2016 Russian Grand Prix - Sochi, Apr. 29 - May 01

[GrayGreat]

EDIT: Lewis is lucky he got the second place. He passed at least 5 cars by running wide at turn 2 and he made no attempt to slow down and go properly through the corner and stewards did not look at it. Just watch his onboard video of first lap somewhere online and you would know. Stop crying now please. So sick and tired of useless moaning. He had two chances to win the race fair and square in Australia and Bahrain and what did he do?

He started 10th and was in 5th by turn 4. He did not pass "at least" 5 cars at turn 2. Actually he passed "at most" 5 cars, and if you actually watch the footage you would see that it is certainly less than that. This whole mess was introduced by adding the bollard in essence inviting people to take that route. There is certainly grounds for analyzing the situation and seeing exactly how many places were gained off track, but there was such a mess going on there that I think it would be almost impossible to do fairly for everyone.

Going full throttle past that bollard and joining the track surely can be looked at fairly don't you think?

[henra]

Just occured to me, did Rosberg get a Grand Chelem?

Yes.

[superdowg316]

My review of the race:

Mercedes: Great race by Nico, fully deserves the spoils and great recovery drive by Lewis. Nico doesn't get as much credit as he should, he did set a fastest lap in a horrid 2006 Williams on debut lets not forget and even with a dominant car to equal Ascari, Schumacher and Vettel for wins in a row is impressive. If Lewis doesn't suck up to Lady Luck soon Nico may run away with it.

Ferrari: Solid drive by Kimi but Ferrari are nowhere near Mercedes at all, maybe even further from them at least on this track. Seb was robbed of some solid points and has every right to be (quote Murray Walker) "Ab-so-lutely FURIOUS!!" at Daniil.

Red Bull: I know it's a different website, but by far Kvyat and Red Bull deserve Reject of the Race in my eyes. Daniil acting like an axe murderer again in Turn 1 not only took Vettel out but hampered Daniel's race as well. And what in the flying gypo were Red Bull thinking putting Mediums on?!?! It's like they didn't want to score points today.

Williams: For once the strategy was well played but they simply don't have the pace to match Mercedes and Ferrari plus they lost their straight line speed advantage it seems. Good haul of points though and at least Valtteri got to finish this year.

Force India: Horrid race for them that was at least salvaged by Perez for 2 points. I'm actually thinking Hulkenberg may not be deserving of all the hype sadly, Perez is doing a much better job than him. Hopefully I'm very wrong.

Toro Rosso: Not much to say, disappointing retirement for Max that cost them their only shot at points and will hurt later in the season while Carlos didn't help by sending Palmer off to Narnia. They'll be glad to leave Russia.

Renault: POINTS! Took advantage of the first lap shenanigans to open their account and K-Mag drove well, Jolyon had some issues but he's severely under the pump if he wants to keep his seat over Ocon. Will need some good results over the next few races.

McLaren: DOUBLE POINTS! Yeah ok, the first lap helped but they are on the up. Pulling away from the Haas was a positive and I was right that they would be on and off in the points in the first half. I do have some reasonably high but not too high expectations for the upgrades over the next few races, Monaco especially as I think they could be 5th and 6th if they try. Watch this space.

Sauber: Were they even running? Another point-less year inbound it seems. Not much to say here either.

Manor: Rio was unlucky at the first turn and Pascal made some good overtakes here and there but points are still miles away. Hope they get some upgrades soon, as I do believe they will outscore Sauber again this year like in 2014.

Haas: Good job by Romain for some more points, but Esteban is not helping his case against those wondering why he is even there. Taking out Hulk and Rio in Turn 1 and not coming close to matching RoGro is an issue especially when the other driver is getting points. Needs to step his game up fast.

So we found out today Mercedes are running away and the midfield is unpredictable. Nothing new basically. Roll on Catalunya!

[Sevach]

EDIT: Lewis is lucky he got the second place. He passed at least 5 cars by running wide at turn 2 and he made no attempt to slow down and go properly through the corner and stewards did not look at it. Just watch his onboard video of first lap somewhere online and you would know. Stop crying now please. So sick and tired of useless moaning. He had two chances to win the race fair and square in Australia and Bahrain and what did he do?

He started 10th and was in 5th by turn 4. He did not pass "at least" 5 cars at turn 2. Actually he passed "at most" 5 cars, and if you actually watch the footage you would see that it is certainly less than that. This whole mess was introduced by adding the bollard in essence inviting people to take that route. There is certainly grounds for analyzing the situation and seeing exactly how many places were gained off track, but there was such a mess going on there that I think it would be almost impossible to do fairly for everyone.

Going full throttle past that bollard and joining the track surely can be looked at fairly don't you think?

It's a complicated issue on a poorly designed first corner imo.
That said Hamilton looked like he intended to let at least Vettel back through... but you know... Kvyat.

[Sniffit]

It's a complicated issue on a poorly designed first corner imo.
That said Hamilton looked like he intended to let at least Vettel back through... but you know... Kvyat.

This.
They should put in a gravel trap; or mayby a moat... With stakes

[ringo]

I think the "water pressure issues" was a way of preventing Lewis from challenging Nico.
There were about 20 laps left with a 7 second gap, Nico would have been challenged for sure. Water pressure stabilizing itself sounds kind of silly to me as well.
Just another manipulation from Toto to give Rosberg a title before the regulations change or before his contract is up.

