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Five winners and five losers of the Russian F1 Grand Prix


Five winners and five losers of the Russian F1 Grand Prix

Sochi delivered a surprisingly exciting Formula 1 race when a late downpour turned the Russian Grand Prix on its head.

The result marked a milestone for Lewis Hamilton as he reclaimed the championship lead from main rival Max Verstappen while McLaren’s Lando Norris ached.

Here are our biggest winners and losers from a dramatic 15th round of the 2021 F1 season …

Winner:

Lewis Hamilton

An important win for Hamilton in Russia, which pulled him back in the title race before Verstappen, if only by two points.

Sochi was considered a must-see for Mercedes, and Hamilton eventually came out on top, despite doing it the hard way after finishing seventh after an unusually scruffy qualifying and poor first lap start.

But Hamilton recovered in a convincing manner with a typically relentless performance – aided by the right tire call from Mercedes late – that was key to his remarkable centenary of victories in F1.

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Max Verstappen and Red Bull

If you had told Red Bull and Verstappen that he would have finished second after his start in Russia, they would have bitten off your hand.

But that’s exactly what happened on Sunday, when Verstappen made an epic comeback from 20th place on the grid and finished second on the podium, 53 seconds behind Hamilton.

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The Dutchman was critical and consistently calculated in his overtaking maneuvers before citing the critical reputation of moving to Inters earlier than most of his rivals, a decision that made him jump from seventh to second.

Coming just two points behind Hamilton from the races in Italy and Sochi despite an engine penalty will give Verstappen and Red Bull a lot of confidence for the last seven races.

As Carlos Sainz himself admitted, during one phase of his Russian GP it “really looked like it was going to go wrong”.

The Ferrari driver took the lead with a perfect start and looked good on the first few laps before being overtaken again by former McLaren team-mate Norris.

An early pit stop turned out to be the wrong choice for Sainz and he struggled with graining before reviving his race when he swapped slicks for Inters when it started to rain.

Sainz fought his way back onto the podium in third to seal an important 15-point win for Ferrari on a day his teammate failed to score.

Fernando Alonso got the most out of his Alpine car in difficult conditions in qualifying and drove an excellent sixth place in Sunday’s race in Sochi.

The two-time world champion was consistently competitive and opportunistically overtook Verstappen in the closing stages to finish sixth.

In the middle of the drama at the end, a podium could have been in sight, but Alonso ended up ending where he started, with the kind of typically tenacious performance we have come to expect from the Spaniard as he scored more valuable points for Alpine.

A truly impressive drive from Kimi Raikkonen as the F1 veteran got back into action after missing two races due to a positive COVID-19 test.

The Finn was in and around the lower reaches for most of the race and won a few additional places in the rain-related chaos and finished eighth.

It crowned Raikkonen’s best result since his fifth place at the 2019 Brazilian Grand Prix.

Loser:

Lando Norris

Norris has to regret that he would have lost his deserved first Grand Prix victory in Russia.

Norris had fought his way past Sainz after losing the lead from pole on the long drag down at Turn 2, but when he was back in front the 21-year-old Brit seemed to take command.

That was until the rain started with five laps to go.

It was light at first and that convinced Norris to stay on Hards, but this decision dashed his hopes for a sensational first Grand Prix win when it rained heavier.

Norris finally held up his hands to stay out and maintain track position and was understandably heartbroken by the way his race had gone.

A race that was so promising ended up being disappointing for Sergio Perez, who, like Norris, falsely bet on staying out in slicks rather than pitting for Inters.

Perez looked like a real podium contender as he returned from a sluggish pit stop on the Medium Compound in the second half of the race.

Perez dropped to ninth at the finish line, a poor result that didn’t reflect his performance over long periods of the race as he appeared on the track to make up for a subpar qualifying.

Aston Martin

A miserable result for Aston Martin on a day when things could have been so different.

Lance Stroll found himself in fourth place thanks to an incredible start, but being the first rider to cause an undercut didn’t pay off as he was the first of the leaders to stop.

Much like all other early stoppers, the Canadian struggled to make up ground and later collided with teammates Sebastian Vettel and Pierre Gasly from AlphaTauri.

Vettel made encouraging progress in the first light rains, but the four-time world champion lost a potentially big result by moving to Inters way too late.

It was a race that Aston Martin begged because the Silverstone team left Sochi with zero points on their name.

AlphaTauri

It was a similarly disappointing weekend for AlphaTauri.

After missing Q3 for only the third time in 2021, Gasly’s frustration continued on Sunday as a gamble of staying on slicks as the rain caused him to miss points.

Yuki Tsunoda fared no better, with the exception of 17th Alonsos P6 for closest rival Alpine, who had a bad day.

The only consolation for Faenza’s squad was that Aston Martin was also left out.

P16 was far from the result Antonio Giovinazzi needed as he fights for his future in F1.

The Italian was clearly outdone by his team-mate Kimi Räikkönen all weekend, but was also unbelievably unlucky in the race after losing radio communication after the first lap.

Giovinazzi faced a massive fight throughout the race, and his radio problems meant Alfa Romeo couldn’t call him when it mattered.

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