2018 Japanese Grand Prix preview

Hello again! It's the 30th time Suzuka hosts an F1 event. So many championships have been decided here and so many legendary memories.

Take a look at Ayrton Senna's pole lap from 1988:

My best memories are the Senna-Prost battles in 1988-1990, Häkkinen-Schumacher in 1998-2000 and also Kimi Räikkönen overtaking Fisichella on the last lap and winning the race in 2005.

 

Then of course four years ago Jules Bianchi had his accident which lead to his death a year later. Very sad stuff. Everybody will be thinking about him I am sure. I hope the safety is better this year.

Jules Bianchi

Let's move on to something less sad...

Lewis Hamilton has won the Japanese GP four times. He won last year, three years ago, the year before that and also the very wet Japanese GP back in 2007 only it was at Fuji, not at Suzuka. This track is more important for Hamilton than Fuji because his idol, Ayrton Senna, secured his championship here more than once. Hamilton will be very hungry for this win.

My guess is if Hamilton's car works he will have a perfect weekend and Valtteri Bottas will be right behind him. 

Here are my predictions:

Pole position: Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes

Race:

1. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes
2. Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes
3. Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari

Fastest lap: Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes

Surprise: Charles Leclerc will be phenomenal here! I am sure.

2018 Russian Grand Prix review

I have always said that Valtteri Bottas is the best driver here in Russia and he clearly was this time as well.

At the start Bottas was a clear leader and fighting for second was Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel. Kimi Räikkönen settled for fourth.

Charles Lecler's pass on Kevin Magnussen was fantastic! wow what a move! I hope he will really challenge Vettel next year at Ferrari. I am also very interested how good Sauber will be when Räikkönen switches teams. I am very happy that Räikkönen is going to stay for another two seasons but would like to see him on the podium in the future as well.

On lap 6 both Toro Rossos retire! What a day for them...

9 laps later Vettel gets in front of Hamilton due to Ferrari's race strategy. Usually it's Mercedes who wins Ferrari on race strategies but not this time!

On lap 16 Hamilton overtakes Vettel after a few tries and it was a pretty good maneuver in my opinion.

Almost 10 laps later they asked Bottas to move out of Hamilton's way even though it seemed that Bottas was going to win this race. This just makes me mad! Let them race!! Loosing respect for Hamilton when he needs a helper to win. I mean Hamilton usually beats Bottas but I was sure that Bottas would have been best here! I also knew that they would do the team order so that's why I predicted that Hamilton would win even though Bottas got everything else (pole and fastest lap of the race).

After this team order I was just bored out of my mind... F1 you used to be cool. I still love you but damn...

What are your thoughts?

The last thing are my predictions with results:

Pole position: Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes - CORRECT

Race:

1. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes - CORRECT
2. Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes - CORRECT
3. Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari - WRONG. He was 4th and his teammate Vettel was 3rd.

Fastest lap: Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes - CORRECT

Surprise: Keep an eye on Bottas. He might be very fast this weekend - CORRECT

FORMULA 1 2018 VTB RUSSIAN GRAND PRIX - RACE

FORMULA 1 2018 VTB RUSSIAN GRAND PRIX - QUALIFYING

FORMULA 1 2018 VTB RUSSIAN GRAND PRIX - PRACTICE 2

2018 Russian Grand Prix preview

The fifth Grand Prix ever in Russia is up next! I don't remember much from the previous races 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.

Now Bottas has taken Rosberg's place at Mercedes as we all know and I am sure he will do great this year.

I really hope they don't do any team orders! Can't believe Niki Lauda would approve that.

Valtteri Bottas had a great race in 2014 but we shall see if he 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: 3 (Vitaly Petrov, Daniil Kvyat, Sergei Sirotkin)

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

The last thing are my predictions:

Pole position: Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes

Race:

1. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes
2. Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes
3. Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari

Fastest lap: Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes

Surprise: Keep an eye on Bottas. He might be very fast this weekend.

FORMULA 1 2018 SINGAPORE AIRLINES SINGAPORE GRAND PRIX - RACE