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It should have been a walkover for Mercedes in Sochi, one of the team's best tracks on the calendar. Instead it was a turbulent time for Lewis Hamilton, with his team mate Valtteri Bottas pouncing on a golden opportunity to get his championship back on track and Max Verstappen also back in business. But who came out on top in our ratings for the 2020 Russian Grand Prix?
Lance Stroll (Retired, Lap 1): 6.5/10
Despite a bright start to proceedings on Friday morning, Lance Stroll never quite got the measure of Sochi. He failed to finish ahead of his Racing Point team mate in any of the three practice sessions despite having been given a new set of aero parts denied to the departing Sergio Perez. But in truth we never got to see what Stroll might have been capable of this weekend, and through no fault of his own: his qualifying campaign was curtailed when the car started to overheat as it waited for the session to resume after the red flag stoppage; and in the race, he was hit from behind by Charles Leclerc in the congestion of the first lap. He was spun into the barrier, the RP20 too damaged to continue. Stroll wasn't happy when the race stewards decided not to penalise the Ferrari driver for knocking him out, and spent the rest of the afternoon simmering on the pit wall watching a race in which he was able to take no further part.
Carlos Sainz (Retired, Lap 1): 6/10
Carlos Sainz has had a strong run of performances of late, culminating in his second place success in Monza. But he was caught up in the restart carnage at Mugello and now for the second race in succession he found himself knocked out early. This time though he has no one to blame for himself: it was simple misjudgement that saw him hit the wall as he negotiated his way back onto the track after running off at turn 2. Max Verstappen had also run off just ahead of him and managed the manoeuvre, but Sainz demolished his McLaren's left front suspension and rebounded across the track, inadvertently ruining his team mate's race in the process. It was his second crash of the weekend after spinning in FP1 and damaging his rear wing. He had done well in subsequent sessions and was third in FP3, and successfully secured sixth place on the grid in qualifying, but that simply shows how much potential had been squandered by that error on lap 1.
