The Elite Drivers from Sochi - Perez, Vettel and... Felipe Nasr?

In the 2015 Russian Grand Prix, we saw some spectacular driving from the front to the back of the field. Lets take a look at the top 3 drivers who showed us throughout the weekend that they had the skill to create a good result for themselves.

1st) Sergio Perez - Force India-Mercedes, started P7, finished P3.

The best drive of the weekend without a doubt went to Sergio Perez. The Mexican scored his 5th podium in Formula 1 with a brilliant, but very lucky 3rd place finish. To read more about Sergio's tense last few laps, click here. Sergio Perez deserves the top drive of the weekend as he performed throughout. He finished 4th overall in both Practice 1 and Practice 3 and then took that form over to qualifying and took a very comfortable and convincing 7th place on the grid directly behind team mate Hulkenberg. The race went even better for Perez as he firstly managed to miss the first lap calamity caused by his team mate, and secondly was the first person to pit under the second safety car (for Romain Grosjean) on lap 12. Once every else pitted under the usual pit window (laps 27 through 35) Perez found himself in effective P3 with both Valtteri Bottas and Kimi Raikkonen behind him. The class of his driving began to show as he continued to post the lap times he needed to stay competitive in 3rd whilst also managing the tire degredation to a desirable amount. The car was a handful for him and he defended brilliantly whilst he still had the rubber. When Bottas and Raikkonen overtook him on the penultimate lap, millions of hearts round the world sunk as Perez throughly deserved to be on the podium. It was only fate that Raikkonen and Bottas would collide on the last lap, giving Perez the podium he truly deserved, one that I'm sure he won't forget for a long time.

Sergio Perez celebrates his brilliant 3rd place.

2nd) Sebastian Vettel - Ferrari, started P4, finished P2.

Sebastian Vettel drove a brilliant race after a mediocre qualifying in Sochi. He could only manage 4th on the grid behind the Williams of Valtteri Bottas. On the start his team mate Kimi Raikkonen just behind jumped him and he was down into 5th. The German's day hadn't gotten off to a good start and he made sure it didn't get worse. On the second safety car restart he got a run on Raikkonen into Turn 2 and they went side by side. Raikkonen however left the track and conceded the position to Vettel. He then preceded to continue with blistering pace toward the second placed Valtteri Bottas. Then 14 laps later on Lap 27 Vettel was within DRS range and forced Bottas to dive into the pits as he was struggling to hold off Vettel. As Bottas got fresh and faster rubber, he was hampered by traffic ahead. Meanwhile Vettel was posting some incredible lap times in clear air and when he eventually pit on lap 31 he comfortably jumped Bottas with Daniel Ricciardo in between them. Vettel was now in 2nd. He stayed there for the rest of the race and drove with smooth and calm manner which meant he never looked challenged. I thought Vettel drove brilliant simply because with a bad qualifying and a bad start to the race he still knuckled down and got his 4th consecutive podium.

Sebastian Vettel gets caught in an awkward pose on the podium.

3rd) Felipe Nasr - Sauber-Ferrari, started P12, finished P6

Felipe Nasr is one driver from the Russian Grand Prix who everybody has bat a blind eye too as they've been too busy focusing on Perez's achievements up front. The Brazilian secured a spectacular 6th place finish for the team, there 2nd best finish of the season behind 5th in Australian Grand Prix. This puts him 13th in the Drivers World Championship, just ahead of Pastor Maldonado and now just 8 points behind Max Verstappen. It wasn't the most entertaining drive as he didn't fight his way to 6th, he actually drove a patience and well timed race and managed to finish "best of the rest" ahead of rivals such as Maldonado, Verstappen and both McLarens. Nasr stayed out of trouble and definitely got the reward for it. I think he deserves more credit than he has been given. He is a driver to watch out for Austin.

Felipe Nasr of Sauber-Ferrari.

These are my 3 Elite Drivers from Sochi, Agree of Disagree? Comment your thoughts below. Keep right here for updates on the 2015 US Grand Prix.

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2015 Russian Grand Prix - Race Recap and Analysis: Hamilton has dominant win as Force India achieve unexpected podium.

The 2015 Russian Grand Prix has finished and it saw Lewis Hamilton take his 9th victory of the 2015 season. He now leads the World Drivers Championship by 66 points from Sebastian Vettel and only needs to score 11 more points than Vettel in the next round to take the Title. Mercedes have also rapped up the 2015 Constructors Championship after Kimi Raikkonen received a 10 second time penalty which dropped him lower than the points Ferrari needed to still be a mathematical chance.

