29 replies to this topic

[ANF]

Best driver:
Worst driver:
Best team:
Worst team:
Best overtake:
Worst overtake:
Best moment:
Worst moment:

And the race in a sentence:

[Ev0d3vil]

Even without the rain, the race was surprisingly good for Sochi!

[KeithD68]

An okay race made very good by the weather

[jpm2019]

Even without rain a fantastic race with a great grid, lots of overtakes and huge fights including for the win and comebacks.

 

horrible broadcasting though, watching 200 replays when there is so much action is just horrible.

 

Classic race in a classic season

[H0R]

Best driver: Norris
Worst driver: Norris
Best team: Red Bull
Worst team: dunno - Haas?
Best overtake: Norris on Sainz
Worst overtake: no idea
Best moment: Pole for McLaren
Worst moment: Norris not pitting

And the race in a sentence: Experience counts

[noikeee]

One of the best races I've ever seen, with a mix of strategies playing out from the beginning with several drivers in the mix, the tense build-up of Lando v Lewis in the 2nd half of the race as it nearly came to its climax on the final laps, and then the sudden twist of the rain arriving, even if it produced a result I didn't want. Absolutely fantastic.

[Claudius]

The track is growing on me. Too bad it'll get replaced.

[OO7]

The track is growing on me. Too bad it'll get replaced.

It's still a terrible circuit for me, but the sun will even shine on a dogs arse some days, which is funny as it's the rain which elevated this one.

[Disgrace]

A good book or film can be totally spoilt by a bad ending, and that's what this race ended up being.

[geralt]

This is a classic race that we will look back on fondly in a couple of years

[shure]

Best driver: Lando
Worst driver: Couple of contenders for poor situational awareness: Stroll and Leclerc
Best team: Tough one as I don't think any had a real smooth time.  Maybe RB for their Inters call?
Worst team: can't think
Best overtake: Possibly Max on Bottas, just because it was crucial he get it out of the way and he made it look easy
Worst overtake: -
Best moment: - thinking Lando is going to win his first GP
Worst moment: When the prospect of rain became a reality

And the race in a sentence: Unpredictable, huge pendulum swings in performance and fortune, ecstasy and heartbreak and passing that didn't just rely on easy DRS: may not have been the final result I wanted but I thought it was superb.

[Marklar]

Was already before the rain the best race of the season. So much strategy at play here on all sides, and a very organic race too.

[HP]

To think had Hamilton/Mercedes made the right choices in qualifying, we'd probably had witnessed a bore fest.

[messy]

You can’t polish a turd - but you can chuck rain at a weekend and sometimes it’ll produce a classic even on the most appalling boring concrete jungle of Tilkedromes. The mixed up grid did 90% of the job even before the late downpour.

Best driver - I suppose it’s got to be Norris, but I thought Sainz did really well too. I didn’t see anyone but Leclerc producing a frontrunning performance like that in this years Ferrari but that was pretty much on a par with Leclerc at Silverstone.
Worst driver - dunno, Tsunoda maybe, or Latifi who was nowhere near Russell’s heroics.
Best team - Red Bull. Back of the grid to second making a bold(ish) call despite the pressure of the title battle. That was the ultimate in damage limitation and the reason Lewis probably won’t be in 100% celebration mode even after hitting 100 wins.
Worst team - Haas the trusty backup default option when you’re not sure if anyone had a true stinker.
Best overtake - Max on Bottas because it was crucial.
Worst overtake - the Aston Martin duo maybe?
Best moment - Norris’ entire weekend up to the last quarter of an hour.
Worst moment - heartbreak for another young Brit on the verge of their first win. Come on now, that’s just cruel.

Edited by messy, 26 September 2021 - 15:30.

[renzmann]

Best driver: Alonso
Worst driver: Tough call. Bottas.
Best team: Ferrari
Worst team: Aston Martin, crashing team mates...
Best overtake: Verstappen on Bottas.
Worst overtake: Leclerc on Vettel, not seeing or not caring about Verstappen.
Best moment: Norris, because of his call to stay on slicks. So ballsy.
Worst moment: Norris of course.

And the race in a sentence: The FIA messed up the pit stops and it will end up in tears.

[jpm2019]

Best driver: lewis, max, carlos, alonso all very strong. Norris showed fantastic pace.

Worst driver: stroll and vettel. Crazy guys
Best team: i think none team stoot out to be honest. 
Worst team: none really, but all made mistakes, maybe mclaren. I feel they misinformed lando and should have overruled him. Missed podium and maybe win.
Best overtake: max on bottas for the fact that it denied mercs plan 
Worst overtake: stroll and vettel together and vettel and the alpha tauri
Best moment: having a great race and as a desert spicing it up with rain
Worst moment: none really, loved this race

[Erwin123]

Best driver: Norris
Worst driver: Bottas
Best team: RB
Worst team: Dunno
Best overtake: Verstappen on Bottas (humiliating really)
Worst overtake: Who was that trying to squeeze Max in the wall?
Best moment: Norris driving to victory
Worst moment: Norris not finishing 1st

[Bloggsworth]

You can’t polish a turd.

 

 

Apparently, someone in Birmingham will for a farthing...
 

[sambalter]

Best driver: Hamilton, Norris, Alonso
Worst driver: Giovinzzai
Best team: Mercedes
Worst team: AlphaTauri
Best overtake: Alonso --> Perez for P3: https://twitter.com/...3112126466?s=20
Worst overtake:
Best moment: Last 5 laps of race
Worst moment: FP3 canceled

[pacificquay]

Was a great race until the last few laps, then it was terrible.

