Turkey: The Rundown (F1)

Free Practice...

FP1:

(Pre-warning: the final section of this FP1 rundown mentions the Romain Grosjean crash in Bahrain 2020.)

The 2021 Turkish Grand Prix weekend kicked off on Friday in what was a lacklustre free practice session. Other than some strong wind, track conditions were ideal; dry and grippy. Drivers, and viewers, also had to get reacquainted with the anti-clockwise format of this track. Intercity Istanbul Park is one of seven anti-clockwise tracks on this year's calendar. Another thing for viewers, and commentators, to get used to was Red Bull Racing’s special Japanese style, Honda tribute livery. The new Red Bull outfit hit the track for the first time during FP1. Alpha Tauri also sported a tribute to Honda.

As soon as the pit lane opened, all of the teams were quick to send their drivers out, and understandably so. Free Practice is vital for teams in terms of data collection, and as the teams have only competed on this track once in the last decade, they need all the data they can get. Sending the drivers out early will maximise the amount of data they can get.

Prior to the practice session, there was lots of speculation that Lewis Hamilton had components of his engine changed and will have to take a penalty for the race. Following his first practice lap, confirmation of this rumour came through. The Mercedes’ team changed the Internal Combustion Engine (known as ICE) in Hamilton’s car, earning Hamilton a ten place grid penalty. The decision not to change the entire power unit left some people wondering what Mercedes have planned for the upcoming races. This is Hamilton’s first engine penalty since 2018. Also receiving a penalty for an engine change this weekend was Sainz. Ferrari opted to change out Sainz’s entire power unit this weekend. The decision came after Leclerc’s performance in Sochi, with a new engine, displayed some positives. Sainz was set to start from the back of the grid on Sunday.

From the get go, drivers were radioing in to their teams that track grip was better than predicted. Many drivers commented on the high amount of grip that the track had compared to last year. This will be down to the fact that the organisers had the track blasted and cleaned to remove oils and dust in preparation of the event. The unpredicted grip levels also meant that drivers weren’t expecting their soft tyres to overheat and grain as quickly as they did. Engineers on the pit wall were having to remind their drivers to take the time to get their tyres into the correct window during their cooling laps.

Regarding Haas, neither of their drivers have driven on this track before and it is known that Haas don’t have a simulator. Though they don’t have their own simulator, Schumacher was able to secure time in Ferrari’s simulator (perks of being in the Ferrari Driver Academy) to prepare for this weekend, putting him at an advantage over his teammate, and a factor in Schumacher outperforming Mazepin in this session by four tenths. We expected that Schumacher would continue to outperform Mazepin for the rest of the weekend, as he has for most of the season.

The Alpines were performing quite strong at the beginning of the session, Ocon had set the second fastest time 13 minutes in, and Alonso was performing to a high level, as we expect from him. His times were only a few hundredths slower than his teammates’. As the clock dwindled and field levels in the cars of the faster teams lessened, the times of the Alpine drivers dropped down the order. Ocon and Alonso couldn’t better themselves in this session, and finished 6th and 9th, respectively.

Despite his new power unit, Sainz couldn’t get his time higher than P20 for the majority of the session. At about the 30 minute mark, he set a time good enough for 7th. This time was later deleted as he was found to have exceeded track limits, sending him back to the bottom of the time sheet. He didn’t set his fastest time until towards the end of the session and when the chequered flag waved, he was P5. His teammate, Charles Leclerc was consistent through the entire session; his fastest time was good enough for 3rd.

Sainz wasn’t the only one to be caught out by the turn 6 track limits. Norris, Raikkonen (on two laps), and Gasly (on two laps) all had their times deleted at some point during the session for completely crossing the white line. This corner seemed to be the tricky one, but as the drivers got used to the track less mistakes were made.

