The Sochi Autodrom is not usually a track we would expect to give us such an edge-of-the-seat race, but 2021 has already been full of surprises, and this weekend was no different.
Lewis Hamilton finally took his 100th career win, an incredible feat which we may not see again for many years. Unfortunately, his win was Lando Norris’ loss, the Brit losing the lead of the race with only a few laps remaining after sliding off the track in wet conditions, eventually finishing the race in 7th place. Still, Norris had an excellent weekend, taking his first pole position in wet conditions and leading a considerable amount of the race.
The threat of rain loomed over the circuit throughout the race on Sunday, causing severe shake-ups throughout the grid when drivers chose to pit for intermediate tyres, or to stay out and brave the conditions. A lot of drivers jumped at the first opportunity – a great reaction to the change in conditions awarded Carlos Sainz a well deserved third place. However, his teammate, Charles Leclerc, was not as quick to the pits and unfortunately ended an otherwise flawless race in 15th place.
Max Verstappen, after starting at the back of the grid due to taking a new power unit, was able to take a brilliant 2nd place at Sochi, awarding him 18 points which will be becoming more and more valuable as the season draws to a close. While he may not currently lead the Driver’s Championship, he is now only two points behind championship rival Hamilton, and with seven races remaining will be eager to overtake for the lead.
Race weekend report
McLaren were on the back of the “Monza magic” with the emphatic 1-2 victory for the papaya team and questions were asked if they would do it again in Sochi that weekend, to which Daniel Ricciardo dismissed and spoke about the teams realistic expectations.
The weather throughout the weekend was tricky to judge, a dry Friday meant that FP1 and FP2 were the only dry sessions they would get that weekend and the Mercedes looked very comfortable in both sessions, P1 and P2 for Bottas and Hamilton. On the Friday, it was announced that Verstappen would take up a new power unit, his 4th of the season, meaning he would start from the back of the grid.
The weather forecast had predicted rain for the Saturday sessions and Sochi did not fail to deliver, with torrential rain in the morning meaning Saturday’s FP3 session was cancelled in the hopes that there would be a window for qualifying later that day.
The qualifying session started off wet, tricky conditions, but all of the drivers showed their skill as they raced around the track. Verstappen, the 2 Haas cars and the 2 Alfa Romeos were knocked out in Q1, with Verstappen not setting a time. Leclerc, whose penalty had been announced, Latifi, the 2 Alpha Tauri cars and Sebastian Vettel missed out on Q3, with the German missing out by a small margin.
Pole fight for pole position looked like it was going to Mercedes with Hamilton leading after the first round of laps and with Verstappen out of the mix, it looked like the Silver Arrows would be untroubled. Russell took the gamble to go onto soft tyres to set his flying lap as the track started drying up and the others followed suit, sector times were soon improving. Meanwhile, as he was going to change his for slick tyres, Hamilton hit the wall at the pitlane entry and time was running out. Carlos Sainz went onto pole position briefly before Lando Norris beat his time and took the first pole position of his career and the first for McLaren since Brazil 2012. William’s call to change to slick tyres paid off as Russell completed the shock top 3 in third.
Many thought strategies would play a big part in the race as Mercedes believed it was the right time to change Bottas’ power unit too, in the hope to slow down Verstappen’s progression throughout the race to aid his teammate in the championship. Charles Leclerc, Antonio Giovanazzi and Nicholas Latifi also took penalties to start at the back of the grid.
The race was entertaining from beginning to end as we have seen with most of the races this season. We saw some super impressive overtakes, some great strategies and an even crazier finish to the race. A range of emotions were shared at the end of the race, delight for Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen but heartbreak for Lando Norris and McLaren. Much support was shown to the young Brit by fellow drivers after the race, to which he has responded positively and now looks to put that in the past.
We head to Turkey next, where last year Lewis equalled the record for 7 world championships and the podium included Segio Perez and Sebastian Vettel- we could be in for a treat.
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