Hamilton, Alonso and Magnussen rush to impress in Russia, while Kvyat tops the list of those who had a shocker in Sochi...
Thursday 19 May 2016 11:39, UK
A perfect weekend for Nico Rosberg as he completed the first 'grand slam' of his F1 career with pole, victory and the fastest lap in Russia.
While the sceptics will continue to point to the bad luck team-mate Lewis Hamilton has regularly suffered this season, Rosberg has been faultless and the advantage the German held over Lewis in Q2 suggests he would still have been a strong favourite to claim pole even if the Englishman's engine hadn't failed.
"Since Austin last year, he's been imperious," observed Sky Sports F1's Martin Brundle as Rosberg cruised to his seventh consecutive win in Sochi. "Rosberg has more belief than he had back then and he will be hard to haul in now - but there's a long, long way to go."
His lead in the world championship now stands at 43 points - almost the equivalent of two full race victories.
Rating out of ten: 9.5
If this had been the first race of the season then Lewis Hamilton would have celebrated like he won it. The world champion's subdued post-race demeanour was a reflection of his title deficit to Rosberg increasing and yet another malfunction calling a halt to a charge which he believed could have resulted in an unlikely victory, but this was nevertheless an accomplished drive from Hamilton and an impressive act of damage limitation.
Lewis' overtaking skills were razor sharp as he rounded Felipe Massa, Kimi Raikkonen and Valtteri Bottas and he had reduced Nico's lead from 12 seconds to seven before a water leak ended his charge. "There wasn't a doubt in my mind that I couldn't win it, I had the pace," said Hamilton. "But I had a problem with the engine so I had to back off - I wasn't full throttle down the straights."
Faster than Rosberg on Friday and in Saturday morning practice, Hamilton could have done no more this weekend before unreliability struck viciously in qualifying. Very arguably, he could have done no more all season. But a shortfall of 43 points amounts to a hefty deficit. He has a mountain to climb - but at least after his Sochi salvage job he has a foothold for the title summit.
Rating out of ten: 9
Relatively speaking, Kimi Raikkonen did exactly what his team needed him to do on Sunday. He kept both Bottas and Massa at bay, nursing his Ferrari to the end of the race after his team-mate's retirement.
But the fight, or lack thereof, he was able to put up when it came to the Mercedes will be a concern to the Scuderia and Hamilton breezed past Raikkonen for second place after the Finn made an error when following Bottas.
On another weekend, Raikkonen's lapses in concentrations could have been costly. The Finn also made an error on the last corner of his flying lap in qualifying, thus starting behind Bottas on the grid, while his countryman easily overtook him following a slow response to the restart after the early virtual safety car.
Raikkonen admitted he was fuel-saving throughout and instead focused on his longer run. He sits third in the standings and leads Vettel, but all in all this was a steady, yet uninspiring, weekend for the former world champion.
Rating out of ten: 7
"Starting from the front row you can kind of taste the champagne already," said Valtteri Bottas. The taste didn't last long, however, as the Williams driver found himself going backwards during the race.
Valtteri made a nice move at the restart to retake second place from Raikkonen and did well to hold his compatriot off until his first stop. However, Bottas simply didn't have the pace to compete with Mercedes or Ferrari and after being leapfrogged by Hamilton in the stops couldn't hold off Raikkonen for long.
Nevertheless, qualifying third was a fine performance and he was nearly half a second quicker than team-mate Felipe Massa.
Rating out of ten: 8
As Felipe Massa remarked after the race: "Fourth and fifth was the best result we could have achieved today for Williams" But as the Brazilian veteran also added: "l just would have loved to be fourth and not fifth!".
So while Williams enjoyed their best race of the season so far - which is perhaps just as well given that the next two venues should suit Red Bull, their rivals for third in the pecking order - Massa's own afternoon was somewhat of a mixed affair: a solid effort on the one hand, a convincing defeat to his team-mate on the other. Massa still has the intra-team lead in the championship but it's Bottas who now possesses the momentum heading to Spain.
Rating out of ten: 7
After a disappointing qualifying, Fernando Alonso's sixth-place in Russia represented his second-best finish since rejoining McLaren.
The Spaniard's rise was helped by a chaotic start and the downfall of his midfield rivals, with Max Verstappen and both Red Bull drivers suffering problems, but this was exactly the kind of mature drive the Woking team brought Fernando back for. The eight points proved the 35-year-old is still one of the most skilled on the grid.
However, it is clear that he isn't excited as he used to be by Formula 1 cars. With nine laps to go, Alonso turned his engine up to "have fun" and to "wake up a little bit". That resulted in a fifth-fastest lap of the race, a time to rival both Mercedes car at that point in proceedings, and a welcome sign of genuine progress up the field for both McLaren and Alonso.
Rating out of ten: 8.5
Driver of the day? Kevin Magnussen produced a fine display to charge from 17th on the grid to seventh and score Renault's first points since returning to F1 as a works team.
Renault's pace - or lack of - was demonstrated by both cars exiting qualifying in Q1, yet Magnussen managed to avoid the first lap drama and drag the car into a position it arguably didn't deserve to be.
Despite being rather unceremoniously dumped by McLaren, this was the kind of performance that reminded the F1 world of the talent the Dane possesses. Magnussen may have started alongside team-mate Jolyon Palmer on the grid, but by the chequered flag he was the guts of half a minute up the road and six places ahead.
Rating out of ten: 9
If Daniil Kvyat needs a comforting thought then at least the young Russian can reflect that not so long ago Romain Grosjean had a reputation much the same as the Red Bull driver has attracted at the start of 2016. But the Haas driver has subsequently matured into one of the canniest drivers on the grid - as demonstrated by his head-down-and-keep-out-of-trouble drive in Sochi to claim another useful haul of points for Haas on a weekend when the newcomers struggled merely to reach Q2.