This first practice session didn’t appear to be going well for the Red Bull’s. Verstappen was in a battle with his car for the entire session, struggling with balance. Despite this, he managed to consistently set times good enough to remain in the top three for most of the session. His fastest time was good enough for 2nd. His teammate, Sergio “Checo” Perez, who finished in 2nd at Istanbul Park last year, wasn’t able to match Verstappen’s pace at all during this session. He only set a time good enough for P10.

As expected, Hamilton topped the time sheets, continuously setting fast lap after fast lap. His fastest time of this session broke the lap record set by Juan Pablo Montoya in 2005. Towards the beginning of the session, Hamilton was apparently having issues with his gloves and they needed to be swapped. Commentators said that he was having to flex his hand after taking off the gloves. It was revealed that he, along with multiple other drivers, were testing out new gloves for the FIA. Following Romain Grosjean’s fiery incident in Bahrain last year, in which his hands and feet were the only parts to obtain any burns, the FIA decided to look into options for a more fire resistant glove. While these gloves are more fire resistant than the current ones, the FIA wanted to ensure they do not impede a driver’s dexterity or hand mobility. It’s great to see the FIA are always trying to find ways to make racing even just a little bit safer for the drivers.

FP2:

On track action resumed with FP2, only a few hours after the conclusion of FP1. Conditions had remained the same; dry with strong winds. We would continue to hear complaints of tyre graining in this session, as we did in FP1. The Haas’ were the first to hit the track once the pit lane lights had turned green, it didn’t take long for other drivers to follow.

Before most cars could even get to start their first push lap, a queue had formed just before turn 14. Drivers were trying to create gaps between them and the cars in front before starting their timed laps, but this just resulted in an almost standstill. It didn’t take long for this to become a safety issue. 5 minutes into the session, a snail-paced Stroll had held up the Alpine of Alonso, and McLaren of Ricciardo. The Canadian had slowed the pack down so much that they were barely moving. This proved to be a hazard when Verstappen and Hamilton had to take evasive action when rounding the corner at speed as they weren’t aware of the bumper to bumper traffic ahead. While Ricciardo kept his cool, the fiery Spaniard certainly let Stroll know what he was thinking when he pulled up beside him. Queues continued to build at that final turn throughout the entire session.

Just over 8 minutes into the session, the other Canadian on the grid, Nicholas Latifi, was the first to spin at Turn 9 for this session, causing a yellow flag in that sector. It appeared as though he lost the rear end of his car, this could’ve been attributed to the strong tailwinds in that section of the track. He eventually rejoined the track, and a green flag signalled that it was safe to increase speed through that section once again. In the final minutes of the session, Latifi would spin at Turn 9 for the second time.

Though Perez couldn’t reach the 1:24s in FP1, he was the first to achieve this in FP2, but with a session's worth of rubber already on the track, it was likely that the times this session would be faster than the last. Checo would have to keep improving his time, if he wanted to keep up with his teammate and the Mercedes. While Perez was busy setting fast laps, Verstappen was complaining about his car's balance; an issue that he carried from the earlier session. It only appeared to be getting worse for Verstappen, and neither he or his team seemed to be able to find out what was causing the issue during this session. Ultimately, Perez outperformed his teammate in this session, as he seemed to be more comfortable with his car.

With 36 minutes left in the session, Hamilton, who was on a flying lap, was forced to navigate the slow Giovinazzi and Bottas, basically creating a new chicane for himself. We can imagine that Hamilton might’ve been quite frustrated with the traffic, as he had an earlier incident with Perez through Turn 7. Despite being held up multiple times, Hamilton was still able to set the fastest time, and, once again, beat the lap record, which he had previously set in FP1.

At around the 40 minute mark, Vettel radioed in to his team complaining that his balance was “very poor.” Not long after, the commentators shared a paddock rumour that Aston Martin were going to consider changing the power units in both of their cars, this wouldn’t end up being the case this weekend. It was also revealed, later in the session, that Brad Joyce is no longer Lance Stroll’s race engineer after being promoted to the Head of Trackside Engineering. Ben Michell took over as Stroll’s race engineer.

