Eight
months on from hosting the Winter Olympics, Sochi hosted the first Russian Formula
One Grand Prix amidst an incredibly sad and difficult time for the F1
community. Just days after Jules Bianchi’s horrific accident in Suzuka, and
with the young Frenchman still critical in hospital, the red carpet was rolled
out for the late-arriving Vladimir Putin and his latest vanity project.
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| #ForzaJules Source: Marussia (Facebook) |
Mercedes
duly clinched the World Constructors’ Championship as Lewis Hamilton won the
race with incredible ease. He literally coasted his way around the Olympic Park
on Sunday to extend his lead in the championship to seventeen points while
saving his car – not even attempting to set the FL and complete the Grand
Chelem (a sign of tremendous maturity). Congratulations to Mercedes and all
those in Brackley, Brixworth and beyond – and to Ross Brawn as well.
Also
in Sochi, Jolyon Palmer clinched the GP2 title. Congratulations to JP but it
must be said that this was his fourth
year in the series (with the likes of Davide Valsecchi and Fabio Leimer the
past two champions). The quality of the GP2 field has decreased massively in
recent years. Rookie Stoffel Vandoorne is the standout driver in the series –
and by a million miles.
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| 2014 World Constructors Champions Source: Mercedes AMG Petronas (Facebook) |
1. Lewis Hamilton (no change)
Four wins in a row for the second
time this season, and nine overall, his 31st career victory has seen
him equal the British record. He has well and truly seized the momentum at
Mercedes after a mid-season (mainly reliability-afflicted) wobble.
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| Dominant from #44 Source: Mercedes AMG Petronas (Facebook) |
2. Valtteri Bottas (up two spots)
Bottas easily clinched his fifth
podium of the season after an excellent performance. Best-of-the-rest in both quali
and the race – and almost clinching a front-row grid spot before a last corner
drift, the young Finn now finds himself fourth in the standings after a superb
sophomore season.
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| Bottas was the best of the rest Source: Williams F1 Team (Facebook) |
3. Jules Bianchi (no change)
#ForzaJules – Your place in the F1 Power Rankings is awaiting
your return.
=4. Daniil Kvyat (no change) & Daniel Ricciardo (down two
spots)
Team-mates for next season, Kvyat
thrilled his home crowd to take a stunning career-best P5 on the grid,
alongside Ricciardo. However, both drivers squandered their row three spots
with poor opening laps and would never recover. Kvyat would spend the majority
of the race desperately saving fuel to a massively disappointing fourteenth
while Ricciardo finished seventh after following home Fernando Alonso for the
second half of the race.
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| Kvyat was star of the show in quali with a superb P5 Source: Scuderia Toro Rosso (Facebook) |
6. Sergio Pérez (up one spot)
Checo scored points for the fifth
consecutive race despite having Gianpiero Lambiase repeatedly warning him about
his critical fuel situation. Bearing this in mind, how he managed to hold off
Felipe Massa in the second half of the race is nothing short of extraordinary.
He’s also beaten his team-mate in four of the last five races. Despite this,
Pérez slipped behind Kevin Magnussen in the standings as McLaren also jumped
Force India. The battle will recommence in Austin.
7. Nico Rosberg (up two spots)
Credit where it’s due: Rosberg
messed up big time into Turn 2 but his pace thereafter was nothing short of
extraordinary as he ran all-but-one lap on the same set of tyres. Yes, Mercedes
had the fastest car by absolute miles but it was still a crucial recovery
performance.
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| The difference. Source: Getty Images |
8. Fernando Alonso (up two spots)
A fairly lacklustre effort in
qualifying was overcome with a spectacular opening lap that saw Alonso nearly
overtake Jenson Button. Thereafter, once the race settled down, it became
evident that the Ferrari was no match for McLaren. A front jack failure didn’t
help during his pit-stop but the Spaniard accepted he probably wouldn’t have
beaten Magnussen in any case.
