Sebastian Vettel (Retired, Lap 27): 8/10
Sebastian Vettel picked up the official F1 Driver of the Day title in Sochi, which tickled the Ferrari driver no end as he quipped about it going to a 'part time' driver considering his early exit from Sunday's race. He had been in decent top five pace throughout practice and looked to have secured himself a front row start for the race, before Lewis Hamilton's final run in qualifying was enough to pip him by just 0.023s. That actually turned out to be quite a lucky stroke for Vettel, who was now ideally placed to take advantage of a plan to get the tow down the first straight offered by his team mate who was beginning the race directly ahead of him, and it shot Vettel into the lead going into turn 1. Which brings us to the central question of the weekend: was Vettel really trying to renege on his pre-race agreement with Charles Leclerc to trade places back, or was it what he said - simply wanting to ensure that the swap didn't open the door to a Mercedes ambush? Only Seb knows for certain, but it's tempting to see the sudden subsequent expiration of his MGU-K as a touch of karma for bad faith. Moreover, it's a nagging suspicion that might slowly poison the atmosphere at Maranello for a long time to come.
