#Formula1 VTB #RussianGrandPrix 2021 Race Preview. #F1 #RussianGP
Formula 1 VTB Russian Grand Prix 2020 Race Start, Sochi Autodrom, Sochi, Russia. 2021 Russian GP Preview, Russian Grand Prix Preview.
Russian Grand Prix Preview – After Daniel Ricciardo brought McLaren its first victory since the 2012 Brazilian GP at the Autodromo Nazionale Monza last time out with both championship contenders Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton colliding, round 15 of the 2021 FIA Formula 1 World Championship returns to the Sochi Autodrom in Sochi, Russia this weekend for the Formula 1 VTB Russian Grand Prix 2021. This is the tenth edition of the Russian Grand Prix and eighth as part of the Formula One World Championship.
2021 Russian GP Preview – A look at the Sochi Autodrom
The Sochi Autodrom formerly known as the Sochi International Street Circuit and the Sochi Olympic Park Circuit is a street circuit located in the Black Sea resort town of Sochi in Krasnodar Krai, Russia.
The track is similar to that of the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Canada and Sydney Olympic Park Circuit in Australia as it runs around a venue used for Olympic competition. Opened on September 21 2014 and designed by German Architect Hermann Tilke, the circuit was built around venues used for ice hockey, speed-skating, curling, short track etc. as well as the stadium in which the 2014 Winter Olympic Games open and closing ceremonies were held.
The layout itself has been likened to a mix between the Valencia Street Circuit and the Korean International Circuit which blends medium and low-speed corners with long fast sections, with the signature corner being the long, fast, left-hand arc around the Medal Arena. It is the third longest circuit on the Formula 1 behind the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium and the Silverstone International Circuit in the UK. In their first visit to Sochi, the cars were hitting top speeds of 332kph on the 650 metre straight between the first and second turns with Lewis Hamilton averaging 213kph as he claimed pole for Mercedes.
The Sochi Autodrom is 5.848km (3.634 miles) in length with 19 corners and runs in a clockwise direction.
Race distance is 309.732km (192.459 miles) in length with 53 laps in total.
Lewis Hamilton holds the fastest lap record with a 1:35.761 set at the 2019 Russian Grand Prix in his Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport F1 W10 EQ Power+ racer.
Lewis Hamilton holds the record for most Russian Grand Prix victories with four to his name.
Mercedes are the most successful Constructor at the Russian Grand Prix with nine victories.
2021 Russian GP Preview – Onboard Lap of the Sochi Autodrom
Here is an onboard pole lap of the Sochi Autodrom set at last year’s event by Lewis Hamilton in his Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team F1 W11 EQ Performance racer. The seven-time World Champion posted a blistering 1:31.304. You can watch the video right here at the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Blmb71B2SAM
2021 Russian GP Preview – Last Five Russian GP Winners
2020: Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes AMG F1. 2019: Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes AMG F1. 2018: Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes AMG F1. 2017: Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes AMG F1. 2016: Nico Rosberg, Mercedes AMG F1.
2021 Russian GP Preview – Tyres
Pirelli will be bringing with them to Russia, the white side-walled P-Zero C3 Hards, the yellow-branded P-Zero C4 Medium tyres and the red-marked P-Zero C5 Soft tyres alongside the green-branded Intermediates and blue-marked Full Wet rubber in case of rain.
Drivers will have two sets of the hards, three sets of the mediums and eight sets of the softs.
2021 Russian GP Preview – DRS Zones
As in 2020, there will be two DRS Zones. The first detection zone will be just after the start-finish straight with the activation point located just after Turn 1. The second detection zone will be before Turn 9, with the second activation point just after the same corner.
2021 Russian GP Preview – Pitlane Speed Limits
Pitlane speed limits will be 80km/h during practice, qualifying and the race.
ICYMI: Ricciardo wins dramatic Italian GP as Hamilton and Verstappen collide
Daniel Ricciardo won an action-packed Italian GP as title contenders Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton collided twice and retired at the Variante Del Rettifilo.
