After a refreshing break of two weeks this time, our thoughts on F1’s latest race is ready in our 2020 Russian Grand Prix Result Review.
Much like the US Presidential Election, Russia again are trying to determine a world power, with their Sochi track attempting to produce a race that defined this year’s World Championship. And with Lewis Hamilton not winning, it sort of did just that.
Bottas stepped up in the race to grab a win, and with time penalties giving Lewis Hamilton the irits it was a good weekend for the Finn. Verstappen too who finished second.
Not much happened after the first lap and pitstops, but our review of it all is below.
2020 Russian Grand Prix Result – THE LAPS THAT MATTERED
Didn’t see the race live? Don’t have time to watch the whole race? Well here are the top laps where stuff happened. Normally it is five or ten, so you know it was a good race if there’s more than ten.
We write these live as we go, sort of like a minute by minute for the football.
Lap 0 – Lewis Hamilton races under a shadow, as the stewards will investigate a practise start violation. Stewards eventually advise that the Briton will get a five second penalty. And a further penalty for another start.
Lap 1- Action packed start with Hamilton off with a fine start only for Bottas to challenge into the first corner. Ricciardo gets inside Max Verstappen for third who takes the escape route, the Australian then drops to fifth behind Verstappen and Ocon in consecutive corners. Carlos Sainz runs into the wall after going straight on at the second corner and tried to rejoin via the track at light speed sneaking through a car width gap. A few corners later Lance Stroll binned it into the wall, with suspicion of assistance from potentially Leclerc.
With the track looking like an Air BnB which has been hired by rich teenagers after a Friday night house party, the Safety Car is summoned.
Russell, Albon and Norris pit for new tyres and change in strategy.
ORDER – HAM BOT VER OCO RIC PER GAS LEC MAG GRO
Lap 6 – Safety Car In. Let’s see if the drivers can behave themselves this time. Not like Lap 1 here, or behind the safety car in Tuscany. The answer is yes.
Lap 7 – Stewards advise of penalty for Lewis Hamilton. Five seconds with another five seconds to come. So he’ll need to win by more than ten seconds now.
Lap 11 – Decent battle for 16th between George Russell, Alex Albon and Lando Norris.
ORDER – HAM BOT VER OCO RIC PER GAS LEC MAG KYV – Hamilton down in 7th if you applied penalty now.
Lap 15 – Mercedes are ready for a Hamilton tyre change, but he is not ready to stop. Perez overtakes Ricciardo for 5th. The Australian subsequently pits for new tyres and comes out in front of the previously mentioned 16th palce squabble.
Lap 17 – Hamilton pits. Comes out in front of Ricciardo. Ocon pits a few laps later and comes out in front of Ricciardo. Perez pits a few laps after that and comes out in front for Ricciardo and Ocon. That’s it for the front runners on soft tyres.
ORDER (Lap 23) – BOT VER LEC KVY HAM PER VET OCO RIC RAI – Lewis’ position with penalty 9th.
Lap 25 – Radio audio from Hamilton on the blub about being pitted too early. He does have a point, with now having to manage tyres to the end or have another stop. Renaults swap places which looks ordered.
Lap 26 – Verstappen pits, the actual time of the pitstop not even enough to pick your nose, but the pitlane time loss means he lands just 6 seconds in front of Hamilton. Bottas pits a lap later to ensure he remains first.
Lap 27 – Ricciardo gets a five second penalty for not doing the right thing at turn two, after his teammate let him through.
Lap 29 – Leclerc pits and ends up in front of Ocon in 7th. Kvyat pits from third a few laps later. Vettel the final top ten car to do so as well.
ORDER (Lap 31) BOT VER HAM PER RIC LEC OCO KVY RAI GAS – Hamilton 4th after 10 sec penalty – Ricciardo 6th with his five second penalty.
Lap 36 – Starting to wonder what other sport there is on offer right now. F1 commentators trying to add intrigue in a race that is quickly adding yawns.
