Russian GP: Bottas took self-confident victory!

Several races have come up with pre-race drama this season, and that was up for the championship leader Hamilton at Sochi. On their way to the grid, the drivers tend to take practice starts to prepare themselves for the lights out. This time, however, Hamilton took a practice start out of the designated area, and he did it twice. The Briton's action was taken into investigation by the stewards.

The lights went out for the seventh time at Sochi Autodrom. Hamilton took a convincing start from pole, but teammate Bottas attacked like a hyena. The Finn first moved past Verstappen and then dived into the slipstream behind Hamilton. Going into Turn 1, half of his W11 was already ahead of the Briton, but braking a bit too late made Valtteri end up on the sausage kerb, and Hamilton managed, just barely, to stay ahead of his teammate. One of the best starts was taken by Renault's Ocon, who had jumped three positions and was now fourth in the race, followed by his teammate Ricciardo. 

Sochi is well-known for first-lap safety car episodes, and this year proved no exception to the rule. In Turn 1 there was contact between Charles and Racing Point's Stroll. The Monegasque hit the rear of Stroll's "pink Mercedes", which threw the Canadian into the barriers and out of the race. Charles was able to continue with no significant damage to his SF1000. There was also another bizarre event in Turn 1. McLaren's Sainz failed to brake in time for Turn 1, and he ended up on the run-off area. That wouldn't have been a problem, had the Spaniard rejoined the track following the instructions, which meant getting around the orange blocks. However, Sainz was driving way too fast, and he ended up hitting the edge of the wall and almost every block on his way back to the track! In addition to his own race, Sainz ruined his teammate's race as well, as Norris inevitably hit the debris on the track. Safety car was deployed.

Safety car came in on lap 5, and the race was back on. Hamilton's preparation for the restart was perfect, and his lead wasn't jeopardised. However, a couple of laps later the stewards gave their verdict; Hamilton was handed two 5-second time penalties, one for each practice start out of the designated area.

It was inevitable, that the Briton was going to run out of tyres before his closest rivals Bottas and Verstappen, who had started to the race on the yellow-walled medium compound. Hamilton banged the fastest lap time, and then pitted on lap 16. He suffered his penalty first, 10 long seconds, before switching to the hard Pirellis. The Briton rejoined the track in P11, right ahead of Kimi, who had started to the race on the hard rubber and was driving a long first stint. 

Bottas was absolutely flying in the lead. He was banging superb lap times one after another, and his margin to teammate Hamilton had increased into almost 40 seconds. The Finn was perfectly safe in terms of his upcoming pit stop, as the delta time at Sochi was about 25 seconds. Verstappen pitted on lap 25, switching to the hardest compound. The Dutchman rejoined the track in P4. Home hero Kvyat, who had also started to the race on the hard rubber, hadn't pitted yet, and the Russian was third in the race. Bottas pitted from the lead on the sequential lap, opting for a similar tyre choice. The storming Finn rejoined the track in the lead. 

Kimi was driving a consistent race in P10, until he pitted on lap 36. Unfortunately the Iceman's pit stop didn't go as planned, as the mechanics had problems with attaching his front-left tyre. A 6-second delay was costly for Kimi, and the Iceman dropped down to P16. Sebastian, too was driving a modest race at the back of the pack. On lap 40 he attacked Haas' Grosjean, who was adamant to hold on to his position. There was even contact between the two, luckily tyres only. Sebastian made his way past the Frenchman, who ended up going wide, hitting the colourful blocks. Virtual safety car was brought out, but for a short moment only, as the Russian marshals had quickly replaced the damaged blocks with new ones.

Bottas was controlling the race perfectly. Runner-up Verstappen was 10 seconds down on the Finn already. Hamilton in third was almost 10 seconds off the Dutchman, so the pecking order was very straightforward. The most thrilling battle seemed to be going on for P9 between Norris, Albon and Gasly. Albon in his RB16 made a small mistake, and Gasly used his opportunity right away, snatching P10. Norris seemed to be in trouble with his dying hard tyres, and both Albon and Gasly passed the struggling Briton. Norris had no choice but to pit for the second time, which dropped the young McLaren pilot out of points. 

