What did you think of today’s race? Share your verdict on the Russian Grand Prix.
RaceFans has held polls on every F1 race since 2008 to find out which fans thought of each round of the season.
Join in the latest poll and give your verdict on the race: 10 being the highest and 1 the lowest. Please vote based on how entertaining and exciting you thought the race was, not on how your preferred driver or team performed.
What were the best and worst moments of the race? What was the main thing you’ll remember about it? Rate the race out of ten and leave a comment below:
Rate the 2020 Russian Grand Prix out of 10
- 10 (1%)
- 9 (1%)
- 8 (5%)
- 7 (18%)
- 6 (21%)
- 5 (17%)
- 4 (17%)
- 3 (9%)
- 2 (6%)
- 1 (6%)
Total Voters: 215
Loading ...1 = ‘Terrible’, 10 = ‘Perfect’
A RaceFans account is required to vote. You can register an account here or read more about registering here. When this poll is closed the result will be displayed instead of the voting form.
View more Rate the Race results:
- Rate the Race: The RaceFans Top 100
- Rate the Race: The RaceFans Bottom 10
- Rate the Race: Circuit ratings
Debates and polls
- Who should Red Bull run in their second F1 team in 2024?
- Should Formula 1 have fewer night races?
- Should F1 switch to a single practice session for all grand prix weekends?
- Which team will break Red Bull’s record win streak?
- Were Red Bull right to drop De Vries from his AlphaTauri race seat?
Jere (@jerejj)
27th September 2020, 13:50
An OK race. Not a classic, but neither greatly terrible.
hobo (@hobo)
27th September 2020, 16:46
Counterpoint: Terrible.
glynh (@glynh)
27th September 2020, 13:51
7. A good solid race with plenty of action but no memorable incidents to rate hire.
joe jopling (@jop452)
27th September 2020, 13:51
Only a 4 for me…..its not a good race track.And more penalties than a football tournament..
Mort Canard (@motoduc250)
27th September 2020, 14:21
About right. Very forgettable race. Will only be remembered for the penalties by the stewards.
cswilly (@cswilly)
27th September 2020, 14:46
Pretty sure, HAM penalties was his own doing. Rules are rules.
Jay
27th September 2020, 13:51
They should bring back tyre lottery on such softer compounds, if they are not going to go ahead with reverse order races.
Tommy C (@tommy-c)
27th September 2020, 13:53
Pretty entertaining for a Russian GP. Carlos’ onboard was a little scary to watch. I’ll not be surprised if that wall is altered for next year. Never good to see a car pushed back onto the track into the path of others. Glad to see Daniel’s penalty was inconsequential. That was about the worst possible way to let your teammate through by Ocon… Gave it a 7 overall.
David BR (@david-br)
27th September 2020, 13:54
The top three drivers driving in tandem 10 seconds apart (until near the end) tells you all you need to know. Deserved win for Bottas since he wasn’t the Mercedes driver who decided he’d contrive a new way of losing a race. Sometimes Hamilton is infuriating.
DeanR
27th September 2020, 14:35
I’d say Lewis infuriates you a lot more than “sometimes”. Only you know why.
David BR (@david-br)
27th September 2020, 14:48
Really? I think you’re mistaken there DeanR.
GnosticBrian (@gnosticbrian)
27th September 2020, 16:19
DavidBR – To quote Mandy Rice Davies “Well you would say that, wouldn’t you”.
Balue (@balue)
28th September 2020, 15:20
Funny. A Hamilton fan getting a taste of his own medicine. Irrelevant and knee-jerk personal attack hinting at racism.
John Toad (@)
27th September 2020, 13:54
Was there a race on today?
Somebody should have told the drivers.
A solid three for me.
Pat Ruadh (@fullcoursecaution)
27th September 2020, 13:59
Yep big ‘ol 3
kartguy07 (@kartguy07)
27th September 2020, 13:54
I give it one yawn out of ten
Aiii (@)
27th September 2020, 13:56
Dozed off for a good fifteen minutes of it, and I even had a solid nine hours last night. 3/10 for me.
Dave
27th September 2020, 13:56
Give me the news if Sochi isn’t continuing next year.
Steven Robertson (@emu55)
27th September 2020, 13:56
Barely saw the top 5 cars, they just cruised around saving tyres. Sochi is an awful track.
t1redmonkey (@t1redmonkey)
27th September 2020, 13:58
Barely any racing happened out there, more of a procession. At least we’ve got one of the most boring races of the year out of the way.
