The Official 2017 Russian Grand Prix Thread **Spoilers**

[Dr Z]

It's race week, but I see there are no takers for the Russian GP, yet.

Date(s): Friday 28 April - Sunday 30 April 2017

UK Broadcast Timings (and local time)

All sessions are live on Sky F1 and Channel 4.

Session	Day	Sky F1	Channel 4	Session Start	Local Time
Practice 1	Fri	0845	0855	0900	1100
Practice 2	Fri	1245	1255	1300	1500
Practice 3	Sat	0945	0955	1000	1200
Qualifying	Sat	1200	1155	1300	1500
Race	Sun	1130	1200	1300	1500

Sochi Autodrom




2016 Grand Prix Results

Pos.	Driver	Constructor	Time	Grid
1	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1:32:41.997	1
2	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	+25.022	10
3	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	+31.998	3
4	Valtteri Bottas	Williams-Mercedes	+50.217	2
5	Felipe Massa	Williams-Mercedes	+1:14.527	4
6	Fernando Alonso	McLaren-Honda	+1 Lap	14
7	Kevin Magnussen	Renault	+1 Lap	17
8	Romain Grosjean	Haas-Ferrari	+1 Lap	15
9	Sergio Pérez	Force India-Mercedes	+1 Lap	6
10	Jenson Button	McLaren-Honda	+1 Lap	12

Pole time: 1:35.417 (N. Rosberg, Mercedes)

Fastest Race Lap: 1:39.094 (L52; N. Rosberg, Mercedes)

Event timings, steward decisions, technical reports and laptimes for the weekend will appear here:

http://www.fia.com/events/fia-formula-one-world-ch...

Live timing for all sessions available here:

http://www.formula1.com/content/fom-website/en/f1-...

Weather forecast:

http://www.myweather2.com/Motor-Racing/Russia/Soch...

The tyre compounds are: Ultra Soft, Super Soft and Soft. Preview info from Pirelli:

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I expect the lap record to be smashed. I keep an eye on the drivers in long turn 3 in the race...some sore necks after the race. This was a one stop race in the previous years, expect the same here. I expect the Mercedes to be strong here in qualifying and the race. Will be interesting between Bottas and Hamilton, as Bottas has been pretty quick here with Williams...I expect one of them to win the race. Clear dry and cool conditions expected for the race.

[Dr Z]

K50 DEL said:

Was just checking to see if you'd done it Z, if not I was going to crack on!
I'll do the next one lol!

Anyway... Sochi.... Not one of the most interesting tracks on the calendar as I recall, going to be no-deg rather than low-deg this year I fancy
I expect Lewis to take this one, though hopefully Vettel will push him.

Unfortunately we're back to the silly Euro timings now, so no FP1 or 2 for me and Quali and Race going to be awkward as well.
I much prefer the 2am, 3am starts, far more convenient.

Oh, cool...I don't blame you for not finding the enthusiasm to start it off. The next one should be better!

This track is a bit dull except turn 3, and I'm glad I don't have to pay for a NowTV pass to watch it live.

[Dr Z]

FP2 timing sheet:



Interesting. Time to look at some long runs...be back soon.

[Dr Z]

Not sure why they said he struggled. His long runs looked alright to me...ok seemed happier on the super soft than the ultra soft but still...

These are some I just analysed:




Sorry, the plot is quite messy as I threw it together quickly. Some observations:

1) Bottas is looking more comfortable on the softest compound than he's ever looked this year.

2) Oh hello, a McLaren on a long run. It has been a while. Pace has a semblance of respectability in the midfield.

3) Williams heading the midfield pack.

4) Was the Ferrari actually experiencing some deg there? Interesting, if so! But pace looks about par with the Merc.

[Dr Z]

Came across this. It's Rob Wilson and Peter Windsor talking about the driving of Kimi, Seb and Valtteri. Have a lot of time for those two and some very interesting info that seems to mesh well with what I've observed looking at the telemetry of these guys this year.

Kimi/Seb:

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/video/main-gallery/r...

Valtteri:

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/video/main-gallery/r...

[Dr Z]

FP3:



I'll believe it when the order is like that at the end of Q3, but it does look like the Ferrari is getting the tyres switched on much better/quicker than the Mercedes, which was kind of indicated by the long runs yesterday where Vettel/Ferrari looked like the only ones who were getting the tyres to degrade.

[Dr Z]

Palmer. Oops.

[Dr Z]

Massa put a second on Stroll. Painful.

[Dr Z]

Kimi quickest in the first runs!

[Dr Z]

Phew that was close! A Ferrari front row!

[Dr Z]

FourWheelDrift said:

Going by the long run graph earlier I wonder if Mercedes have sacrificed qualifying for better race pace, jumping the Ferraris at the pit stops or even doing 1 stop less?

This is why I wasn't confident in predicting a Ferrari to be quicker than the Merc, but there's not a lot options with strategy at this track, so if anything you wouldn't want your car to be too biased at looking after the tyres and trying for better pace over a stint.

It would be easy for a car that can extract a much faster one-lap pace and switch on the tyres that much more quickly, to build a gap in the 1st stint and use that as a buffer against an undercut, and realistically there's only one chance for an undercut here...bearing in mind that the undercut is only effective, if you can actually switch on the tyres quickly and there is a lot of degradation for cars running on old tyres, none of which is true for Merc/this track/Ferrari.

