Russian Grand Prix Tag

By FIA Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton claimed pole position for the Russian Grand Prix after almost missing out on the final top-10 shoot out at Sochi following a late red flag period brought about by a crash for Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel. Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen put in an excellent final flying lap to split the Mercedes cars to claim his 13th career front-row start ahead of Valtteri Bottas. Mercedes led the way in Q1 with Bottas setting a time of 1:32.656 with his first run to lead the way. Team-mate HamiltonRead More

By FIA Lewis Hamilton headed a Mercedes one-two in final practice for Formula 1’s Russian Grand Prix beating team-mate Valtteri Bottas by almost eight tenths of a second. McLaren’s Carlos Sainz finished third, just fourth hundredths of a second behind Bottas. The Mercedes drivers were to the fore from the start of the session, with Bottas leading the way on soft tires with a lap of 1:35.183. Hamilton, on the same compound, was two tenths off the pace after a mistake on his opening run led to a second attempt.Read More

By FIA Valtteri Bottas once again went quickest at the Sochi Autodrom, with the Finn beating Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton by almost three tenths of a second in second practice as his good start to the Russian Grand Prix weekend continued. Third place in the session went to Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo. Bottas topped the opening practice session in the morning and in the afternoon session he was quickly back at the sharp end of the timesheet taking P2 behind Hamilton on hard tires in the early running as he lappedRead More

By FIA Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas set the pace in the opening practice session for the 2020 FIA Formula 1 Russian Grand Prix, finishing almost half a second clear of Renault’s Daniel Riccirado at the end of a session that featured a number of incidents. Bottas, who won in Sochi in 2017 and who has three other podium finishes to his name at the Black Sea circuit, used the re-banded soft tire to claim top spot and the Finn set a time of 1:34.923 to eclipse Ricciardo who put in aRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer The 69th season of Formula One has officially concluded, and Mercedes continued to steamroll the competition in the Hybrid Era. Lewis Hamilton once again proved to have risen on the occasion as Sebastian Vettel faded away due to Ferrari’s costly errors that eliminated him from the championship race. Not only that, the 2019 season is starting to look clear with key names having no choice but to become a test driver or find different ventures in favor of even younger drivers and even the comeback for theRead More

By FIA Lewis Hamilton won the Russian Grand Prix extend his Drivers’ Championship lead over title rival Sebastian Vettel to 50-points, after Mercedes called on race leader Valtteri Bottas to move aside in order to defend against a threat from eventual third-place finisher Vettel. Pole position man Bottas held his advantage at the start and controlled the early phases of the race, with Hamilton coming under strong pressure from third-placed Vettel. Vettel briefly managed to get past Hamilton after the drivers’ single pit stops but when the title leader reclaimedRead More

By FIA Valtteri Bottas claimed the sixth pole position of his career and his first since the Austrian Grand Prix in July beating Mercedes team-mate and championship leader Lewis Hamilton to the front of the Russian Grand Prix grid by 0.145s. Title contender Sebastian Vettel of Ferrari, was forced to settle for third place and the second row of the Sochi Autodrom grid, where he will be joined by team-mate Kimi Räikkönen. Both Ferraris were more than half a second off the pace of Bottas. “It feels good,” said Bottas, who tookRead More

By FIA Lewis Hamilton went quickest in final practice for the Russian Grand Prix, with the Briton breaking the Sochi Autodrom track record to beat team-mate Valtteri Bottas 0.254s. Ferrari, meanwhile, took third and fourth places, with Sebastian Vettel marginally ahead of team-mate Kimi Räikkönen, but the German title contender ended the session six tenths of a second adrift of Hamilton. Vettel set the pace in a quiet opening phase of the hour-long session, with the German claiming P1 with a lap of 1:33.859. However, his spell at the topRead More

By FIA Title contender Vettel and Verstappen both set their times on Pirelli’s hypersoft tyres, while third-placed championship leader Lewis Hamilton largely restricted himself to the hardest of the compounds on offer this weekend, the soft tyre, and finished just 0.330s behind Vettel. Valtteri Bottas matched team-mate Hamilton in mostly running on the soft tyres to finish the session in fourth place half a second off the pace. Daniel Ricciardo took fifth place on the timesheet, though the Red Bull driver spend most of the session in his team’s garageRead More

Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas withstood sustained late-race pressure from Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel to take his first Formula One victory after rising from third on the grid to take the lead at the race start. When the lights went out at the start, Bottas pounced, with the Finn getting a tow on the long run to the first corner to power around the outside of Räikkönen and Vettel to claim the lead. Through the first stint, Bottas built a slim advantage but after the drivers’ single stop for supersoft tyres Vettel beganRead More