2017 Russian Grand Prix

[Nitrodaze]

Bottas was man of the race in my opinion. Storming into the lead from third place against what was a really fast Ferrari was the sort of thing one would expect from Hamilton. His first F1 win which was long coming in my opinion. Apart from the excitement of a potential Vettel overtake on Bottas which never happened ofcourse, the Russian GP was the most boring race of the season so far.

Kimi faded as Bottas and Vettel streaked away. Hamilton got the dodgy car this weekend, hence suffered all sorts of heating problems. You can tell Hammy is very downcast about the state of the Mercedes relative to the Ferrari Verstapenn did well to be best of the rest but he was very quiet all through this race. It was a great day for force India as they out scored the Williams and Renault. Consolidating their forth position in the constructors championship.

The Williams race strategy really squandered all the hard work of Massa. I think a question mark is beginning to arise about the Lance Stroll experiment. It just seems to be costing Williams more than is reasonable. Having two drivers of Massa's caliber would certainly have given Williams a better constructors position than they are attaining at the moment. They have a great car for a change and it is not attaining its full potential. I suppose one would ask if the unattained constructors money is out wayed by the money that Stroll brings to the table. If not, it would make sense to cut him lose as he is clearly struggling to measure up to other rookies on the grid. Like Ocon in particular.

Some may say the Honda engine is only fit for a lawnmower, but Sauber has signed up to have it for 2018. That Honda engine is clearly faster than the 2016 Ferrari Engine. Hence there is clear progress, but plagued with all manner of gremlins. At least, we can say that Honda is committed to F1 for the next few years.

Two drivers that is also not quite measuring up are Palmer and Magnussen. Palmer just seem to be in a crash rot at the moment. With Hulkenburg finishing 8th, Renault would dearly preferred Palmer to finish 9th or 10th. Magnussen just seem to make avoidable mistakes that prevents him from reaching his true potential.

What can we say about Ricciado? He is just so unlucky in this phase of the year. He must be very frustrated.