Valtteri Bottas first win of the season limits damage to Hamilton

By Malhaar Khaladkar

Valtteri Bottas took his first win of the season at the Turkish Grand Prix as Max Verstappen finished P2 for a second consecutive race and his Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez took his first podium since the French Grand Prix. Verstappen assumed championship lead as title rival Lewis Hamilton finished in P5. Bottas defended stoutly and his win reduced Verstappen’s probable lead over teammate Hamilton.

London, 12 October 2021: Valtteri Bottas won a race for the first time since last season’s Russian Grand Prix over a year ago as Max Verstappen finished P2 and teammate Sergio Perez made it a double podium for the Austrian squad. Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc finished in P4 after running the majority of race in podium positions, ahead of Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton who started P11 due to a change in his internal combustion engine. Pierre Gasly crossed the line in P6 in the AlphaTauri, ahead of McLaren’s Lando Norris and Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz- the Spaniard starting last as he ran a brand-new power unit. Esteban Ocon did a no-stop race to finish P10, behind Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll.

Alfa Romeo duo of Antonio Giovinazzi and Kimi Raikkonen finished P11 and P12 respectively, behind them were McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo in P13, AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda in P14 and Williams’ George Russell in P15. Alpine’s Fernando Alonso suffered a first lap spin and could only recover to P16 ahead of the second Williams car of Nicholas Latifi. Sebastian Vettel was the only driver on the grid to try out slick tyres in the race as he finished in P18 ahead of the Haas duo of Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin in P19 and P20 respectively.

It was a wet race day, much like last year. Bottas started on pole and had a clean getaway, in fact most of the field did so apart from Alonso and Gasly, the Frenchman tipping the Spaniard into a spin as the Alpine car dropped dead last. Later in the lap Alonso tagged Schumacher, spinning the rookie. Both Gasly and Alonso earned themselves a 5-second time penalty for their shenanigans.

Hamilton started out of place in P11 after receiving a power unit penalty. He made up two places early on with Tsunoda proving a bit tougher to overtake. By lap 8 he had moved past the Japanese driver too. Ahead, Bottas lead by around 2.5s from Verstappen who was ahead of Leclerc.

The track was drying as the rain had stopped, but it was not drying fast enough to justify putting on slick tyres as in these wet and greasy conditions the intermediate tyres would still be faster.

By now Hamilton had caught up to Perez and tried to overtake him on lap 35. But, a stern defense from the Mexican meant that Hamilton had to stay put behind the Red Bull car and also look after his own wearing intermediate tyres.

Verstappen was the first to pit of the leaders for another intermediate set of tyres. Race leader Bottas followed suit to cover the Dutchman. Meanwhile, the second Red Bull of Perez pitted on the same lap. This left Leclerc in the lead. Leclerc tried to go to the end on one set of inters but after locking up multiple times and being passed by Bottas, Ferrari decided to pit him emerging in P5 behind Hamilton who was yet to pit and Perez.

Hamilton had not pitted yet in a gamble that the track may dry out soon enough for slick tyres, but it was not to be. As him and Mercedes deliberated whether to make it to the end on a single set of intermediates, ultimately, he was called in on lap 51 as a precaution. Hamilton was evidently frustrated over team radio for losing a podium position and points to Verstappen.

In the end, the day belonged to Bottas who dominated the Turkish Grand Prix and took his first win of the season. Meanwhile, Red Bull got a double podium, boosting Perez’s confidence and Verstappen retaking the championship lead. It was a day of what could have been for Hamilton as strategy error left him down in P5.

Mercedes clearly had the dominant car this weekend in both qualifying and race pace. They locked out the front row and if not for strategic error by both Hamilton and Mercedes he could have finished the race on the podium. Red Bull struggled for pace this weekend, particularly the car suffering from a lot of understeer. A double podium is a good result given that they lacked pace to challenge Mercedes but still lost ground to them in the constructor’s championship owing to Bottas’ win.

Ferrari had the third fastest car especially in qualifying. They introduced a brand-newpower unit in the last race giving them a horsepower boost, clearly helping them in their qualifying pace. The Ferrari was even faster than Red Bull in the speed traps. They had best of the rest race pace too, with Leclerc running his own race, unchallenged by Perez for majority of the race while Sainz finished P8 from starting last. AlphaTauri showed good pace too, albeit unable to challenge Ferrari. Both cars reached Q3 with Gasly scoring points in the race and Tsunoda running in points position until he spun and dropped back in the field.

McLaren struggled to find pace in the MCL35M as Ricciardo was unable to make it out of Q1 and Norris did not have the pace to challenge the top 5 or Gasly in P6. Ricciardo was unable to follow Sainz through the field showing the struggles of McLaren at this particular track. Aston Martin showed decent pace to challenge for points and Stroll duly delivered on that. They tried a gamble of putting slick tyres on Vettel’s car but it did not work out as the track was too wet. Alpine had similar pace to Aston Martin as both teams had one car in Q3 and in points at the end of the race. Ocon made an audacious no-stop strategy work to get in the top 10 while Alonso was tagged by Gasly and spun to the back of the grid, killing his hopes for any points.

Alfa Romeo finished just outside the top 10 with Giovinazzi almost catching up to Ocon for the last points paying position. They had mediocre qualifying pace- which was in dry conditions- as neither cars were able to make it out of Q1. Williams’ points scoring streak of 4 in 5 races ended as neither Russell nor Latifi were able to challenge for the top 10 spots, lacking pace in general to do so. Haas’ Schumacher made it to Q2 for the second time, first time on legitimate pace giving the American squad confidence. They were unable to challenge for points in the race.

Saturday’s Qualifying results were:

Note – Hamilton drops 10 grid places for taking on a new ICE after exceeding his allocation. Sainz and Ricciardo start from the back of the grid after taking on new PU components.