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| Source: Scuderia Ferrari (Facebook) |
=9. Sebastian Vettel (down three spots) & Kevin Magnussen (up
one spot)
Having dropped the bombshell in
Japan that he’ll be leaving Red Bull Racing at the end of the season, Vettel
managed to secure his second straight podium last weekend. One week later and
it was a Q2 exit and P8 on Sunday – the lowest position he has finished in 53
Grand Prix, going back to Malaysia 2012 (he was classified 22nd
in Italy that same season but did not finish the race). Vettel has finished
eighth or lower on only four occasions for RBR (Italy 09, Belgium 10).
K-Mag rocketed off the line and
gained the five places he lost due to his gearbox penalty by the second lap.
Some questionable use of track limits on the opening lap combined with a
thrilling battle with JEV saw him emerge P5, a position he would hold till the
checkered flag.
11. Jenson Button (up four spots)
A timely pair of top-five finishes
has seen JB rise back up the F1 Power Rankings. Crucially, it may just
have saved his seat at McLaren for next season.
12. Felipe Massa (down one spot)
Oh Felipe… It’s a case of “what
might have been” after a fuel pressure problem knocked him in Q1 and a rather
bizarre strategy saw him two-stop his way to a disappointing eleventh after
twice getting stuck behind Pérez. Williams had the second fastest car in Russia
and Massa could still have recovered to score strongly using the same strategy
as Rosberg but another bizarre call with starting on medium tyres then pitting
on lap one nullified any hope of that.
13. Jean-Éric Vergne (down one spot)
It appears as if the end is nigh
for JEV. With Vettel departing the senior team, Kvyat was the chosen one and
not the more experienced Frenchman. Vergne’s Japanese weekend will live long in
his memory for all the wrong reasons: the anger at being tossed away by Helmut
Marko followed by the complete devastation of his compatriot’s crash. JEV
picked up more points in Suzuka and made a scintillating start in Sochi (after
a poor quali) to run P5 but he could not maintain the position as STR struggled
with fuel consumption.
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| Courtesy of Vergne, all drivers and cars sported these lovely stickers Source: Jean-Éric Vergne (Facebook) |
14. Kimi Räikkönen (down one spot)
Not much to report on the Kimster.
He spent most of the race trying to recover from a poor start and wound up a rather
lacklustre ninth – and some way off Alonso.
15. Nico Hülkenberg (down one spot)
Speaking of lacklustre, The Hulk
continued his second-half season slump with a nondescript twelfth-place finish.
A decent start saw him claw back his gearbox penalty but he spent the first
half of the race following Esteban Gutiérrez. He then spent the second half of
the race behind his team-mate and Felipe Massa. Perhaps worst of all for Nico
is that his name is suspiciously absent from the driver merry-go-round taking
place.
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| It was another disappointing weekend for The Hulk Source: Sahara Force India (Facebook) |
16. Esteban Gutiérrez (up two spots)
This appeared to be one of Sauber’s
better chances to score a point or two. A high SC probability coupled with a
car that seemed quicker than in recent races propelled both cars into Q2 and
Stevie G ran strongly in the first half of the race. Ultimately the team
gambled on an SC and kept the Mexican out on track in vain and he eventually
tumbled down the order.
17. Romain Grosjean (up one spot)
Lotus deputy team principal
Federico Gastaldi said it all about the team’s weekend: “nothing to write home
about.”
18. Marcus Ericsson (up four spots) & 19. Kamui Kobayashi (down
three spots)
Mixed weekend for the Caterham
duo. Ericsson enjoyed his best weekend in F1 to date, missing out on Q2 by just
0.1secs and ran strongly in the first half of the race. KK, meanwhile, was some
way off his team-mate in both quali and the race before the team retired him for
no apparent reason…
20. Pastor Maldonado (no change)
His team radio in quali said it
all: “absolute shambles.”
21. Adrian Sutil (no change)
You have to feel for Sutil and what
he witnessed at the Dunlop Curve. He had a lousy time in Sochi and was comfortably
outperformed by Stevie G.
22. Max Chilton (no change)
Just an unbelievably difficult
weekend for Max and the team. #ForzaJules
23. André Lotterer (down four spots)
Lotterer is a better driver than
some of those above him, but he finally slips to the foot of the F1 Power
Rankings as it’s now been four races since his one-off appearance.
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| Sochi provided a stunning backdrop and a superb Turn 3 Source: Scuderia Toro Rosso (Facebook) |
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