Rosberg in elite company

Nico Rosberg joined an ultra-select group of Formula One drivers with his seventh win in a row for Mercedes at the Russian Grand Prix on Sunday but the German will remain the odd man out for some time yet.

Only four drivers since the championship started in 1950 have won seven races in a row and only four have triumphed in the first four rounds of a season.

Just one, Rosberg’s compatriot Sebastian Vettel, has won more than seven in a row – nine for Red Bull in 2013 when he won his fourth championship.

All, bar Rosberg, were title winners but he is well on the way with a 43-point lead over triple champion and team-mate Lewis Hamilton, who suffered power unit problems in both qualifying and the race, with 17 races remaining.

“It sounds cool. But beyond that it’s not my focus,” Rosberg said when asked about the streak that started in Mexico last November. “It’s great stuff but I just enjoy winning. Of course it’s not something I could have expected, to start the season with four. But now that’s the way it is and I’m very happy about it. It’s been a great four races, very enjoyable.

“I’m aware it’s not going to continue like that forever. Sport is always about ‘ups and downs’ and the down will come at some point,” he added. “I just need to mentally prepare for that to then come straight back up when it does happen.”

That moment might almost have come in Sochi on Sunday, according to Mercedes motorsport head Toto Wolff, even if Rosberg gave every impression of enjoying a sunny afternoon drive in the Olympic Park.

Wolff told reporters that data from the power unit on Rosberg’s car ‘gave us some grey hair’ during the race. “It looked at a certain stage that he wouldn’t finish the race,” revealed Wolff.

Rosberg did not mention the problem on the podium or during a subsequent news conference, when he said the car was ‘fantastic’ and he had driven flat out to the finish with plenty of life in the tyres.

Asked about it later, the German conceded that he had lost ‘a fair chunk of performance’ but Hamilton openly questioned that. “He was worried he wouldn’t finish? As far as I’m aware, he didn’t have a problem that was going to stop him finishing,” said the Briton, who finished runner-up 25 seconds behind.

Ferrari are still waiting to take the fight to Formula One champions Mercedes after a Russian Grand Prix that left even their dominant rivals surprised by the gap in performance.

“We’ve always said that they’ve been close but this weekend they were not close at all,” Rosberg said. “We were really far ahead this weekend and that’s been impressive to see.”

Rosberg said the unique characteristics of the Sochi asphalt might have accounted for some of the advantage but Ferrari team principal Maurizio Arrivabene was not looking for excuses.

His post-race telephone conversation with hard-minded company president Sergio Marchionne was not going to give him any pleasure either. “For sure he is not going to be amused,” said the Italian.

“I don’t think things can be explained as bad luck, there are mostly human mistakes behind the story.”

Even bad luck, with four-times world champion Sebastian Vettel taken out at the start when Red Bull’s Russian Daniil Kvyat twice drove into the back of him, could not hide the failings.

Vettel was seventh on the grid, and next to Kvyat, only because of a penalty for an earlier gearbox failure and replacement.

Kimi Raikkonen, who took Ferrari’s 700th grand prix podium, finished third but 31 seconds behind Rosberg who had already turned down his power unit and had no need to push.

Arrivabene said Ferrari had to improve reliability. He felt sure, however, that the car had yet to show its true potential and the combination of more favourable tracks and engine tweaks would help.

Raikkonen agreed, even if the task was formidable with Mercedes having won the last 10 races and 36 out of 42 since the start of 2014.

“We know quite a few small things that we want to improve, and we know that there’s some improvements coming,” said the Finn. “But Mercedes were very fast for the last few years and they are fast this year.

“I don’t think that so far this year we have ever really put together a really clean weekend either so that doesn’t help,” he added.

“You cannot give anything away and expect to beat a team like them ... we are behind where we want to be but I’m sure as a team we will get there.”