Esteban Ocon had a phenomenal FP1, but he spent 41 minutes of FP2 in P20. His best lap was good enough for 7th at the time but his teammate, Alonso, would later set a time that pushed him down to 8th. It was unclear what was causing the difference in performance between the two sessions.

Kimi Raikkonen had a new installment in his rivalry with his drinking system during this session. He claimed it was leaking into his helmet, resulting in him disconnecting it. This would later cause the issue of water leaking into boots, forcing him to stop for the mechanics to take a look. Raikkonen has been having broadcasted battles with his drinking system since Hungary 2018.

Gasly seemed to be having issues with understeer, this was confirmed when he joked over the radio that his arms were too short to turn the wheel enough to correct the amount of understeer he was experiencing. With the amount of drivers experiencing issues with understeer, it became clear that the teams were caught out by how much grip the track actually had.

This session saw drivers beginning to complete qualifying simulations; new tyres and less fuel to make them lighter. The result of this meant that this session had faster times set than FP1. This can be seen when comparing Mazepin’s times from both sessions. In FP1, he was 2.841 seconds off of the pace of Lewis Hamilton. Compare this to FP2, where he was only 1.894 seconds off of Hamilton’s pace.

To finish out the session, there were a few more spins at Turn 6, one from Mazepin, the other from Gasly, who’s spin completely tore up a set of soft tyres.

Before heading back into the pits at the end of the session, the drivers are permitted to do a practice start on the grid. While some drivers were able to complete this, others were forced to abort their practice start due to Esteban Ocon getting stuck in Neutral, resulting in his car needing to be retrieved from the grid.

FP3:

FP3 was the first session on Saturday, and the first opportunity the drivers would have to test out the track while it’s wet. This session would be important as the conditions were similar to the predicted conditions for race day.

Due to the cleaning, and lack of use of the track, teams were expecting more grip compared to last year. However, the teams still took a cautious approach when it came to this session, not wanting to risk any damage to their cars prior to the qualifying sessions later in the day. While the rain was still drizzling down, the teams didn’t seem prepared to risk it- instead opting to wait for the mist to lighten up.

To occupy their time, the Williams team attempted a paper boat race with a little George and Nicky figure in each. Unfortunately, there wasn’t enough water for the boats to take off.

The first car didn’t leave the garage until 8 minutes into the session. AlphaTauri decided they had enough of waiting, and that conditions wouldn’t get any worse, so they sent out Gasly and Tsunoda. These first cars indicated a lot of standing water on the track, so understandably, Tsunoda took a more cautious approach to his outlap compared to his teammate.

Norris was the third car out on track, no doubt wanting to get wet weather experience on this track following his disappointment in the wet in Russia. McLaren sent Ricciardo out not long after.

15 minutes into the session, Mercedes, Red Bull, Williams, Alpine and Alfa Romeo were yet to send a car out on track. All cars that were out on track had booted on the full wet tyres.

It wasn’t until 17 minutes in that the first car decided conditions were now suitable for intermediates. McLaren decided to bring Norris in and switch his wet tyres to the green-walled inters. His outlap proved that they had made the right decision, despite a moment in Turn 9 where the car experienced a little bit of aquaplaning. With conditions improving rapidly, a nice, dry line began to appear and more cars switched to the intermediate tyre.

After the cars had switched to inters, drivers had to be reminded to cool their tyres on their cool down laps because their tyres were overheating, despite the wet track.

With 40 minutes to go, Williams finally released both of their drivers onto the track, along with Hamilton for Mercedes. These drivers would spend the least amount of time on track for the session.

A minute later, Gasly dipped a tyre on the wet part of the track at Turn 11, resulting in a spin. He caused a brief yellow flag, but no damage was done to his car and he was able to rejoin the track. After Gasly had rejoined, simultaneous yellow flags appeared in sectors 1 and 3 for Raikkonen and Mazepin.

