Saturday’s qualifying sessions have certainly marked a turning point in this 2017 Formula 1 World Championship season. For the first time in almost 9 years, Ferrari was not occupying the entire front row of a starting grid. Furthermore, the Scuderia put an end to a series of 18 consecutive pole positions achieved by the Mercedes team.<\/p>\n
The Maranello team is currently dominating head and shoulders above the rest this weekend on Olympic soil, but they inevitably have a lot to lose in this race where the Silver Arrows won’t let any opportunity slip by on the Sochi circuit.<\/p>\n
Behind, the dream of fighting for the podium doesn’t seem possible for a Red Bull team lagging significantly behind the two leading teams on the grid. However, the talent of the driver duo, Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo, could still make a difference. Success, which painfully eluded them two weeks ago in Bahrain, will be essential for them in the race, a race where Nico H\u00fclkenberg’s Renault could potentially cause trouble for the Milton Keynes team.<\/p>\n
For Esteban Ocon, the goal is to score as many points as possible in a battle likely opposing him to his own teammate Sergio P\u00e9rez; the stakes could be significant for the future of the promising French driver from Force India.<\/p>\n
All the stakes of this race will therefore be covered in the live commentary on Motors Inside.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Motors Inside brings you all the action from the Russian Grand Prix, with live commentary from 1:45pm.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":64,"featured_media":36956,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,1749],"tags":[178,261,1491],"class_list":["post-11488","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-f1","category-news","tag-course","tag-en-direct","tag-sotchi"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n