[Redragon]

I think the "water pressure issues" was a way of preventing Lewis from challenging Nico.
There were about 20 laps left with a 7 second gap, Nico would have been challenged for sure. Water pressure stabilizing itself sounds kind of silly to me as well.
Just another manipulation from Toto to give Rosberg a title before the regulations change or before his contract is up.

To say To give a Nico the title is to take merit of Nico great work, I agree it is a code message but I think Mercedes was more looking to finish 1 and 2 without problems and get the points for the team.

[Steven]

Water pressure is not such a big issue to loose more than 1 second per lap. The main reason gap came down was traffic. And it went up again when Lewis ran into the same traffic. And now that the pressure is okay again, Nico is still pulling the gap so you cannot blame it all on water pressure.

or water pressure is code for low on fuel

Drivers have a reading on their steering wheel about the fuel that was used and that is left. Any drivers who is properly awake and aware he's running a race doesn't need a pitboard with a coded message to tell him he's low on fuel.

[LookBackTime]

[henra]

I think the "water pressure issues" was a way of preventing Lewis from challenging Nico.

You Sir, need a tinfoil hat!

The reduction of the gap to 7s was due to some temporary technical woes in Nico's car. He had a couple of very bad lap times. That suddenly corrected itself again. Before that trouble came up Lewis never gained more than 1 or 2 tenths per lap on Nico. That was their genuine pace. After the trouble disappeared Nico's lap times were between 1 and 1,5s per lap faster again. He surely didn't slow down on purpose in order to let Lewis come closer.
Towards the end of the race troubles affected both Nico (temporarily) and Lewis (permanently).

[GrayGreat]

I think the "water pressure issues" was a way of preventing Lewis from challenging Nico.
There were about 20 laps left with a 7 second gap, Nico would have been challenged for sure. Water pressure stabilizing itself sounds kind of silly to me as well.
Just another manipulation from Toto to give Rosberg a title before the regulations change or before his contract is up.

Just like they gave Hamilton the championships in '14 and '15 so that he can match his childhood hero Senna by making Rosberg's engine slightly down on power. Utter BS is all I can say. Hamilton gets bad reliability in 2 races and Hamilton fans start accusing Mercedes of cheating. Really? You must be out of your mind.

[Juzh]

I think the "water pressure issues" was a way of preventing Lewis from challenging Nico.

You Sir, need a tinfoil hat!

The reduction of the gap to 7s was due to some temporary technical woes in Nico's car. He had a couple of very bad lap times. That suddenly corrected itself again. Before that trouble came up Lewis never gained more than 1 or 2 tenths per lap on Nico. That was their genuine pace. After the trouble disappeared Nico's lap times were between 1 and 1,5s per lap faster again. He surely didn't slow down on purpose in order to let Lewis come closer.
Towards the end of the race troubles affected both Nico (temporarily) and Lewis (permanently).

Traffic I think. Hamilton never stood a chance.

[flickerf1]

First lap was pretty crazy, but after that it was pretty much business as usual. Great comeback from Lewis. Though his luck is atrocious. I think he was fastest in Q1 & Q2, so I think we were robbed of a battle for pole and the win. His luck really needs to turn around if his campaign for a 4th title can get underway. Seb was so unlucky. Kvyat really needs to get his act together or I could see Max or Carlos in the Red Bull before the seasons over.

Faultless drive from Nico. I'm only worried that if things keep going the way they are, with his teammate and competition dealing with tech issues and crashes, that if he wins the championship people are going to start arguing that he didn't win it on merit. So, I hope for his sake that the competitions luck increases. Though there's still 17 races to go. Anything can happen.

[Pierce89]

I think the "water pressure issues" was a way of preventing Lewis from challenging Nico.
There were about 20 laps left with a 7 second gap, Nico would have been challenged for sure. Water pressure stabilizing itself sounds kind of silly to me as well.
Just another manipulation from Toto to give Rosberg a title before the regulations change or before his contract is up.

Come on bro. Nico cruised the entire race, Mercedes wouldn't blatantly lie to Lewis like that anyway. If he found out, the situation would be beyond nuclear.

[GPR-A duplicate2]

I think the "water pressure issues" was a way of preventing Lewis from challenging Nico.
There were about 20 laps left with a 7 second gap, Nico would have been challenged for sure. Water pressure stabilizing itself sounds kind of silly to me as well.
Just another manipulation from Toto to give Rosberg a title before the regulations change or before his contract is up.

There surely is some question mark around this. Why did they took the mechanics from Lewis' team, that was built over 3 years and then place them in Nico's garage? Who knows, there might be few mechanics who would have grown to hate Lewis while he was beating Nico, just like a whole lot of folks on these forums and might just be screwing up Lewis' car. Someone from Mercedes said, Nico had ERS problems when he lost that chunk and SUDDENLY, Lewis was told that there is this WATER related issue. For most part of practice, Lewis was faster than Nico and even in Q1 he was faster, suddenly he faces this problem that slows him down in Q2 and eliminates from Q3. Probably, the Stuttgart might have grown this craziness to see a German winning in the German team, that might be some kind of a greater PR gimmick. OR a third title in succession might just make Lewis bigger than the team, that kind of sh**?