Nico Rosberg won the first Formula One race held in Azerbaijan yesterday to turn the championship tide and stretch his lead over Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton to 24 points.
Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel finished as runner-up, 16.6 seconds behind, with Force India’s Mexican Sergio Perez back on the podium for the second time this season after overtaking Kimi Raikkonen’s Ferrari on the last lap.
Rosberg started on pole position, led all the way and also set the fastest lap on his way to a fifth win in eight races this season. With 13 races remaining, he has 141 points and Hamilton 117.
While the German’s cruise in the late afternoon sunshine turned out to be something of a snooze for the global television audience, triple world champion Hamilton provided more entertainment.
The Briton, who had been chasing his third win in a row but finished fifth, sounded increasingly frustrated over the radio as he wrestled with his car’s settings without the team being able to help.
He fixed the problem but finished fifth in a race billed as the European Grand Prix.
“This is ridiculous guys, I don’t know. I’m looking at my dash every five seconds trying to find a switch in the wrong position,” Hamilton said over the team radio.
“I might not finish this race as I’m going to try and change everything,” he continued. “We don’t advise that Lewis,” came the reply from the pitwall, with teams now limited on what information they can give drivers during the race.
“Can I make suggestions and you say if it’s OK or not?,” replied Hamilton. “No, that’s not allowed. Let’s just get our heads down and focus on the job,” he was told.
The Mercedes team’s non-executive chairman Niki Lauda told reporters afterwards that it was a question of engine modes.
“It was a problem they both had and Nico could fix it quicker than Lewis. The (radio) ban is there, so we all have to adapt,” he told Sky Sports.
Raikkonen, who had done as he was told and allowed Vettel to pass him, expressed similar exasperation over the radio to Ferrari.
The outbursts were highlights on a day with none of the mayhem predicted after a series of accidents in the GP2 support series, in F1 practice and qualifying.
Nobody crashed, the tight turns around the ancient city walls were safely negotiated by all and the 350km blast down the long main straight produced no drama.
“I think people lost a lot of money because they were betting on a safety car. I was expecting a couple too,” said Vettel.
Finland’s Valtteri Bottas finished sixth for Williams, with Australian Daniel Ricciardo seventh for Red Bull after starting on the front row.
Dutch team mate Max Verstappen was eighth, Germany’s Nico Hulkenberg secured a double points finish for Force India in ninth and Brazilian Felipe Massa was 10th for Williams.

THE RESULTS
1. Nico Rosberg (GER/Mercedes) 1hr 32min 52.366sec, 2. Sebastian Vettel (GER/Ferrari) at 16.696sec, 3. Sergio Perez (MEX/Force India) 25.241, 4. Kimi Raikkonen (FIN/Ferrari) 33.102, 5. Lewis Hamilton (GBR/Mercedes) 56.335, 6. Valtteri Bottas (FIN/Williams) 1:00.886, 7. Daniel Ricciardo (AUS/Red Bull) 1:09.229, 8. Max Verstappen (NED/Red Bull) 1:10.696, 9. Nico Hülkenberg (GER/Force India) 1:17.708, 10. Felipe Massa (BRA/Williams) 1:25.375, 11. Jenson Button (GBR/McLaren) 1:44.817, 12. Felipe Nasr (BRA/Sauber) 1 lap, 13. Romain Grosjean (FRA/Haas) 1 lap, 14. Kevin Magnussen (DEN/Renault) 1 lap, 15. Jolyon Palmer (GBR/Renault) 1 lap, 16. Esteban Gutierrez (MEX/Haas) 1 lap, 17. Marcus Ericsson (SWE/Sauber) 1 lap, 18. Rio Haryanto (INA/Manor) 2 laps

Standings (after eight rounds)
Drivers
1. Nico Rosberg (GER) 141 pts, 2. Lewis Hamilton (GBR) 117, 3. Sebastian Vettel (GER) 96, 4. Kimi Raikkonen (FIN) 81, 5. Daniel Ricciardo (AUS) 78, 6. Max Verstappen (NED) 54, 7. Valtteri Bottas (FIN) 52, 8. Sergio Pérez (MEX) 39, 9. Felipe Massa (BRA) 38, 10. Daniil Kvyat (RUS) 22, 11. Romain Grosjean (FRA) 22, 12. Nico Hulkenberg (GER) 20, 13. Fernando Alonso (ESP) 18, 14. Carlos Sainz Jr (ESP) 18, 15. Kevin Magnussen (DEN) 6, 16. Jenson Button (GBR) 5, 17. Stoffel Vandoorne (BEL) 1
Constructors
1. Mercedes-AMG 258 pts, 2. Ferrari 177, 3. Red Bull 140, 4. Williams 90, 5. Force India 59, 6. Toro Rosso 32, 7. McLaren-Honda 24, 8. Haas 22, 9. Renault 6


Hamilton says radio ban adds to the danger
Formula One’s clampdown on radio communications between engineers and drivers has made the sport more dangerous, triple world champion Lewis Hamilton said yesterday.
The Mercedes driver, who finished fifth in Azerbaijan’s first grand prix, said he had spent much of the race distracted and wrestling with his car’s engine settings while engineers were powerless to help. The Briton summed up the situation in one word - “dangerous” - and suggested the rules needed to be reconsidered.
“I am just looking at my steering wheel for a large portion of the lap - all the way down the straight just looking at my wheel,” he said.
“All they can tell me is there is a switch error, so I am looking at every single switch thinking am I being an idiot here? Have I done something wrong? I hadn’t.
“I looked time and again at the different switch positions and there was nothing that looked irregular.”
Baku has the longest straight in Formula One, with cars hitting speeds in excess of 370kph. The track also winds through streets and around the ancient city walls, with scant runoff. That means settings are changed on the straight, with drivers taking their eyes off the road at the fastest moment.
Mercedes said both Hamilton and team mate Nico Rosberg, the championship leader who won from pole position, experienced a similar issue but unlike Hamilton the German had made a change that caused it. “The engine switch has 16 positions, and in (each of) those positions there are like (another) 20 positions so I had no idea what the problem was,” he said.“I tried a few different things but it didn’t resolve it so I put them back to where they were.” The rules were tightened this year to try to make races more exciting and less predictable by putting the emphasis on driver skills. “The radio ban, as far as I am aware was supposed to stop driver aids but it wasn’t a driver aid, it was a technical issue,” said Hamilton of a problem that led to animated exchanges with his pit crew.
“Today would have added to the spectacle if I had full power because I would have been more in the race fighting with the guys up ahead...maybe the rule needs to be looked at again because it is a technical issue.”