Round 10 brought the F1 circus to Sochi, which is situated in Russia at the coast of the Black Sea. Sochi has hosted an F1 race since 2014, and every single one has been won by a Mercedes driver.
Once again familiar names opted for the medium rubber in Q2 -Hamilton, Bottas and Verstappen. Hamilton clocked the fastest lap time on his first run, but the Briton's lap time was deleted due to exceeding the track limits at Turn 18. As Bottas' middle sector had left a lot to hope for, there was a surprise name, Renault's Daniel Ricciardo, on top of the standings! The Scuderia drivers were lacking performance again, as Charles was 9th and Sebastian 13th only. Verstappen, who had made his first run on the medium Pirellis, was in P7. Sudden drama interrupted the second session; unfortunately the drama involved Sebastian and his SF1000. Going into Turn 4, Sebastian lost the rear of his Ferrari, crashing into the barriers with his front wing and front suspension smashed! Charles, who was on full throttle coming from behind, couldn't do anything to avoid hitting the debris from his teammate's car. Red flags came out with 2:15 remaining in the clock. At this point Hamilton was down in P15 with no time! As the session was resumed, Hamilton had to opt for a fresh set of soft Pirellis to maximise his final run. The Briton's warm-up lap was running against time; the reigning world champion managed just barely start his flyer in time! It was "a walk in a park" for Hamilton to jump 4th and make it into the final session. Teammate Bottas, on the other hand, had completed his second run already before the drama took place, setting a second fastest lap time on the medium compound. Unfortunately Charles was the first driver to be eliminated from Q3.
After the rhythm-breaking second session, Hamilton was back on top form in Q3. And with what a margin! The reigning world champion claimed provisional pole by almost eight tenths to his teammate. The battle was tighter behind the Silver Arrows; the ex teammates Verstappen and Ricciardo in third and fourth were separated by four thousandths of a second only. Bottas managed to improve his lap time a little in the end, but still ended up half a second shy of his teammate's benchmark. The last flyer meant hammer time for Hamilton, who increased the gap to his teammate into over six tenths. Verstappen, too delivered in the end, making it his first-ever front row grid slot in Sochi, leaving Bottas in P3. Racing Point's Perez was "the best of the rest", completing the second row. Renault's Ricciardo and McLaren's Sainz locked down the third row, followed by Ocon in the sister Renault and Norris in the sister McLaren. Gasly qualified 9th for AlphaTauri, leaving Red Bull's Albon in P10. The Red Bull teammates were separated by over a second!
The starting point to the race was extremely interesting; Hamilton on pole was to start to the race on the more degradable soft compound, whilst his closest contenders Verstappen and Bottas were on the more durable medium rubber. In Sochi, if anywhere, pole is known as an ungrateful starting position, as the straight into Turn 1 is the longest on the calendar, and the effect of the tow has only increased this year. So, statistically speaking, the odds weren't on Hamilton's side.
And the odds weren't on Hamilton's side, practically speaking, either! On his way to the grid, Hamilton made two practice starts, but both of them were made out of the designated area. The Briton's action was taken into investigation by the stewards. The verdict was still to come, when the lights went out for the 7th time at Sochi Autodrom. Pole-setter Hamilton accelerated into the lead, but teammate Bottas attacked like a hyena. The Finn was half a car ahead of his teammate going into Turn 1, but braked a little too late, ending up on the sausage kerb, and Hamilton managed to maintain his lead. Anyway, the Mercedes duo was now in the double lead, leaving Verstappen third. One of the most impressive starts was taken by Renault's Ocon, who managed to gain three positions, making it up to P4 at the start.
Sochi is well-known for first-lap safety car episodes, and this year was no exception to the rule. Further down in the pack, Charles hit Racing Point's Stroll, going through Turn 1, which threw the Canadian into the barriers and out of the race. Charles got away from the incident unharmed. In terms of Turn 1, there was a bizarre-looking incident offered by McLaren's Sainz. The Spaniard ended up going wide, which wouldn't have been a problem, had the McLaren pilot followed the instructions rejoining the track. However, the Spaniard drove way too fast, hitting the edge of the wall and almost every orange block on his way! That was a stupid mistake from Sainz, who didn't only destroy his own race, but his teammate's race as well! Norris had to pit after hitting the debris from Carlos' car. Safety car was deployed, as there was debris all over the place.
By lap 5 the Russian marshals had cleaned up all the debris, and safety car came in. Hamilton took a confident restart, and his lead was never jeopardised. However, a couple of laps later the stewards gave their verdict; two 5-second time penalties, one for each practice start out of the designated area.
Hamilton had quickly turned from the favorite into the underdog; not only was he going to run out of tyres before his closest rivals, but he had a 10-second penalty to serve as well. After banging the fastest lap time, Hamilton pitted on lap 16. After 10 long seconds and a pit stop, switching to the hard compound, the Briton rejoined the track in P11, right ahead of Kimi, who had started to the race on the white-walled hardest compound and was driving an extremely long first stint.
Bottas was utterly flying in the lead, banging fastest lap times one after another. The Finn had built up a 40-second gap to his teammate, which meant a secured pit stop for the storming Finn. Meanwhile, Sebastian was driving a modest race out of the points. On lap 40 he saw his chance to attack Haas' Grosjean in Turn 1. The overtaking move led into contact between the two, but Sebastian passed the Frenchman, who went wide, hitting the colourful blocks. This brought out virtual safety car, but for a short moment only.
After the pit stop roulette Bottas was controlling the race perfectly. Runner-up Verstappen was 10 seconds down on the Finn, and Hamilton in third was almost ten seconds down on the Red Bull ace. It was a truly awkward moment to see race leader Bottas lap Sebastian at the end of the race. I'm still not used to seeing blue flags shown for the quadruple world champion!
Bottas made his race perfect by banging the fastest lap time on the second last lap, taking the extra point under his belt. Verstappen extracted the absolute maximum out of his RB16 by splitting the Mercedes duo. Hamilton made it on the podium in spite of his penalty, but the record-equalling 91st win is still to await. Perez brought valuable points for Racing Point by finishing fourth. The Renault drivers delivered as well, as Ricciardo finished fifth and Ocon seventh. The black and yellow cars were split by Charles, who brought his pace-lacking SF1000 to the chequered flag in decent P6. To my deep disappointment, Sebastian proved unable to finish higher than P13.
The order of the top three remains the same; Hamilton still tops the drivers' championship standings, but Bottas now decreased the gap into 44 points. On the other hand, the Finn increased his gap to Verstappen into 33 points. Behind these three the battle is much closer. Norris in fourth has 65 points to Albon's 64 and Ricciardo's 63. Who will turn out to be "the best of the rest" at the end of the season? In terms of the constructors, the top two teams are obvious; first there's Mercedes and then there's Red Bull. But which team will claim the bronze medal place? 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.
Nurburgring Germany will offer a new chance for a face lift for the Red Team in a fortnight. Nurburgring is kind of an unknown for the teams, as the track hasn't hosted an F1 race for seven years. It could well offer a fresh start for the Scuderia. Forza Ferrari!
With passion for racing red,
Iina Huhmarniemi
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