Mercedes have appeared to have the edge over Ferrari so far in Spain, and qualifying went that way too. Lewis Hamilton’s first run in Q3 was good enough for pole position, and no-one, not even himself could better it in the final flying laps. Vettel finished second, after dealing with engine gremlins for most of the weekend so far, whilst Bottas and Räikkönen settled for the second row of the grid.

Meanwhile, Fernando Alonso finally had something to smile about as he got the McLaren car into the top ten for the first time this season, and ended up with the seventh fastest time overall. Teammate Stoffel Vandoorne was out in Q1, however, as was Daniil Kvyat who complained that there was plenty that needed fixing on his car.

Sainz got into Q2, as did Grosjean but the Haas driver endured a couple of spins as he struggled to feel comfortable on the Barcelona track. Stroll didn’t manage to get into the top ten which was a shame, particularly compared with Massa who grabbed himself ninth on the grid for tomorrow.

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Teams showed off their updates to the cars in practice for the Spanish Grand Prix today, as well as refreshed paintwork that more visibly displays the drivers names and numbers. Fans were only able to look at Fernando Alonso’s number for three short corners before the McLaren started issuing smoke and Alonso pulled it off track. His afternoon session was marginally better, 21 laps but he was last and complaining the engine was even slower.

In other news, Sebastian Vettel had a suspected gearbox issue in FP1, whilst Kevin Magnussen also stopped after running through the gravel. Sergey Sirotkin was in the car for Renault but a water leak curtailed his running to just 10 laps. Mercedes were fastest with Hamilton ahead of Bottas.

In FP2, the wind picked up and caused plenty of wobbly moments out on track, with Vettel and Verstappen going through the gravel. Carlos Sainz caused a red flag by going over the kerbs and shedding some Toro Rosso carbon fibre, but the action soon got going again. Ferrari closed the gap to the front but it was still Mercedes ahead and still Hamilton fastest overall.

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Romain Grosjean has joined the group of directors for the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association, replacing the outgoing Jenson Button. Grosjean will serve alongside Sebastian Vettel as a fellow director, and chairman Alex Wurz. Grosjean said: “I am proud to have been elected by my peers. We race drivers don’t always hold the same opinion but we are united in wanting the best for our sport.”

Alex Wurz added: “Over recent years Romain has been a very active GPDA member. He has a lot of energy and thoughts about our sport and Sebastian and I welcome him as a great addition to the board.”

The organisation exists to bring drivers together and give them one voice to put their view to the governing body and commercial body. At the moment, the priority is to push for additional head protection, which is something Grosjean has been particularly vocal about. He’s not a fan of the halo or the current favourite, the shield, but will no doubt be on board with the rest of the GPDA pushing either premise forward.

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Valtteri Bottas muscled past both the Ferrari drivers off the line in Sochi to take the lead of the race. He survived a safety car period, the tense one-stop strategy, as well as a late charge from Sebastian Vettel, to take his first victory in Formula One, after more than 80 races. A well-earned win, the Finn was joined on the podium by Vettel and Räikkönen, with Lewis Hamilton finishing a distant and disappointed fourth.

Meanwhile, Fernando Alonso didn’t manage to finish even the formation lap before his Honda engine gave up. On the first lap, Romain Grosjean and Jolyon Palmer collided, knocking both cars out of the race. Each blamed the other but the stewards deemed it a racing incident. The only other retirement was Daniel Ricciardo, whose brakes gave up after just seven laps.

Lance Stroll did manage to see the chequered flag, however, finishing in 11th place just outside the points. Ahead of him, both the Force India drivers picked up points, with Max Verstappen, Nico Hülkenberg and Felipe Massa also inside the top ten.

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Given the current problems that McLaren and Honda have been having for the past season and a half, you’d think there wouldn’t be a large customer base waiting to sign up for Honda power. However, the Sauber F1 team have confirmed they will be joining technological forces with the Japanese manufacturer for 2018 and beyond. Sauber are currently powered by Ferrari but their statement says “This extensive strategic and technological realignment creates a new basis for the team.” Whatever that means.

Team principal Monisha Kaltenborn said: “We have set another milestone with this new engine era, which we await with huge excitement and of course we are looking for new opportunities. We very much look forward to our partnership with Honda, which sets the course for a successful future.”

Honda have struggled since their return to Formula One with McLaren, but having another team on board will allow them to gather more data and get more testing, as well as share the burden of success, or failure.

