Race Review: Russian GP

The 2021 Russian GP: heartbreak for Norris, 100 race wins from Lewis Hamilton and a mighty comeback for Max Verstappen, with a downpour that caused chaos. This week we were at the Sochi Autodrom in Russia. A usually boring race was filled with unexpected events and chaos resulting in jubilation and tears.

With the threat of a washout, the weekend started with FP1 which saw Bottas go fastest, followed by Hamilton and Verstappen. Bottas stayed on top for FP2 with Hamilton then Gasly in the top 3.

Saturday was a bit more uncertain due to the weather. FP3 was cancelled as the track was covered in water, with the support paddock flooding and the scheduled F2 and F3 race cancelled. A window in the weather allowed qualifying to go ahead; it was a great session, with a huge mix up in the grid for the race the next day.

Verstappen and Leclerc had already announced they were taking a 4th power unit for the weekend which came with a penalty of being pushed to the back of the grid; this meant Verstappen took no risk and did not take part in qualifying. Latifi also announced a new power unit and neither he nor Leclerc competed in Q2 as a result. Hamilton crashing into the pitlane wall in Q3 which messed up the Mercedes strategy as the field came into shed their intermediate tyres for slicks. It also affected Bottas as they had stacked the drivers for the new tyre sets, as they had to push Hamilton forward to fit the Finn into the pit box. This opened up the field a little more as another crash from Hamilton meant he did not complete the flying lap on slicks. A flying lap from Sainz put him on provisional pole, which was then taken by Norris before Russell slid into P3. The young McLaren driver took his first pole position in his F1 career.

Qualifying finished as follows:

P1 Norris, P2 Sainz, P3 Russell, P4 Hamilton, P5 Ricciardo, P6 Alonso, P7 Bottas, P8 Stoll, P9 Perez, P10 Ocon, P11 Vettel, P12 Gasly, P13 Tsunoda, P14 Latifi, P15 Leclerc, P16 Räikkönen, P17 Schumacher, P18 Giovinazzi, P19 Mazepin and P20 Verstappen.

However, there were more power unit and car changes to come. Bottas, despite taking a 4th unit in Monza, took yet another new unit and was also pushed to the back of the grid. Latifi changed his gearbox as well, meaning the new starting grid looked like this:

P1 Norris, P2 Sainz, P3 Russell, P4 Hamilton, P5 Ricciardo, P6 Alonso, P7 Stroll, P8 Perez, P9 Ocon, P10 Vettel, P11 Gasly, P12 Tsunoda, P13 Räikkönen, P14 Schumacher, P15 Mazepin, P16 Bottas, P17 Giovinazzi, P18 Latifi, P19 Leclerc and P20 Verstappen.

After a performance from a ballerina (instead of the national anthem) and the looming threat of rain, we had lights out. They went full steam ahead into Turn 1, where Sainz forced Russell wide and then took the lead from Norris. Stroll had flown forward into P4 with Leclerc making it up to P12 from P19, but it was a poor start from Hamilton which pushed him back to P7. Verstappen had started to make his way through the pack from the back, picking off the back cars including passing Bottas incredibly easily, before taking a few others such as Leclerc and settling at P10.

The pits stops started on Lap 13, with Stroll coming in first, followed by Bottas, before Norris took the lead back from Sainz on Lap 14. Hamilton had hoped to gain track position by staying out but was stuck riding the gearbox of Ricciardo who was in P3. With Verstappen setting fastest laps and being only 8 seconds behind, he needed to make moves quickly.

Ricciardo then decided to pit and a painfully slow stop put him back onto the track in P14. By this point, Hamilton was 13 seconds behind leader Norris but was in free air and picking up speed before pitting on Lap 27 and was swiftly followed in by Verstappen. Norris then pitted in Lap 29 and a great stop saw him slot in P4, behind 3 cars who were yet to pit. When they eventually did pit, Perez was sat in his pit box for 9 seconds.