Just as those two drivers had rejoined the track, another yellow flag was waved as a result of Russell going into the gravel at Turn 2. He was unable to get his car moving again, and ultimately, the session was red flagged so his car could be rescued. Russell’s car would spend the rest of the session having gravel cleared from the engine, resulting in Russell not setting a time. The session resumed about 5 minutes later.

Half way through the session, Vettel, Stroll, Latifi, Russell, Hamilton, Bottas, Alonso, Ocon, Verstappen and Perez still hadn’t set a time. It was likely that they were waiting for the track to dry out a bit more, so it would be easier to set faster times. They may have also been waiting to see if slick tyres were possibly an option for this session.

With 27 minutes to go, Verstappen was finally out on track and attempted to set a time. His attempt was aborted when he spun out at Turn 9, but the Dutchman managed to control the spin well and ended up facing the correct way, commenting “Nice 360,” to his race engineer. Not long after Verstappen’s spin, Vettel also did a 360 in the same spot. Turn 9 was once again catching the drivers off guard. Leclerc was the next victim of this corner, he spun out with 18 minutes left. At one point, I wasn’t sure if I was watching an F1 free practice or a ballet performance.

Perez was once again proving that this track is better suited to him, compared to his teammate, by going fastest with 16 minutes to go. Only a minute later, Gasly bettered Perez by 2 tenths. Gasly was clearly determined to continue this great form over the rest of the weekend to make up for his last two races, which didn’t go his way.

Sainz had an impressive session, and did a long run - most likely to practice for Sunday’s race as the conditions would be similar to what they predicted they would be during the race. He set the second most number of laps in this session behind Schumacher (who, having not participated in an F1 car last year, needed all the laps possible to get up to speed in Turkey).

Towards the end of the session, Ferrari seemed to be doing race simulations with high fuel loads. It appeared this way because of the amount of laps the drivers did, and Leclerc seemed to be purposely touching wet patches with his inters to get a sense of what grip would be like come Sunday. With 5 minutes to go, Leclerc made the suggestion to try slick tyres but ultimately, Ferrari decided against this as the track was still not in the ideal condition for those compounds.

Free Practice 3 seemed to be dominated by the cars with a Honda engine, all 4 finished in the top 10, 3 of them being in the top 3.

Qualifying...

Q1:

Though the intermediates were out for Saturday’s first session of the day, FP3, a dry line had emerged in time for qualifying, with Charles Leclerc suggesting that slicks were even plausible for FP3. That didn’t mean the slicks wouldn’t be swapped in favour of the intermediates again, with the chance of rain at 100%, which could certainly spice up the order. The year prior, Racing Point (now Aston Martin) claimed a spectacular 1-2 with Lance Stroll leading the way, as they took advantage of the slippery track and wet weather conditions- though it looked like they wouldn’t be so strong this year. The battle looked to be between Mercedes and Red Bull, with McLaren, Ferrari and Pierre Gasly also with good chances.

With ominously darkening and cloudy sky, it was no surprise that the cars were queuing to get out of the pit lane and get as many banker laps in on the slick tyres. McLaren’s communication to Ricciardo however suggested that there may only be time for one fast lap, if even that, as rain was incoming in a predicted 3 minutes. Time pressure and risky weather conditions weren’t the only things concerning the teams, as track limits could end up penalising drivers galore if they slipped outside the white lines.

Hamilton commenced the session by securing a good track position after passing several cars, but when beginning his fast lap he fell at the first hurdle, running wide at Turn 1 as he fought to stop himself sliding off into the gravel. The spins continued to come at Turn 1, with Sainz and Verstappen pirouetting round, but Sainz not only ended his attempt but Valtteri Bottas’ too as they almost clipped one another. Hamilton’s lap time was deleted as a result of his slippery escapades, and he wouldn’t be first to suffer from track limits.

