Nico Rosberg rebuilds Formula 1 points lead with dominant Baku win

Nico Rosberg extended his world championship lead with a crushing victory in Formula 1's inaugural grand prix in Azerbaijan

The German led into the first corner from pole and set about building a lead he would never relinquish, with his title rival and Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton only fifth.

It was Rosberg's fifth victory of the season and first since Russia, leaving him 24 points clear of Hamilton in the drivers' standings.

Hamilton made good progress through the field from 10th, having crashed out in qualifying, but then encountered lower than maximum electrical deployment.

The reigning world champion repeatedly asked Mercedes for help in solving the problem, but it was unable to tell him what to do under this season's radio communication restrictions.

Hamilton was able to fix the problem in the closing stages but it proved to be too late and he was unable to improve on fifth.

Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel finished second for the second successive race with Force India's Sergio Perez scoring his second podium in three races with third.

The Mexican passed Kimi Raikkonen on the final lap to snatch third, but he was set to get the place anyway as Raikkonen had been given a five-second time penalty for crossing the white line on pit entry earlier in the race.

Valtteri Bottas was a lonely sixth while Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen passed Nico Hulkenberg late on to finish seventh and eighth respectively.

The two Red Bulls did a two-stop strategy, fitting the softs and the the mediums, while Hulkenberg only did one so they had fresher tyres.

Hulkenberg held on to ninth, one place ahead of Felipe Massa, who scored points for the seventh time in eight races.

Jenson Button finished just outside the points in 11th but his McLaren team-mate Fernando Alonso was told to pit and retire the car with seven laps to go.

Felipe Nasr scored his best result of the season with 12th, ahead of Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen, who started from the pitlane.

Pascal Wehrlein was running strongly when he suffered brake failure and retired his Manor for the first time this season.

The Toro Rossos were the only other retirements, both Daniil Kvyat and Carlos Sainz Jr suffering suspension issues.

RESULTS - 51 LAPS:

Pos	Driver	Car	Gap
1	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1h32m52.366s
2	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	16.696s
3	Sergio Perez	Force India/Mercedes	25.241s
4	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari	33.102s
5	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	56.335s
6	Valtteri Bottas	Williams/Mercedes	1m00.886s
7	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull/Renault	1m09.229s
8	Max Verstappen	Red Bull/Renault	1m10.696s
9	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India/Mercedes	1m17.708s
10	Felipe Massa	Williams/Mercedes	1m25.375s
11	Jenson Button	McLaren/Honda	1m44.817s
12	Felipe Nasr	Sauber/Ferrari	1 Lap
13	Romain Grosjean	Haas/Ferrari	1 Lap
14	Kevin Magnussen	Renault	1 Lap
15	Jolyon Palmer	Renault	1 Lap
16	Esteban Gutierrez	Haas/Ferrari	1 Lap
17	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber/Ferrari	1 Lap
18	Rio Haryanto	Manor/Mercedes	2 Laps
-	Fernando Alonso	McLaren/Honda	Gearbox
-	Pascal Wehrlein	Manor/Mercedes	Brakes
-	Carlos Sainz Jr.	Toro Rosso/Ferrari	Suspension
-	Daniil Kvyat	Toro Rosso/Ferrari	Suspension

DRIVERS' CHAMPIONSHIP

Pos	Driver	Points
1	Nico Rosberg	141
2	Lewis Hamilton	117
3	Sebastian Vettel	96
4	Kimi Raikkonen	81
5	Daniel Ricciardo	78
6	Max Verstappen	54
7	Valtteri Bottas	52
8	Sergio Perez	39
9	Felipe Massa	38
10	Daniil Kvyat	22
11	Romain Grosjean	22
12	Nico Hulkenberg	20
13	Fernando Alonso	18
14	Carlos Sainz Jr.	18
15	Kevin Magnussen	6
16	Jenson Button	5
17	Stoffel Vandoorne	1
18	Esteban Gutierrez	0
19	Jolyon Palmer	0
20	Marcus Ericsson	0
21	Felipe Nasr	0
22	Pascal Wehrlein	0
23	Rio Haryanto	0

CONSTRUCTORS' CHAMPIONSHIP

Pos	Constructor	Points
1	Mercedes	258
2	Ferrari	177
3	Red Bull/Renault	140
4	Williams/Mercedes	90
5	Force India/Mercedes	59
6	Toro Rosso/Ferrari	32
7	McLaren/Honda	24
8	Haas/Ferrari	22
9	Renault	6
10	Sauber/Ferrari	0
11	Manor/Mercedes	0