Rating out of ten: 7.5
What could have been for Sergio Perez. The two points are his first of the season but after qualifying seventh and seeing some competitors spin out early on, he could have even been eyeing up another podium finish in Sochi.
However, the Mexican was also caught out on that first lap and picked up a puncture to send him to the back of the field.
What followed was a recovery drive of considerable skill and patience - although Sergio ultimately ended the day frustrated at failing to pass Grosjean when armed with fresher soft tyres.
"It's a shame not to score more points because we did everything right today," Perez said. "But we were just really unlucky." Worth also noting that he out-qualified team-mate Nico Hulkenberg by half a second on Saturday - a remarkable feat.
Rating out of ten: 8.5
There are certainly reasons to be cheerful for Jenson Button after completing McLaren's double points finish with P10 in Russia.
The MP4-31 package looked competitive, Button was able to execute some passing moves - notably on Carlos Sainz - and according to Eric Boullier, pulled off one of his "characteristically deft and gritty performances".
But Button can also count himself unlucky. While his team-mate jumped from 14th to eighth on lap one, the Briton was heavily compromised by Vettel's stricken Ferrari and had to battle from further back.
"When there's a car facing the wrong way your immediate reaction is to back up," Button told Sky F1. "I was going to hit him if I didn't. There was a lot of mayhem."
Jenson may also take time to think about where he could have finished had he overtaken Sainz earlier in the race. Perez, Grosjean and Magnussen were all there to be attacked. But Button couldn't have done much more, in truth, and he also deserves credit for out-qualifying Alonso when he was just one tenth away from reaching Q3.
Rating out of ten: 8
And the rest...
To appreciate how much bother Daniil Kvyat may be in, don't make the mistake of thinking that Sebastian Vettel was the only casualty of the Red Bull youngster's lurid mistake. Team-mate Daniel Ricciardo also suffered collateral damage in the incident, requiring an emergency pit-stop where - just to rub salt into the wound - the Australian was made to wait while Kvyat's car was tended to first. "There was a lot damage," said Ricciardo before adding pointedly: "I asked the team who was at fault and l think they said Seb just to keep me calm."
A switch to a two-stop strategy and medium tyres was a mistake but largely academic in any case - like Vettel, Ricciardo's race was effectively over from the first corner onwards.
Rating out of ten: 7
Having avoided the reliability issues that his team-mate faced, Carlos Sainz is another driver who will be frustrated not to have profited from the first-lap collisions.
The Spaniard, who was again out-qualified by Max Verstappen, instead endured a tough afternoon after his car was damaged at the start and then collected two penalty points for his forceful pass on Jolyon Palmer.
He did contribute in the exciting four-car battle for eighth place, but with the knowledge of a 10-second penalty, perhaps he held off slightly and was overtaken by Button and Ricciardo in the closing stages.
Rating out of ten: 7
Jolyon Palmer is already under pressure at Renault and being beaten by Sergey Sirotkin, who had never driven the car before, in Practice One was not the best of starts to the weekend.
On Saturday Palmer was within a tenth of Magnussen in qualifying with what was one of his best performances of 2016. The Briton also lost timed a run in that session after being called to the weighbridge.
However, in the race Palmer didn't have the pace to live with Magnussen and could only manage 13th while his team-mate secured Renault's first points, a long way up the road in seventh.
Rating out of ten: 6
A weekend to forget and worry about for Marcus Ericsson, hitherto impressive in adversity for the struggling Sauber outfit. While the team's new chassis seemingly met with Nasr's approval, the Swede was on the back foot throughout in Sochi, consistently a second slower than his team-mate in practice and flat last in qualifying. A two-stop strategy on race day brought a modicum of respectability but 14th was nothing more than a crumb of comfort.
Rating out of ten: 5
Well, it's safe to say Daniil Kvyat won't be a favourite for Driver of the Day this time around.
After his daring, but fully legal, pass on Vettel in China, the young Russian took it a step too far in Sochi and shunted the four-time world champion at Turn Two not once but twice. As Maurizio Arrivabene put it: "Once is acceptable but to hit him twice is unacceptable."
Kvyat served a 10-second penalty and struggled around the back of the field for the remainder of the race, dogged by the same bizarre medium-tyre strategy which did for Ricciardo as well.
A day to forget - and one which ended with an apologetic phone call to Sebastian.
Rating out of ten: 4
A new chassis seemed to have done the done the job for Felipe Nasr as he rediscovered his form to out-qualify Ericsson by half a second.
However, an early puncture robbed him of the chance to build on that in the race and severely compromised his strategy. The Brazilian managed an impressive 40 laps on one set of soft tyres to salvage 16th at the flag.
Rating out of ten: 7
Esteban Gutierrez's hopes of scoring his first points of 2016 at Sochi lasted less than a lap before he was caught up in the first-corner mayhem and collided with Nico Hulkenberg. The Mexican's return to F1 has been inauspicious so far with team-mate Romain Grosjean scoring all of the 22 points Haas boast after the opening four rounds.
Rating out of ten: 5
Another finish for Manor and Pascal Wehrlein, but that's about all both can take from the Russian GP. He started the race in aggressive fashion, elbowing Nasr out of the way for 14th at one point, but he finished his afternoon with a 27-second pitstop.
Rating out of ten: 5
Did not finish: Max Verstappen, Sebastian Vettel, Nico Hulkenberg and Rio Haryanto