Meanwhile, Russell and Norris, two young drivers who have demonstrated great prowess in the wet this season, banked their first representative lap times and sat P1 and P2 respectively. Hamilton, the world champion he his, quickly recovered from his earlier struggles and adjusted to the difficult surface by displacing his future teammate at the top of the timesheets with a gap of one second. Bottas followed closely behind with a mere 0.088 seconds, but Verstappen overhauled their efforts as he assumed P1- briefly, as Hamilton took the place back. Behind the usual suspects, Gasly looked strong as he looked to bounce back from two tough race weekends in Italy and Russia, and the Frenchman had Norris for company who was also seeking revival for a race that could have been. This year Norris has certainly showcased powerful pace in the wet, just missing out on a maiden pole at Spa (where he had been so dominant in practice), before claiming it last time out in Russia.

Mistakes and incidents continued to roll in as drivers further down the order became more desperate to settle in a safer position on the leaderboard, but had their lap times deleted. Tsunoda was the next to spin at- you guessed it, Turn 1- but had to tackle a bumpy route over the grass and gravel between the wall and a Rolex advertising board to rejoin the track.

A dry line gradually emerged and the tyres began to warm up in the chillier conditions, and consequently the leaderboard was changing quickly. The grid traded places regularly, but Mercedes and Red Bull always emerged out on top.

With Mazepin and the two Alfa Romeos looking unlikely to progress Q2, it was down to who could put in a lap under pressure alongside the still unpredictable track. Just prior to the flag, Ricciardo improved to ninth, but as improvements came flooding in behind, it would be a nervous wait for McLaren, who have had such large success over the last two races. Sebastian Vettel finally got a safer lap on the board with his Aston Martin which pushed the Australian down. The results would depend on Schumacher and Sainz, who both improved- pushing the race winner further down, and out of qualifying.

Although it would be a disappointment for the team battling for third in the constructor’s championship, it would be a massive boost for Mick Schumacher and Haas. With a blatantly uncompetitive car (all of their resources focusing on their 2022 challenger) this would certainly be a highlight in their 2021 season, and remind everyone why Mick was the 2020 Formula 2 champion, as he made Q2 for the second occasion this year.

Not making through to Q2 was Schumacher’s teammate Mazepin, Raikkonen, Giovinazzi, Latifi and Ricciardo.

Q2:

Slicks were still the chosen tyres, and mediums were the consensus for the top drivers and teams.

Whilst most of the 15 cars queued in the pit lane to get out on track with the hopes of some edge, Sainz sat in his garage. With no way of changing his starting position at the rear of the grid on Sunday, it appeared his main job of the day was to gather more data, but also take the opportunity to knock Ricciardo out of qualifying. The popular theory was that with Ferrari determined to snatch P3 in the constructor’s championship, it would help them close the gap in the standings.

The yellow flags first waved in this session for Sergio Perez, who at the risk of sounding like a broken record, spun at Turn 1. He managed to avoid the barriers, but couldn’t do anything to avoid the flat spots as he slid across the grass.

As the first times came in, Mercedes were the strongest, followed by Red Bull. Alpha Tauri also continued their recovery of form after a tricky few weeks, and Alonso also found himself back in the top five after a slow start to his qualifying.

The rest of the qualifiers were still finding their feet as Leclerc found himself facing the wrong direction on the start-finish straight after spinning out of the final corner. Fortunately for his pride, Russell also took a wobbly trip out of the final corner, but this was a lot more damaging for his Saturday campaign in the later minutes of the session. With mediums bolted on, the Brit was on course to beat Ocon who sat in P10, but the wobble left him in P12 and out of qualifying. Ocon and Leclerc were the two remaining drivers in need to strong laps- which only the Ferrari driver could put together, whilst Ocon aborted and headed to the pits. Norris too was on course to improve, but with no one behind threatening his place (P10) he too chose to abort.

