Russian GP: Race - Re-Cap & Results

Race - Re-Cap & Results

Now that the Russian GP is over, we only have 3 races left of the 2014 season.

While it's very exciting to get to see a whole new circuit and watch the drivers race, there was a more important matter on everyone's minds. Jules Bianchi. 

Bianchi, who had a horrific crash during the Japanese GP, is still in critical condition. Before the race, all drivers including some reserves, huddled in a circle and shared a moment of silence in support to Jules and his family. Although we were not in Russia, we were also having a moment of silence. We're all hoping and praying that Jules will recover from his injuries.

With all that's been going on, it has been a very tough and emotional week for Marussia especially. They'd decided to run only Max's car in respect of Jules and his family. However, Max did not finish the race. The team decided things didn't look well with the pace and decided to retire the car. 

The only other retirement of the race was Kamui Kobayashi, who was called in and told the car was being retired as well. We've been told it was an issue with the brakes.

The Sochi circuit is stunning. Bright and beautiful, but it has proved to be a very tough circuit for overtaking. There wasn't much wheel-to-wheel battling going on, but some drivers were luckier than others.

Lewis Hamilton gained a lead over his team-mate, Rosberg in just the first lap when Rosberg made a mistake that cost him the win. He had to make an early pit-stop and lost nearly all the positions on the grid. He knew he had to battle back from 20th in order to get on the podium and keep the points gap close.

McLaren did a brilliant job in order to finish P4 and P5. Although, for awhile it looked like Jenson would take that 3rd place, he had to pit and Bottas took the lead over the Brit. There was just not enough time to catch the Fin after that.

Force India was playing a game of catch-up after neither driver advanced to Q3. Hulkenberg also had a 5-place-grid-penalty. Throughout the race, Sergio was told his fuel was critical and that he needed to be careful if he wanted to finish the race at all. Luckily, he did and he got that last Championship Point. He dedicated it to Jules. Force India has now fallen back to 6th in the Constructors standings after McLaren's top 5 finish for both drivers.

Sauber was looking a lot better this weekend, with both cars finishing and I would say they did pretty well. Esteban finished P15. A late pit-stop moved him out of a potential points finish. But he did a fantastic job making the tyres last as long as he did. His team-mate, Adrian finished P16 after a bit of contact with Romain Grosjean. The Lotus driver was handed a penalty for the contact with Adrian and also given 2 penalty points.

Lewis Hamilton won the race and Rosberg indeed fought his way to 2nd. Bottas finishing 3rd. This also won Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team the title in the Constructors Championship. Lewis dedicated his race win to Jules as well. 

In a few weeks, the teams will head to Austin, Texas for the US Grand Prix. Since we're based in both America and Britain, this is one of our home races and we're excited! You can follow us on Twitter @F1Insider78 for our most frequent updates and breaking news!

Here are the final results from the Russian GP.

RACE RESULTS:

1. Lewis Hamilton / Mercedes-Mercedes / Great Britain / + 25 Points

2. Nico Rosberg / Mercedes-Mercedes / Germany / + 18 Points

3. Valtteri Bottas / Williams-Mercedes / Finland / + 15 Points

4. Jenson Button / McLaren-Mercedes / Great Britain / + 12 Points

5. Kevin Magnussen / McLaren-Mercedes / Denmark / + 10 Points

6. Fernando Alonso / Ferrari-Ferrari / Spain / + 8 Points

7. Daniel Ricciardo / Red Bull-Renault / Australia / + 6 Points

8. Sebastian Vettel / Red Bull-Renault / Germany / + 4 Points

9. Kimi Raikkonen / Ferrari-Ferrari / Finland / + 2 Points

10. Sergio Perez / Force India-Mercedes / Mexico / + 1 Point

11. Felipe Massa / Williams-Mercedes / Brazil

12. Nico Hulkenberg / Force India-Mercedes / Germany

13. Jean-Eric Vergne / Toro Rosso-Renault / France

14. Daniil Kvyat / Toro Rosso-Renault / Russia

15. Esteban Gutierrez / Sauber-Ferrari / Mexico

16. Adrian Sutil / Sauber-Ferrari / Germany

17. Romain Grosjean / Lotus-Renault / France

18. Pastor Maldonado / Lotus-Renault / Venezuela 

19. Marcus Ericsson / Caterham-Renault / Sweden

RETIRED - Kamui Kobayashi / Caterham-Renault / Japan / Brake Failure

RETIRED - Max Chilton / Marussia-Ferrari / Great Britain

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Article Written By: Amy Hawk

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