2020

Valtteri Bottas raced to victory in the Russian Grand Prix as Max Verstappen closely followed in second as 6-time World Champion Lewis Hamilton finished third after serving two penalties for pre-race practice infractions. Hamilton had completed two practice laps at Sochi including the one towards the end of the pitlane exit, which was aganist the directives given by the race director Michael Masi. This means that Hamilton went into the race while under investigation. Adding insult to injury he started the race on the soft tyres which are entirely unfancied as Bottas and Redbull’s Max Verstappen started on the medium tyres. As the race started Lewis Hamilton was leading as his teammate Bottas immediately passed Max Verstappen at Turn 1. Bottas tried to pass Lewis Hamilton from the outside as he tried to move his nose past his teammate but immediately got a brief slide over the kerbs and Hamilton was able to retake the lead. Verstappen was one of the drivers who went to the runoff area at turn 2 and Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo was able to overtake him briefly, as Verstappen regained his position at the next turn. Ricciardo went ahead to lose his fourth position to his teammate Esteban Ocon after sliding at Turn 7. But the race was immediately suspended following Maclaren’s Carlos Sainz crashing after hitting the wall on the outside of the marker boards as he followed Vestappen. His wreckage remained in the track as the following drivers were forced to check up. A few moments later Charles Leclerc(Ferrari) made contact with Lance Stroll(Racing Point) after touching with his left frontside of the wing and Stroll hit the wall and retired from the race as the safety car was deployed moments later. The race restarted on lap 6 as Hamilton still lead the pack as Bottas was still closely chasing after him, but the world champion later extended his lead. But the news came in later that he was being handed two five-second penalties for the pre-race infractions and had to wait 10 seconds in the pit before Mercedes could service his car. He came in on lap 16 after setting two fastest laps and had a 2.7 seconds lead. Hamilton later rejoined the race out of the top 10 bracket but before Daniel Ricciardo who was in the pits. Valtteri Bottas was in the lead as he made fast laps in the 1m 39s bracket as Max Verstappen tried to edge out on him, but the RB 16 was much slower than the W11. Bottas eventually pitted on lap 26 to change from the mediums to the hards as he was 9.7s ahead of the Redbull. Hamilton was 15.4 seconds away from the lead. The gaps between the top 3 racers widened as Bottas was 12s ahead of Verstappen, as Hamilton was 10 seconds behind Verstappen. As the race came to an end Bottas was 7.7s ahead of Verstappen and Hamilton came in 15s behind Verstappen as they finished 1st, 2nd and 3rd respectively. Sergio Perez finished 4th after taking the advantage of Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo and Esteban Ocon who were behind Sebastian Vettel after their early stops. Daniel Ricciardo finished 5th evn after getting a 5 second penalty for cutting over Turn 2. The Australian however was able to create a large gap from Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc who finished 6th. Esteban Ocon finished 7th just ahead of AlphaTauri’s Daniil Kvyat who came home 8th. Kvyat’s teammate Pierre Gasly and Alexander Albon finished 9th and 10th respectively. Alexander Albon was another driver to get the five second penalty after cutting off Turn 2 despite the billboards being at the turn though they had been destroyed at one point when Romain Grosjean went over them. The remaining drivers came in over a lap later.

Lewis Hamilton has avoided penalty for a rules breach when he was rejoining the track at turn 2 during the qualifying session for the Russian Formula 1 Grand Prix. The FIA stewards during the qualifying session said that Hamilton was facing investigation after failing to hear Michael Masi, the race director who gave instructions to Hamilton as he was rejoining the track at Turn 2. Michael Masi had advised all the drivers in the pre-race event notes that they must pass through some bright orange billboards in the run-off area if they missed the apex at Turn 2, and later rejoin the race slowly. Lewis Hamilton did not follow the given routine during the qualifying session which lead him to be investigated alongside Haas’ drivers Kevin Magnussen and Romain Grosjean, as Williams Nicolas Latifi was also not left behind in the investigations. In a statement given by race stewards after the qualifying session, it was said that Lewis Hamilton had accepted he had not followed the instructions given by Michael Masi. However the track violation did not give him any advantage and he returned to the track safely, escaping a penalty. “The driver accepted that he had not followed the instructions and further he accepted that in a race there would be a penalty. The stewards determined that there was no advantage, as the relevant lap time was deleted.” The race stewards statement read. “Furthermore, to be consistent with previous decisions, the Stewards considered the precedents set out in the 2018 Spanish Gran Prix and the 2019 Canadian Grand Prix.” Nicolas Latifi, Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen were also cleared of the track violation as all the drivers were reminded that such a breach would land them a five second penalty. The FIA has been particularly strict on track violatons at Sochi as it has a vast run-off area, asking the track managers to install an escape route at turn 2 before the fast left hand Turn 3. Hamilton was looking at losing his time in the second qualifying round after going wide at turn 18 on his first lap that was later deleted for exceeding the track limits. The 6-time world champion went on to set the fastest time in Q3 securing the 1st pole position.

