Well, we learned that we did not get a repeat of the previous Grands Prix excitement. The Russian GP was described by one commentator as “less than stellar”. I would be more direct – it was boring. No, it was very boring.
We, who watch, were very hopeful that with the two red cars at the front and Bottas (Mercedes) in 3rd and team mate Hamilton on only 4th after Qualifying we would have a real race on our hands. We didn’t.
The race was over as soon as it started with Bottas getting a much better start than the two Ferrari’s of Vettel and Raikkonen and powered his way to the front, a position he did not relinquish all afternoon. While Vettel did close up right at the end, he was never really in contention.
Oh, action? There was some on the first lap at turns 1 and 2 with Grosjean (Haas) and Palmer (Renault) coming together, Stroll (Williams) spinning and Stoffel Vandoorne (McLaren) and Kevin Magnussen (Haas) receiving five second penalties for track limit infringements (fancy term for ‘ran off the track’) avoiding the melee. The real situation was described by the man of few words, Raikkonen who said, “The race was decided at the start and I had a pretty bad one. I thought I was losing a lot, but I managed to get the position back and stay there. My car was good all the way through the race, but after that, not a lot happened.” Right on, Kimi!
One team which showed it was consistent was McLaren, unable to get two cars to the grid, two races in succession. Listen to Alonso, “It’s tough, it’s frustrating – every weekend is the same. My power unit didn’t have the usual power during the formation lap, so my engineer told me to change some settings on the steering wheel. Unfortunately, that didn’t work and towards the end of the lap the engine shut down. My race was over before it started.”
His team mate Vandoorne echoed, “Fernando not being able to start shows that there’s still a lot of work to do on the reliability side – that’s two races in a row where two McLarens haven’t started. That’s a shame, but at least we got to the finish.” What an ambition from one of the world’s previously most successful race teams. Shaking hands with themselves for finishing!
And another previously successful team, called Red Bull? Ricciardo manage five laps before his right rear brake caught fire! Team mate Verstappen ran around all day looking for someone to play with, and couldn’t find any.
Looking very dispassionately at the 2017 grid you have to say that Stroll’s money (Williams) isn’t enough, Palmer (Renault) is out of his depth and Grosjean (Haas) is back to his speedway old banger race car style.
Do not forget that these are the best drivers in the world, piloting the most advanced cars in the world (and incidentally the most expensive).
The next GP is in Spain on 14 May. F1 has to do better.
Results:
1 V Bottas Mercedes 2 S Vettel Ferrari 1:28.09.360 – 0.617
3 K Raikkonen Ferrari
4 L Hamilton Mercedes
5 M Verstappen Red Bull
6 S Perez Force India
7 E Ocon Force India
8 N Hulkenberg Renault
9 F Massa Williams – 51 laps
10 C Sainz Toro Rosso – 51 laps
11 L Stroll Williams – 51 laps
12 D Kvyat Toro Rosso – 51 laps
13 K Magnussen Haas – 51 laps
14 S Vandoorne McLaren – 51 laps
15 M Ericsson Sauber – 51 laps
16 P Wehrlein Sauber – 50 laps
Retirements
R D Ricciardo Red Bull Brakes – 5 laps
R R Grosjean Haas Accident – 0 laps
R J Palmer Renault Accident – 0 laps
R F Alonso McLaren MGU-H – 0 laps
