Race and classic pictures

Formula 1's Russian welcome

Formula 1 arrives in Russia this weekend, and there could be no better Picture of the Day reminder of where they are in the world than this. It's a set of giant-size traditional Matryoshka dolls lined up on pit lane waiting for the action to begin! They were captured in all their finery by the ever-eager photographers at Toro Rosso.

As you can see, it looks like perfect weather in store at Sochi Autodrom for Thursday's track preparation day. And the forecast says it will stay that way for the whole race weekend - there's not a sign of any rain for the next four days. No wonder the dolls are smiling!

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.