Ricciardo lead his team-mate Lando Norris home to a McLaren one-two, giving the Woking-based outfit its first victory since the 2012 Brazilian Grand Prix, as Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas ended up third after making solid progress through the field and then capitalising on the drama that followed the incident that eliminated Hamilton and Verstappen.
This happened at the very end of the pit-stop window, with Hamilton emerging out of the pits and trying to get back in the battle for third with Norris, who stopped a lap earlier.
But Verstappen, the pole-sitter and only behind Hamilton thanks to his very slow pit-stop, shot along the side of his championship rival on the rundown to the Variante Del Rettifilo.
The duo went side-by-side past the Rettifilo’s opening apex and then with Verstappen ending up over the big kerbs leading to the second he was launched into Hamilton’s side – the F1 W12 still close alongside.
Then contact put Verstappen over Hamilton’s rear wing, engine cover, roll-hoop and halo, with both cars stuck in the gravel trap on the outside of the chicane – the Red Bull sitting on the top of the Mercedes.
Both were out of the Grand Prix and the safety car deployed, which set up a thrilling second period of the race.
When the 53 lap Italian GP began, Verstappen and Ricciardo jumped off the line equally, but the McLaren’s acceleration was much better and Ricciardo was able to pull alongside his former Red Bull team-mate on the run to the Variante Del Rettifilo.
With Ricciardo holding the inside line he easily grabbed first place and moved clear, with Hamilton, the sole driver of the leaders running the C2 white side-walled harder compound and not mediums going around the outside of Norris exiting the second sequence of the Variante Del Rettifilo.
As Ricciardo lead the field to the Variante Della Roggia chicane, Hamilton pulled alongside Verstappen and the pairing tangled between the corner’s two apexes – the title contenders making side-to-side wheel-to-wheel contact.
Hamilton then jumped across the kerbs to cut the second apex, which cost the Mercedes driver momentum and allowed Norris to get back into third place on the approach to the first Lesmo corner.
The race was then stabilised from a brief virtual safety car, called to get rid of debris from a collision involving Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz and Alfa Romeo’s Antonio Giovinazzi.
Giovinazzi was attacking the other Ferrari of Charles Leclerc for fourth place into the Variante Della Roggia, but the Italian cut the second apex after being squeezed out of the move and as he rejoined the circuit, he came across the Ferrari of Sainz and was speared into the wall on the outside with the SF21 left with no room in an incident, which wiped off Giovinazzi’s front wing and fell to last in the order, with the Italian being punished with a five-second time penalty from the stewards.
The virtual safety car ended on the second tour at the end of which Ricciardo held a 1.2 second gap over Verstappen, who then posted a fastest lap to make sure he was in DRS range when it was activated for the start of the fourth tour.
The Dutchman was able to stay within a second of the McLaren but could not get any closer for the next stage of the Grand Prix, as the front-two moved clear from Norris, who was under intense pressure from Hamilton.
As Ricciardo and Verstappen lapped in the mid-high 1:26’s bracket compared to Norris, as the Briton eventually dropped back from the rear of the Red Bull – his pace also edging Hamilton back towards Leclerc’s Ferrari.
At the 20th lap, Ricciardo was still 0.9 seconds ahead of Verstappen, and six seconds clear of team-mate Norris, as McLaren and Red Bull were considering when to bring their drivers in to get rid of their C3 mediums, with the duo struggling to keep them alive without getting stuck behind traffic in the chasing field.
As the opening stint went on, Verstappen reported similar struggles with his rears to Ricciardo, and locked up on the 21st lap on the rundown to the Variante Del Rettifilo – as the Dutchman slid past the apex and bumped over the high kerbs behind the second apex.
This meant Ricciardo’s gap increased to 1.4 seconds and the Australian came in at the end of the following tour to switch to the harder tyres.