It was an awkward moment to see race leader Bottas behind Sebastian, lapping the struggling quadruple world champion, who was shown blue flags. It hurt my heart to see Sebastian out of the points and struggling with a badly-behaving car.

On the second last lap Bottas set the fastest lap time, which brought the Finn the extra point, too. The day was perfect for Valtteri, who deserved his second win of the season undoubtedly. Verstappen managed to split the Silver Arrows, which was the maximum result for the Red Bull ace. Hamilton completed the podium in spite of his penalty, but equalling Schumacher's record of most wins is still to await. Perez finished fourth for Racing Point, which underlined the strong potential of the Mexican. The Renault duo of Ricciardo and Ocon was split by Charles, who managed to extract the maximum out of the performance-lacking Ferrari. Home hero Kvyat finished impressive 8th, followed by Gasly in the sister AlphaTauri and Albon in his RB16. To my deep disappointment, Sebastian finished 13th and Kimi 14th. 

In spite of the glorious win at Sochi, Bottas is still 44 points down on his teammate in the championship standings. However, the Finn managed to increase his lead to Verstappen into 33 points. The battle for P4 is absolutely hair-raising, as Norris has 65 points to Albon's 64 and Ricciardo's 63. In the constructors' standings the top two teams are very obvious; Mercedes are the leading team, and Red Bull are their closest contender. But who will be "the best of the rest" at the end of the season? Currently McLaren are third with 106 points. Racing Point in fourth are only two points down on McLaren, and Renault in fifth are five points down on "the pink Mercedes". Ferrari are currently in modest P6 with 74 points.

In a fortnight the F1 circus moves to Nurburgring Germany, which hasn't hosted an F1 race for seven years. The autumn weather in Germany may throw up some interesting challenges for the teams.

Russian GP / Qualifying: Verstappen made it on the front row alongside Hamilton!

Formula 1 definitely brings joy into my weekend. I have been on a sick leave since Monday; I have found myself in a situation, where I have completely run out of energy and strength and where I don't feel well either physically or mentally. I still don't know, whether this is about burn out or depression or a combination of those two. It has been 1.5 years only since I lost my 16-year-old son Samuel, so instead of judging myself I'm trying to feel compassion for myself. I have tried to focus on things, that bring me joy, such as walking in the forest and swimming in the lake, which gets colder and colder every week. When I don't feel well, I tend to isolate myself from the outside world, but now I have consciously tried to see people and not to leave myself outside alone. I'm so happy, that it's Formula 1 weekend, which gives me other things to think about in this difficult time.

Russian GP weekend couldn't have come at a better time. Sochi brings back so many memories from 2017! In April 2017 life was perfect! I lived a four-day fairy-tale at the coast of the Black Sea. Those days and all those experiences and wonderful memories give me so much strength.

Qualifying was expected to be a Mercedes show, as Mercedes have won every race at Sochi. Bottas had shown top form in the free practice sessions, and the Finn went fastest at the beginning of the first session. Teammate Hamilton's lap time, on the other hand, was deleted due to exceeding the track limits at Turn 1. Perez in his "pink Mercedes" was second, followed by teammate Stroll and Red Bull's Verstappen. Against the odds, the Dutchman had set his lap time on the medium compound. Meanwhile, Leclerc jumped third, whilst teammate Sebastian was down in 7th, massive two seconds off the pace. Having completed a cool-down lap, Hamilton headed for another flyer, which saw him jump second in the standings. At the closing stages of Q1, everyone rushed out, trying to find an optimal track position for their last flyer. Kimi at the wheel of his Alfa Romeo made a mistake in Turn 1, spinning and losing the lap. Unfortunately the Iceman was out of Q2. There was a close fight for P3 in the end. First Renault's Ocon jumped third, but a short moment later AlphaTauri's Kvyat deprived the Frenchman of the third place. Charles, who didn't even come out at the end of the session, ended up 14th fastest. In spite of his second run, Sebastian was only able to make it P15, being the last driver to make it into Q2. In addition to both Alfa Romeos and both Haas, also Williams' Latifi got knocked out of the second session.

