[Official] Russian Grand Prix 2016: Grand Prix Weekend Thread

[Born Racer]

The globalisation of Formula 1 that has been in process since the 1990s has been mostly concentrated in Asia - the far East in the beginning and latterly in the Middle East, but with Grand Prix racing returning to Mexico last year, the inaugural Russian Grand Prix in 2014 and a new street circuit this year in the capital city of neighbouring country Azerbaijan, it’s branching out.

Truth be told, Sochi was the first Formula 1 race in Russia, but not the first Grand Prix. That was held in 1913 in St. Petersberg and was won by Russian driver Georgy Suvorin in a Benz. It was held the next year, but was never reinstated after World War 1.

There were plans for a race in Moscow in the early 80s; the race was even included on a provisional calendar for 1983 as Grand Prix of the Soviet Union.

In 2010, the Sochi race was announced. All too often, Olympic facilities are not exploited to their maximum after the fortnight’s festival of sport has vanished. In constructing the circuit around the Olympic park, the organisers have at least created a sporting connection with the area.

Winding its way around the facilities, Sochi is not exactly a street track in the traditional sense, much more akin to Valencia in feel than Singapore. It’s almost a kilometre longer than the latter country’s Marina Bay circuit, but the Sochi Autodrom throws up a quicker lap time.

At the end of the start-finish straight, drivers go into the gentle right-hand kink of Turn 1 before reaching between 320 and 330kph before Turn 2, at which point they go 90 right, before the track almost immediately arcs left through the very long Turn 3. They spend around six seconds in this corner, at about 280kph before quickly switching right through the 90 degree Turn 4.

A short straight follows which is punctuated by another 90 right at 5, before a gentle kink at Turn 6. They exit the next right-hander at around 160kph before then going through the double corner of 8 and 9. After another right-hander, they enter Sector 2 and a long straight, Turn 11 being the slight right-hand bend (DRS Activation Zone 2 is here) before braking at around 330kph while taking a tiny left-hand kink at Turn 12, which switches right and approaches the slower Sector 3.

A left-hand curve at Turn 14 is followed by a slow left-hander at 15 and three slow right-handers at 16, 17 and 18, which brings the drivers into DRS Activation Zone 1 and the start-finish straight.

In 2014, Russia's Daniil Kvyat had an excellent qualifying, fifth on the grid with Toro Rosso. Nico Rosberg flat-spotted his front tyres in an attempt to take the lead from Lewis Hamilton on the opening lap at Turn 2 and that season's eventual world champion went on to lead home a Mercedes 1-2 and help the team to seal their first constructors' championship.

Last year, Carlos Sainz had a monster accident in FP3 but competed in the race and put in a fighting performance after missing qualifying. Mercedes again took the constructors' title in Sochi, with Hamilton again winning. The hapless Nico Rosberg, though, retired early in the race with throttle trouble. Sergio Perez did a great job to finish third and take Force India's only podium of the season. He had been demoted to fifth by Bottas and Raikkonen on the final lap but the two Finns collided.

It is but six months since the last event here, with the race now moving to the early part of the season. In terms of tyres, medium, soft and supersoft are available and the two Mercedes drivers have an identical allocation with 8 sets of supersofts, 4 of softs and 1 of mediums at the high-grip Sochi circuit. It looks like Haas and Chinese Grand Prix stars Red Bull will play aggressive strategies this time, with all their drivers opting for 10 sets of supersofts.

To join in our predictions contest on Ten-Tenths, go here: http://tentenths.com/forum/showthrea...14#post3631814

Our Fantasy F1 contest is here: http://tentenths.com/forum/showthread.php?t=146625

Constructors’ championship standings: http://www.formula1.com/content/fom-...standings.html

Drivers’ championship standings: http://www.formula1.com/content/fom-...standings.html

Russian Grand Prix tyre selections: https://www.formula1.com/content/fom...e-choices.html

Circuit length: 5.848km
Number of laps: 53
Race distance: 309.745km
First World Championship Grand Prix: 2014

Dry weather tyre compounds: Medium, Soft and Supersoft
DRS Detection Zone 1: On start-finish straight before Turn 1
DRS Activation Zone 1: On straight between Turns 1 and 2
DRS Detection Zone 2: Before Turn 10
DRS Activation Zone 2: On straight between Turns 11 and 12
Speed trap: Before Turn 2
Lap Record: 1:40.071 – Sebastian Vettel – Ferrari (2015)

[Grandpa_Rob]

Great job BR, i like this track it's fairly technical and turn 3 is awesome, expecting the Red Bulls to do well.

[JoestForEver]

Absolutely love the turn 3 when cars go wheel to wheel at 280km/h.

