Sundaram Ramaswami
Sochi is not a track which generates a lot of oohs and aahs, and despite Lewis Hamilton copping a 10-second penalty for a practice start infringement, the race was largely a decent one. Valterri Bottas made hay by emerging victorious at one of his favourite tracks to keep his championship hopes alive, while Max Verstappen collected yet another podium trophy.
Here are all the numbers from the 2020 Russian GP –
- This was the sixth time in ten races that Hamilton, Bottas and Verstappen have shared the podium together.
- Mercedes have won all of the Grands Prix held in Russia. This includes the two pre-war races held in 1913 and 1914 at Saint Petersburg.
- Pole position is of little importance at Sochi. The pole-sitter has only won two of the seven Grands Prix here, the last one being Nico Rosberg in 2016.
- Valtteri Bottas has finished on the podium at every Russian GP since moving to Mercedes in 2017.
- The Russian GP has been won twice by the driver starting third on the grid, also the furthest back at the venue. On both occasions, it was Valtteri Bottas (2017 & 2020).
- This was the first-ever podium for Red Bull Racing at Sochi since the track made its F1 debut in 2014.
- Max Verstappen has ended up on the podium in each of the last 10 races that he’s finished, starting from 2019 United States Grand Prix.
- Alex Albon is currently on a 24-race classification streak. The last and only time he failed to classify in a race was in Canada 2019.
- Sergio Perez finished 4th in Russia. This was his best race finish since the 2018 Azerbaijan GP where he finished on the podium.
- McLaren failed to score any points in the race, due to Carlos Sainz’s early retirement and Lando Norris’ P15 finish. This was their first non-points finish since Mexico 2019.
- The Russian Grand Prix was Sebastian Vettel’s 250th race start.
- Ferrari had appeared on the podium at each of the last five Russian GPs, a streak which ended yesterday with a best finish of 6th by Charles Leclerc.
- The Italian team scored 8 points yesterday, their worst points finish at Sochi.
- Kimi Raikkonen equalled Rubens Barrichello’s tally of 322 race starts at Sochi. Raikkonen is slated to end the year with 330 race starts to his name.
- Antonio Giovinazzi finished 11th in the race, his best finish since the Austrian GP this year.
