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Mercedes-AMG Petronas Wins 2015 F1 Constructors' Championship After Hair-Raising Race

The Anglo-German Formula 1 team has secured its second Constructors' Championship in a row, despite the fact that there are four more races until the end of the 2015 season.
Mercedes-AMG Petronas Wins 2015 F1 Constructors' Championship After Hair-Raising Race 1 photo
Lewis Hamilton finished in first place after leading the pack non-stop since lap 7, while teammate Nico Rosberg was forced to retire because of a failed throttle damper. Rosberg's bad luck cumulated with the two Ferraris initially receiving just enough points to postpone Mercedes' win of the championship title made for a pretty odd race finish at Sochi, in Russia.

“Not yet, Lewis,” was the radio message received by Hamilton when he asked if the team had secured the Constructors' Title after crossing the finish line. Sebastian Vettel finished second, while Kimi Raikkonen originally came in fourth after a failed attempt at passing Valtteri Bottas resulted in the two drivers colliding and then getting passed by Sergio Perez, with Bottas being pushed into the outside wall and retiring.

That all happened in the last lap, and if it hadn't, Mercedes-AMG F1 would have needed three more points to win the championship this early on. The stewards didn't classify Kimi's move as a racing incident, so the Finn got a 30-second penalty that dropped him from fourth to eighth place. That resulted in the Anglo-German team outscoring Ferrari by the exact amount of points it needed.

Mercedes-AMG has scored 531 points so far in 2015, while Ferrari only 359, which means that even if the Ferrari drivers finish first and second and Mercedes DNF at every remaining race of the 2015 season, the title still goes to the Germans.

After winning in 2014, we raised the bar again to secure this year’s title, and we needed to because our rivals gave us plenty of headaches as they stepped up their performance. The work by our team is the perfect example of what drives Mercedes-Benz forward: the best technology. The most efficient hybrid petrol engine that our company has ever made, world-beating aerodynamics and intelligent design in every part of the W06 Hybrid racing car,” said Dieter Zetsche, Chairman of Daimler AG and Head of Mercedes-Benz Cars.

With four races to go, Lewis Hamilton leads the Drivers' Championship with 302 points, while Nico Rosberg falls into third place, with 229 points. Splitting the two is Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel, whose Sochi second-place rounded his 2015 points to 236. Any of the three still has enough chances to win the Drivers' title by the end of the season.
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About the author: Alex Oagana
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Alex handled his first real steering wheel at the age of five (on a field) and started practicing "Scandinavian Flicks" at 14 (on non-public gravel roads). Following his time at the University of Journalism, he landed his first real job at the local franchise of Top Gear magazine a few years before Mircea (Panait). Not long after, Alex entered the New Media realm with the autoevolution.com project.
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