The Russian Grand Prix 2017 was the 4th round of the 2017 F1 season, and took place at the Sochi Autodrom in Sochi, Russia, on April 30th.
Valtteri Bottas won the race after starting in the 3rd position, followed by Sebastian Vettel, who originally had the pole position, and Kimi Räikkönen completing the podium.
Final results
Race evolution
Pit Stops
There were a total of 20 pit stops during the race.
The most popular pit stop windows were:
- Laps 20-21: 5 stops
- Laps 26-27: 4 stops
The fastest pit stop was Valtteri Bottas's, stopping the clock at 29.356 seconds during his pit stop on lap 27, while the slowest one was was Kevin Magnussen's, who stopped the clock at 36.559 seconds, 7.203 seconds slower than Bottas, during his pit stop on lap 21.
These times include the time the driver spent going through the pit lane, as well as the actual time he stopped for the mechanics to work on his car.
Strategy
We saw a variety of options in terms of pit stop strategies during this race, however most drivers chose a 1 stop. Only Stoffel Vandoorne, Marcus Ericsson, Pascal Wehrlein and Felipe Massa decided to try something different with a 2 stops strategy.
The race winner, Valtteri Bottas, was on a 1 stop strategy.
1 stop
-
-Kevin Magnussen
-
-Daniil Kvyat
-
4Carlos Sainz
-
3Esteban Ocon
-
-Lance Stroll
-
2Valtteri Bottas
-
3Sergio Pérez
-
1Kimi Räikkönen
-
2Max Verstappen
-
-Lewis Hamilton
-
1Sebastian Vettel
-
-Nico Hülkenberg
2 stops
-
6Stoffel Vandoorne
-
3Marcus Ericsson
-
1Pascal Wehrlein
-
3Felipe Massa
Excluding those drivers who could not finish the race, those on a 1 stop strategy lost an average of 1 positions, while those on a 2 stops strategy gained 1.75 positions on average.
This difference in possitions gained, together with a deeper nalaysis of each strategy, reinforces the conclusion that a 2 stops strategy was the best option, even if Valtteri Bottas managed to win the race making 1 stop.
It is important to note that this might not always be the case for other races held at the Sochi Autodrom, as the conditions might change from year to year, in terms of wheel degradation, accidents, safety cars, etc.
Incidents
There were some incidents during the race, with 4 drivers who didn't manage to cross the finish line.
These included, Daniel Ricciardo, who saw the breaks of the car give up on lap 5, Jolyon Palmer, and Romain Grosjean, both retired dure to damage caused by a collision with other cars, and Fernando Alonso, who had a power unit failure on lap 0.
Brakes
-
Daniel RicciardoLap 5
Collision
-
Jolyon PalmerLap 0
-
Romain GrosjeanLap 0
Power Unit
-
Fernando AlonsoLap 0
Qualifying
Sebastian Vettel managed to get the pole position by 0.059 seconds and a final lipe time of 1:33.194. Kimi Räikkönen was right behind him, helping Ferrari score a one-two and monopolize the first line of the grid.
The second line fo the grid was dominated by Mercedes, with Valtteri Bottas in third position, and Lewis Hamilton in fourth.
Track evolution
As the qualifying session went on, with the track rubbering in, and the drivers testing the limits of the grip of their cars, the times per lap dropped, and 12 out of the 15 drivers that took place in Q2 were able to improve their times.
The Q3 is the time were all the remaining drivers put all their cards on the table, even those with a superior car who might have been managing their times in Q1 and Q2 push their cars to the limit in Q3. It therefore comes as no surprise that 7 out of the 10 drivers that took place in Q3 were able to improve their times.