Coming to Sochi Russia, Mercedes proved to be the underdog in terms of single lap pace. That's why they opted for a different tyre strategy in Q2. They came out on the medium Pirellis, whilst all others opted for the soft compound. Charles was on flames again; the Monegasque pipped his teammate by seven tenths on his first run. On the other hand, Verstappen in third and Hamilton in fourth were separated by one thousandth of a second only. One thing was crystal clear: Mercedes had it extremely difficult to match the red cars' pace. Sebastian managed to improve his lap time at the end of the session, but he was still a tenth off his teammate's pace.
In Q3 it seemed very likely, that Ferrari were going to conquer the front row. Charles continued his amazing form, taking provisional pole by three tenths to his teammate. Hamilton in third was half a second shy of Charles' benchmark. In spite of a couple of mistakes in the last sector, Charles managed to improve his lap time slightly on his last flyer. And although Mercedes had been struggling with their pace, somehow Hamilton managed to squeeze his Mercedes on the front row, leaving Sebastian third. Once again Verstappen managed to out-qualify Bottas, but the Dutchman was dropped down to P9 due to a 5-place grid penalty. Due to Verstappen's penalty, McLaren's Sainz was promoted up to P5. It was already fourth consecutive pole position for Charles, which was an incredible achievement. The previous Ferrari driver to do the same was legendary Michael Schumacher back in 2001!
Sebastian in P3 knew, that the start straight into Turn 1 was frighteningly long. Especially for the pole-setter, who was unable to benefit from the tow. Sebastian took a magical start, and benefiting from the slipstream of his teammate, moved to the lead. Charles didn't even try to actually prevent Sebastian from making it ahead. Ferrari's target was to get both cars on top, and that mission was accomplished beautifully. Hamilton dropped down to third, and teammate Bottas lost a position to McLaren's Sainz due to his harder tyres. In terms of the top drivers, the start was clean. Further down in the pack there was action between Haas' Grosjean and Renault's Ricciardo. They hit each other, which ruined the race for Grosjean. Safety car was deployed already on the opening lap!
Things turned interesting after the re-start. Already on lap 6 there was a team order from Ferrari; Sebastian was told to let Charles past. Presumably there had been a pre-race agreement between the red-suited drivers, that Charles was not to prevent Sebastian from overtaking him at the start, but the positions were to be swapped afterwards. However, once having taken the lead, Sebastian wasn't willing to give up on it. He answered the team by banging fastest lap times and increasing the gap to Charles into four seconds. Sebastian truly seemed faster than Charles, so why should he have given up on the lead? To be honest, I love this hot-headed, relentless and fearless Sebastian, who lives for winning!
As Sebastian hadn't proved willing to give up on the lead, the pit stop strategy was the perfect way to make the switch. Charles was the first Ferrari driver to pit on lap 23; opting for medium Pirellis he re-joined the track in P4 and started to set the screens purple. Sebastian was called in three laps later, which was late enough for Charles to get ahead of his teammate. However, the race saw a dramatic turn only a couple of laps after Sebastian's pit stop. Like a lightning, suddenly Sebastian's Lina was hit with a MGU-K failure, which stopped the car on track. Ironically, Sebastian's retirement brought out the virtual safety car, which benefited the Mercedes duo. They had a free pit stop, which helped Hamilton move to the lead! Russell's Williams was hit with a brake failure only a moment later, and safety car was deployed. Ferrari made an adventurous call to take Charles in for the second time. The Monegasque switched to the red-walled soft compound, as Hamilton, too was on softs. The extra pit stop cost Charles the second place, which Bottas took firmly in his hands.
There were 20 laps to go, as the re-start took place. It seemed easy for Charles to get within DRS distance from Bottas, but overtaking proved a whole different story. Ferrari might have been slightly arrogant when taking Charles in for the second time; they assumed, that overtaking was to be easy due to their ridiculous straight line speed. But Bottas was not to crack under pressure; with flawless drive he kept Charles behind. Hamilton snatched his 9th win of the season, and Bottas made it a glamorous 1-2 for the Silver Arrows. Charles had to settle for P3, although pole position had promised him so much more. Verstappen finished fourth and Albon fifth for Red Bull. Especially Albon's result was remarkable, as the Thai driver had started to the race from the pit lane due to multiple grid penalties. McLaren's Sainz was "the best of the rest", having driven to the chequered flag in P6.
Sebastian's retirement saved the team from awkward post-race drama, had the German won the race in spite of the team order. The situation between the red-suited drivers seems boiling hot at the moment. But as neither one of them is fighting for the championship, they should be allowed to race each other! Team orders on the opening laps (or at any stage of the race) ruin the sport!
With passion for racing red,
Iina Huhmarniemi
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