Turkey may have lacked the thrills and splashes of other wet races this season, but nonetheless it has achieved an important result in this year’s Formula 1 World Championship.
A familiar face returned to the top step of the podium and became the sixth distinct winner in 16 races while the title race is still well placed in a fascinating season.
Here are our biggest winners and losers from Round 16 of the 2021 F1 season …
Winner:
Valtteri Bottas felt his win at a rain-hit Turkish Grand Prix was one of the best performances of his career and we agree.
The Finn has usually struggled in similar conditions in the past – he spun six times in Turkey last year – but apart from a brief wobble at Turn 1, he never got a foot wrong on Sunday.
Bottas led the majority of the race and made short work of a confident victory when he overtook Charles Leclerc in the closing stages. With his best performance in a long time, he finished almost 15 seconds ahead of Max Verstappen.
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Bottas’ appearance on the top step of the podium was a popular one as he ended his year-long victorious streak that went back to last year’s Russian Grand Prix.
Max Verstappen
Turkey may not have been Verstappen’s best performance of the season, but the Dutchman was rightly happy to maximize his result on a rare day when Red Bull didn’t have the pace to challenge Mercedes for victory.
Lewis Hamilton has recovered well from a starting penalty but got frustrated with Mercedes’ strategy on his way to fifth place.
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Verstappen can see an eight point swing in his favor as a very good result in a place that clearly suited Mercedes better.
A really impressive drive from Sergio Perez, who recovered from a poor qualifying and difficult form and took his first podium since the French Grand Prix in June.
Perez defended himself convincingly to hold Hamilton off as they fought an exciting wheel-to-wheel battle for fourth place in the middle distance, a culmination of an otherwise rather boring race.
An early move to a new set of intermediates allowed Perez to storm onto the podium as he skipped late-stopping Hamilton and then slipped past Leclerc with a nice pull around the outside at Turn 12.
Perez ‘Drive crowned a strong day for Red Bull with a double podium.
It felt tough punishing Pierre Gasly with a five-second time penalty for a seemingly inevitable collision with Fernando Alonso at the exit of Turn 1, but the Frenchman wasn’t deterred by his early setback.
After his twelfth Q3 appearance of the season with another brilliant qualifying lap, Gasly drove a really strong run and ended up just behind Hamilton in sixth place.
Gasly struggled for the pace in the middle distance, but came to life with new intermediate steps, but in the end could hardly attack Hamilton’s Mercedes as he scored other important points for AlphaTauri.
An achievement that deserves to be won by Carlos Sainz as the F1 driver of the day.
The Spaniard used all of his rainy weather prowess to make his way through the field convincingly as he stormed into an impressive eighth place in an 11-place climb from the bottom of the grid.
Even a sluggish pit stop by his Ferrari crew couldn’t stop Sainz from improving the order, with a result that kept him ahead of teammate Charles Leclerc in the world championship.
Loser:
Lewis Hamilton
A frustrating result for Hamilton, who was disappointed not to hold a podium and further limit the damage to Verstappen after his motor penalty.
While the seven-time world champion managed to catch up from eleventh place on the grid to fifth place in the end, the overwhelming feeling that Mercedes had missed a chance to score further decisive points on one weekend in dominant form was dry.
Hamilton will hope he will not regret those potential extra points by the end of the year given the incredibly tight nature of this title race.
A tough weekend for Daniel Ricciardo, who had a miserable qualifying when he was out of shock in Q1 after lacking speed on the soft tires.
It didn’t get much better in the race. Ricciardo started at the back after an engine change, but was only able to move into 13th place.
All in all, it wasn’t a great race for McLaren, who were overtaken by rival Ferrari, as Lando Norris couldn’t improve from seventh.
Yuki Tsunoda
After a much improved qualifying and a rare Q3 appearance, Yuki Tsunoda impressed early on when he kept Hamilton in check for seven laps, even though the Mercedes man was on his neck under difficult conditions.
Tsunoda was able to hold his own in the points even after Hamilton finally found a way on his AlphaTauri, but the Japanese’s race was ruined by a spin at Turn 1.
Fernando Alonso
After an excellent qualifying, in which he started the race in fifth, Fernando Alonso’s race was ruined in a matter of seconds by two incidents on the first two laps.
Alonso was sent back through no fault of his own after being tagged by Gasly on Turn 1, before turning Mick Schumacher’s Haas in a rather clumsy way on lap two to make up ground.
The two-time world champion was given a five-second time penalty for the incident with Schumacher and was only able to achieve 16th place behind George Russell’s Williams.
Aston Martins Sebastian Vettel battled for points before becoming the first – and only – driver to switch to dry tires when he pitted on lap 36.
But it quickly turned out that the decision was wrong, because Vettel had several off-track trips and the track was still too wet for slicks. Vettel immediately returned to the pits, where he almost fell with a half-turn.
The call ultimately ruined Vettel’s race and the German raised his hands to take full responsibility.
The post Five winners and five losers of the Formula 1 Grand Prix of Turkey first appeared on monter-une-startup.
