2016 Russian Grand Prix grid

2016 Russian Grand Prix

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Row 11. Nico Rosberg 1’35.417
Mercedes
2. Valtteri Bottas 1’36.536
Williams
Row 23. Kimi Raikkonen 1’36.663
Ferrari
4. Felipe Massa 1’37.016
Williams
Row 35. Daniel Ricciardo 1’37.125
Red Bull
6. Sergio Perez 1’37.212
Force India
Row 47. Sebastian Vettel* 1’36.123
Ferrari
8. Daniil Kvyat 1’37.459
Red Bull
Row 59. Max Verstappen 1’37.583
Toro Rosso
10. Lewis Hamilton No time
Mercedes
Row 611. Carlos Sainz Jnr 1’37.652
Toro Rosso
12. Jenson Button 1’37.701
McLaren
Row 713. Nico Hulkenberg 1’37.771
Force India
14. Fernando Alonso 1’37.807
McLaren
Row 815. Romain Grosjean 1’38.055
Haas
16. Esteban Gutierrez 1’38.115
Haas
Row 917. Kevin Magnussen 1’38.914
Renault
18. Jolyon Palmer 1’39.009
Renault
Row 1019. Felipe Nasr 1’39.018
Sauber
20. Pascal Wehrlein 1’39.399
Manor
Row 1121. Rio Haryanto 1’39.463
Manor
22. Marcus Ericsson 1’39.519
Sauber

*Five-place penalty for gearbox change

View grid in eighties mode (plays sound)

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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26 comments on “2016 Russian Grand Prix grid”

  1. Today was rather boring but with Vettel and Hamilton out of place we’ll see some overtakes in the first three or four laps untill they run third and fourth…

  2. .. And so, what happened to Lewis? It was somewhar boring. the mcLarens not making it into q3, Vettel with his penalty, Hamilton 10th, the red bulls dead slow and the ferraris 0.7 seconds behind. And we will still not see a decent battle between Rosberg and Hamilton.

  3. Hamilton’s luck so far has been unbelievably bad. Rosberg on the other hand is surely enjoying his great luck at the moment. If he loses the championship from this position, then I literally have no words…
    … and Raikkonen needs to retire.

    1. Rosberg is surely on to a great season start, but but. Many races and many points remain up for grabs. Just ask Hamilton how it is to lead most of the season, just to loose the WDC in the very last race to a driver who never lead the entire season until after the result of the very last race…
      Hamilton clearly have some eager young guns just a head of him at tomorrow start. Will be interesting to see them battle it out, though expect the extra grunt in the Mercedes makes the outcome quite predictable.

      Alonso may still be scratching his head on why he changed to McLaren after seeing the Ferraris far ahead again today.

      Btw, was that the hugely improved Renault engine we saw today?
      Nough said…

      1. Do the maths and tell me that again with a straight face. Six point difference between first and second. Now assume Merc will only finish one-two. How many races to catch up the points deficit? That’s right, six races. Now factor in that Lewis’ car has used more components than Rosberg, so much so we can expect further penalties later this year. Still think the year is open? I don’t.

        1. Frantonm, I recommend you go back to school and do the math again :) 25-18=7!

  4. More reliability issues for Hamilton. I was looking forward to the Q3 battle between Hamilton and Rosberg. Let’s see how this plays out in the race. Mercedes and Ferrari need to get reliability in order if they want to give Vettel and Hamilton to fight for the championship. I’d be happy if Lewis makes it to the podium.

  5. Jense ahead of Nando.
    Bottas finally deals with Massa.
    Ferrari as far away as ever.
    Can’t believe Merc did NOT fix the winding, but kudos for admitting that, at least.

    1. Cant recall Button as a strong qualifier, but he surely seem to beat Alonso to it very frequently.
      What happened to the old Alonso, who just by his presence made the car go 0.5 sec faster?

      Strange how we see the flamboyant and typically faster Hamilton and Alonso struggle vs their own low-key teammates this season.