Red Bull called Verstappen in immediately after on lap 23 and the Dutchman suffered an 11.1 pit-stop due to a very slow right-front change meaning the Dutchman had no chance to take the lead.
The bigger threat for Ricciardo was suddenly from Hamilton, as he overtook Norris with a brave move on the outside of the Variante Della Roggia chicane on the lap 24, but the threat subsided when the Mercedes driver stopped at the end of the following tour and emerged into the collision with Verstappen.
The Grand Prix was stabilised for six laps by the safety car, with its intervention meaning Leclerc and the rest of the field could pit and capitalise on the McLarens.
The order after the restart on lap 31 was Ricciardo, Leclerc, Norris, Red Bull’s Sergio Perez, Sainz and Bottas – who had been making great progress through the field from last place thanks to his Friday evening power-unit component changes.
Bottas was able to get by his slower rivals in a way his Mercedes team-mate Hamilton had struggled to against Norris in the early proceedings of the Grand Prix and came in during the safety car to switch the hards he started the race on for mediums.
Ricciardo dropped Leclerc back at the restart, with Norris fighting the Ferrari into the Variante Del Rettifilo, then getting a solid slipstream into the inside of the sweeping Curva Grande and chasing after his team-mate.
Leclerc was soon overtaken by Perez – controversially when the Mexican jumped over the kerbs at the Variante Della Roggia’s second apex after his move around the outside of the Ferrari did not work – then Bottas, which took the Finn two attempts as Leclerc cut the opening chicane on the 33rd tour, before giving the position back then flying by on the run to the Variante Della Roggia with a great slipstream.
Norris was pressuring team-mate Ricciardo at the front, with Bottas finally getting by Leclerc at turn one a tour after his first attempt failed, the former telling his McLaren team to make Ricciardo up his pace.
Ricciardo done so to show his true pace on the hards to the end, which saw the Australian hit the high 1:25’s and team-mate Norris also was able to reach that in the stage immediately after the safety car, with Bottas the bigger threat once Perez was slapped with a five-second timed penalty for his incident at the Variante Della Roggia chicane with Leclerc.
But as the McLarens pulled away, Bottas’s charge stopped behind Perez – a move around the outside at the Variante Della Roggia chicane’s opening apex failing just when it looked like the Mercedes driver was in-front and he lost momentum exiting the second apex and the Red Bull moved back ahead.
Over the final 20 laps, Ricciardo’s increased pace pulled him comfortably clear of team-mate Norris, who was told “It’s best for us where you are” after asking his McLaren team if the current order was its preference.
Norris was out of the DRS threat for the closing stages of the Grand Prix, with Perez not in a position to threaten McLaren’s one-two – even as though the pack dealt with a second virtual safety car period when Haas F1 Team’s Nikita Mazepin lost drive and parked it on the outside of the Variante Ascari on the 43rd tour.
Compared to the middle-third of proceedings, the final stage was much calmer, with Ricciardo crossing the line to win the Italian GP and his first victory since the 2018 Monaco Grand Prix by 1.747 seconds, and the Australian also posted the fastest lap of the race.
Bottas was promoted to third following Perez’s penalty as he could not find a way passed before the end – with the Red Bull driver finishing in fifth place behind Leclerc – but just in-front of Sainz.
Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll came home seventh whilst Alpine F1 Team’s Fernando Alonso finished eighth.
Williams Racing’s George Russell was ninth and ahead of Alpine’s Esteban Ocon – who earlier in the race picked up a five-second time penalty served at his pit-stop for tangling with Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel (12th in the classification) at the Variante Della Roggia chicane.
The other FW43B Williams entry of Nicholas Latifi finished outside the top ten in 11th place and in-front of the aforementioned Vettel.
Alfa Romeo Racing pairing Antonio Giovinazzi and Robert Kubica were 13th and 14th respectively and Haas F1 Team’s Mick Schumacher brought up the rear in 15th.