Bill
27th September 2020, 14:01
Solid job from Pérez.
Adam (@rocketpanda)
27th September 2020, 14:02
Was a bit processional, and despite the penalty for Hamilton the top three remained. Wasn’t that great, wasn’t bad. Just meh, to be honest.
Imre (@f1mre)
27th September 2020, 14:06
Rock solid 1. And they have the chance to make minor changes to the track that could result in better racing. But no… they do nothing.
Jose Lopes da Silva
27th September 2020, 14:06
The drivers keep saving the tyres, they can’t follow each other, DRS kills overtaking, the escape areas in asphalt don’t penalise drivers.
The track design is to blame for all this, of course. No one saw the fight sequence between Norris, Albon and Gasly because they were already sleeping. 4/10.
bosyber (@bosyber)
27th September 2020, 14:07
Well, as a race it wasn’t super (7/10 for me), good that we got decent looks at the diverse fights in the rest of the field, while the top three was a completely non-event on track after the restart (though Ham certainly did that bit to perfection twice, a very Hamilton sort of weekend in several ways), Bottas dominating but by default is, well, sort of appropriate I guess.
Thought Norris fought valiantly, but to little effect (Russell same?), one could say that for Verstappen even, well done, but not possible to make the difference.
Ocon, hm, seems to not be the best teamplayer, nor overtaker, but good at defense and snooker. Riccardo classy.
The T2 chicane/diversion needs a new try, the way Verstappen managed that one super, but Sainz showed the risk it allows, and Grosjean also showed it wasn’t an ideal solution.
bosyber (@bosyber)
27th September 2020, 14:22
Oh, Perez, Leclerc and Kvyat also doing a solid job. Those last two perhaps lucky in lap 1, but making the most of it, while Perez was solid all weekend.
bosyber (@bosyber)
27th September 2020, 14:38
Eh, correction: Leclerc made his own luck, didn’t he, punting Stroll backwards into the wall – not really a shining moment, I think he might at least get harried about that a bit at the next driver meeting, after they are done grilling Hamilton on the lights and proper procedures for a bit, lol! He seems to have acquired a talent of not getting penalized for somewhat dodgy moves.
Sham (@sham)
27th September 2020, 14:11
Really very dull.
This is a bad track for racing.
Can’t quite believe that Mercedes and Hamilton messed up so badly with the practice start location. Very silly.
But a race very much lacking in excitement, but a lot of that was the bad TV coverage.
Neil (@neilosjames)
27th September 2020, 14:17
Don’t know if it’s because I find the track so dull and visually unappealing, but that felt pretty dismal. There was on-track action here and there, and a couple of passes were good, but I’m sat here now completely lacking any sort of enthusiasm for what I’ve just seen.
Maybe if Hamilton hadn’t done those two practice starts, it’d be different. As soon as those penalties came up, any hope of a race at the front vanished.
A Sochi-typical 4.
BLS (@brightlampshade)
27th September 2020, 14:17
One of the worst I can remember, worst since that Paul Ricard debacle a while back
Mort Canard (@motoduc250)
27th September 2020, 14:28
Hopefully the Nurburgring will be better racing in three weeks.
juan fanger (@juan-fanger)
27th September 2020, 14:24
7 or 8 – If you ignore the 1st 3 cars it was a good race
JohnH (@johnrkh)
27th September 2020, 14:25
Yeah not the best track but I voted a 6 because of the Albon Gasly Kyvat fight. On a good track it would be even better.
Bulgarian (@bulgarian)
27th September 2020, 14:25
2/10. Two stars for two penalties for “brutal criminal” Hamilton. A race to forget.
Mort Canard (@motoduc250)
27th September 2020, 14:30
Formula 2 feature race yesterday was a much better event with good passing and a real battle for the lead. Today’s F1 event was one appalling fiasco after another.
ColdFly (@)
27th September 2020, 14:32
8/10.
Surprised after voting that I was at the top end of the range.
My reason: there were some stellar fights between all (incl. Williams) the cars in the mid-field. And for once we got quite a bit of TV attention to those fights (so glad the celebs and Putin weren’t there). We do not always need a fight between the Mercedes drivers and Verstappen to have a great race.
