Russian retirement is major blow for Rosberg

Raikkonen had finished fifth in the Russian Grand Prix won by Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton but picked up a 30-second penalty that dropped him to eighth place and meant Mercedes had mathematically clinched the title with four races to spare.

If results go Hamilton’s way, he can secure his second successive title in Austin, Texas, in two weeks’ time.

Hamilton’s Mercedes team-mate, Nico Rosberg, was leading the race in Sochi but was forced to retire with a throttle issue on lap seven. He is now 73 points behind Hamilton with just a century of points to play for.

The pole was Rosberg’s third of the season with championship leader Hamilton, who is 48 points clear of the German with five races remaining, denied his 50th for the third race in succession.

The German driver was comfortable with his SF15-T during the early stages of the qualifying hour, but felt the feeling of the vehicle was not as it was at the end, and was disappointed to see the Williams Martini Racing machine of Valtteri Bottas snatch third on the grid.

Struggling for grip late on, Perez was overtaken on the penultimate lap by both faster cars, but then was spectacularly gifted back the final podium slot just several corners later when Raikkonen slammed into the side of Bottas’s Williams with an opportunistic and seemingly ill-advised lunge.

Raikkonen, meanwhile, suffered damage and limped home in fifth.

“I was thinking “this is great”, but then he went a bit wide and I overtook him – maybe before or after that he started to have problems”.

“I did plenty of laps with my tyres and had massive degradation”.

“I tried to pass and unfortunately it ended up like this, but I’m not the stewards”. It is very unfortunate for the team.

The second came after 12 laps when Romain Grosjean crashed heavily in his Lotus and climbed out of the wreckage unhurt.

“I was very unhappy with myself but in the end I thought “I gave it all”, said the Mexican. “On the last lap when it came it was just incredible”.

The retirement was also a setback for Mercedes, who had hoped to wrap up the constructors” title in Sochi for the second year in a row and had the “2015 world champions’ T-shirts printed and ready.

A glum-faced Rosberg, who led the opening phase of the race, said: “It is tough, it really is tough”.

“We are not pushing to do this because we must be 100 per cent sure that he is fit enough and I am not keen to say something now because, first of all, he must be back”.