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The sun was shining and the tension was high as qualifying for the Russian Grand Prix got underway. The first session was as you might expect, although Romain Grosjean dropped out surprisingly early. Jolyon Palmer struggled as well, after missing out on practice and having an engine change in his Renault.

Fernando Alonso got through to the second session, but was disappointed not to be able to challenge for anything above 15th. Both Toro Rosso drivers dropped out in Q2, whilst both Force India drivers made it into the top ten.

All eyes were on the Ferrari and Mercedes drivers, as Kimi Räikkönen set the benchmark lap time. All four were in with a chance of snatching pole position, but Kimi failed to improve and allowed his teammate Vettel to get ahead of him. Bottas tucked in behind the two Ferraris, whilst Hamilton couldn’t make up the difference and ended up fourth. Ricciardo rounded out the top five for Red Bull, and it’s also worth a quick shout out for Hülkenberg who dragged his Renault up to eighth.

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Although the sun was beating down on the Sochi circuit, it was a scrappy day of free practice for many teams and drivers. Sergey Sirotkin was in at Renault, celebrating a Friday appearance in front of his home crowd, but it ended with his engine switching off. Esteban Ocon also suffered in the engine department in a slightly different way, the pink engine cover on his Force India flew off the back of the car as he was braking. Meanwhile, Kimi Räikkönen went fastest, whilst Ferrari teammate Sebastian Vettel hit the kerbs hard and sent himself into a spin.

In the second session, Daniil Kvyat spun his Toro Rosso in front of his home fans, but he wasn’t the only driver pushing too hard. All day there were spins and lockups, and cars running wide. Romain Grosjean had a spin and cried “What the hell is going on?” Max Verstappen suffered a loss of power that brought his Red Bull to a halt at the entrance to the pit lane, whilst it was Ferrari who finished ahead for the second session in a row. This time, it was Vettel who ended the day on top.

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The F1 Strategy Group met with the F1 Commission, the FIA, and FOM boss Chase Carey to agree on changes to the sport for 2018 onwards. The most visible changes will be around the engine covers with the regulations being tweaked so as to limit the shark fins and t-wings that have taken precedence this season.

The proposed halo cockpit device is not the favoured solution to driver head protection anymore. The FIA’s statement says: “A number of more integrated solutions for additional frontal protection have been studied, and the decision has been taken to give priority to the transparent ‘shield’ family of systems. We aim to carry out track tests during this season in preparation for implementation in 2018.”

Alongside this the FIA noted that red flags will go back to standing starts in the race. Also, a change to this season is that the FIA will enforce clearer visibility of driver’s names and numbers on the cars, to help identify them during sessions.

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Sebastian Vettel took race victory ahead of both Mercedes drivers, after a double pit stop delay for Bottas and Hamilton cost both the chance of race victory. Hamilton also picked up a five second penalty for driving unnecessarily slowly in the pit lane ahead of Daniel Ricciardo. This all happened under the safety car, which was out to sort out the mess following a crash between Lance Stroll and Carlos Sainz. The Toro Rosso driver was later given a three place grid drop for the next race, after exiting the pit lane and failing to stop at the next corner, crashing into the side of the Williams who was just ahead.

Meanwhile, Stoffel Vandoorne didn’t start the race, his McLaren remaining tucked away in the garage, and Fernando Alonso, who claimed he’d never raced with as little power, retired just a couple of laps before the end. Kevin Magnussen and Marcus Ericsson both also retired, whilst Max Verstappen crashed into the barriers after a brake failure.

Finally, Grosjean finished in the top ten for his first points of the season whilst Force India saw both drivers finish in the points.

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Qualifying got underway with more McLaren woes: Stoffel Vandoorne was knocked out in the first session, and although Fernando Alonso got through to Q2, he was unable to participate due to an engine problem. Other teams had split drivers with Wehrlein up in Q2, but his Sauber teammate not, and a similar story for Toro Rosso and Force India.

Meanwhile, up front, Renault got both their drivers into the top ten, with Nico Hülkenberg enjoying a seventh place grid slot. Palmer settled for tenth but it’s his first time into Q3, so a good job all round. Felipe Massa was also in the top ten, as was Romain Grosjean, who recovered from an FP3 crash that saw him lose the front wing on the Haas after colliding with the barriers.

Out front, the battle was between the Mercedes pair, with Lewis Hamilton less than a tenth of a second up during the first set of flying laps, and Valtteri Bottas scraping ahead by 0.023 seconds to secure his first ever pole position. Vettel and Ricciardo locked out the second row, with their teammates relegated to the third row of the grid.

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