Lap 43 – Some excitement provided by Vettel v Grosjean for 14th. Vettel gets by into the second corner, Grosjean still finds time to run into Vettel and then run down the bollards to stop drivers cutting the corner.
Lap 53 – Bottas wins the Russian GP from Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton.
FINAL ORDER – BOT VER HAM PER RIC LEC OCO KVY GAS ALB
2020 Russian Grand Prix – RACE RATING
We rate the 2020 Italian F1 Grand Prix so we know which races to go back and watch in the off season or one to simply remember the winner for the post season quiz nights.
SEASON IMPORTANCE – 5/10
Well Lewis Hamilton proved he is human, and a non-Lewis win will always have season significance as Bottas edges closer in second place in the championship.
As for anything the race shown nothing more than has been on offer in recent races.
ON TRACK ACTION – 4/10
Early peaks with first lap crashes. Some battles further back, and excitement on where the cars would come out after pitstops. But reasonably meh.
ENDING 2 / 10
Even less action in the latter stages of the race, topping off a reasonably dull race nicely. Kvyat v Ocon at the end lifts the score from one to two.
OVERALL RATING 11 / 30
At least the GP started earlier for those on the other side of the world. Not much in it after first lap crashes and time penalties for minor stuff.
RACE RATINGS SO FAR
Austrian Grand Prix – 28/30
Styrian Grand Prix – 23/30
Hungarian Grand Prix – 15/30
70th Anniversary Grand Prix – 15/30
Tuscany Grand Prix 21 / 30
2020 Russian Grand Prix Result – Great & Grape
Here we go through the field and highlight the three drivers we think deserve a little extra love, and one driver whose had the grapest weekend of all.
These points get added to our Driver of the Season. 3-2-1 for the Great and minus one point for the Grapest races.
It used to be called the good, bad and ugly, but everyone is using that now. And who doesn’t like grapes.
THE GREAT – 1. VALTTERI BOTTAS
Did what he has to do for himself and the rest of the F1 fans looking for a championship battle, winning when Lewis Hamilton doesn’t. He was helped by the time penalties applied to his team mate, and he needs to do it in a straight head to head battle, as he can’t be this lucky each race.
THE GREAT – 2. MAX VERSTAPPEN
Split the Mercedes cars on the grid for second place, and finished ahead of Hamilton in second place in the race. Again miles i front of his teammate in every way.
THE GREAT – 3. SERGIO PEREZ
Appears to be on the outer with his Racing Point team, so fourth place and a team mate in the barriers is not a bad reply.
HONOURABLE MENTIONS
Charles Leclerc – Another great job done, well ahead of his World Champion teammate and other cars that are faster on paper.
THE GRAPE – LANCE STROLL
Accusations by his teammate Perez that he is being frozen out of team data. So being out-qualified again and ending the race on lap one is pretty grape. Although job security is high when your dad owns the team.
DIS-HONOURABLE MENTIONS
Carlos Sainz – Spectacular first lap crash when attempting to rejoin track way too fast after missing the second corner turn in. Affected his teammate’s race in the process too.
2020 Russian Grand Prix Result – 2020 Driver of the Year – The Martini Trophy
A feature on this website is determining the driver of the year.
This recognises not just the driver with the most amount of points at the end of the year, but factoring performance against their team mate, possibly outperforming the car, and a nod to our Great and Grape above. A full explanation is below the results.
The Martini Trophy is named after one of our favourite F1 drivers of all time, the underrated Pierluigi Martini.
2020 Russian Grand Prix Results – Martini Trophy
First lap data to be added.
Top qualifiers are awarded 3-2-1
Top finishes are awarded 5-4-3-2-1
Out-Race team mate only applies if they both cars finish or unless the other driver was a complete dick.
Best of Rest is the top driver not from Mercedes, Red Bull, Ferrari in race and qualifying
FirstLap is 0.2 / -0.2 for every position gained / lost on the first lap.
Good and Grape points are award 3-2-1 and -1 for drivers.
2020 Driver of the Year Points so far
2020 Russian Grand Prix Result – Stats and Stuff
Here is a selection of our favourite stats from the season so far.
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