Mercedes-Benz's Valtteri Bottas enjoyed his first win of the season with an impressive drive on Sunday at the 2021 Formula One Turkish Grand Prix, held at a wet Istanbul Park Circuit.
Red Bull Racing's Max Verstappen finished second, approximately 14 seconds behind, while fellow Red Bull driver Sergio Perez took home third place, finishing some 33 seconds behind the winner.
The special race, held in lieu of a canceled Singapore Grand Prix, was due to start with Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton on pole, and Bottas by his side. However, a power unit change for Hamilton saw him start at 11th on the grid, with Verstappen promoted to second on the grid as a result.
Bottas made a good start and was never unsettled from there, and the same was mostly true for Verstappen in second place. However, Perez had a much more eventful race, including a move inside of AlphaTauri's Pierre Gasly and Alpine's Fernando Alonso on the opening turn of the race to move into fourth. Gasly came into contact with Alonso about this time and caused the Alpine driver to enter a spin, for which he was given a five-second penalty.
2021 Formula One Turkish Grand Prix
Perez would eventually lose his third position to Ferrari's Charles Leclerc, who led the race briefly after Bottas and Verstappen both made stops. Once in the lead, the aim was to try and make it all the way to the chequered flag without stopping, but when the intermediate tires performance collapsed, Leclerc had to pit which put him back in third place.
Hamilton had the same thinking as Ferrari, initially declining a request to stop on lap 43. But with 15 laps remaining, Hamilton's intermediate tires started to lose performance and he as a result was losing his gap with the drivers behind. He ultimately stopped on lap 51 and emerged at fifth.
Hamilton now attempted to pass Perez in fourth but the Red Bull driver was undeterred and eventually would pass Leclerc to reclaim third with just four laps to go. Leclerc would eventually finish fourth with Hamilton taking fifth place.
Following the weekend's result, Verstappen regained the 2021 Drivers' Championship points lead that he yielded to Hamilton two weeks ago. He now sits on 262.5 points, versus the 256.5 of Hamilton. Bottas is third with 177 points. In the Constructor’s Championship, Mercedes leads with 433.5 points, versus the 397.5 points of Red Bull and 240 points of McLaren. The next race on the calendar is the United States Grand Prix in Austin, Texas, in a fortnight.
2021 Formula One Turkish Grand Prix
Below are the full results from the 2021 Formula One Turkish Grand Prix:
1) Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes-Benz AMG
2) Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing +14.584 seconds
3) Sergio Perez, Red Bull Racing +33.471 seconds
4) Charles Leclerc, Ferrari +37.814 seconds
5) Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes-Benz AMG +41.812 seconds
6) Pierre Gasly, AlphaTauri +44.292 seconds
7) Lando Norris, McLaren +47.213 seconds
8) Carlos Sainz, Ferrari +51.526 seconds
9) Lance Stroll, Aston Martin +82.018 seconds
10) Esteban Ocon, Alpine +1 lap
11) Antonio Giovinazzi, Alfa Romeo +1 lap
12) Kimi Raikkonen, Alfa Romeo +1 lap
13) Daniel Ricciardo, McLaren +1 lap
14) Yuki Tsunoda, AlphaTauri +1 lap
15) George Russell, Williams +1 lap
16) Fernando Alonso, Alpine +1 lap
17) Nicholas Latifi, Williams +1 lap
18) Sebastian Vettel, Aston Martin +1 lap
19) Mick Schumacher, Haas +2 laps
20) Nikita Mazepin, Haas +2 laps