Race winner Lewis Hamilton.

The race was contested over 53 laps and saw Nico Rosberg start from the pole. People were very optimistic that Rosberg could produce a result as he had dominated Hamilton all weekend. It came to the start and Rosberg got away ahead of Hamilton and slip stream saw them go side by side through Turn 1 and into Turn 2. Rosberg got Hamilton up the inside through 2 and we were expecting a good battle through the next corners but it was cut short as the safety car was deployed for trouble down the field. Nico Hulkenberg had spun by himself on the exit of Turn 2, this caused Verstappen to spin and get a right rear puncture and Marcus Ericsson had no where to go but straight into Hulkenberg, taking them both out of the race.

The first lap incident between Nico Hulkenberg and Marcus Ericsson.

The safety car was in on lap 3 and we were back to racing. On the restart the Mercedes engine in Valtteri Bottas's Williams showed its strength as he overtook Raikkonen for 3rd behind the two works Mercedes. But 2 laps later trouble began. Nico Rosberg reported a "sticky" throttle pedal. Then on lap 7 Lewis Hamilton breezed past Nico Rosberg as he struggled to slow the car down for Turn 2 having clear problems with the throttle. Then on lap 8 he pulls into the pits to retire, an unfortunate end to what was looking like a good weekend. Hamilton took a comfortable lead from Bottas, Raikkonen then Vettel.

Fast forward to Lap 12 and the safety car was back out, Romain Grosjean had a snap of oversteer through the endless left hander of Turn 3 and he found himself in the wall. Sergio Perez and Daniel Ricciardo dive for the pits whilst the top 4 all choose to stay out. This decision by the leader not to pit put the people who choose to stay out, mainly Sergio Perez and Daniel Ricciardo in a very strong position to challenge for the podium.

On the restart on Lap 16 Vettel found himself side by side with Raikkonen down into Turn 2. Raikkonen was forced wide and off the track but rejoined ahead in Turn 3, Kimi yielded the position in the next corners and Vettel was ahead into 3rd. After this Vettel began to catch Bottas ahead in 2nd. By Lap 26 Vettel had closed the gap down so much he was within DRS range. Lap 27 Bottas takes a gamble and pits, but comes out behind traffic. Vettel takes the opportunity and puts his foot down and boxes 5 laps later on lap 31. The traffic proved to difficult for Bottas and Ferrari's excellent pit stops saw Vettel get out ahead with Ricciardo in between the two drivers. Raikkonen also had a chance of jumping Bottas after some fast laps but he only managed to come out just behind his fellow country man.

Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen.

As we got up to round about lap 35 everyone had made there one stop and one thing was becoming very clear, Sergio Perez and Daniel Ricciardo's gamble to pit under the safety car was paying off big time as they found themselves in effective 3rd and 4th respectively. Sergio Perez was in the better position though as Daniel Ricciardo backed Bottas and Raikkonen behind, creating a gap to Perez ahead. Bottas couldn't find a way past Ricciardo and it stayed like that till lap 45 when Bottas slip-streamed past down the start/finish straight.

It then briefly looked like another safety car was going to spoil the fight between Bottas and Perez as Carlos Sainz spun with a brake failure and lightly hit the wall, dropping debris on the track as he tried to recover. Sector 3 yellows were out, but no safety car. At this stage Lewis Hamilton was a comfortable win, Vettel 2nd with the biggest battle being Bottas catching Perez for third and Raikkonen and Ricciardo just seconds behind them.

1 lap later Raikkonen then got past Ricciardo through Turn 2 and looked like joining the Bottas/Perez fight up ahead. Just after this overtake was made, another yellow was out for Daniel Ricciardo who was forced into retirement for a presumed suspension issue. After the yellow was lifted 4 laps were left. Valtteri Bottas in 4th was much faster than Sergio Perez in 3rd, with Raikkonen 2 seconds back in 5th. On the penultimate lap at Turn 13 Bottas made the move down the inside and got by Perez for third and this also allowed Raikkonen to sneak through. In the space of one corner Sergio Perez dropped from 3rd to 5th. As the trio came onto the last lap Raikkonen was now attacking Bottas for 3rd place. Both Bottas and Raikkonen came into the Turn 4 right hander and Raikkonen decided to make a risky divebomb move which backfired when he made contact at the apex, damaging his car and taking Bottas out of the race. After fighting for nearly 15 laps holding Bottas off, Perez had lost his podium and now he had got it back. He sped past the limping Raikkonen who would eventually finish 5th and drop to 8th after receiving a 10 second time penalty for his role in the incident. Bottas did not finish and was classified 12th. He commented on the team radio: "What the f*ck did he (Raikkonen) do?".