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[Born Racer]

Originally Posted by Grandpa_Rob

Great job BR, i like this track it's fairly technical and turn 3 is awesome, expecting the Red Bulls to do well.

Yeah, they perhaps ought to do well in the low-speed stuff and Turn 3, but they haven't gone great before.

Absolutely love the turn 3 when cars go wheel to wheel at 280km/h.

The corner is quick but goes on for a long time so drivers will try to get side by side and can use the decent length of time in the corner and with one of them not on an optimum line to get past. It's good to have a quick and racey corner like that.

[smellysocks]

Vettel hit with a 5 place grid penalty for a new gearbox.

http://www.formula1.com/content/fom-...sian-woes.html

[S griffin]

There goes one threat to the Mercs...

[canamman]

Wow. Hamilton will have to come through the field again. Engine change.
Fun to watch.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Excellent intro.

Hamilton's plagued by the same problem as in China but will start 10th not last. Vettel also has some kind of engine issue and will start 7th. Otherwise the Rosberg juggernaut continues to roll forward.

Good to see the Williams's up there, looks like they have the edge on the Ferraris. Sochi looks like it has all the ingredients for an interesting race.

[GT6]

I think we will wait to see what was wrong with hamilton's car he could start 10th or last

[bjohnsonsmith]

That was a clean start at the front of the field but chaos further down and it's a VSC. Vettel out.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Vettel got punted up the rear by Kvyat and then got punted again up the rear but it was hard to see who did the punting the second time.

Edit: it was Kvyat, again.

[canamman]

Lewis is showing what champions are made of.

Kyvat is showing what a battering ram is.

[ASCII Man]

Kvyat should've been blackflagged for repeated stupidity, not just tapped on the wrist with a 10 second penalty.

But hey, when in Russia...

[bjohnsonsmith]

Congrats to Nico. Another solid drive from Grosjean and good to see the McLaren's up there.

[Adam43]

Originally Posted by canamman

Lewis is showing what champions are made of.
.

It was much better than in China. I thought he was poor there, but he was spot on in Russia.

[bjohnsonsmith]

What was that all about, Lewis not wanting to play with the Champagne?

[GT6]

He did not look that happy but to fight back like that does indicate that the season is not over yet, however The Mercedes are now so far in front of the rest i think the manufacturers title is already over

[Wims]

The FIA needs to revoke or at least suspend Kvyat's license after the despicable showing he had today

[sparkione]

Originally Posted by bjohnsonsmith

Congrats to Nico. Another solid drive from Grosjean and good to see the McLaren's up there.

No apostrophe in McLarens, please. TYVM.

[Richard C]

Originally Posted by ASCII Man

Kvyat should've been blackflagged for repeated stupidity, not just tapped on the wrist with a 10 second penalty.

But hey, when in Russia...

I believe the 10 sec penalty was not enough. What options do the stewards have in that situation? What is the worst mid race penalty that has been awarded recently? And I have to wonder if things might have been different with respect to punishment if it had not been the Russian GP.

Richard

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by sparkione

No apostrophe in McLarens, please. TYVM.

Ooops.

[Razzzor]

I actually think Kyvat should get a 1 race ban, or at the very least should have been blackflagged.

China was his fault, then he hits the back of another car 3 times, does he not know where the brake pedal is? Wrecks Sebs race twice, wrecks his own teammates race, wrecks his own race in front of the home crowd.

When Kyvat is on it, he's great, but more often he's not on it. Even Ricciardo managed to beat him by a large margin, despite pit queuing behind on the first lap and saying he had a lot of damage affecting his pace.

I think it's time to move Verstappen up to RB, and I mean now, not 2017. Verstappens been driving like a veteran so far this year, well ahead of Sainz.

[S griffin]

Whatever happened to racing incidents as everything is always someone's fault so it would seem

Another great charge by Lewis, but statistically the title is already Nico's who's certainly made hay early on. Nice to see both McLarens in the points, gutting for Verstappen and well done to Renault for getting their first points this year. Impressive drive too by the two finns

[Paulaweybridge]

Went over to Mercedes Benz World at Brooklands after attending Auto Italia at Brooklands Museum there on Saturday.

Got talking to a member of staff at M-B World and he said " Both Rosberg and Hamilton have equal cars BUT it would seem that the bosses of their team want a German driver to win the F1 championship this year so Lewis has no chance ".

We all know how F1 works don't we ....

[Kempi]

Right, and a staff member at MB world sure has excellent insight what is going on. Come on, people, don't buy into that crap. We have seen it before aT Ferrari and Red Bull: sometimes it just happens that the malfunctions concentrate on one of the drivers.