Wednesday, April 27, 2016

2016 Russian Grand Prix preview



The third Grand Prix ever in Russia is up next! I don't remember much from the previous race besides Raikkonen's and Bottas' crash so I will talk about the first race instead.

At the start Nico Rosberg challenged his teammate Lewis Hamilton for the lead but braked too late and had to cut the corner. He was told to let Lewis through and he responded that he would actually want to pit for new tyres. That was his only stop of the race and it seems that it was a good strategy. He was 2nd right after Lewis in the end.

The only man who could have challenged Rosberg for second place was Valtteri Bottas. He actually was 2nd for a long time but got overtaken by Rosberg eventually.

Rosberg overtook Bottas by forcing him off the track and after this maneuver Bottas didn't have the speed to overtake him back.

The race was quite boring and I am not the only one to say so. One of my admins said that same thing right after the race on our Facebook page. If I try to remember something else then the only thing I can think of is Romain Grosjean's stupid mistake with Sauber's Adrian Sutil. He could have avoided that collision for sure but didn't wanna let Sutil through.

The other thing I remember was Ferrari's poor pit crew. What happened during Fernando Alonso's pitstop? That was just awful. First they dropped the car too early and they tried to lift it again but Alonso drove away because they had already given him the green light. I almost laughed at them.


Valtteri Bottas had a great race in 2014 but we shall se if Williams is up for the challenge this year.



Here are some Vital statistics from Formula1.com:

Circuit: Sochi Autodrom

Circuit length: 5.848 km (only Spa and Silverstone are longer)

Circuit width: ranges between 13m to 15m

Number of corners: 18 (12 right, 6 left)

Projected maximum speed: 320 km/h (between Turns 1 and 2)

Projected average speed: 215 km/h 

Projected lap time: 1m 36.9s

Longest straight: 650m (between Turns 1 and 2)

DRS zones: 2 - the first is between Turns 1 and 2 with the detection point prior to Turn 1; the second is between turns 10 and 12 with the detection point prior to Turn 10

Race laps: 53

Race distance: 309.732 km

Fascinating fact: - Sochi Autodrom is the only racing circuit in the world to be located in an Olympic venue, Sochi having played host to the XXII Olympic Winter Games in February this year

Number of Russian drivers to have started at least one Grand Prix: 2 (Vitaly Petrov, Daniil Kvyat)

Best finish by a Russian driver in F1: 2nd (Daniil Kvyat last year)



The last thing are my predictions and they are almost the same as in the previous GP:

Pole position: Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes

Race:

  1. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes
  2. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes
  3. Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari

Fastest lap: Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes

Surprise: Keep an eye on Daniil Kvyat and Daniel Ricciardo.

Come onboard in this GP if you want to be a part of our league!




POINTS: 1st - 3

2nd - 5
3rd - 10

+ possible bonus points


HOW IT WORKS: the aim of the game is simply predict who comes where in the race (top3). A total of 18 points can be won on a race day. For example if you get winner and and 3rd place right but 2nd wrong you get 13 points.

HOW TO SUBMIT YOUR PREDICTIONS: send an email to f14lifeblog@gmail.com or message the Facebook page to submit your predictions. You have until lights out to make them. If you submit them when the race has started they won't count. So be quick!

THE PRIZE: the winner of the league will win themselves a admin place on the F1 4 LIFE page along side AE, JT, MW, MH, JI & PM. If you don't want to be an admin you are welcome to participate anyway.