With a little less than two months remaining in the Formula One season, teams are at the Sochi Olympic Park in Russia, host of the 2014 Winter Olympic Games, for round fifteen of the World Championship. The first Russian Grand Prix for Formula One was held last season and won by Mercedes, however, there were two pre-war races held in Russia in 1913 and 1914, both won by Mercedes. This means that Mercedes holds a 100% win record in the Russian Grand Prix. Will this continue in this season’s race?
The circuit, the Sochi Autodrom, is rather fast even though it is a street circuit. Downforce is a requirement for the tight corners, but it will hinder the cars’ performance in the high speed sections. The leading Mercedes cars will have a chance to pull away off of the grid, seeing as turn two is the first sharp turn and turn one is not very difficult at all. The beginning of the second sector and sector three are the technical portions of the track and will require the most braking power.
Despite a poor running on Friday, the Mercedes team bounced back to their regular form on Saturday. Nico Rosberg has the pole ahead of his teammate, Lewis Hamilton, but it was at this circuit last season that we saw Rosberg ruin his race on the first lap after a massive lock up. Hamilton hasn’t saw a time faster than his teammate’s all weekend. It’s hard to tell however, because neither Mercedes made an appearance in free practice two due to heavy rain that hindered most of the teams. The main concern for the Mercedes team is that they don’t have a Singapore repeat. Seeing as Singapore is a circuit similar to Russia, there is a fear that the team could be overtaken by the Ferrari cars, something that I believe will become reality in the race on Sunday.
Ferrari has performed quite well all weekend. Sebastian Vettel was one of the few cars that did set some lap times during the rain on Friday. The team struggled in free practice three, but managed to take fourth and fifth on the grid, with the Williams of Valtteri Bottas separating them from the Mercedes. The last time that we had a street circuit, Ferrari was superior, making it clear that the Italian team has really managed to close the performance gap on the Silver Arrows. Ferrari shouldn’t have an issue providing Mercedes with some serious competition and eventually taking victory.
Last season, Valtteri Bottas had a great running and managed to take home the third place trophy. Things are shaping up well for him again this year and the Williams car performs quite well on slower circuits. However, they have some competition this time: Force India. The Force India car has improved greatly around the time that they introduced their new nose design. Nico Hülkenberg has been pretty consistent on Saturday and he even managed to top the time charts in the session that he took part in on Friday. He will be starting from sixth on the grid, so he will have a chance of making the top five if he can get past one at least one car. He has proven that he is a driver capable of getting that done.
Overall, the Russian Grand Prix is a good event. It was last year’s Race Promoter’s Trophy winner for the best race promoter. This year’s event should be equally as entertaining, so sit back and enjoy the 2015 Russian Grand Prix.