Unsurprisingly, Sainz didn’t feature in Q2 as he was destined to start at the back of the grid. Eliminated alongside him was Schumacher, Russell, Ocon and Vettel (whose teammate Stroll silently made it through to the final stage). Tsunoda would also make his first Q3 appearance since way back in Austria.

Q3:

With Mercedes looking the strongest, it was no surprise they topped the session after all the drivers had completed their initial runs. Bottas led Hamilton by 0.022 seconds with a 1:23.071, and chasing them were Verstappen and Gasly- who continued to perform- with Perez and Alonso making up the top six.

With five minutes to go, and the disappearance of spins, Hamilton was a lone wolf on track with an interesting set of fresh softs. With the other drivers emerging on track as the championship leader began his lap, Hamilton negotiated traffic but crossed the line with a new track record: 1:22.868. It would be a hard task for Red Bull to topple Hamilton or Bottas, and the team resorted to using Perez as a tow for Verstappen, with failed execution as pictures suggested Perez was too far in front. The evidence was there: Sergio remained in P5 and Max in P3. Alonso then leapt to snatch the Mexican’s P5 behind Gasly in P4, but everyone was then moved downwards by Leclerc who snuck into P4.

That left only Bottas who could take pole position away from Hamilton on track. His final lap looked promising, as he was faster than his teammate after two sectors, but by his own admittance in the post-qualifying interviews, Lewis was much faster in Sector 3. Bottas remained in P2, and although he wasn’t fastest on the day, he would still start at the front of the grid on Sunday after Lewis’ penalty demoted him to P11.

After Lewis’ penalty was applied, the top ten would be as follows: Bottas, Verstappen, Leclerc, Gasly, Alonso, Perez, Norris, Stroll, Tsunoda and Vettel. Alonso’s position was briefly at risk as it was revealed he was called to the stewards for allegedly not slowing under yellow flags, but no action was taken.

With the championship lead on the line, the race would surely be a tense one for Mercedes, as Hamilton would have to battle his way through the field from P11.

The Race...

Round 16 was set to be an interesting race, one which could possibly possess the last opportunity for Valtteri to win a race with Mercedes, flanked by the young guns of Max, Charles and Pierre to name a few. Furthermore, it would also be interesting to see how Mick coped with starting from P14 as well as how Lewis progressed from 11th after his ICE penalty.

The beginning of Sunday morning, due to a pretty disappointing qualification and need for the season remainder, it was confirmed by McLaren that Daniel Ricciardo would take his starting position 3 further places back than originally due to an engine component penalty.

As predicted, the rain came down before lights out, resulting in a damp to drying race start with all drivers on inters. The Turkish GP of 2021 would go down in history with notes of strategy and nailing, (or not) the pit stops.

In the circuit's Formula 1 history, there has only been one previous occasion when the pole sitter failed to lead the 170m into turn one, a record upheld as Bottas flew through the first section of corners, a comfortable gap to the Dutch lion behind.

The opening lap also saw Fernando spin from P5 losing 11 places after contact with Pierre, who was sandwiched between the Alpine and Ferrari of Charles Leclerc, with Daniel and Carlos getting very close at the back of the grid. Perez meanwhile, was storming into P4, slightly further back, with Hamilton up to 9th. As the seconds continued to count down on Lap 1, a brilliant battle for 8th between car 44 and 22 was brewing, and despite the Honda powered car proving tricky to overtake, Lewis eventually got past on Lap 7. Alonso then decided to play bumper cars with yet another car, this time the victim being Mick on Lap 2 causing him to spin and drop down to 19th.

Lap 6 saw a brilliant move from Carlos on George for 14th in the race- 6 overtakes in 6 laps! It was at this point drivers began to actively seek the wet patches of the track in order to prevent overheating as the intermediate tyres struggled with the mixed conditions. During all this on track action, the stewards weren't resting either, with Pierre receiving a 5 second penalty for his contact with Alonso, the Spaniard also given the same. After a pretty lonely opening stint, Lando was now having to defend from car number 44, Lewis having a 1.4 second pace advantage, making the move up to P6, setting the fastest lap so far as he went.

