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!
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!