Lewis Hamilton claimed the pole position for the 2020 Russian Grand Prix after a near miss on the Q2 lap which could have prevented him from setting a time due to Sebastian Vettel crash. Max Verstappen was able to defeat Hamilton’s teammate Valtteri Bottas to the second place. Lewis Hamilton is also facing a post race investigation for track violation together with Nicolas Latifi, Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen in Q1. The 6-time world champion will be the only one to start Sunday’s race on soft tyres after his near miss in Q2. In the earlier session where drops of rain were reported on the track, Mercedes sent out their two W11’s on medium tyres as Redbull Racing did with Verstappen’s RB16. Moments later the Mercedes drivers, Hamilton and Bottas were forced to run on hard compound tyres as Hamilton had his time deleted for a track limits violation at thre final corner. Bottas, nevertheless was able to set a time good enough to get him to Q3, but Hamilton on the other hand had to halt his second run after Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel crashed around turn 4 making the session to be suspended. The 4-time world champion clipped the kerb on the inside of the right hand of the turn as he lost his rear spinning to the wall on the outside damaged his front wing which was immediately knocked by his teammate Charles Leclerc with his front wheel, Leclerc was closely following Vettel when the incident occured. When the session restarted Mercedes sent out Hamilton on the soft tyres which meant the Bottas would be going out on the medium compound tyres. Verstappen also went out on the medium tyres and went ahead to lead the other cars recording 2m 15s after Vettel’s crash. He also ran on the soft tyres and seemed to improve on his previous Q2 best but later abandoned the run, which means he will be starting on the hard tyre, which will be better for the Sunday’s race. Hamilton had a wide slide at turn 2 on his last lap as he was desperately trying to make the the best time, made it to the finish line barely a second remaining to the end of the session. He got the 4th fastest time in Q2, in which Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo was the fastest. A frustrated Charles Leclerc was knocked out in Q2. In Q3 Lewis Hamilton lead the pack with 1m 31.391s, which meant Bottas had to close a 0.793s gap in the final session of the qualifiers. The Finn was however able to improve in his final run despite a small mistake on the kerb at the exit of turn 2 but was still 0.5 seconds behind, even before Hamilton completed his last lap. Verstappen set his final lap later after the Mercedes W11s and was running behind Valtteri Bottas in the two first sections but later forged ahead of him as he speeded up in the final sector taking the 2nd pole after Hamilton. Sergio Perez(Racing Point) will starth in 4th position ahead of Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo who rounded up the top 5. Carlos Sainz(Mclaren) was closely followed by Ricciardo’s tammate Esteban Ocon as they were 6th and 7th respectively. Lando Norris(Mclaren), Pierre Gasly(AlphaTauri) and Redbull’s Alexander Albon rounded the top ten positions. Daniil Kvyat took the 12th place for AlphaTauri as Lance Stroll(Racing Point) closely followed in 13th despite being pulled out of the pack in the final Q2 laps with a suspected issue. The same happened to George Russel(Williams Racing) and Sebastian Vettel. Russell ran for only 1 lap in Q2 and was 0.5 seconds faster than his Q1 record time. He was able to knock out Romain Grosjean(Haas) in Q1 as he was desperate to get to the Q2. Grosjean finished the session in 16th place. Alfa Romeo’s Antonio Giovinazzi was 17th, ahead of Kevin Magnussen and Nicolas Latiffi who along with Grosjean went into the final Q1 runs without set time after being among a group of drivers including Hamilton and Gasly, who had their opening laps deleted for cutting the kerbs at Turn 2. Kimi Raikkonnen came last in the qualifying session for the race that he will be equalling Reuben Barrichello’s record for most F1 starts.