The Raikkonen/Bottas incident.

Eventually after the spectacle of the last lap ended, the race order looked like this:

1) Lewis Hamilton - Mercedes
2) Sebastian Vettel - Ferrari
3) Sergio Perez - Force India-Mercedes
4) Felipe Massa - Williams-Mercedes
5) Daniil Kvyat - Red Bull Racing-Renault
6) Felipe Nasr - Sauber-Ferrari
7) Pastor Maldonado - Lotus-Mercedes
8) Kimi Raikkonen - Ferrari (10 SECOND TIME PENALTY)
9) Jenson Button - McLaren-Honda
10) Max Verstappen - Toro Rosso-Renault
11) Fernando Alonso - McLaren-Honda
12) Valtteri Bottas - Williams-Mercedes
13) Roberto Merhi - Manor-Ferrari
14) Will Stevens - Manor-Ferrari
15) Daniel Ricciardo - Red Bull Racing-Renault (DNF)
16) Carlos Sainz - Toro Rosso-Renault (DNF)
17) Romain Grosjean - Lotus-Mercedes (DNF)
18) Nico Rosberg - Mercedes (DNF)
19) Nico Hulkenberg - Force India-Mercedes (DNF)
20) Marcus Ericsson - Sauber-Ferrari (DNF)

Overall this has been focused very much on the most exciting battle between Perez, Bottas and Raikkonen and many people have been forgotten. Felipe Nasr deserves a mention for a brilliant maintained 6th place finish as well as Jenson Button who finished 9th for McLaren.

Sergio Perez got his first podium since the 2014 Bahrain Grand Prix.

A team by team analysis will follow in the next few days.

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2015 Russian Grand Prix - Qualifying Analysis: Hamilton's Turn 13 mistake costs him 2nd consecutive Sochi pole.

Nico Rosberg has taken pole position for the 2015 Russian Grand Prix after a brilliant lap saw him take the pole by 3 tenths from team mate Lewis Hamilton. After the initial laps were set Nico was on top, but when Lewis went out on his second run he ran wide at turn 13 and conceded the pole. The session was held in the dry throughout and it saw many teams scrambling for the most track time possible after the oil leak in Practice 1, rain in Practice 2 and Carlos Sainz's severe accident in Practice 3.

Pole sitter: Nico Rosberg of Mercedes.

The first session saw Mercedes in 1st and 2nd and the only team not to equip the super soft rubber. Carlos Sainz did not take part in the session as he was still recovering in hospital from his crash in FP3. Yellow flags were out early in the session as Pastor Maldonado lazily spun his Lotus on the out lap. Early pace was being set by Nico Rosberg as he matched the 2014 pole time with a 1:38.556. The only vibe to take away from Q1 is that the Mercedes looked strong. The car looked planted in the corners and fast down the straights as they kept a comfortable gap to Ferrari in 3rd and 4th. With Q1 ending it saw Fernando Alonso, Marcus Ericsson, Will Stevens and Roberto Merhi all knocked out (Carlos Sainz was the 5th person not to make Q2 as he did not participate). McLaren looked much stronger than Sauber throughout, but Felipe Nasr drove exceptionally to push McLaren's Fernando Alonso into the drop zone. Every team but Manor-Marussia had 1 car into Q2.

Force India had a very comfortbale qualifying to take 6th and 7th on the grid.

Q2 was a quiet session with no yellow or red flags throughout. It started with Lewis Hamilton on top with a time 6 tenths faster than Nico Rosberg. But Rosberg responded almost immediately to go 1 tenth faster than Hamilton, meaning Nico Rosberg was the favorite for pole heading into Q3. Further down the field Felipe Massa made mistakes on his critical lap which saw him manage a very disappointing 15th place. Daniil Kvyat, Felipe Nasr, Jenson Button, Pastor Maldonado and Felipe Massa were all knocked out and will start from 11th to 15th respectively. As mentioned earlier Massa was the big disappointment of the lot, but Daniil Kvyat would have been feeling just as bad as he narrowly missed out on a Q3 slot in front of his home crowd. Meanwhile Jenson Button was extremely happy with his unexpected 13th place for McLaren. Mercedes, Ferrari and Force India were the only teams to have both cars into Q3.