[Laster]

Best driver: Norris - One wrong decision ruined his weekend with just a couple laps to go. He drove superbly and it was a very difficult decision to make.

Worst driver: Tsunoda - I want to know what’s going on with Tsunoda. He was stunning to watch in F2, easily the stand out driver, and while he crashed a lot at the start of this season when he was getting things together he would show off a good turn of speed and get some results. Now the gap has ballooned to over a second between him and Gasly. He’s stopped crashing but all the feistyness has disappeared. I want the angry Tsunoda back.

Best team: Mclaren - Came so close to another win, and even made the right call in a difficult situation. A shame the win slipped through their fingers, but it was always going to be a difficult call to make.

Worst team: Alpha Tauri - Dumb decision to not bring Gasly in for inters during qualifying cost them a good grid position, and dumb strategy decisions ensured they stayed well out of the points. They’re trying very hard to gift Aston Martin 6th in the constructors.

Best overtake: Verstappen on Bottas - Great move by Verstappen

Worst overtake: Verstappen on Bottas - What on earth was Bottas doing? Mercedes definitely didn’t help matters by giving him a grid penalty like that, but rolling out the red carpet doesn’t help anyone.

Best moment: The pitted patter of rain to make everything go crazy in the final moments.

Worst moment: Norris having to pit for inters.

And the race in a sentence: Sochi finally delivered an entertaining race, it did take a grid penalty for Verstappen, and a wet qualifying to do it, but once people started making stops it did genuinely become entertaining. 8/10

[ForzaGTR]

You can't give Norris driver of the day after that error.

Edited by ForzaGTR, 26 September 2021 - 16:08.

[smitten]

Best driver: Norris - so close, yet so far.  I'm sure he'll come back stronger.
Worst driver: Stroll - great start, but what the hell in the closing stages?  (skipping the Mazepin/Tsunoda mess at the back)
Best team: Red Bull - got a great result by making good calls.  Honourable mention to Mclaren for the first 95% of the race)
Worst team: Mclaren - coulda, woulda, shoulda
Best overtake: Verstappen on Bottas
Worst overtake: Stroll/Vettel
Best moment: The excitement of the rain in the last few laps.
Worst moment: Seeing Norris/Mclaren get the last few laps wrong.

And the race in a sentence:  Mixed up grid, close racing, changeable weather; best race of the season so far.

[messy]

Worst driver: Tsunoda - I want to know what’s going on with Tsunoda. He was stunning to watch in F2, easily the stand out driver, and while he crashed a lot at the start of this season when he was getting things together he would show off a good turn of speed and get some results. Now the gap has ballooned to over a second between him and Gasly. He’s stopped crashing but all the feistyness has disappeared. I want the angry Tsunoda back.

I thought his performances were overrated in the early part of the season where people were seemingly impressed, there was always a hefty pace disadvantage to Gasly even as he pulled some good feisty moves in Bahrain etc - but since those very early days he’s just been really poor. I didn’t expect him to be so disappointing, there’s something really not right with him - he’s clearly finding some of this step up very hard and isn’t showing his potential because in F2 he was much more exciting than Schumacher, who seems to be developing nicely in contrast.

[Claudius]

It's still a terrible circuit for me, but the sun will even shine on a dogs arse some days, which is funny as it's the rain which elevated this one.

Haha what an interesting analogy
But the race was pretty good before the rain.

What I have started to apreciate are the starts in Sochi. The long straight and slipstream always shuffles the front. Which can lead to better races.

[HeadFirst]

Best driver: Sainz (early stop ruined his day), Hamilton, Alonso, Kimi (maybe?), Verstappen
Worst driver: Tsunoda 
Best team: Merc (critical call gave Lewis #100 and moved Val up)
Worst team: McLaren
Best overtake: Max on Bottas
Worst overtake: Vettel on Stroll
Best moment: Many good moments, but the best was also the worst for me.
Worst moment: Norris choosing to stay out

And the race in a sentence: Much better than expected.

[SenorSjon]

I dunno, but I saw a very long train a couple of seconds apart once Verstappen got back in top 10 again, TV director missing all his overtakes live.

[ANF]

Best driver: Norris. It was a great drive, and I think he made the right call to stay out with four laps to go. If he had pitted first, Hamilton could have stayed out and won behind the safety car or whatever. Things were still looking good for Norris when Hamilton pitted. He didn't know the heavens were about to open.

Edited by ANF, 26 September 2021 - 22:55.

[itsgreen84]

Absolute stunner. Can't remember a better race this year...

[CSF]

Best driver: Norris
Worst driver: Mazepin. 13th on lap 1 to a minute behind Mick when Mick retired. Plus got a black and white flag. How far was he off Mick in quali? Rubbish. Special mention to Charles Leclerc too for some fine lack of race management when electing to block Norris and cost himself 3s then coming out in a train of cars. Avoidable like many Leclerc things. Let them go Charles, study what Hamilton has done many times in that  situation. Learn. Why do you not learn Charles?   
Best team: Mmm. Don't think any shone really. 
Worst team: Aston. Or in the end Stroll. He drove so well at the start, but then melted down on old tyres at the end and binned his team-mate. Good stuff. 
Best overtake: The whole Vettel/Leclerc stuff before Charles decided that there was no way a third car could possibly have caught them battling like that and nearly ending his own race. 
Worst overtake: Stroll on Gasly. 
Best moment: Sainz nip through on Russell and Norris at t2. Perfectly judged. 
Worst moment: Heavy rain denying Norris. 

And the race in a sentence: Was that really Russia, how have Mercedes still never lost a race here since 1913??? 

Edited by CSF, 27 September 2021 - 09:27.