George Russell edges closer to the title with a win in Sochi; only Albon has a chance to beat him as Norris falls out of contention.
Alessio Lorandi got a little too excited of his first front row start, and dropped to fourth before running very wide at turn 2 and re-joining in third place, behind Latifi. Then at turn 4 he miscalculated his braking again and hit the back of the DAMS, sending it into a spin and causing both to retire. Russell and Camara thus took the podium positions, followed by Fuoco, Albon and de Vries.
After a Safety Car period to clean up the two stranded cars, Russell pushed hard and overtook Fukuzumi on lap 5 after the DRS zone. It took Camara two more laps to do the same, while Albon, de Vries and Markelov passed Fuoco, the Russian then overtaking the Dutchman one corner later. Russell was already protected by a solid margin. Albon, Markelov and de Vries passed Fukuzumi before lap ten, when Norris’ race was definitively ruined by a ten second stop & go penalty: on the formation lap the Briton had almost stalled and left the grid last, a few seconds after Gelael. He was thus in 20th place when he crossed the Safety Car line and then took his grid slot of 19th. This incorrect placement across the Safety Car line was a breach of regulations.
On lap 11, while most engineers started putting their hands out of the pit wall to see if it was raining, Kari proved it was: he ran on the kerb at turn 4 and spun across the track, taking irreversible damage while hitting the barriers. The double waved yellows and the increasing rain brought lap times fifteen seconds up, and Aitken was another victim one lap later: he spun at the same spot and stalled. As he was right in the middle of the track, a VSC period was necessary to allow the marshals to clear the circuit.
At the end of the VSC period on lap 13, every front-runner pitted, except for the Charouz pair and Ghiotto. The Italian had to wait an extra lap for his team mate Merhi to pit, while the Czech cars were on a different plan. The rain did not last long but it wetted the track a lot. On lap fifteen Russell was already past Deletraz and one lap later he breezed past Fuoco on the outside of turn 3. Fuoco’s continued arguments over the radio claiming there was too much water and that it was “impossible” to drive in those conditions, were useless: all Charouz could hope for was that when it stopped raining their drivers could have enough of a pace advantage to recover the lost positions.
Meanwhile, Norris overtook Maini in the lower positions but was clipped by the Indian. He suffered a puncture and retired on track, parking his car near a marshal point. With Russell leading, he was bound to be mathematically out of contention. And indeed he was, as the Briton sealed a second consecutive sprint win ahead of Camara and Albon, who can still win the title but with only a pair of combinations of results.
Charouz’s hopes faded away as their drivers never recovered and Fuoco lost the last point to Boccolacci. Fukuzumi was seventh, ahead of him Merhi, and behind the podium finishers de Vries had the upper hand on Markelov.
UPDATE: Morandi has been handed a five position grid penalty for causing a collision with Latifi, while Kari has been handed a three position grid penalty for leaving the track and gaining an advantage on lap 1.
Race Results
| Pos. | Driver | Team | Gap | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | George Russell | ART | 21 laps | 15 + 2 |
| 2 | Sergio Sette Camara | Carlin | +7.438 | 12 |
| 3 | Alexander Albon | DAMS | +8.216 | 10 |
| 4 | Nyck de Vries | Prema | +19.132 | 8 |
| 5 | Artem Markelov | Russian Time | +22.258 | 6 |
| 6 | Roberto Merhi | Campos | +27.778 | 4 |
| 7 | Nirei Fukuzumi | Arden | +30.852 | 2 |
| 8 | Dorian Boccolacci | MP Motorsport | +35.190 | 1 |
| 9 | Antonio Fuoco | Charouz | +39.981 | |
| 10 | Maximilian Günther | Arden | +47.076 | |
| 11 | Tadasuke Makino | Russian Time | +50.708 | |
| 12 | Sean Gelael | Prema | +53.110 | |
| 13 | Louis Deletraz | Charouz | +53.404 | |
| 14 | Luca Ghiotto | Campos | +53.553 | |
| 15* | Arjun Maini | Trident | +1:52.002 | |
| Ret | Lando Norris | Carlin | +5 laps | |
| Ret | Jack Aitken | ART | +10 laps | |
| Ret | Niko Kari | MP Motorsport | +11 laps | |
| Ret | Nicholas Latifi | DAMS | +21 laps | |
| Ret | Alessio Lorandi | Trident | +21 laps |
*NOTE: Maini received a ten second time penalty for causing a collision with Norris.
Fastest lap
| Pos. | Driver | Team | Fastest lap | Lap |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | George Russell | ART | 1:50.501 | 5 |
Fastest lap points
| Pos. | Driver | Team | Fastest lap | Lap |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | George Russell | ART | 1:50.501 | 5 |
Standings
Drivers’ Standings
| Pos. | Driver | Country | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | George Russell | United Kingdom | 248 |
| 2 | Alexander Albon | Thailand | 211 |
| 3 | Lando Norris | United Kingdom | 197 |
| 4 | Nyck de Vries | Netherlands | 184 |
| 5 | Artem Markelov | Russia | 166 |
| 6 | Sergio Sette Camara | Brazil | 164 |
| 7 | Antonio Fuoco | Italy | 120 |
| 8 | Luca Ghiotto | Italy | 94 |
| 9 | Nicholas Latifi | Canada | 91 |
| 10 | Jack Aitken | United Kingdom | 62 |
| 11 | Louis Deletraz | Switzerland | 62 |
| 12 | Roberto Merhi | Spain | 47 |
| 13 | Tadasuke Makino | Japan | 46 |
| 14 | Maximilian Günther | Germany | 41 |
| 15 | Sean Gelael | Indonesia | 29 |
| 16 | Arjun Maini | India | 24 |
| 17 | Nirei Fukuzumi | Japan | 17 |
| 18 | Ralph Boschung | Switzerland | 17 |
| 19 | Santino Ferrucci | United States | 7 |
| 20 | Alessio Lorandi | Italy | 6 |
| 21 | Dorian Boccolacci | France | 3 |
| 22 | Roy Nissany | Israel | 1 |
| 23 | Niko Kari | Finland | 0 |
Teams’ Standings
| Pos. | Team | Country | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Carlin | United Kingdom | 361 |
| 2 | ART | France | 310 |
| 3 | DAMS | France | 302 |
| 4 | Prema | Italy | 213 |
| 5 | Russian Time | Russia | 212 |
| 6 | Charouz | Czech Republic | 182 |
| 7 | Campos | Spain | 97 |
| 8 | MP Motorsport | United Kingdom | 65 |
| 9 | Arden | United Kingdom | 58 |
| 10 | Trident | Italy | 37 |
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