I will admit it was proving to be quite a boring race in comparison to others this season, however that was about to change as Lap 14 saw contact between Carlos and Sebastian Vettel after oversteer from the overtaking Ferrari, luckily no further action, or damage for both involved, another arguably controversial decision from race control. Further up the order, Perez was running a fairly solid, but uneventful race, with roughly 5 seconds to Hamilton behind and 8 seconds to Leclerc in front with his teammate now over 2.5 seconds behind Bottas. Riccardo hadn't made much progress, still stuck in 16th, McLaren seemingly not having the pace this weekend.

To shake things up a bit, and hopefully gain a tyre advantage, car number 3 was the first to pit on Lap 22 with a solid 2.8 second stop, no sight of slicks, with the team bolting on another set of greens; the rest of the field watched his data in order to aid box calls. By Lap 25, Alpha Tauri were reporting rain at Turn 9, however this turned out insignificant as the laps ticked by.

Next it was Mazepin’s time to shine, yet for all the wrong reasons as he held Lewis up under the blue flags, swerving in an attempt to stay unlapped. Until this point we hadn't heard much from Pierre Gasly, and Charles Leclerc was also having a lonely race up in 3rd. Fernando was the second car to stop on Lap 32, whilst Hamilton entered the DRS range of Checo, the added downforce on his car helping him inch closer into the twisting turns of Istanbul Park, but not close enough as quickly as he may have liked to make the move. Lando became the 3rd car to box. Latifi boxed on the following 36th lap of 58. It was then that Verstappen also decided now was the time to pit, followed by Russell and Tsunoda. Red Bull completed a decent 2.1 second stop. Falling as the latest prey to a slow stop after the regulation changes was Carlos followed by Vettel- who took the gamble to try the yellow compound slick tyres, ultimately regretting the call as he tiptoed around the lap and came back in for a change.

The action further up the field meant Charles was now leading the Grand Prix after Bottas' stop, coming over the radio to his team questioning their next move. As a result of everyone coming in, the grid reshuffle also saw Daniel clamber up to 12th, 2 out of the top 5 having yet to stop.

As in Sochi last time out, Mercedes readied up for a stop to new slicks, with Lewis coming over to the team radio, ignoring the call in hopes he could last the remaining laps. It was then that Max came over the radio complaining about issues with his steering wheel, worrying times with Lewis only 2 seconds behind! In the battle for the win, Bottas was now chasing Charles who was attempting to go the distance with no scheduled stop, however after losing the lead due to degradation and lack of grip, the Ferrari finally boxed to come out behind Hamilton and in front of Perez with the forner now beginning to lose time to Max, those tyres seemingly tapering off.

Finally, on Lap 51 of 58 with a 2.3s stop, Lewis dived into the pits, the team I'm sure rather relieved over his calmness, coming out P5, not where he was comfortable, evident by his immediate frustration towards his engineer Pete Bonnington.

Perez and Leclerc meanwhile, were scrapping it out for 3rd, a double Red Bull podium on the cards. Another tally for special liveries! Leclerc eventually would lose out, into the path of Lewis with Gasly now cruising into the battlefield as well. Ocon was now the only car left on track to not have stopped, remaining that way until the chequered flag dropped, breaking a 25 year-old record. Bottas set the fastest lap of 1.31.432 on the 57th lap, taking the extra point.

Valtteri went on to take his first victory of the season with the two Red Bulls completing the podium, Max re-taking and extending his championship lead by 6 points, his closest rival down in 5th. Charles took P4 for the Ferrari team in the end, Pierre in 6th, followed by Lando, Carlos, Lance, and Ocon rounding out the top 10. Antonio was just on the fringes of the points in 11th, his teammate alongside in 12th. Daniel took 13th, Yuki 14th, George 15th, the finishing order ending with Alonso, Latifi, Vettel, Schumacher and Mazepin.