Plus, the tyres seem to just go on for a long while that if you don't have the pace to really push the Ferrari in the 1st stint, the Ferraris could just build that 4-5 second gap and then start to control the pace until Merc try for an undercut or start to get faster. These tyres are good in that, even after pushing so heavily on them for several laps in the long run, Vettel was able to get them back after a slower lap so I think it would be easier to look after them and mirror Merc.

Either way, it appears to me as if Merc have chased their tail somewhat here. Certainly, has made this race very interesting. I think Merc have a better chance if one of their drivers jump the Ferraris at the start.

[Dr Z]

Bottas' best sectors would've been good enough for pole. Merc cars are still the fastest in S1. Hamilton is generally very fast in the high speed corners, and it wouldn't surprise me if turn 3 is where he pulled out a tenth on Bottas (would love to see the GPS data). There's not much in it between Raikkonen and Bottas in S3 and this suggests that Merc aren't particularly weak there. It's just that Hamilton had a poor S3, and it could be related to how his car is setup.

[Dr Z]

HardtopManual said:

I'm fairly sure that, excepting first few corners jockeying, there were zero on track overtakes today. Anyone confirm/deny?

18 overtakes in total...all without DRS.

oh and well done Bottas!

[Dr Z]

HardtopManual said:

Thanks Dr Z. I can't remember a single one! Is a list with details available?

Unfortunately no, got the number from Mercedes Purepitwall (1st corner passes don't count I think). I only started watching the race from lap 10 on and the directors forgot the rest of the field, didn't they?

[Dr Z]

Derek Smith said:

I know you're a doctor and we should trust you, but that comes as a surprise. You aren't counting 'passes' of, for instance, Riccardio, are you, when he sidelined it? And lapping, I assume, is not counted as a passing manoeuvre.

There were a lot in the first rush down to turn 2 of course.

Well done Bottas but, essentially, a dull race for us watching it on TV.

Nope, 2nd corner passes and lapping don't count. Don't quote me though, as I'm not a medical doctor.

[Dr Z]

Having re-run the race live timing, I can confirm there were no on-track passes, so I take the previous post back. Merc's pure pit wall must have been erroneous. There was a nice fight developing between Magnussen, Sainz, Kvyat and Stroll but the various penalties put paid to any on-track racing between them...plus I noticed whenever the midfield was bunching up and you think some action could happen, they end up giving way to the lapping leaders and lose that moment.

Derek Smith said:

Hungrymc said:

Even when Seb was closing Bottas down, there was no chance of a pass even though he had nearly a second a lap more pace.

Didn't you allow yourself just a little bit of hope? I know what you mean, but Bottas had tyre problems with flat spots. He was under pressure and although Bottas is pretty calm, he'd obviously already taken one risk.

Just a little rise in pulse-rate?

I must admit, I was a little nervous and not sure Bottas could hold it together as Vettel was closing the gap. It just takes a slight misstep with lapping traffic and you could get into a tough position, so he did well.

I knew he'd be fine on the ultra softs, but after that massive lock up in the 2nd stint, I was not sure he could drive with all that vibration and keep the Ferrari at bay, navigating traffic. But, it would've been difficult to pass as the Merc was so fast in the 1st sector.

There wasn't much on-track dicing but I enjoyed seeing drivers pushing like hell...especially how Vettel and Bottas were trading laptimes. The Merc was not as fast as the Ferrari in the 2nd sector but man, Bottas was trying his darn hardest to match the Ferrari and succeeding over the course of the 2nd half of the race.

[Dr Z]

ash73 said:

I think this win could be a big stepping stone for Valtteri, he's got the first victory in the bag, silenced his critics and he won it in style thrashing his teammate rather than benefiting from the misfortune of others. It's a monkey off his back; let's see what it does to his confidence.

Looks like Kimi is getting up to speed too, pity the RBRs haven't joined the party yet but they've got a major upgrade coming.

Yep, I think it should help lift his performance a bit. Still, would like to see how he goes in a high deg circuit vs Hamilton though, to see if he's really got the feel for the tyres fully over a stint. Next race on the calendar should sort that. If he then continues on that trajectory, you know Montreal should be a great contest, as it's probably one of his best tracks. Talking of mentally broken, if he could outpace Lewis at Montreal...now that would be a proper blow.

Had some GPS data kicking about from Bahrain qualifying re: RBR, thought I'd share.



I think the Red Bull bad performance in S3 at this track (Sochi) could be entirely down to it's weak front end. Seeing the onboards at Bahrain, it was clear Ric throws it in to the corners and the front end is very slow to respond. This is very surprising considering the front end response of Red Bulls of yore are the stuff of legends, that too at an aero regulation change such as this year. It somewhat reminds me of the team's struggles with the RB11.

I think the suspension trick ban has hurt them badly in the early races. I suspect they no longer can afford to run the rake/ride height they need, to make the car work over a lap, and thus are missing some peak downforce as a side effect. Turn 7 in the plot above was particularly telling where, Ricciardo had to really wait and manage the car before going full throttle while Bottas was just flying through with a much smaller lift. The car is a match for the Merc in the low speed stuff (turn 8 & 10), and braking performance is also good relative to the Merc...so all is not lost I think. Will follow with interest how the big updates in Barcelona take shape. This is a proper test of Newey's skills.