Lewis Hamilton made the most of a difficult weekend by recovering to second place after starting tenth. He did most of the work on the first lap, moving up to fifth place, after which he picked off the Williams drivers and Kimi Raikkonen for second place.
However it wasn’t Hamilton who made the most progress during today’s race but Kevin Magnussen, who rose ten places to claim Renault’s first points of the season.
“I made a great start, but then lost a couple of positions at the first corner because of a spin in front of me,” he said. “After that I was pushing hard for the entire race, made some good overtakes and I had a great pit stop from the crew.”
Two other drivers made up as many places as Hamilton: Fernando Alonso and Marcus Ericsson, the latter having started last. Alonso pointed out that last year his McLaren wouldn’t have been able to hold on to the high position he got into at the start.
“We were lucky in turns two and three on the opening lap,” he said. “Due to those accidents, we were able to gain some places for free.”
“But, as we saw last year, we can make a good start but then not be able to maintain those strong starting positions. This year, it’s different – we have the pace. To finish sixth, and set the fifth-fastest lap, shows that our car is still gaining pace.”
2016 Russian Grand Prix lap chart
The positions of each driver on every lap. Scroll to zoom, drag to pan, click name to highlight, right-click to reset. Toggle drivers using controls below:
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Position change summary
Driver | Start position | Lap one position change | Race position change |
---|---|---|---|
Lewis Hamilton | 10 | 5 | 8 |
Nico Rosberg | 1 | 0 | 0 |
Sebastian Vettel | 7 | ||
Kimi Raikkonen | 3 | 1 | 0 |
Felipe Massa | 4 | 0 | -1 |
Valtteri Bottas | 2 | -1 | -2 |
Daniel Ricciardo | 5 | -9 | -7 |
Daniil Kvyat | 8 | 0 | -7 |
Nico Hulkenberg | 13 | ||
Sergio Perez | 6 | -12 | -3 |
Kevin Magnussen | 17 | 7 | 10 |
Jolyon Palmer | 18 | 7 | 5 |
Max Verstappen | 9 | 3 | |
Carlos Sainz Jnr | 11 | -1 | 0 |
Marcus Ericsson | 22 | 5 | 8 |
Felipe Nasr | 19 | 6 | 3 |
Fernando Alonso | 14 | 7 | 8 |
Jenson Button | 12 | -3 | 2 |
Pascal Wehrlein | 20 | 4 | 2 |
Rio Haryanto | 21 | ||
Romain Grosjean | 15 | 6 | 7 |
Esteban Gutierrez | 16 | -3 | -1 |
2016 Russian Grand Prix race chart
The gaps between each driver on every lap compared to the leader’s average lap time. Very large gaps omitted. Scroll to zoom, drag to pan and right-click to reset. Toggle drivers using controls below:
2016 Russian Grand Prix
- Another weak race shows Sochi is the new Valencia
- Magnussen beats grand slam Rosberg for Driver of the Weekend
- 2016 Russian Grand Prix team radio transcript
- 2016 Russian Grand Prix Predictions Championship results
- Top ten pictures from the 2016 Russian Grand Prix
Adam Blocker (@blockwall2)
1st May 2016, 17:23
What happened to Wehrlein’s pace?
sm
1st May 2016, 18:32
Wehrlein had a botched pit stop towards the end if I recall correctly
Arahones
1st May 2016, 19:50
A shame about Verstappen, would been an easy 6 and perhaps a 5 looking at Massa’s chart and Verstappen outstanding tiremanagement. He got lucky at the start though, he lost at least places to Hulk, Sainz and both McLarens.
banana
2nd May 2016, 11:20
I wouldn’t take Massa’s chart for face value. He probably wouldn’t have pitted a second time if Verstappen hadn’t retired.