture a set of tyres for 52 of the 53 laps to finish second.
Bottas, who was unable to match the pace of Rosberg, settled for third ahead of Button and McLaren team-mate Kevin Magnussen, who battled from 11th on the grid to fifth at the flag.
Ferrari's Fernando Alonso endured a quiet race to finish sixth in front of the Red Bulls of Ricciardo and Vettel.
Kimi Raikkonen and Force India's Sergio Perez completed the top 10.
Russian Grand Prix Results
Position | Driver | Team | Laps | Time/Gap |
1 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 53 | |
2 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 53 | +13.6 secs |
3 | Valtteri Bottas | Williams-Mercedes | 53 | +17.4 secs |
4 | Jenson Button | McLaren-Mercedes | 53 | +30.2 secs |
5 | Kevin Magnussen | McLaren-Mercedes | 53 | +53.6 secs |
6 | Fernando Alonso | Ferrari | 53 | +60.0 secs |
7 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull-Renault | 53 | +61.8 secs |
8 | Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull-Renault | 53 | +66.1 secs |
9 | Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | 53 | +78.8 secs |
10 | Sergio Perez | Force India-Mercedes | 53 | +80.0 secs |
11 | Felipe Massa | Williams-Mercedes | 53 | +80.8 secs |
12 | Nico Hulkenberg | Force India Mercedes | 53 | +81.3 secs |
13 | Jean-Eric Vergne | Toro Rosso-Renault | 53 | +97.2 secs |
14 | Daniil Kvyat | Toro Rosso-Renault | 52 | +1 Lap |
15 | Esteban Gutierrez | Sauber-Ferrari | 52 | +1 Lap |
16 | Adrian Sutil | Sauber-Ferrari | 52 | +1 Lap |
17 | Romain Grosjean | Lotus-Renault | 52 | +1 Lap |
18 | Pastor Maldonado | Lotus-Renault | 52 | +1 Lap |
19 | Marcus Ericsson | Caterham-Renault | 51 | +2 Laps |
DNF | Kamui Kobayashi | Caterham-Renault | 21 | +32 Laps |
DNF | Max Chilton | Marussia-Ferrari | 9 | +44 Laps |
Championship Points
Position | Driver | Points |
1 | Lewis Hamilton | 291 |
2 | Nico Rosberg | 274 |
3 | Daniel Ricciardo | 199 |
4 | Valtteri Bottas | 145 |
5 | Sebastian Vettel | 143 |
6 | Fernando Alonso | 141 |
7 | Jenson Button | 94 |
8 | Nico Hulkenberg | 76 |
9 | Felipe Massa | 71 |
10 | Kevin Magnussen | 49 |
11 | Sergio Perez | 47 |
12 | Kimi Raikkonen | 47 |
13 | Jean-Eric Vergne | 21 |
14 | Romain Grosjean | 8 |
15 | Daniil Kvyat | 8 |
16 | Jules Bianchi | 2 |
17 | Adrian Sutil | 0 |
18 | Marcus Ericsson | 0 |
19 | Pastor Maldonado | 0 |
20 | Esteban Gutierrez | 0 |
21 | Max Chilton | 0 |
22 | Kamui Kobayashi | 0 |
Constructors Championship
Position | Team | Points |
1 | Mercedes | 565 |
2 | Red Bull-Renault | 342 |
3 | Williams-Mercedes | 216 |
4 | Ferrari | 188 |
5 | McLaren-Mercedes | 143 |
6 | Force India-Mercedes | 123 |
7 | Toro Rosso-Renault | 29 |
8 | Lotus-Renault | 8 |
9 | Marussia-Ferrari | 2 |
10 | Sauber-Ferrari | 0 |
11 | Caterham-Renault | 0 |