Despite Louis Hamilton’s failures, the Mercedes team with Walter Botas at the helm was still victorious in the Russian Grand Prix. The German automotive group has won not only all seven Russian Grand Prix races on the Sochi track, but also in both cases more than 100 years ago under the “Benz” brand, when the race took place in St. Petersburg.
Winners of the Russian Grand Prix
| Year | Route | The winner | The team |
| 1913 | St. Petersburg | Georgijs Suvorins | Benz |
| 1914 | St. Petersburg | Willie Sols | Benz |
| 2014 | Sochi | Luiss Hamiltons | Mercedes |
| 2015 | Sochi | Luiss Hamiltons | Mercedes |
| 2016 | Sochi | Niko Rosbergs | Mercedes |
| 2017 | Sochi | Valteri Botass | Mercedes |
| 2018 | Sochi | Luiss Hamiltons | Mercedes |
| 2019 | Sochi | Luiss Hamiltons | Mercedes |
| 2020 | Sochi | Valteri Botass | Mercedes |
Sochi became the second track in which Botass has won twice – as in the Red Bull track in Austria, he succeeded in 2017 and 2020.
Meanwhile, the Red Bull team achieved its best result so far on the Sochi track, thanks to Max Verstapen’s second place, as its best performance in the first six runs was fourth place last year. Verstapen was also second in the qualification and for the first time the Russian GP started from the Top 6 position.
Red Bull mechanics did a great job – Max Verstapen’s pit stop was the second fastest in F1 history (1.86 seconds), but Alex Albon was serviced in 1.89 seconds. No other team was able to complete the pits in less than 2 seconds.
After the penalties, Louis Hamilton was only third this time, hoping to repeat Michael 91 Schumacher’s 91 victory record in Sochi. Hamilton won the pole position for the fifth time in a row. The record belongs to Airton Sen, who won 8 pole positions in a row in 1988 and 1989, but Hamilton himself managed 7 consecutive stages in 2015.
Numerologists dream: pilot # 44 is 44 points ahead of pilot # 77, while pilot # 33 is 77 points behind pilot # 44 and thus 33 points behind pilot # 77! ????
– Aldis Putniņš (@ F1LV) September 28, 2020
This was Hamilton’s 150th start as part of the Mercedes team. So long cooperation with one team has so far developed only for Schumacher (180 starts in the Ferrari team), Kimi Raikonen (151 starts in the Ferrari team) and David Kulthard (150 starts in the McLaren team).
Serhio Peress made great use of his opportunities and crossed the finish line in fourth place. Peress has scored in each of his seven starts on the Sochi track. However, despite the great result, he climbed to second place in the list among the riders with the most stages without victories. The Mexican has been on the podium 8 times during the 184 stages, but never on the highest rung. Andrea de Caesar remained beige after 208 starts.
In the last four stages (Belgium, Italy, Tuscany, Russia), Lewis Hamilton has scored one point more than Walter Botass, while the third most productive driver is Daniel Richtero with Renault, despite the fact that he does not yet have a pedestal with a bright yellow car. managed to win.
In contrast, Carlos Sainc’s last four stages were more bitter – in Belgium his car was unable to take off, in Tuscany there was an accident on the restart, spending less than a lap in racing mode, but in Sochi the accident followed in the first lap. The Italian GP with a finish in 2nd place was the only time we saw him in action for more than just the first laps in the last month.
Valteri Botas’ victory from the third starting position for the 4th year in a row on the Sochi track prevented him from becoming a pole position winner. The Finnish athlete also scored the fastest lap he achieved for the 15th time in his career – as did Jackie Stewart, Kley Regaconi and Felipe Mas.
The fastest laps of the Russian GP
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