Feature

F1i's Driver Ratings for the 2020 Russian GP

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.

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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.

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