A first-ever Russian Grand Prix at Sochi this weekend would normally be causing much excitement in F1 circles but Jules Bianchi‘s life-threatening injuries are what is dominating everyone’s thoughts at present.
The young Frenchman, in only his second season in F1, spun off the rain-soaked Suzuka circuit in Japan on Sunday, crashing into a tractor that was trying to recover the damaged Sauber of Adrian Sutil. Typhoon Phanfone had already stopped the race once and organisers pulled the plug following Bianchi’s accident, leaving leader Lewis Hamilton as the winner by default. But there was no celebrating on the podium following the presentation ceremony as news reached the track that Bianchi was undergoing brain surgery. Ironically, all talk pre-race had been about the possibility of the Marussia driver joining Sebastian Vettel at Ferrari next season. Vettel was awarded third place at Suzuka, having started ninth on the grid, with Daniel Ricciardo fourth, but the defending world champion is still 54 points behind his Red Bull team-mate in the current standings and is well over 100 points adrift of Nico Rosberg with only four races of the season remaining. Rosberg now trails Hamilton by 10 points after finishing second at Suzuka and is now out to 9/4 (general) to win the World Drivers’ Championship – the Briton is a best 4/9 with BetVictor.
Sochi is, of course, unknown territory for everyone. The Black Sea resort, which hosted the Winter Olympics in February, has beaten Moscow and St Petersburg to stage F1’s first Russian Grand Prix. It’s a street circuit of almost 6km in length with a quarter of that utilising public roads. Most pundits believe that the momentum is now with Hamilton after a hat-trick of victories. He’s only a best 8/11 with BetVictor to make it four in a row in Sochi but this could the race in which Rosberg reminds everyone that the title race is far from won. The German took pole in Japan and Sochi looks similar in lay-out to both Albert Park in Melbourne and the Red Bull Ring in Austria, where Rosberg has already won this year. There is still very little to choose between the two Mercedes so it makes more sense to have a plunge on Rosberg to win in Sochi at Coral‘s 9/4 than back Hamilton at odds-on. Jenson Button is a general 100/1 to win the inaugural Russian Grand Prix and let’s hope the teams have better news of Bianchi when they arrive.
