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

[Sevach]

[Shrieker]

Well, this is embarrassing for Mercedes. Especially when it keeps happening only to one car which belongs to their triple world champion...

[Phillyred]

Well, this is embarrassing for Mercedes. Especially when it keeps happening only to one car which belongs to their triple world champion...

Such is the way of the luck in F1 right now for Lewis... The people wearing their tin foil hats are rioting in the streets right now!

[basti313]

Yes. They can change the defective engine without penalty.

[basti313]

If Rosberg doesn't mess something at start he's going to have a super easy victory

Yes, but the start with the Williams next to him will really be challenging. The Williams showed the best starting performance so far. A bad start and he may end up close to Vettel and Hamilton. But this is more a wet dream of a spicy race for the win, I guess it will be more like Ros disappearing and Vet/Ham making der way to P3. Whoever gets the pit strategy better will be P3.
I would not be surprised if they go for a very early stop for Ham.

[Phil]

I think I stand by my previous assessment; Socchi might not always be favorable to the person starting on pole. There's an extremely long straight and if you are close enough, it is possible to pick up enough tow to overtake. Even if a car gets ahead Rosberg by lap 1, I don't think he will have much issue at all. It's an easy win for him and there's absolutely no pressure, unless something happens that's entirely out of his hands, like a safety car etc.

[superdowg316]

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/ChS6TFsWkAAovt4.jpg

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/ChS6T31WUAA39_b.jpg

Interesting that Alonso is struggling in Sector 1 despite having a similar speed to Jenson and on par with Jenson in Sector two despite being down on speed. Obviously Button is going for a balance between downforce and speed while Fernando is going for more downforce which allows him to be quite good in Sector 3.

I can feel Lewis' frustrations growing race by race. At first Nico was just getting some lucky wins, now it looks like he once again like in 2014 has a mountain to climb if he is to go back-to-back-to-back. Ferrari still aren't close enough to consistently challenge the Mercedes and even if Bottas gets a great start and leads the Williams strategists will by all odds screw it up once again.

[dans79]

One thing is for sure. Nico is due for some bad luck, as literally every other tittle contender has had their share of it.

[Redragon]

There are two kind of interviews with Hamilton, one just went he came out of the car made by sky and it was live, there, Hamilton show really dissapointment and looked like crying, even I bit with a tone of not believing could catch Rosberg, and then there is one with the media that looks more calm and more in control. So if another blow I wouldn't be surprise to see growing the cracks of the relationship of Hamilton with Mercedes.
Obviously everything will change if Rosberg has the no luck gods over him soon. Coincidence that after the mechanics crew swap on the garage luck has change side?

Alonso on his interview gave to understand that Mclaren still lacks the quali tune engine everyone seems to have.

Ferrari for me it is a real disappointment, they look worse than last year.

[GPR-A duplicate2]

What's going on with Ferrari? They brought PU upgrades and a new front wing and landed up 8 tenths behind (Nico's Q2 against Vettel's Q3 best times)? Nico's pole time is actually slower than the Q2 time and it was natural given the fact that Lewis was out of contention. It would be a safe assumption that the times would have been much better on Mercedes' cars if both would have gone for pole, probably dipping under 1:35.xxx. So the difference to Ferrari would have been larger too.
And in Chinese GP, they claimed the gap to Mercedes was just 1 tenth.

[Sevach]

I think I stand by my previous assessment; Socchi might not always be favorable to the person starting on pole. There's an extremely long straight and if you are close enough, it is possible to pick up enough tow to overtake. Even if a car gets ahead Rosberg by lap 1, I don't think he will have much issue at all. It's an easy win for him and there's absolutely no pressure, unless something happens that's entirely out of his hands, like a safety car etc.

While there's a long run to T1, it's not that hard to defend imo, due to the design of turns 1 and 2 it's pretty much impossible to go around the outside, Rosberg already defended that way against Hamilton last year.

Plus i don't see Bottas doing anything over aggressive to get a lead that is bound to be short lived, he's mostly thinking about Raikkonen and Massa.
I only see Bottas leading if he cleanly gets better off the line than Ros(which is a real possibility the pole hasn't led lap 1 once this season), otherwise he slots behind and focus on Kimi and Massa.

[basti313]

I think I stand by my previous assessment; Socchi might not always be favorable to the person starting on pole. There's an extremely long straight and if you are close enough, it is possible to pick up enough tow to overtake. Even if a car gets ahead Rosberg by lap 1, I don't think he will have much issue at all. It's an easy win for him and there's absolutely no pressure, unless something happens that's entirely out of his hands, like a safety car etc.

While there's a long run to T1, it's not that hard to defend imo, due to the design of turns 1 and 2 it's pretty much impossible to go around the outside, Rosberg already defended that way against Hamilton last year.

Plus i don't see Bottas doing anything over aggressive to get a lead that is bound to be short lived, he's mostly thinking about Raikkonen and Massa.
I only see Bottas leading if he cleanly gets better off the line than Ros(which is a real possibility the pole hasn't led lap 1 once this season), otherwise he slots behind and focus on Kimi and Massa.

I think the track really punishes a bad start. So if we are talking about a bad start for Rosberg, he has to fear Massa and Raikkonen, not Bottas. And that is what might spice things up.
You are absolutely right about a more or less good start of Rosberg. This will be easy to get Bottas as the Williams will, again, finish his tires much faster than the Merc. So even if he can not overtake in the first lap...the point will be comming when the Williams need to pit and end up in traffic.

[Raleigh]

Long run pace for Williams was very encouraging, they've got a lot more downforce on the car now. Not saying if Bottas jumps Nico he'll nessersarily stay ahead, but it won't be as easy as just waiting for his tires to go.

[GrayGreat]

There are two kind of interviews with Hamilton, one just went he came out of the car made by sky and it was live, there, Hamilton show really dissapointment and looked like crying, even I bit with a tone of not believing could catch Rosberg, and then there is one with the media that looks more calm and more in control. So if another blow I wouldn't be surprise to see growing the cracks of the relationship of Hamilton with Mercedes.
Obviously everything will change if Rosberg has the no luck gods over him soon. Coincidence that after the mechanics crew swap on the garage luck has change side?

Alonso on his interview gave to understand that Mclaren still lacks the quali tune engine everyone seems to have.

Ferrari for me it is a real disappointment, they look worse than last year.

I think the crew swap took place after the Chinese GP?(Not Sure). Hamilton had the same issue there. Even if I am wrong, Rosberg was having no issues with the crew that is with Hamilton now.

[RZS10]

Just a reprimand for Lewis, second of the season - One more and he drops on the grid by 10