The battle for 1st place continued. Norris was holding on beautifully and, with a few laps to go, seemed on for his maiden win in F1. And then the long-awaited ran started to fall……

The rain caused absolute havoc. Many of the drivers headed in for tyres that were more appropriate for the weather, with Stroll managing to clip Gasly and spinning the frenchman around at Turn 9. Hamilton ignored the initial call to pit for intermediates but as he and Norris started to slide around, he came in. Norris stayed out. He only had to hold on for a few more laps but the rain became heavier and heavier and he slid off the track and Hamilton (who had quickly made up for the time lost in the pitlane) took the lead. Norris, who had initially turned down the call from his team to pit, finally came in and emerged in P8. He did manage to overtake Räikkönen but his final P7 was far from the P1 fans were convinced of a few laps before. For everyone else on the grid, the additional pit stop wreaked havoc on the order, with the final results as follows:

P1 Hamilton, P2 Verstappen, P3 Sainz, P4 Ricciardo, P5 Bottas, P6 Alonso, P7 Norris, P8 Räikkönen, P9 Perez, P10 Russell, P11 Stroll, P12 Vettel, P13 Gasly, P14 Ocon, P15 Leclerc, P16 Giovinazzi, P17 Tsunoda, P18 Mazepin, with DNF for Latifi and Schumacher. Norris scored an additional point for setting the fastest lap of the race.

Stroll and Gasly were called to the stewards over the incident in the final laps at turn 9, which resulted in a 10 second time penalty for Stroll for causing a collision. Norris was also called to the stewards as he had recrossed the white line on the way into the pitlane, due to the weather, and was given a reprimand for it as it was seen as unintentional.

Driver Of The Day: Norris

It was a sensational weekend for the young brit before the final few laps. He drove brilliantly and absolutely held his own against quicker and more experienced drivers. Despite the outcome, there are so many other things to take from this weekend and his first win will come.

Biggest Crash: Giovinazzi

FP2 saw Giovinazzi spin and hit the wall at Turn 8, destroying the rear wing and other parts of the rear, causing the session to be red-flagged. When asked about the incident, the Alfa Romeo driver (whose future at the team is very uncertain) said:

"The wind was quite inconsistent during the run and I got a little bit of understeer – more understeer than on the lap before – and I touched the grass on the exit and I lost the rear”.

You see the crash here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PU5SRrnGtRI

Overtaker Of The Day: Verstappen

Even with the boxing chaos on the final few laps, going from P20 to P2 is a sensational result for the Red Bull driver. He made some sensational overtakes across the whole race and it was just a brilliant drive overall.

Biggest Heartbreak: Norris

We don’t think there are any other contenders here. Took his first pole position, on for his first-ever win, and then losing it all with only a few laps to go is certainly heartbreaking. It seemed like a 50:50 gamble and unfortunately, he made the wrong choice. As F1 tracks are so long, one part can be significantly drier than the others and he clearly thought that slicks would be fine at the time the call was made. Keep your head up Lando - your time will come.

Best Radio Comment: Schumacher

This week’s best radio has to go to an incredibly wholesome moment from Mick Schumacher. After not making it into Q3 by a fine margin, the driver censored himself. Instead of swearing, as most other drivers do, he just said “beep, beep, beep, beep, beep”. You can hear it, alongside the other radio highlights from the weekend, here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1kEZw3JY-c

Takeaways

Oh, Lando… It was an absolutely heart-wrenching end to the weekend, particularly seeing him so sad in the media pen post-race. But it just proved that he is the real deal. In this scenario, experience played out but he’s younger than Lewis Hamilton was when he started in the sport - he’s got plenty of time.

It was the milestone we had all been waiting for. Sir Lewis Hamilton's 100th race wins - what an incredible record-breaking achievement from arguably the greatest F1 driver of all time.

Congratulations to Sainz as well for a great weekend. The Ferrari driver finished P3 which is a great result for himself and the Ferrari team, earning some needed points in their fight for P3 in the constructor's championship.

It was a very solid performance from Daniel Ricciardo. After the high of Monza, he finished P4 grabbing some great points and leaning even further into the idea that the Honey Badger is back. It was less positive from another race winner of the season - Ocon finished P14 having qualified P9 so left the weekend without any points at all.

Points yet again for George Russell! Fun fact, he has scored as many points as Sergio Perez over the last 6 races (16 points). Speaking of Perez, it was a bit of a disappointing weekend yet again for the Mexican driver. Considering his teammate managed to make up 18 places in the same car, you would think he could have worked wonders. Same for Bottas, whilst he did finish P5, it is only because of the rain pit stop havoc that he made up so many places as he wasn’t even in the top 10 before it all went crazy.

After a weekend off, F1 are heading to Turkey between the 8th and 10th October! We’re excited to see what the weekend will bring in this very tight championship battle - there are only 2 points in it!