Race and classic pictures

Sochi breaks new F1 ground in 2015

It's somewhat surprising to note that there has only been one Formula 1 Grand Prix to have been held on October 11 in the past.

Historically, the United States Grand Prix took place about a week earlier in the 1960s and 70s. Since then, the Japanese race has often been within a couple of days of this date over the years. However, it never quite fell on October 11 itself.

It wasn't until 2015 that this finally happened. The second Russian Grand Prix at Sochi Autodrom meant October 11 finally got to host its own race. On that occasion Mercedes had dominated qualifying, with Nico Rosberg pipping Lewis Hamilton to start from pole position.

However Rosberg suffered a locked throttle just seven laps into the 53-lap race. He was forced to retire and Hamilton went on to win the race. He was delighted to receive a traditional Russian ushanka to wear on the podium (pictured above).

The victory gave Hamilton a 66 point lead in the drivers championship. Meanwhile, even without Rosberg, Mercedes clinched their second consecutive constructors' championship with four races remaining.

Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel picked up second place, with Sergio Perez claiming third for Force India. It was the team's third appearance on the podium position, the first having been at the 2009 Belgian Grand Prix during their sophomore season.

Force India's most recent podium before Sochi had been the previous year in Bahrain. Perez (pictured below with his father Antonio) subsequently picked up two more top three finishes in 2016 at Monaco and Baku. His best finish so far in 2017 has been fourth place in Spain.

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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.