After taking a week of for testing following the Bahrain Grand Prix, the teams returned to action at the former home of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi for the 2017 FORMULA 1 VTB RUSSIAN GRAND PRIX. With two Ferrari victories already this season, the Italian motorsport giant was looking to strengthen their World Drivers’ and Constructors’ Championship lead, while Mercedes were looking to take a chunk out of it.
Friday got off to an interesting start with Kimi Räikkönen and Valtteri Bottas, who are both considered to be number two drivers in their respective teams, topping the first free practice session of the weekend. Lewis Hamilton was the only other driver to get within a second of the leading Ferrari’s time. Sebastian Vettel was bumped down to P5 on the time sheets, as Max Verstappen took over the fourth fastest time. The German tried to improve his lap time, but that resulted in a spin at the penultimate corner. Sergey Sirotkin was given Nico Hülkenberg’s seat for the session, but it was short lived with the Renault car shutting down after only a couple untimed laps. All of the drivers were complaining about the lack of grip at the circuit as a result of its limited use for other races throughout the year.
Vettel was able to outperform his teammate in the second free practice session, regaining his position on top of the leaderboard. However, Hamilton was not able to do the same with his teammate, as he again lapped slower than his teammate. The Ferrari car was significantly quicker around the circuit than either of the Mercedes cars, with neither driver having been able to get within half of a second to the pace set by Vettel. The positions near the top remained relatively unchanged, with the Red Bull drivers swapping times throughout the day. McLaren had another reliability blunder for Stoffel Vandoorne, leading to a 15 place grid penalty for repairs.
For the final free practice session on Saturday, nothing had changed with the top five teams. Vettel retained his position on the top, with Hamilton again playing number two to his teammate. Mercedes were closer to Ferrari in the session, with Bottas narrowly behind Räikkönen. Despite Romain Grosjean’s frustration throughout the session, the award for the most unlucky driver of the day goes to Jolyon Palmer. His Renault’s chassis was replaced overnight after the original received heat damage from an exhaust issue. There were further power unit issues that prevented the Brit from setting a timed lap.
Qualifying resulted in the first Ferrari front row lockout since the 2008 French Grand Prix. Vettel again led the way, with Bottas again outperforming his teammate by half of a second. The session looked like it would be in favour of Mercedes, as Bottas set the fastest lap time in the first qualifying session. Palmer was close to redeeming his poor first Saturday morning by making into Q2, but he went into the wall after hitting a kerb. In Q2, Bottas again took control of the session, with Hamilton losing a position to Räikkönen. The two teams were in a league of their own, as they were well over a second ahead of Felipe Massa. Despite leading the previous two qualifying sessions, the pole went to the Ferrari of Vettel, again showing that the Ferrari has a lot of potential.
Sunday started poorly for Fernando Alonso, as the Spaniard parked the car at the pit entrance at the end of the formation lap. This triggered a second formation lap for the field. When the race finally started, it only lasted a few laps before the safety car came out. The front two rows of the grid had a good start, except for Räikkönen who dropped back to Hamilton. Daniel Ricciardo, Hamilton and Räikkönen were wheel-to-wheel down the front straight, but ultimately the Ferrari was able to take the position from Hamilton. Further up the field, Bottas took the race lead from Vettel in turn three. Meanwhile, Grosjean and Palmer collided in turn two, bringing out the safety car. Lance Stroll also spun the car a little later in the lap. At the restart, the top positions stayed the same. Ricciardo’s brakes caught fire on lap five, bringing his race to a premature end. As a result of the brake issue, Verstappen was asked to manage the brakes, dropping back from Hamilton. Kevin Magnussen and Vandoorne fell victims to the strict track limits enforcement in turn two, having been handed a five second penalty for exceeding the limits. It was not smooth sailing for Hamilton, as the car began to overheat early in the race.
The pit window opened at the halfway point in the race. With traffic and tyre wear, Bottas was losing time to Vettel, as each driver waits to see what the other will do. Bottas was the first of the top two teams to pit, while Vettel stayed out to attempt the overcut on Mercedes. Surprisingly, Räikkönen was the first of the Ferrari drivers to pit for new tyres, leaving Vettel out on old ultrasoft tyres. Even Hamilton pitted before the leading Ferrari of Vettel. After staying out for many laps, Vettel finally pitted for tyres. Despite losing a lot of time out front, Vettel was able to stay in front of Räikkönen, leaving the top four positions unchanged after the pit cycle. Ferrari’s strategy seemed to work out very nice for Vettel, as he started to gain on Bottas rapidly. Getting within a second and a half with just ten laps remaining, Vettel was not gaining as quickly on the Mercedes as he was managing before and he eventually began to drop back slightly. However, he bounced back, getting frighteningly close to the DRS zone. With two laps remaining, Vettel had snuck into DRS range and was ready to put on a good fight with Bottas. With things shaping up to a good final lap, Vettel’s victory chances were shut down when Bottas lapped Massa and Vettel could not get by quite as cleanly. Bottas was able to earn his first career victory, showing his skeptics that he is a driver capable of doing great things in the Mercedes car. Ferrari took the other two steps of the podium.
The next round of the championship in Barcelona, the circuit used for the pre-season testing, will mark quarter distance in the exciting 2017 Formula One season. The FORMULA 1 GRAN PREMIO DE ESPAÑA PIRELLI 2017 will be held in two weeks’ time on the weekend of May 14.
