Kimi tattoopublished at 12:38 British Summer Time 30 April 2017
Kimi shows off his impressive forearm inking to the crowds in Sochi...
Image source, Getty ImagesSummary
Bottas wins Vettel after overtaking him at start
Vettel 2nd, Raikkonen 3rd, Hamilton 4th
Alonso breaks down on parade lap
Alonso, Palmer, Grosjean, Ricciardo out
Kimi tattoopublished at 12:38 British Summer Time 30 April 2017
Image source, Getty ImagesGet involved #bbcf1published at 12:37 British Summer Time 30 April 2017
Here's Bihan9893's top 10 prediction for the race.
Head here to make yours and share on #bbcf1
Image source, .Postpublished at 12:34 British Summer Time 30 April 2017
Postpublished at 12:33 British Summer Time 30 April 2017
Image source, Getty ImagesOff go Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton to the grid, not before perfecting their 1990s boyband pose though.
Pitlane openpublished at 12:31 British Summer Time 30 April 2017
The pitlane is open and that can mean only one thing - 30 minutes until lights out!
Postpublished at 12:27 British Summer Time 30 April 2017
Andrew Benson
Chief F1 writerFernando Alonso has been on something of a personal PR campaign this season - with good reason, to be fair; he has been driving the wheels off the McLaren-Honda. And he was at it again - in both senses - on Saturday in Russia. Blistering in Q1, Alonso was 0.7secs quicker than team-mate Stoffel Vandoorne with what he said was “by far the best lap I have had here”.
Vandoorne is having a torrid time in his debut season, getting the majority of the engine problems and struggling to get anywhere near Alonso’s pace. The Belgian, of whom great things are expected eventually, will start from the back after a 15-place grid penalty for using too many engine parts, admitted to struggling to get the tyres in the right window. For the race, Alonso witheringly said he expected “more or less what we saw in Bahrain, what we saw in China, in Australia, what we'll see in Spain, in Monaco, Canada…”
He has retired from the first three races…
Postpublished at 12:24 British Summer Time 30 April 2017
Wow.
Sauber to make Honda engine switchpublished at 12:23 British Summer Time 30 April 2017
Image source, Getty ImagesYou are struggling at the back of the grid, so what do you do? Sign yourself up to use Honda engines from 2018, because that's worked well for McLaren...
Sauber are the slowest of the 10 teams in F1 this year and Honda have the least powerful engine.
An odd deal on surface but there's probably plenty going on behind the scenes that will provide logic to the decision.
Postpublished at 12:22 British Summer Time 30 April 2017
Image source, .Only two teams are yet to score a point in 2017. They are Sauber and McLaren.
Top of the drivers' championshippublished at 12:21 British Summer Time 30 April 2017
Image source, .Can Lewis Hamilton close the gap at the top of the drivers' championship?
Seven points currently separate leader Sebastian Vettel and Hamilton.
'One of those weekends'published at 12:14 British Summer Time 30 April 2017
Andrew Benson
Chief F1 writer
Image source, getNot surprisingly, Lewis Hamilton was not at his most expansive when he met the media a couple of hours after qualifying. Being half a second off his team-mate is an unusual experience for him, to say the least. “It’s been one of those weekends,” he said. “Not every weekend goes perfectly smoothly. On Friday we struggled to get the tyres into the temperature. Today we got them into the window and the car was different. We worked towards it but it generally got worse and worse. I just generally struggled in the last sector. I don’t think it was the tyres, it was just balance. Rear end. Big snaps. All those little mistakes were just the rear end being very weak.”
He said he “hoped” for better in the race but was not exactly optimistic. “Well, we’re fourth,” he said. “It’s very hard to overtake. Ferrari's race pace was better than mine (on Friday) and I was more more than 0.5secs off in qualifying. But we will hopefully be in a better position tomorrow after the changes we made today. The car is different night and day now so I will not find out until I am in the race.”
Live on 5 livepublished at 12:11 British Summer Time 30 April 2017
BBC Radio 5 live
Image source, .Just under one hour to go until lights out. You can listen to full race commentary on BBC Radio 5 live from 13:00 BST.
Get involved #bbcf1published at 12:08 British Summer Time 30 April 2017
Joanna Harren: McLaren Tshirt on, kievs for dinner, pouring a Russian vodka (hey it's 5pm somewhere), it must be the Russian GP. Enjoy!
Concern for Verstappen?published at 12:06 British Summer Time 30 April 2017
Max Verstappen loves a fight and he'll get plenty of opportunities to do just that from seventh on the grid.
There does, however, appear to be an issue with his car - a water leak apparently. There's lots of Red Bull mechanics stood around it.
Postpublished at 12:05 British Summer Time 30 April 2017
Andrew Benson
Chief F1 writerWhat explains the advantage Ferrari have had in Russia so far? In a word, tyres, or more specifically the usage thereof on one lap.
On Friday, Mercedes were struggling to get the ultra-soft tyres into the right operating temperature window. Lots of work overnight improved things, but not quite enough for Valtteri Bottas - and nowhere near enough for Lewis Hamilton, more on whom later.
“We made it better but I don’t know if it’s because of the tyres or because of the car,” Bottas said. “For sure they have a very good car and we are struggling to compete with them but we can.”
Bottas’s fastest lap was actually his one in second qualifying - although it would not have improved his position had he set it in Q3. Team boss Toto Wolff pointed out that had Bottas got all his best sectors in one lap, he would have been on pole. But he didn’t and the Ferraris were on the front row instead.
“It’s going to be a long race,” Bottas said, “and, again, difficult to predict but I think it’s going to be close."
Postpublished at 12:03 British Summer Time 30 April 2017
Record in danger?published at 12:00 British Summer Time 30 April 2017
Image source, .Mercedes have won all three previous races in Russia with Lewis Hamilton winning the first two (2014 & 2015) and Nico Rosberg triumphing last year.
The team has also led every racing lap (159 in total) at the circuit.
Postpublished at 11:58 British Summer Time 30 April 2017
We've just had the drivers parade and now there is some very energetic Russian dancing going on on the grid. Some blokes are waving around ACTUAL swords as they leap about. I'd be keeping my distance.
Postpublished at 11:51 British Summer Time 30 April 2017
These two have plenty of respect for each other.
They even have the same taste in trainers.
Postpublished at 11:49 British Summer Time 30 April 2017
Andrew Benson
Chief F1 writer
Image source, Getty ImagesThis pole has been a long time coming for Ferrari - the last one was Singapore in 2015, when Mercedes had their famously bizarrely off-form weekend. Their last front-row lock-out was as long ago as France in 2008, when Kimi Raikkonen led Felipe Massa, and which just goes to show how long this Ferrari revival has been in coming.
“For now we’re full of joy,” Sebastian Vettel said. “We’re very happy that we’re back – at least if you talk about the front row for Saturday and obviously we’ll try and take the momentum into the race.”
Team-mate Raikkonen looked properly competitive for the first time all season, but after setting the pace on the first runs in Q3, his final run did not go so well. “The feeling has been more better this weekend and now we just got some traffic on the out lap on the last set and couldn’t really make the tyres work as well as the first run and it was a bit more tricky,” Raikkonen said.
“It was thereabouts and then I just got it back in the last corner but it didn’t pay off. I’m happier than previous qualifyings but obviously I think we had all the tools to be in the front today but a one-two for the team is not bad.”