      1. Hamilton struggling against his teammate? I remember him being on pole for the first two races and even though he didn’t win them he surely lost it at the start and not because he doesn’t have the pace. You know what happened last race and today.

        And I don’t know why you consider Button low key. Sure not so quick in quali but he generally is up with the top in terms of race pace, and moreover I think when both the McLaren’s haven’t suffered issues it’s Alonso who has performed better of the two in their time together so far.

      2. If I remember correctly, this is the 1st race this season Alonso has qualified behind Button, so you might be talking up non existent facts.

        I really don’t think the mclaren teammate rivalry is even serious right now. Both drivers are just hoping the team gets it’s act together, and are least concerned about beating each other.

  6. OmarRoncal - Go Seb!!! (@)
    30th April 2016, 14:32

    80s mode is so good!!!

    1. @omarr-pepper Glad you like it!

      1. @keithcollantine I don’t know if it would be fitting with the style, but the number of the place in which each driver will start would be helpful.

    2. I love it, too!

    3. It’s indeed fantastic.

  7. Markku Virtanen
    30th April 2016, 14:44

    Three drivers starting in front tomorrow have Finnish passport!

    1. Think how different the statistics would be if he raced with it!

  8. Sviatoslav (@)
    30th April 2016, 16:47

    What is happening to Hulk? This is so depressing to see that he constantly underperforms. But I recall his great fights with such racers as Hamilton, Webber, Alonso in Korea, for instance. Then, he was flawless. He was able to keep up with McLaren in Interlagos several years ago to at least try winning a race. Last year, he was able to win a 24-hours race immediately.
    This is why everyone hails Perez (who gets lucky podiums from time to time, like he did last year in Russia), but forgets about Hulk.

    1. I partially agree. He was known for his consistent quali pace. If his car could make it in to Q3, he’d be there 9 out of 10 timez. Recently, he hasn’t been pulling out anything spectacular and has looked inconsistent. I would still rate him higher than Perez though, who although has gotten a few podiums on alternate strategies, isn’t consistent enough, and can be really terrible on some given days

  9. Another Mercedes pole I see, I had an idea the other day about how to mix up the grid like Bernie seems determined on doing yet still keep the competition fair and interesting.

    Basically whoever finished 11th in the last race starts first (sounds crazy but hear me out).

    So under my idea there would be 2 races per a weekend, one on Saturday afternoon and one on Sunday, these races are both worth the same points under the current scoring system. Grid order is determined by what position a driver finished in the last race in the following manner:

    Pole position, Race result 11th
    2nd position, Race result 12th
    3rd postion, Race result 13th
    … and so on
    11th position, Race result 21st
    12th position, Race result 22nd
    13th position, Race result 10th
    14th position, Race result 9th
    15th position, Race result 8th
    …and so on
    21st Position, Race result 2nd
    22nd Position, Race result 1st

    This way no matter what position a driver is racing for it is always important (whether it be for championship points or grid position), there is no incentive to deliberately come last, like is the problem with reverse grids.

    The only issue with my system is a driver may deliberately give up 10th position to start at pole in the next race, but if they want to sacrifice a championship point to start pole then that is a strategic decision they can make.

    For the first race of the season grid order will be determined by practice 3 times (which effectively becomes an initial qualifying session, perhaps under 2015 rules).

    There is probably some problem I’m not thinking of but the more I think about this system the more it makes sense.

    1. The only issue with my system is a driver may deliberately give up 10th position to start at pole in the next race, but if they want to sacrifice a championship point to start pole then that is a strategic decision they can make.

      For me this is why the idea is a complete non-starter. It definitely would happen, there’s precedent for it from other championships (e.g. the BTCC a few years ago).

      That and there’s nothing wrong with the current arrangement.

      1. I agree there is nothing much wrong with the current arrangement, I guess I was just thinking if F1 must try something, elimination qualifying was the worst. Thanks for the feedback, I appreciate your view on the matter.

  10. Just came here to say that the 80’s grid is A-W-E-S-O-M-E!!!

Comments are closed.