Valtteri Bottas(Mercedes Petronas) topped the Russian GP FP2 at Sochi Autodrome in Russia. The track that sorrounds the Russian Olympic park proved hard for the drivers to master all day as the track is dusty making it hard for the cars to maintain grip on the track. As the cars continued to rubber in on the track, the drivers became confident and were able to push the cars to their limits. The Free Practice 2 saw quicker lap times than the First Practice session. Romain Grosjean was the first out of the pits in the afternoon session. Contrary to the first session, which had very few drivers on the track, all the drivers were on in the afternoon session to challenge their lap times. The first incident occured barely fifteen minutes from the start, which saw Lance Stroll spinning into turn 13 buth however no harm was caused and the canadian went on to finish 17th. Lewis Hamilton who had struggled in the FP1 also saw himself in a predicament in the afternoon session as he experienced a tyre stress at turn 13 compromising his purple sector time which saw his lap getting scrapped. Seconds later his teammate Valtteri Bottas had an issue in the purple lap which later saw him lose time through sector 3. The two Mercedes drivers were certainly testing the limits of their W11 cars. Daniel Ricciardo(Renault) and Lando Norris(Mclaren) were able to record impressive lap times coming in 3rd and 4th respectively. Max Verstappen also fell victim to a spin at turn fourteen as he concluded the session ranking 7th. Traffic proved to be an issue when all cars were on track, and George Russell was one driver unhappy about this particular issue. As usual, he pushed his Williams FW43 as hard as he could but could only manage a 1:35.5 to earn him sixteenth only. His team-mate Nicholas Latifi was most likely tip-toeing around the circuit after a crash in Free Practice One rendered him unable to complete any more running, and the Canadian ended up in fifteenth place. There was also action in the paddock as well as the track during the session, and with twenty minutes to go it was officially announced that ex-Ferrari boss Stefano Domenicali would replace Chase Carey as the CEO of Formula 1. Domenicali will undertake the role on New Years Day next year. As the session ended, it was Bottas 0.267s faster than team-mate Lewis Hamilton. The Mercedes pair were eons ahead of the rest of the field in both sessions today, and it was Ricciardo who finished closest to the duo in third. Carlos Sainz was the fastest of the two McLaren’s, and finished fourth- one place ahead of Norris. The top ten was completed by Sergio Pérez, Verstappen, Charles Leclerc, Esteban Ocon and Sebastian Vettel.

Valtteri Bottas set the early pace in an eventful first practice session at the Russian Grand Prix. The Finn would post a 1m34.923s early on, using the soft compound tyre, and that would go unbeaten until the end thanks to a series of events. Two would be disruptions due to collisions with the barriers as first Carlos Sainz damaged his rear wing after losing the rear in Turn 7, requiring a Virtual Safety Car to clear the debris. Then, Nicholas Latifi would have a bigger crash at Turn 10 with a red flag needed to recover his Williams. The first incident meant Lewis Hamilton didn’t set a representative lap time on his first set of tyres, then, after the mid-session change, he would ruin his second set on the first timed lap with a big lock-up into Turn 2. Limited to just a handful of laps on the damaged rubber late on then, the six-time world champion ended FP1 down in 19th place, but given the chance then to get an upper hand on his teammate in terms of running, Bottas couldn’t capitalise as he too damaged his front-left into Turn 13, leaving both Merc’s in the pits for much of the morning. Still, no-one could get close to Valtteri’s initial lap-time with Daniel Ricciardo half a second down in P2, a tenth clear of former teammate Max Verstappen in third.

Former Ferrari principal Stefano Domenicali will be making a return to Formula 1 as the CEO of the sport. The current CEO Chase Carey took the position in 2017 January in a Liberty Media takeover and he has been overseeing the success of the 2017,2018,2019 and 2020 Formula 1 seasons as well as the successful completion of the negotiations aiming to extend Formula 1’s concorde agreement with the 10 participating teams. Chase Carey also holds the position of the F1 chairman, will be retaining links to the F1 sport even as he hands over his CEO role. 55-year-old Stefano Domenicali is well known for his former role at Scuderia Ferrari and is well connected to Formula 1 managing director Ross Brawn and FIA president Jean Todt. He was born in Imola and studied at the University of Bologna, later joining the Ferrari team in 1991. Stefano later in 2007 took the head of the Ferrari team from Todt and oversaw the team’s success up to 2014, when he stepped down. In December 2014, Stefano Domenicali took over as the head of the FIA’s single seater comission and two years later he became the Lamborghini CEO, the company which is allegedly believed to be up for sale by the parent company Audi. Domenicali will be taking up his new role before the beginning of next season. The appointment of Domenicali means the top roles at both F1’s governing body and commercial rights holder will be held by former Ferrari principals. However Todt, who became FIA president in 2010, has indicated he will not seek re-election when his current term expires at the end of next year.

Over the last week, Max Verstappen’s contract with Redbull Racing team has been on the limelight as there has been discussion if the Dutchman’s contract has the clause allowing him to leave Redbull Racing earlier or not, and if the contact allows him to leave, should he do so now? Verstappen signed a contract with the Redbull team last season that will last up to 2023. This is a long time, but following the rule changes in 2022 this was the right call for the team. The new rules will be accompanied by budget caps and the rules will determine which teams will remain afloat, as they are trying strategies that will give them an advantage over the other teams. There has been rumours over the last couple of weeks that there is a clause in Verstappen’s contract, that he could leave the Redbull team at the end of 2021 season. ”That rule in contracts is always there, if a team doesn’t deliver a winning car, you have clauses that allow you to get out. That’s why you don’t make a contract to continue with each other, but rather how you get rid of each other if things don’t work out,” says Olav Mol at F1 aan Tafel. However Olav doesn’t see Verstappen leaving the Redbull team any time soon. ”I don’t see it happening any time soon that you change to a team of which you don’t know if there’s a good car in 2022. Personally, I think the Verstappens are very loyal to the people who brought them in. Of course they have to make sure that he is satisfied, but you don’t have to tell anyone at Red Bull or Honda now that you have to step it up”, added Mol.