Track name: Sochi Autodrom
Times the race has been held here: 3
First GP: 2014, won by Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes)
Total number of race laps: 57
Complete race distance: 745 kilometers (192.467 miles)
Pit lane speed limit: 60 kph (37.3 mph)
Pitlane length: 330 metres (0.21 miles), which is average. A pitstop takes about 22s
2016 winner: Nico Rosberg, 57 laps, 1:32:41.997
2016 pole position: Nico Rosberg - 1:35.417
2016 fastest lap: Nico Rosberg, 1:39.094
Most wins (driver): Lewis Hamilton - 2
Most wins(team): Mercedes - 3
Lap record: Nico Rosberg – Mercedes - 2016 – 1:39.094
Smallest winning margin:Â 5.953 in 2015.
Circuit Length: 853km/3.637 miles
Direction: Clockwise
Turns: 18
Distance to Turn 1: 450 metres/0.280 miles to Turn Two, the first braking zone
Longest straight: 650 metres/0.404 miles, on the approach to Turn Two
Top Speed: 332km/h/206mph on the approach to Turn Two
Fastest corner: 260km/h (162mph),, Turn 3
Slowest corner: 105km/h (65mph), Turn 13
Full throttle: 57 per cent. This is higher than the average for a street circuit
DRS Zones: Two – on the approach to Turn Two and again on the approach to Turn 13
Key Corner: Turn Two, the best overtaking opportunity on the lap.
Fuel consumption: 9kg per lap, which is high
ERS Demands: Low
Brake wear: Low. Only 10 per cent of the lap is spent braking, into turns 2 and 13
Gear changes: 40 per lap/2,120 per race
Safety car likelihood: 45%. The substantial run-off areas make it relatively easy to remove stranded cars.
Tyre choices: Soft, Supersoft, Ultrasoft
Weather: Warm (15 – 22)
Chance of rain: 47%
Grip levels: Low. The asphalt is very smooth, which makes this race one of the lowest tyre degradation races of the season.
Run off: Substantial
A lap around Russia
You arrive into turn one – it’s very big braking, quite a fairly long straight. Then you go out from turn one and arrive into turn three, which is a very fast, high-speed corner usually flat out. You arrive into turn four – it’s a medium-speed corner, quite important to get brake balance with the proper settings as you come from turn three which has a lot of lateral load. Next corner is turn five, which is a 90-degree corner.
It’s a fourth-gear corner, and you can use all the curb available. Then you have an off-banking corner, so the track is going away from the apex to the exit of the corner, and this puts a bit of trickiness into the traction of the car. You have some medium-speed corners before the backstraight, which is not really a backstraight because it has a few corners which are part of the straight.
The next corner is a hairpin. You arrive on the braking with a lot of lateral, and this requires a very different brake balance because it’s quite a big braking with a lot of cornering, which is a little bit like Bahrain.
Then you exit the very slow-speed corner with a lot of lateral trying to prepare for the next corner, which is off-banking again, followed by a left-hander that is also off-banking. There’s a small straight before the last two corners, which are both 90 degrees. It’s important to have the tires up to temperature because you need the traction. It’s a track that is pretty stop-and-go. It requires a very different setup to what we had in China.