Felipe Massa, who was knocked out in Q2.

Into the top 10 shootout, and most people were out straight away as the tires were proving hard to get up to temperature. So hard that all drivers took an out lap, warm up lap and then hot lap. When the first hot laps were set, Nico Rosberg led the field from Lewis Hamilton on genuine pace. Sebastian Vettel was faster than team mate Raikkonen but only found himself in 4th as Valtteri Bottas stormed to a provisional 3rd place grid slot. As the final runs began, Nico Rosberg didn't improve on his time, leaving the door wide open for Lewis Hamilton to take pole. But for the first time this season Lewis Hamilton choked on a Saturday as he ran wide through Turn 13 effectively ending his lap. He pulled into the pits and conceded to give Nico the pole. Next to cross the line was the Bottas, Vettel and Raikkonen, the two Ferrari drivers were really threatning Bottas to improve his current 3rd place time or risk dropping behind them. Bottas responded calmly and beautifully to improve enough to get ahead of Ferrari and start from 3rd. Meanwhile Vettel led Raikkonen in the team mate battle between Ferrari in 4th and 5th. Next on the grid were the very quiet achievements of Force India, who managed both drivers into Q3 and really proved to be the best of the rest behind the top 3 of Mercedes, Ferrari and Williams. Nico Hulkenberg led Sergio Perez and they will be hoping for a strong race to close the gap to Red Bull in the constructors. Grosjean followed in his Lotus with the lone Toro Rosso of Max Verstappen in 9th. The Red Bull of Daniel Ricciardo rounded out the top 10 as the Renault engine continues to struggle on Russia's demanding long straights.

Williams driver Valtteri Bottas who managed an exceptional 3rd place grid slot.

Tomorrows Grid will look like this after penalties have been applied:

1) Nico Rosberg - Mercedes
2) Lewis Hamilton - Mercedes
3) Valtteri Bottas - Williams-Mercedes
4) Sebastian Vettel - Ferrari
5) Kimi Raikkonen - Ferrari
6) Nico Hulkenberg - Force India-Mercedes
7) Sergio Perez - Force India-Mercedes
8) Romain Grosjean - Lotus-Mercedes
9) Max Verstappen - Toro Rosso-Renault
10) Daniel Ricciardo - Red Bull Racing-Renault
11) Daniil Kvyat - Red Bull Racing-Renault
12) Felipe Nasr - Sauber-Ferrari
13) Jenson Button - McLaren-Honda
14) Pastor Maldonado - Lotus-Mercedes
15) Felipe Nasr - Sauber-Ferrari
16) Marcus Ericsson - Sauber-Ferrari
17) Will Stevens - Manor-Ferrari
18) Roberto Merhi - Manor-Ferrari
19) Carlos Sainz - Toro Rosso-Renault
20) Fernando Alonso - McLaren-Honda (35 Place Grid Penalty)

Overall the main notes to take out of qualifying looking toward the race. 1) Mercedes look very strong, there car looks like it was built for this circuit, but can they convert the strong 1 lap pace into long run pace as its believed Russia will be an "easy" one stop. 2) Ferrari are not second. Valtteri Bottas is 2nd, apart from Massa's troubles, Bottas looked faster than Ferrari throughout. Either Raikkonen or Vettel will have to work hard to get ahead of him for a podium. 3) Don't forget about Force India. They look very strong and most people are forgetting about the fact they breezed into Q3 without any worries. Out of all Q3 sessions that they have had both cars in this certainly looked the strongest and the most comfortable for them.

All will be revealed at lights out in just under 3 hours with Nico Rosberg leading from the pole.

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2015 Russian Grand Prix - Practice 1 Analysis: Ferrari WILL NOT supply Red Bull engines in 2016.

The first practice session for the 2015 Russian Grand Prix was cut short today by a diesel spill and bad weather. The times eventually set weren't very representative but give a rough outline of what we could see later in the weekend.

The intermediate tires had to be used as rain interrupted dry running.

