Lewis Hamilton wins a rather lacklustre Russian Grand Prix

The Russian Grand Prix fizzled out like a damp firework. Despite what David Croft would have you believe, this race didn’t justify the paywall it was behind.

It had shown promise. Both Ferraris started on the softs while the Mercedes were on the mediums.

One thing that did live up to expectations was the start as Sebastian Vettel took advantage of the slipstream to be in the lead by turn two, having started from third on the grid.

Lewis Hamilton wasn’t in a position to attack as he got the poor start that comes with the disadvantage of starting on the medium tyres instead of the softs.

Further behind, Romain Grosjean was sent into the barriers at turn four as Antonio Giovinazzi was squeezed between Grosjean on the outside and Daniel Ricciardo on the inside.

Giovinazzi’s Alfa Romeo made contact with the rear right of Grosjean’s Haas, bringing an end to the Frenchman’s race almost as soon as it started.

This was a great shame as Grosjean started eighth and had the ability to score some points on a track with low tyre degradation that suited the Haas, which has struggled with degradation problems all season.

Ricciardo also retired later on in the race from damage sustained in this incident.

After a brief safety car period, Ferrari were trying to swap Vettel, the leader, and Leclerc around. There was just one problem.

Leclerc was too far behind and Vettel was unwilling to sacrifice time to the Mercedes. Oh, and Vettel was setting fastest lap after fastest lap to further prove that he deserved to have the lead.

It soon became apparent that this was all part of some grand scheme from the Scuderia. Leclerc was supposed to get a good start and give Vettel slipstream so that he could take the lead into turn 2, allowing the Ferraris to run 1-2.

However, Charles was then supposed to re-take the lead from Sebastian but couldn’t because he wasn’t able to push enough to catch up.

Charles vented his frustration on the team radio in blatant disregard of comments he made after last week’s Singapore Grand Prix when he said he would try to be less grumpy and calmer on team radio. Vettel kept his lead. Now, attention turned to the pit stops.

Leclerc was the first to pit on lap 23 with Vettel pitting a few laps later. Leclerc pushed after making his pit stop, got himself the fastest lap of the race and was ahead of Vettel once the German made his pit stop. The switcheroo had happened naturally.

Things didn’t stay rosy for much longer as Vettel retired on lap 28 with an MGU-K problem. As Vettel had parked his Ferrari at turn 16, the virtual safety car was deployed so that marshals could recover it safely.

“Bring back those f***ing V12s!” Vettel cried over team radio.

Mercedes took advantage of this serendipity and pitted both Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas. It had been estimated before the race that 13 seconds would be saved pitting under a virtual safety car or full safety car compared with pitting under green flag conditions. Hamilton was now in the lead of the race with Leclerc second and Bottas third.

A first double retirement of the season then followed for Williams as George Russell suffered suspected brake failure, locking up and going straight into the barriers at turn 8. Robert Kubica was retired soon afterwards as a precaution.

After the safety car came in on lap 33, Leclerc spent several laps trying to overtake Valtteri Bottas, having made a pit stop onto the soft tyres during the safety car period.

The problem for Leclerc was that he could not claw back the advantage that the Mercedes had over his Ferrari through the final sector down the main straight.

Leclerc kept closing up but was not close enough to make an overtake into turn 2.

Eventually, Leclerc gave up the fight with the order remaining Hamilton in first, Bottas second and Leclerc third.

And so it was Mercedes who took the 1-2 in Sochi, not Ferrari as many had predicted. This meant that the Silver Arrows continued their streak of winning every single Russian Grand Prix.

In a fortnight’s time, F1 heads to Japan, and Suzuka, where Mercedes have a good track record in the turbo-hybrid era. Can Ferrari break the status quo? The answers will be revealed from October 11-13.

Lewis Hamilton. (Photo: Mercedes AMG Petronas)

Classification (53 laps)
1: Lewis Hamilton: 1:33:38.992: 26pts
2: Valtteri Bottas: +3.829s: 18pts
3: Charles Leclerc: +5.212s: 15pts
4: Max Verstappen: +14.210s: 12pts
5: Alexander Albon: +38.348s: 10pts
6: Carlos Sainz: +45.889s: 8pts
7: Sergio Perez: +48.728s: 6pts
8: Lando Norris: +57.749s: 4pts
9: Kevin Magnussen: +58.779s: 2pts
10: Nico Hulkenberg: +59.841s: 1pt
11: Lance Stroll: +60.821s
12: Daniil Kvyat: +62.496s
13: Kimi Raikkonen: +68.910s
14: Pierre Gasly: +70.076s
15: Antonio Giovinazzi: +73.346s
Not classified:
Robert Kubica
George Russell
Sebastian Vettel
Daniel Ricciardo
Romain Grosjean

Drivers’ standings after 16/21 rounds
1: Lewis Hamilton: 322
2: Valtteri Bottas: 249 (-73)
3: Charles Leclerc: 215 (-107)
4: Max Verstappen: 212 (-110)
5: Sebastian Vettel: 194 (-126)
6: Pierre Gasly: 69 (-253)
7: Carlos Sainz: 66 (-256)
8: Alexander Albon: 52 (-270)
9: Lando Norris: 35 (-287)
10: Daniel Ricciardo: 34 (-288)

Constructors’ standings after 16/21 rounds
1: Mercedes: 571
2: Ferrari: 409 (-162)
3: Red Bull: 311 (-260)
4: McLaren: 101 (-470)
5: Renault: 68 (-503)
6: Toro Rosso: 55 (-516)
7: Racing Point: 52 (-519)
8: Alfa Romeo: 35 (-536)
9: Haas: 28 (-543)
10: Williams: 1 (-570)