Russian Grand Prix: Bottas brilliant, Ferrari firing, Hamilton humbled

At the start. It was brilliant work from Bottas to slice through the Ferraris and take the lead after the first corner, leaving his Mercedes colleague Lewis Hamilton standing on the second row. Despite pressure from Sebastian Vettel, always closing the gap, the Finn clung on for his first ever Formula One win.

"It was worth the wait," he told his team over the radio, sounding satisfied with his day's work.

The Mercedes garage celebrated loudly and effusively, and though the race might not have been the most thrilling of spectacles (more on that later) his hard work and achievement were recognised by an appreciative crowd.

Two stars out of five. The Brit is not having a happy time of it. He'll have expected to be back on top, the Silver Arrows' shining star, in the absence of reigning world champion Nico Rosberg - but Valtteri Bottas put him to shame today. He did congratulate his new colleague with grace, though, which gains him extra kudos even if he didn't manage any championship points.

Kimi Raikkonen can't have been paying too much attention as he catapulted his way around the track in third place - he didn't seem to notice Bottas zooming past him at the start, and was confused to see the Mercedes in front of him after the pit stops.

Bottas did so well in the final two laps, holding his car together as best he could suffering from flat spots in his tyres, and as he lapped Felipe Massa's Williams he must have breathed a sigh of relief - it slowed Vettel down, put space between them, and secured his first-ever race win.

Formula One often gets criticised for being boring, and this particular race didn't do much to dispel that myth following the first two laps. There was no overtaking on track after that first lap. None. Zip. Nada.

Not even Max Verstappen managed to inject any drama.

With a track like this, there's little chance for strategic brilliance. Still, the views of the Olympic parks and venues are nice.

Force India are doing some sterling work. They may have been mocked for the pinkness of their vehicles this year, but they're certainly sitting pretty at the moment - there's some great driving from both Sergio Perez and Esteban Ocon.

Shall we just write "McLaren" in here every race weekend, and take it as read from now on? Poor Fernando Alonso didn't even get his car as far as the race, conking out during the formation lap, and striding away from his stricken car in utter rage and disgust. At least Stoffel Vandoorne got to the chequered flag.

Mind, Red Bull didn't have a great day, with Daniel Ricciardo suffering from a brake fire early on - but Verstappen's fifth place must have made up for that a bit.

Vladimir Putin is quite famous.