Scuderia AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda did not start the race due to a brake issue, with his team-mate Pierre Gasly forced to retire early after going through the pre-start drams on the tours to the grid.
2021 Russian GP Preview – The Situation
Championship rivals Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton come to Russia on the back of another horrendous incident. The Monza collision saw Hamilton thankfully survive with the help of the halo after Verstappen’s RB16B was sent into the air and landing on the top of the Mercedes. The fact remains that Verstappen came out of the Italian Grand Prix weekend with a three-point gain from the Sprint Qualifying Race to lead the Briton by five points heading into Sochi. But Verstappen was given a three-placed grid penalty for this weekend’s Russian GP for his collision with Hamilton by the race stewards.
Due to its massively long run-down to turn two, the Sochi Autodrom is one that allows for overtaking. It is for this reason that the potential power-unit component change and bigger grid drop, for Verstappen could be set for this Grand Prix. It is believed at some-point Hamilton will also have to incur the same grid penalties due to power-train component changes. There is a good chance that Mercedes could stretch out the lifespan of Hamilton’s current power-train pool. However, doing this could mean the risk of a potential mechanical failure, and in a very close championship battle such as this one, losing points at this crucial stage could be very costly and tip it in the other’s favour.
A good thing for the Silver Arrows is that the Sochi Autodrom is well suited to Valtteri Bottas, a circuit he excels at. Adding to this is that the Russian Grand Prix has been Mercedes-dominated territory ever-since the inaugural 2014 event to the Formula 1 calendar and gives them the clear favourites tag heading into the weekend.
But as we know of anything in the 2021 F1 season is that is has been impossible to predict what will happen. If Verstappen is to start at the rear of the field, it will mean Red Bull will use team-mate Sergio Perez in it’s attempt to delay the Silver Arrows’ progress. But the Mexican has struggled as of late and does not head into the Russian GP weekend with the highest of expectations. McLaren too, after their triumph in Monza courtesy of Daniel Ricciardo claiming victory and Lando Norris in second place, could bring themselves into the fight for the win and podium once more.
Also, Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN’s Kimi Raikkonen has confirmed via Instagram that, he will be returning to pilot his Ferrari-powered C41 racer this weekend. The 2007 World Champion has been self-isolating due to since testing positive for coronavirus at the Dutch Grand Prix. His Alfa Romeo team-mate Antonio Giovinazzi is currently under-pressure to keep his seat for the 2022 campaign. The Italian has shown promise in the past few races, but it could spell too late. It is believed that several drivers are in with the shot of taking the seat alongside Bottas. F2 driver Guanyu Zhou is one of the favourites named to take the drive.
Aston Martin Cognizant F1 Team also announced recently that Sebastian Vettel and Lance Stroll have been confirmed as drivers for the 2022 FIA Formula One World Championship season.
Since it’s inaugural race on the Formula 1 calendar in 2014, the Russian Grand Prix has not had many memorable moments. But with this closely-fought championship fight and with rain on the forecast for the entire weekend, this could see Russia as having the potential to deliver a Grand Prix worthy of the 2021 FIA Formula One World Championship season.
Max Verstappen returns to Sochi sitting on top of the World Driver’s Championship with 226.5 points and a 5-point advantage over rival Lewis Hamilton who is second on 221.5 points whilst Valtteri Bottas is third and a further 85.5 behind the Dutchman on 141 points.
Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team return to Russia on top of the Constructors Championship with 362.5 points and an 18-point lead over nearest rivals Red Bull Racing who are second on 344.5 points while McLaren Racing are third on 215 points and a further 147.5 points behind the Silver Arrows.
Click here for the 2021 Formula 1 World Driver’s (Top 10) and Constructors Championship Standings
The Formula 1 VTB Russian Grand Prix 2021 weekend kicks off Friday September 24 with Free Practice 1 and 2, followed by Free Practice 3 and Qualifying Saturday September 25 and the 53 lap Race Sunday September 26.