Firstly the session was delayed by half an hour as a diesel spill on the track was deemed to be dangerous for the cars. When they did eventually get out on track it was relatively wet and teams such as Lotus and Mercedes choose not to run. As the track dried we got a limited amount of dry running but the more we got the more a rough outline of performance at the track was given to us. Sahara Force India appear to be strong here at Sochi as they topped the session with Nico Hulkenberg. Sergio Perez backed this effort up with a 4th place finish. Ferrari appear to be strong as Vettel finished in 3nd, 7 tenths adrift of Hulkenberg. Mercedes looked both strong and weak and Nico Rosberg finished in 2nd, just 0.052 seconds behind Hulkenberg and Hamilton could only manage 7th place as a late spin in the damp track saw him through a good lap time away.

Red Bull driver Daniel Ricciardo.

However the off track action made up for the lack of on track as Ferrari announce that they will not supply Red Bull or Toro Rosso a 2016 spec power unit next season. However Ferrari have said they will supply a 2015 spec engine to 1 team, hinted at being Toro Rosso over Red Bull. This means Mercedes have said no, Ferrari have said no, they've divorced Renault and another 2 teams is the last thing that Honda need. It is imminent that the Red Bull brand will most likely leave Formula 1.

Bernie Eccelstone (left) and Maurizio Arrivabene (right)

Personally Red Bull have pushed the scales to hard, and now they've tipped to a point where leaving F1 is there only option. Could we potentially a Ross Brawn like effort from Christian Horner perhaps?

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Russian Grand Prix 2015 – Preview: Pirelli tyre choices could benefit Ferrari in Sochi.

Round 14 of the 2015 Formula One season takes us to Sochi Autodrom, Russia for only the second Russian Grand Prix after the inaugural race was run in 2014. It saw Lewis Hamilton take the win and Mercedes wrap up the constructors championship after a year of dominance.

2014 Race winner, Lewis Hamilton.

However, this year’s race might not be as easy for the defending champions as Pirelli have opted to bring the super-soft and soft tires this year, over 2014s soft and medium combination. This was changed after Nico Rosberg did 52 of the 53 laps in 2014 on one set of Medium tires. One thing to remember this weekend is that the last time the 2015 season saw the super-soft and soft combination was in Singapore and it definitely suited Ferrari better as they managed to have there tires working in the optimum temperature range, However in Singapore the overall track and air temperatures are generally higher and that definitely played a big part in the pace difference, something Sochi cannot offer. So don’t expect Ferrari on top, but the Scuderia could be a whole lot closer to the Silver Arrows than previous rounds.

Pirelli Motosport director, Paul Hembery

The track suited Williams last year as Bottas finished on the podium and set the fastest lap which is the track record. The Fin will need a special performance this time if he is too defend it. The track on paper suits Williams as they will be strong through sector 1 and 2 with the massive straights and high to medium speed corners. Sector 3 is where they'll take the hit though, as it is low speed corners which demand good traction, something the Williams struggles with.

This will be an interesting weekend as it is very hard to predict the race result due to the race only being in its second year and the teams will all be using different tire compounds over last year. The track appears to suit a strong power unit as both Red Bull and Toro Rosso struggled for pace last year. 

An important battle to play out in Sochi will be Lotus vs Force India as they fight for 5th in the constructors championship. Lotus got closer to the 5th place spot currently occupied by Force India in Japan as they recorded there first double points finish of the season. The gap remains at 17 points and the teams will be going extra hard as Lotus desperately need the extra prize money that 5th place pays out at the end of the season (If Renault don't take over which is highly unlikely). Red Bull could also join this fight as they have the disadvanatge of the Renault power unit, which will see them become mostly uncompetitive for podiums. They will have the better chassis against Lotus and Force India and will excel in the tight and twisty 3rd sector, whereas Force India and Lotus will have it over Red Bull in the long straights through sectors 1 and 2.

Force India will be a strong fight with Red Bull and Lotus.

Overall it proved to be a relatively easy and boring race last season with Lewis Hamilton winning comfortably after Nico Rosberg threw away the victory with a massive lock up at Turn 2. The new tire compound choices should throw a spanner in the works and prevent someone from going from lap 2 to the end on 1 set of tires (as Rosberg did in 2014). I fully expect Mercedes to be dominant and Ferrari to be just behind them. Williams should find themselves alone in 3rd with Red Bull, Lotus and Force India fighting for the 4th row of the grid in Qualifying. Action gets underway with Practice 1 getting underway at 10:00am local time.

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