F1: Russian GP Post Qualifying and Practice‏

Friday’s practice sessions were both dominated by Jules Bianchi, all drivers still very raw from the accident that happened last weekend. Changes are afoot though, talk from the FIA of forcing cars to go on the pit lane limiter through double waved yellow flags, also seems to be the most viable and popular way of ensuring cars are doing safe speeds when they should be. Expect to hear more of this ‘Virtual Safety Car’ Meanwhile, as a mark of support to Jules and his family, Marussia confirmed that after entering reserve driver Alexander Rossi for this weekend that they would only run the one car of Max Chilton; with Bianchi’s car being prepared, but left on stand in the garage, with Bianchi’s name still on the car.

FP1 had a slow start as drivers took their time to bed the circuit in. This was after all the first time these drivers had physically taken their F1 cars around the Olympic Park circuit. Nico Rosberg set an early pace, a lap of 1.49 which was soon beaten by Button. Mclaren ended up being the surprise package of Friday, their pace looked good and was only bettered in real terms by the works Mercedes team. Despite Jenson Button spinning on the exit of turn eight, he finished FP1 3rd and Kevin Magnussen in the other Mclaren finished 5th. By midway through the session, Mercedes had asserted themselves as the top one-two, but it wasn’t simple for them. Hamilton complained on the radio questioning vibration in the car, as his team mate saw various late braking sent him over kerbs and off the track. A ‘creative’ setup that didn’t really work; but kudos to Nico – he has to try something to get back at Lewis this weekend.

Further down the field it was mainly steady going for the midfield and back runners, as solidarity in practice could teach some teams something that gives them the jump over the rest of the tight midfield. Sauber decided to put Russian driver Sergey Sorotkin in Esteban Gutierrez’s car and Merhi took Kobayashi’s Caterham; who made a very bizarre decision to wait until the track had rubbered in to get some serious running going. To some, it looks as though they’re making savings financially by cutting time on the track. But if you cut time on the track during practices – you are going to be at a massive disadvantage for the rest of the weekend. It’s a defeatist attitude in a sport where you should never give up. Is this the beginning of the end for the Norfolk based Caterham team?

FP2 started much as FP1 had finished, Romain Grosjean complaining about the setup of his Lotus, after hearing him state that he had no power in FP1. A small battle was waged for the top time with both Mclarens and Nico Rosberg swapping lap after lap as the cars got faster, the track gained grip and the drivers drew more confidence from their machines. This carried on for a little while before Lewis Hamilton became the first driver to put in a lap under 1.40sec. An absolute stunner of a lap that left him almost a second clear of the chasing pack. Daniil Kvyat at his home race had made the call to pit after problems with his car. it proved to be the right decision as he went out, and went fast, taking fourth position. His predecessor at Red Bull, Sebastian Vettel, was also on the radio telling his long-serving engineer ‘Rocky’ that he had no speed on the straights. Rocky discarded this as a headwind, much to Vettel’s chagrin. Perhaps that relationship has gone a bit cold since Vettel announced his departure?  Ricciardo in the other Red Bull had a slow but steady session before he stopped out on track with a few minutes remaining, simply stating “I think she’s gone” which brought out the red flag. Poor Red Bull session in total, both cars finished 9th and 13th. With seconds remaining Nico Rosberg was on a flyer hoping to usurp Lewis Hamilton at the top of the leaderboard, but a mistake toward the end of his lap meant he stayed in fourth place.

Saturday’s FP3 again picked up where the last session left off. Hamilton going fastest early on with Rosberg four tenths adrift. All cars went out quite early on, trying to make the most of the one hour session. The only one who waited for a while was the laid-back Danny Ricciardo. Another Red Flag was brought out with 42 minutes remaining, as Kevin Magnussen stopped out on track. Replays showed why; what looked like a suspension failure followed by some excellent steering wheel wrestling by Magnussen prevented his car from going into the wall. Mclaren were less successful in this session, compared to Friday. Jenson Button could only manage thirteenth by the end of the session. Kimi Raikkonen was first to go out on a qualifying simulation, but the Ferrari team didn’t quite seem to have the pace, until Fernando Alonso went fourth by the end of the session. Hamilton set another stunning lap, going 1.4 seconds clear of Rosberg, and then Bottas went second before Hamilton, on another faster lap, spun at the penultimate corner and crossed the track to enter the pit lane. Rosberg managed to go faster than Bottas, but had to settle for second again, behind Hamilton.