Sometimes I wonder what racefans really want.
bosyber (@bosyber)
27th September 2020, 14:35
Yep, agree @coldfly, though I came away with one point less, it wasn’t a bad race for sochi at all, even though the top three was a bit stale after the first bits.
ColdFly (@)
27th September 2020, 14:49
Thanks @bosyber.
I’m still amazed that more than 60% (currently) gave it 5/10 or less.
If you cannot appreciate the mid-field fights (and it being shown on TV) then what are these people doing here?
S
27th September 2020, 15:02
Maybe you can start to see why F1 is keen on trialing reverse grid qualifying races for next year, then?
The viewer demographic is changing.
bosyber (@bosyber)
27th September 2020, 15:42
I do think it might have partly been disappointment after a buildup that kept talking about how Hamilton would have a fight on his hands to convert pole to win thanks to the slipstream and/or the softs he was starting on @coldfly – I know I had to sigh when before the race that suspense was sort of dropped when I learned it was a likely penalty to default him out of that expected fight for the win.
Just like when Bottas took himself out of contention for a win right at the start in a few previous races this year, the trick is of course to look for the racing that is happening, not the things that didn’t, but that does seem to be something that people find very hard to do.
ColdFly (@)
28th September 2020, 8:37
I lamented it on here before; not enough ‘glass half full’ people here (or anywhere on the internet) it seems.
But not to worry, I’ll have a marvelous day anyway ;)
@bosyber
Balue (@balue)
28th September 2020, 15:24
@coldfly Good point. It also helped to see Red Bull matching Mercedes’ lap times at the end, with Racing Point not far behind. There have been worse races.
ColdFly (@)
28th September 2020, 16:24
Thanks, @balue.
There have been worse races.
Balue (@balue)
28th September 2020, 16:54
@coldfly I also had the temerity to say similar then lol
petebaldwin (@)
27th September 2020, 14:33
6/10. Not mega exciting. I found it as interesting as 90% of the races this year to be honest – the race at the front was over fairly quickly and then a cruise in formation to the end.
Henrik Mølle
27th September 2020, 14:52
Very good for Sochi. I noticed MAG did a whopping 9 places on lap 1. Is there a place, where we can dig out who is the king of first laps?
Tricky (@tricky)
27th September 2020, 14:58
The mid field battle was the only interesting point.
Rodber
27th September 2020, 15:18
We were due a boring race, after so many terrific outings so far this year. And it came at the most boring track on the calendar. No wonder boring Bottas likes it here.
Luscious Azure (@lusciousazure)
27th September 2020, 15:31
Quite a big shame people are calling this the worst race of the season which makes me sure that there is a massive recency bias amongst fans. This was a slow burner but we had plenty of action and intrigue such as penalties for drivers including the leader. Wasn’t the best but decent imo. 6.5 if it was available but a 7 is fair enough imo
kuvemar
27th September 2020, 15:35
Had a big lunch, my neighbors are not at home, the Russian GP was on. 10/10 nap.
Jorge Lardone (@jorge-lardone)
27th September 2020, 16:10
Very forgettable race at another stupid race track. Boring.
SiDziner (@sidziner)
27th September 2020, 17:41
Another boring russian race. Bottas winning was almost guaranteed after yesterday’s qualifying due to Lewis starting on the softs. There was a good opportunity for an awesome battle for second between Lewis and Max given the difference in start tire. But that was scuppered by Lewis mistake/stewards decision.
That turn 2 bollard setup was stupid and dangerous. What was Massi thinking? He has definitely been a step down from Charlie.
Phil Norman (@phil-f1-21)
27th September 2020, 19:55
I was a bit torn in this one. Gave it a 5 in the end but could easily been a 6. Sochi never really produces good races but thus was not awful by its standards.
There was some quite close racing in mid-field but I think nearly all the passes relied on DRS. Good drives by Perez, Ricciardo, Leclerc and the Alpha Tauri drivers.
Esploratore (@esploratore)
27th September 2020, 19:58
Bonus point (7) for the non-mercedes 1-2 and verstappen 2nd; literally nothing happened at the front but there were some decent midfield battles, like usual.
MacLeod (@macleod)
27th September 2020, 22:49
nothing happened or the tv covering as so bad so i could enjoy the fight in the middlefield…
Wait there were not much fights it’s hard to give numbers so i went for a 2 (qualfing was the best of Sochi for me)
Richard Cantelo (@)
1st October 2020, 7:11
It was mediocre. Managed to snooze on the sofa for half an hour!