2017 Russian GP Post-Race Stats

Well that was the worst race I have seen in years and the worst Russian GP so far.

The weekend started off quite well, Ferrari took their first pole since 2015 and first front row lock out since 2008. On top of that the top three in Q3 were separated by less than a tenth of a second, so you’d think the race would be pretty tight as well right?

Well, no. Bottas had a great start to jump both Ferraris to take the lead and there were a few moves in the early corners, but Palmer and Grosjean collided and brought out the safety car. Any guesses how many overtakes for racing positions there were once the safety car went in? One. Below is the lap chart for the race, can you spot the single overtake?

Lap five, Pascal Wehrlein passed his teammate Marcus Ericsson, and that was the ONLY overtake of the race after the safety car. Sebastian Vettel was gaining on Valtteri Bottas towards the end of the race, finishing just six tenths down, would an extra lap have helped? The lap that was lost because of the second formation lap after Alonso’s pre-race retirement? Maybe, but given the fact nobody had managed to overtake for over 45 laps it would be unlikely.

Valtteri Bottas won his first ever race, meaning he is no longer the driver with the most points scored without a win, Vettel came second and Kimi Raikkonen third with his first podium of the season, also taking the fastest lap of the race.

So far Mercedes and Ferrari have switched the lead at every race, with Ferrari also winning every odd numbered race and Mercedes every even numbered race. Red Bull are the only team that have stayed in the same position after each race.

Only a handful of changes, most notably Lance Stroll moving up from last to 16^th after finally finishing a race.

Pos	Driver	Team	Nation	Points	Laps	Fastest Lap	Grid
1	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes	FIN	25	52	01:37.367	3
2	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	GER	18	52	01:37.312	1
3	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari	FIN	15	52	01:36.844	2
4	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	GBR	12	52	01:38.398	4
5	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	NED	10	52	01:38.429	7
6	Sergio Perez	Force India	MEX	8	52	01:38.661	9
7	Esteban Ocon	Force India	FRA	6	52	01:38.745	10
8	Nico Hulkenberg	Renault	GER	4	52	01:38.418	8
9	Felipe Massa	Williams	BRA	2	51	01:38.232	6
10	Carlos Sainz	Toro Rosso	ESP	1	51	01:38.858	14
11	Lance Stroll	Williams	CAN	0	51	01:38.870	11
12	Daniil Kvyat	Toro Rosso	RUS	0	51	01:38.300	12
13	Kevin Magnussen	Haas	DEN	0	51	01:39.566	13
14	Stoffel Vandoorne	McLaren	BEL	0	51	01:39.790	20
15	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber	SWE	0	51	01:39.835	18
16	Pascal Wehrlein	Sauber	GER	0	50	01:40.922	17
RET	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull	AUS	–	5	01:42.285	5
RET	Jolyon Palmer	Renault	GBR	–	0	–	16
RET	Romain Grosjean	Haas	FRA	–	0	–	19
DNS	Fernando Alonso	McLaren	ESP	–	0	–	15