Grand Prix 2017 Russia Grand Prix Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

As the Formula One circus shakes the Bahraini sand from it's shoes it heads to Russia for the 6th running of the Russian Grand Prix. Held for the last 3 years on the streets of Sochi the circuit wends it's way around the 5.9Km long Sochi Autodrom which was built as part of the 2014 Winter Olympic Park.

The last 3 Grand Prix around this circuit have all been won by a Mercedes driver with Lewis Hamilton scoring two wins with Nico Rosberg climbing the podium as victor last year.

However, it appears that the stranglehold Mercedes have had on the Championship over the last few seasons may be being loosened in the guise of Sebastian Vettel's Ferrari with the German taking two wins this season. Some could argue that for a duff strategy call and a penalty in Bahrain that Hamilton could be leading, but, in a sport where the margins are so fine on such events are championships won and lost. Vettel will be hoping for a better race than last year where he was unceremoniously punted off the track at turn 2.

Behind Hamilton and Vettel we have the Finns of Bottas and Raikkonen, Bottas may be disappointed that he couldn't convert his maiden pole position in Bahrain into his first win and if recent reports are to be believed team orders may come into play in the future races. Kimi was just disappointed that they'd run out of Tutti-Frutti ice cream.

Behind the German and Italian national teams we have the Fizzy Pop boys of Red Bull, Verstappen had a cracking drive in China but his adventures in the desert were cut short by brake failure, Will we see a blistering drive from the young Dutchman to make up for this disappointment?

Behind the top 3 teams there's a ding dong of a midfield battle with Williams, Force India, Torro Rosso and Haas all battling it out for points.

Rumour has it that Fernando Alonso will be driving a Communist era Trabant around the Russian track as "it'll be faster than this **^%$3**%%$~* Honda"

The tyres for Sochi are the Ultra soft, supersoft and soft compounds and judging by how the new formulation of rubber has been hanging on so far this season we may well a one stop race for the front runners with other teams taking a gamble on more stops and fresher rubber towards the end of the race.

Let battle commence!

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Bill Boddy i believe lewis couldve done 30secs sometimes but we all know 2016 tyres no driver was allowed to overpush, it was all about getting a 4 sec gap & then babysitting everything
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i like qualifying as it is, i think its as perfect as you can get you get some great drama & a nice climax , 1 lap qualifying was good but complete version of that i think teams said wasnt making financial sense. i have thought a hybrid might be decent to try out, normal knockout qualy in Q1 & Q2 then a 8 driver 1 lap shooutout where they go out 1 by 1 in reverse championship order

do we think that Kyvat will be cautious going into the start tomorrow as that lost him is red bull drive then embarrassingly demoted back to the junior team, which then followed was a horrendous year for him as he had alot of bad luck then seemingly being excluded as horner many times always talked about Riccardio Verstappen Sainz for 2017 but never kyvat, & that pen interview in germany, from memory was very tough to watch as he was on verge of tears
 
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Unless Ferrari destroy their tyres quickly or there is a sudden change in the track temperature I think Ferrari have got the pace advantage over Mercedes

Dare I say I think Bottas just might beat Hamilton over this weekend as he is having another one of those scruffy weekends. The gap is 0.5 seconds which can't be down to just the tyres

Do you have the lotto numbers?
 
Qualifying has been totally messed up at times during the past few years. What I would like is to go back to the original where the grid was determined by each drivers fastest lap during the free practice sessions; this make for poor tv so as second best have the 12 laps in 1 hour system. As a third choice I go the current one, there are clear, understandable sessions involving knockouts.
 
Much better day for Räikkönen; he's pretty close to his team-mate in the end.

Hamilton had his worst qualifying since his 'park and see the sights' in Azerbaijan last year.

They quickly stopped talking about Red Bull when it became clear that it would be Ricciardo in 5th and Verstappen out-qualified by a Williams.

Palmer was a second behind his team-mate in Q1 as well as in the wall, plus the Hulk was in Q3 again. Hulk has moved on from Perez and found a new Kermit!

Stroll was a bit closer. Ocon is very close. But I really feel sorry for Vandoorne - he's got a crap car and a genius team-mate. How's he ever going to build a reputation?
 
That final sector seemed to be lewis undoing struggled all weekend. As he cant seem to get T14/15 & T18/19 hooked up lewis losing sometimes half a second guessing becauae hes going in a bit cautious. But it seems to be a thing in turbo era because they always been vunerable in them type of circuits singapore & monaco. Although credit to bottas what a lap & very few drivers have ever outqualifed lewis by 1/2second on dry track

The fact about ferrari is crazy to me personally. As my neice wasnt born last time last ferrari had a front row start as she was born sept 08 & french gp was usually june/july 08.
 
Bottas is a bit of a Sochi specialist. He's qualified 2nd, 3rd, 3rd and 3rd, and finished 3rd and 4th. The other time he'd have finished 3rd had Räikkönen not punted him off the road.

Hamilton does not have a great recent record on street circuits. From memory, most of Rosberg's best weekends were on street circuits - especially if there were 90 degree corners.
 
Speshal If I did I would not tell you for a start

There just seems to be a pattern this weekend where Ferrari are quicker and Hamilton seems to be overcompensating and looking scruffy
 
It just looks like the final sections before the start and finish straight you need to be very precise and smooth.. get it slightly wrong and it costs you massive time
 
You know if I was Palmer I would be worried that he is unable to get to grips with Hulkenberg who appears to show speed in getting the Renault into Q3 ... something Alonso would have noticed about its potential if he is seeking a move

Palmer just does not seem to have luck on his side and/or his binning the car a lot ... I
 
You know if I was Palmer I would be worried that he is unable to get to grips with Hulkenberg who appears to show speed in getting the Renault into Q3 ... something Alonso would have noticed about its potential if he is seeking a move

Palmer just does not seem to have luck on his side and/or his binning the car a lot ... I

That what i thinking when i saw hulkenburg beat alonso by 1.2 secs
 
Il_leone

Something in me wonders if Alonso will come back after his Indy adventure; suppose that he's competitive at the '500 (or even wins); imagine how soul destroying it would be to potentially come back to a backmarking mclaren!
 
In all sessions Lewis was fast on first sector.
On secon sector he lost his advantage.
But on third he constantly lost very more.
I was hope that in last try he found desicion.
But...
Race will be interesting.
 
Ideal Lap (sum best sectors) in the Qual:
Qual – No – Driver – Qual Result – Ideal Lap – Flaw
3 - 77 - V.BOTTAS - 01:33,289 - 01:33,072 - 00,217
1 - 5 - S.VETTEL - 01:33,194 - 01:33,182 - 00,012
2 - 7 - K.RAIKKONEN - 01:33,253 - 01:33,203 - 00,050
4 - 44 - L.HAMILTON - 01:33,767 - 01:33,452 - 00,315
7 - 33 - M.VERSTAPPEN - 01:35,161 - 01:34,730 - 00,431
5 - 3 - D.RICCIARDO - 01:34,905 - 01:34,899 - 00,006
6 - 19 - F.MASSA - 01:35,110 - 01:34,992 - 00,118
10 - 31 - E.OCON - 01:35,430 - 01:35,089 - 00,341
8 - 27 - N.HULKENBERG - 01:35,285 - 01:35,092 - 00,193
9 - 11 - S.PEREZ - 01:35,337 - 01:35,137 - 00,200
 
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