Rod Torque : The Silver Arrows outfox Ferrari in Sochi

Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas swapped places with Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc simply because Mercedes was lucky and had a better strategy.

The Ferrari’s were the faster cars, but the lead they had built up on the Mercs were eaten away by the intervention of the safety car and a tyre decision, which gave them an advantage in the latter part of the race.

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Leclerc was also displeased with teammate Vettel after allowing him to drift past and then disappear into the distance without returning the favour. Fortunately, sense prevailed, and they made up after the race. Unfortunately, Sebastian’s car gave up the ghost when the electric power plant failed, otherwise it would have been 2x2x2 instead.

Max Verstappen was fourth after another wonderful drive from eighth on the grid with teammate Alexander Albon fifth.

The two McLaren Renault’s gave another good account of themselves finishing sixth and eighth with Saintz ahead of Norris this time, sandwiching Sergio Perez into the seventh spot.

Kevin Magnussen in the sole surviving Haas Ferrari finished ninth (Teammate Romain Grosjean did not finish after an early accident) and Nicco Hulkenberg, another sole survivor, placed 10th in his Renault.

Teammate Daniel Ricciardo got a DNF after giving it great guns for the first half of the race.

The Sochi Autodrome is a great place for an F1 race and is very challenging to the drivers. The next race is at the very technical and equally challenging circuit in Suzuka, Japan. The cars have advanced at an unrelenting rate this year, noticeably, Ferrari, Renault, McLaren and Red Bull Honda. It will be very interesting to see if this pace of progress can be maintained for the remaining part of the season. The Suzuka race takes place in a fortnight.

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