Formula 1 2021 Turkish Grand Prix was held at the country’s F1 racetrack at the Istanbul Park in Tuzla, Istanbul. It was the 16th round of the 2021 F1 season, and the 9th time for the country to host an F1 Grand Prix.
Istanbul Park returned to the F1 calendar last year because many races were cancelled due to the pandemic, and the same happened this year as Japan withdrew from hosting the race, bringing Turkey to replace it. Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton came into the race weekend leading the two championship titles.
Valterri Bottas Keeps Both Red Bulls at Bay to Win the Race
The track favoured the Mercedes car better than the Red Bull chassis. Bottas did a fantastic job by putting his car in the pole position for the race on Sunday. He went to win the race quite easily during the damp race ahead of Verstappen and registered his first win of the season. Perez made it two Red Bulls on the podium.
Pre-Race Preparations Thursday
Rain was predicted for Saturday and Sunday. So, the Istanbul Park track surface was jet-washed to prevent a repeat of last year's race when drivers couldn’t get heat into the tyres due to the slippery surface.
Lewis Hamilton took an extra ICE for the rest of the season and will take a 10-place grid drop for this race. Sainz will start from the back of the grid after taking an entirely new set of PU.
Pirelli brought C2 (White) hard, C3(Yellow) medium, and C4(Red) as soft tyre for the race weekend.
Friday Practice
Lewis Hamilton topped both the practice sessions on Friday in the dry conditions. Red Bull seemed to struggle in both sessions and looked like the second fastest team.
Low or high fuel run, Mercedes seemed like the car to beat come qualifying or the race on Sunday. Ferrari looked like a decent car with a new upgraded engine and the chassis well suited to long-duration corners of Istanbul Park.
Charles Leclerc was second quickest in FP2. Norris was 6th quickest for McLaren in FP2, ahead of Alonso, Ocon, Gasly and Giovinazzi. McLaren, Alpine, and Alpha Tauri all looked good enough for points on Sunday.
Saturday Practice
Rain arrived as forecasted, so the final practice session was run on a damp track. The teams started on full wet tyres, but the conditions later improved for Intermediate tyres.
Pierre Gasly surprised everyone as he finished the session on top for Alpha Tauri ahead of Verstappen and Perez. Sainz was 4th for Ferrari ahead of his teammate Leclerc, Alonso, Raikkonen, Tsunoda, Bottas, and Ocon.
2021 Turkish Grand Prix Qualifying
Lewis finished the Q1 session on top just ahead of Verstappen on a slightly damp track and dry enough for slick tyres. Monza winner Ricciardo was the shock of the session after he struggled to get temperatures in the tyres to go faster. The Alfa Romeo duo, Latifi and Mazepin, joined him at the end of Q1.
Sainz did not make it to Q2 due to an engine penalty. All the drivers decided to go for medium tyres except for Tsunoda, Schumacher, and Russell. Lewis was still the man to beat at the end of the Q2 session. The drivers who failed to reach Q2 included Schumacher, Ocon, Russell, Vettel, and Sainz.
Bottas grabs P2 but gets pole, courtesy of Hamilton’s penalty
Bottas went quickest from Lewis at the end of the opening sequence of runs. Verstappen was only third quickest behind the two Mercedes cars. Lewis surprisingly went out early and delivered a new track record to grab provisional P1 slot.
Bottas improved his time but stayed second, ahead of Verstappen, but he would grab P1 due to Hamilton's penalty. Verstappen started from the front row. Leclerc was 4th ahead of Gasly, Alonso, Perez, Norris, Stroll, and Tsunoda.
Sunday Race
A light rain prepared the track for the wet race ahead, and even though the rain stopped before the start of the race, the track never got ready for the slick tyres. The whole field started the race on Intermediate tyres, and DRS was disabled.
Bottas led the pack away at the start and came out on top of the race at the end of lap 1. Behind, everybody got away cleanly except for Alonso and Gasly.
After getting sandwiched between two cars, Gasly clipped the rear wheel of Alonso and spun him around. Alonso joined at the back of the field, while Gasly was later handed a 5-sec time penalty. Alonso received a similar penalty for doing the same to Schumacher.
By the end of lap 10, Sainz, who started P20, was up to P11, while Hamilton, who started P11, was now P6. On lap 18, Sainz was running in P8 and catching cars ahead at a good pace.
On the other hand, Lewis was in P5 and started complaining about his Intermediate tyres. Ricciardo was the first to pit for new Inters on lap 23.
Drivers struggle with Inter tyre graining
Such was the mystery that the new Intermediates were quicker for a few opening laps, and then the graining phase will make them slower than 25-lap-old Inters. Once the graining phase was over in 10 laps, the Inters would start delivering faster lap times. This trend continued for all the drivers until the end of the race.
On lap 35, Lewis was on the back of Perez, trying a move going into turn 1, but aggressive defending from Perez kept Lewis behind. Norris pitted on lap 35, followed by Verstappen and Bottas a lap later.
By lap 45, Leclerc was leading the race ahead of Bottas. That got the team talking about finishing the race on the same set of tyres, but it looked like a distant wish when he locked up and ran wide at the penultimate corner.
He boxed for new Inters, and Bottas was back in the race lead on lap 47 and just disappeared. On lap 51, Lewis finally pitted after refusing twice before coming in for new tyres. The same graining problem would prevent Lewis from making any progress from P5.
Bottas wins Turkey, Verstappen leads title race, Ocon shocks them all
Bottas eventually won the race for the first time since Russia 2020, ahead of Verstappen and Perez. Verstappen retook the lead of the championship from Lewis Hamilton. Leclerc finished P4 after the gamble to finish the race without pitting didn't materialise. Hamilton finished 5th ahead of Gasly, Norris, Sainz, Stroll, and Ocon.
Esteban Ocon and his Alpine was one of the surprises of the Turkish GP for finishing the race without pitting! Ocon did what everyone thought was not possible – to complete the race within the points area using a single set of tyres.
F1 2021 United Stated Grand Prix
With only six races to go, the championship battle enters the final phase as the teams travel to the US after a gap of one year due to the pandemic. Get the action here!