It was no surprise to see the Silver Arrows come out on the yellow-marked medium rubber. Expectedly, Verstappen opted for similar tyre strategy. This time it was Hamilton, who set the pace. McLaren's Sainz was a surprise second, as especially Bottas' middle sector had left a lot to hope for, and the Finn was nine tenths down on his teammate. At this point Norris in the sister McLaren was fourth and Ocon fifth. However, once again Hamilton's lap time was deleted due to not respecting the track limits -this time at Turn 18. Now there was Renault's Daniel Ricciardo on top of the standings! Ferrari's pace was everything but competitive, Charles being 9th and Sebastian 13th only. Verstappen, who had set his lap time on the mediums, was now in P7. It seemed, that the flying Dutchman was forced to switch to the softs for his second run. Bottas, on the other hand, made another flyer on the mediums, moving up to second. But last-minute drama brought a new twist to the otherwise predictable second session. On his second run, Sebastian lost the rear of his SF1000 in Turn 4, spinning and hitting the barriers. His front wing was smashed, and there was debris all over. Charles, who had been following his teammate closely, hit the debris and was about to hit his teammate's car! Red flags came out, with 2:15 remaining in the clock. At this point Hamilton had no time, and the reigning world champion was down in P15. With that little time left, it was surprising, how Hamilton stayed in the pit garage, whilst all his rival queued on the pit lane, waiting for the light to turn green. As the session was resumed, Hamilton was the last driver to head out! The Briton managed just barely to start his flyer in time. On the contrary to Sainz and Perez, who didn't reach the start line in time. On the soft Pirellis Hamilton had it easy to jump 4th, making his way into the final segment. Verstappen made a bold call to abort his last run on the soft tyres, to get the tyre advantage for tomorrow's race. His first run on the mediums entitled him to P9. It turned out to be another difficult day in the office for the Red Team, as in addition to Sebastian's shunt, Charles was the first driver to be eliminated from Q3. AlphaTauri's Kvyat and Williams' Russell were also out, accompanied by Racing Point's Stroll, whose "pink Mercedes" had been hit with a technical issue and who therefore had been unable to go for a second run. 

After the rhythm-braking second session, Hamilton was back on top form in Q3. And the margins were huge. The Briton took provisional pole by over seven tenths to his teammate! Valtteri told after qualifying, that he had had difficulties to get his tyres up to temperature on his first run. Verstappen was third and Ricciardo fourth. These ex teammates were separated by four thousandths of a second only. Perez was fifth for Racing Point, followed by Sainz (McLaren) and Ocon (Renault), who were also separated by a hundredth of a second only. It all came down to the second runs. Bottas managed to improve a little, but he still ended up half a second shy of his teammate's benchmark. And everyone, who follows F1 knows, that the end of Q3 means hammer time for Hamilton. The Briton absolutely nailed his second run, increasing the gap to Valtteri into over six tenths. Verstappen, too delivered at the end of the session, jumping second and making it on the front row for the first time in Sochi! Less than a tenth separated Max and Valtteri in the end. Perez completed the second row for Racing Point, which was an impressive result from the Mexican. The third row was conquered by Ricciardo and Sainz. Ocon qualified 7th in the sister Renault and Norris 8th in the sister McLaren. AlphaTauri's Gasly and Red Bull's Albon rounded out the top ten. Albon's result, P10 and 1.7s off the pace, is unacceptable, as Max has showed, what kind of potential the RB16 holds.

In Sochi if anywhere, pole is the most ungrateful place to start to the race. The straight into Turn 1 is the longest on the calendar, and the benefit from the tow has only increased this year. In addition to this, Hamilton is on more degradable tyre compound, as he starts to the race on the soft Pirellis, whilst Verstappen and Bottas are on more durable medium Pirellis. In 2017 Bottas had the most perfect acceleration from P3 into the lead. Will he be able to repeat it tomorrow? If Hamilton wins tomorrow, he'll equal Schumacher's record of most wins (91) in F1.